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Reconciliation of modeled climate responses to spectral solar forcing
Author(s) -
Wen Guoyong,
Cahalan Robert F.,
Haigh Joanna D.,
Pilewskie Peter,
Oreopoulos Lazaros,
Harder Jerald W.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/jgrd.50506
Subject(s) - forcing (mathematics) , radiative forcing , solar variation , solar irradiance , irradiance , environmental science , climate model , atmospheric sciences , climate change , climatology , meteorology , physics , geology , oceanography , aerosol , quantum mechanics
The SIM (Spectral Irradiance Monitor) on SORCE (Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment) provides more spectrally complete daily SSI (spectral solar irradiance) measurements than ever before, allowing us to explore chemical and physical processes in the Earth's ocean and atmosphere system. However, the newly observed SSI instigated controversies in the Sun‐climate community on whether the SIM‐observed trends are true solar variations and on whether climate responses are in phase or out of phase with solar forcing. In this study, we focus on resolving two apparently contradictory results published on possible temperature responses to SIM‐derived solar forcing. When applying extreme scenarios of SIM‐based spectral solar forcing in a radiative‐convective model (RCM), we find that some apparently contradictory results can be explained by the different methods used to apply the SIM SSI data. It is clear that accurate SSI data are essential for accurate climate simulations and that climate modelers need to take care how they apply these data.