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Climate sensitivity and thermal inertia
Author(s) -
Wu Qigang,
North Gerald R.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl014864
Subject(s) - inertia , environmental science , heat capacity , sensitivity (control systems) , range (aeronautics) , meteorology , thermal inertia , climate model , climate change , white noise , thermal radiation , atmosphere (unit) , thermal , noise (video) , climate sensitivity , climatology , atmospheric sciences , mathematics , statistics , thermodynamics , physics , geology , materials science , computer science , oceanography , classical mechanics , electronic engineering , engineering , composite material , image (mathematics) , artificial intelligence
We compare several Atmosphere/Ocean General Circulation model control runs by fitting long control runs to a simple discrete (annual averages) stochastic model: Rate of change of global heat content = difference of absorbed and emitted radiation + white noise. If the heat content is taken to be proportional to the surface temperature we can estimate the effective (broad frequency‐band averaged) heat capacity for the system by a regression procedure. We find a wide range of effective heat capacities that correlate significantly with the published sensitivities of the models. Models with large sensitivities have large thermal inertia. Several interpretations are discussed.