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Revisiting the determination of climate sensitivity from relationships between surface temperature and radiative fluxes
Author(s) -
Chung EuiSeok,
Soden Brian J.,
Sohn ByungJu
Publication year - 2010
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 - 10.1029/2010gl043051
Subject(s) - radiative transfer , climate sensitivity , environmental science , climate model , climatology , atmospheric sciences , atmosphere (unit) , radiative flux , climate change , satellite , meteorology , physics , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics , astronomy
We analyze the radiative damping of climatological variations in surface temperature based on relationships between surface temperature and top‐of‐atmosphere radiative fluxes for both satellite observations and climate model simulations. The observed damping rates are generally consistent with positive radiative feedbacks over the tropical oceans, in agreement with climate model simulations. The model‐simulated radiative damping rates are shown to be much more robust when analyzed at global scales, rather than tropical‐means. Moreover, the model‐simulated values of global‐mean radiative damping rates deduced from interannual variability are shown to be modestly correlated to the climate sensitivity of the model in response to increasing CO 2 .