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New estimates of radiative forcing due to well mixed greenhouse gases
Author(s) -
Myhre Gunnar,
Highwood Eleanor J.,
Shine Keith P.,
Stordal Frode
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1029/98gl01908
Subject(s) - radiative forcing , forcing (mathematics) , greenhouse gas , radiative transfer , shortwave , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , greenhouse effect , atmospheric radiative transfer codes , climatology , meteorology , climate change , global warming , physics , geology , aerosol , oceanography , quantum mechanics
We have performed new calculations of the radiative forcing due to changes in the concentrations of the most important well mixed greenhouse gases (WMGG) since pre‐industrial time. Three radiative transfer models are used. The radiative forcing due to CO 2 , including shortwave absorption, is 15% lower than the previous IPCC estimate. The radiative forcing due to all the WMGG is calculated to 2.25 Wm −2 , which we estimate to be accurate to within about 5%. The importance of the CFCs is increased by about 20% relative to the total effect of all WMGG compared to previous estimates. We present updates to simple forcing‐concentration relationships previously used by IPCC.