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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L20717, doi:10.1029/2005GL023644, 2005

Effects of bias in solar radiative transfer codes on global climate model simulations

Albert Arking

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA


Abstract

Codes commonly used in climate and weather prediction models for calculating the transfer of solar radiation in the atmosphere show systematic differences amongst each other, and even the best of codes show systematic differences with respect to observations. A 1-dimensional radiative-convective equilibrium model is used to show the effects of such bias on the global energy balance and on the global response to a doubling of CO2. We find the main impact is in the energy exchange terms between the surface and atmosphere and in the convective transport in the lower troposphere, where it exceeds 10 W m−2. The impact on model response to doubling of CO2, on the other hand, is quite small and in most cases negligible.

Received 8 June 2005; accepted 9 September 2005; published 27 October 2005.

Index Terms: 0360 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Radiation: transmission and scattering; 1626 Global Change: Global climate models (3337, 4928); 3314 Atmospheric Processes: Convective processes; 3337 Atmospheric Processes: Global climate models (1626, 4928); 3359 Atmospheric Processes: Radiative processes.

Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 160251 bytes)

Citation: Arking, A. (2005), Effects of bias in solar radiative transfer codes on global climate model simulations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L20717, doi:10.1029/2005GL023644.