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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L18704, doi:10.1029/2007GL030429, 2007

Temperature and humidity biases in global climate models and their impact on climate feedbacks

V. O. John

Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA


B. J. Soden

Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA


Abstract

A comparison of AIRS and reanalysis temperature and humidity profiles to those simulated from climate models reveals large biases. The model simulated temperatures are systematically colder by 1–4 K throughout the troposphere. On average, current models also simulate a large moist bias in the free troposphere (more than 100%) but a dry bias in the boundary layer (up to 25%). While the overall pattern of biases is fairly common from model to model, the magnitude of these biases is not. In particular, the free tropospheric cold and moist bias varies significantly from one model to the next. In contrast, the response of water vapor and tropospheric temperature to a surface warming is shown to be remarkably consistent across models and uncorrelated to the bias in the mean state. We further show that these biases, while significant, have little direct impact on the models' simulation of water vapor and lapse-rate feedbacks.

Received 2 May 2007; accepted 13 August 2007; published 25 September 2007.

Keywords: climate model; bias; climate feedback.

Index Terms: 1626 Global Change: Global climate models (3337, 4928); 1640 Global Change: Remote sensing (1855); 1610 Global Change: Atmosphere (0315, 0325).

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Citation: John, V. O., and B. J. Soden (2007), Temperature and humidity biases in global climate models and their impact on climate feedbacks, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L18704, doi:10.1029/2007GL030429.