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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • climate model
  • climate forcing
  • climate sensitivity

Index Terms

  • Global Change: Global climate models
  • Atmospheric Processes: Global climate models
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles

Abstract

Twentieth century climate model response and climate sensitivity

Jeffrey T. Kiehl

Climate Change Research Section, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Climate forcing and climate sensitivity are two key factors in understanding Earth's climate. There is considerable interest in decreasing our uncertainty in climate sensitivity. This study explores the role of these two factors in climate simulations of the 20th century. It is found that the total anthropogenic forcing for a wide range of climate models differs by a factor of two and that the total forcing is inversely correlated to climate sensitivity. Much of the uncertainty in total anthropogenic forcing derives from a threefold range of uncertainty in the aerosol forcing used in the simulations.

Received 19 July 2007; accepted 13 September 2007; published 28 November 2007.

Citation: Kiehl, J. T. (2007), Twentieth century climate model response and climate sensitivity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22710, doi:10.1029/2007GL031383.

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