The Radiative Forcing Pattern Effect on Climate Sensitivity

[Geoengineering News]

https://essopenarchive.org/doi/full/10.22541/essoar.168987132.26971477/v1

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• Authors
• • Bosong Zhang, Ming Zhao, Haozhe He, Brian Soden, Zhihong Tan, Baoqiang Xiang, Chenggong Wang

Peer review timeline

20 Jul 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive 

20 Jul 2023Published in ESS Open Archive

Abstract

This study investigates how climate sensitivity depends upon the spatial pattern of radiative forcing. Sensitivity experiments using a coupled ocean-atmosphere model were conducted by adding anomalous incoming solar radiation over the entire globe, Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, Southern Ocean, and tropics, respectively, with both positive and negative perturbation considered. The varied forcing patterns led to highly divergent climate sensitivities, with extratropical forcing inducing significantly more global-mean temperature change compared to tropical forcing. This dependence is particularly strong over the Southern Hemisphere, where the climate is nearly twice as sensitive to Southern Ocean forcing as tropical forcing. This dependence of climate sensitivity on the location of radiative forcing stems from covariations between lapse rate feedback, cloud feedback and tropospheric stability. These results contrast with the conventional SST-pattern effect in which tropical surface temperature changes regulate the climate sensitivity, and has important implications for geoengineering and understanding the mechanisms of paleoclimate change.

Cite as: Bosong Zhang, Ming Zhao, Haozhe He, et al. The Radiative Forcing Pattern Effect on Climate Sensitivity. ESS Open Archive . July 20, 2023.
DOI: 10.22541/essoar.168987132.26971477/v1

Source: ESS Open Archive