COSEE Ocean Systems: News
Spread in model climate sensitivity traced to atmospheric convective mixing
Description: Despite decades of research attempting to narrow uncertainties, equilibrium climate sensitivity estimates from climate models still span roughly 1.5 to 5 degrees Celsius for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, precluding accurate projections of future climate. The spread arises largely from differences in the feedback from low clouds, for reasons not yet understood. In this paper researchers show that differences in the simulated strength of convective mixing between the lower and middle tropical troposphere explain about half of the variance in climate sensitivity estimated by 43 climate models. [Source: Nature]
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12829
Availability: Summary
Source: Nature
Publish Date: 1/1/2014
Reading Level: Expert
Page Length:  

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