The Dependence of Climate Sensitivity on the Meridional Distribution of Radiative Forcing

Zhang, Bosong; Zhao, Ming; He, Haozhe; Soden, Brian J.; Tan, Zhihong; Xiang, Baoqiang; Wang, Chenggong

doi:10.1029/2023gl105492

i

The Dependence of Climate Sensitivity on the Meridional Distribution of Radiative Forcing

Supporting Files

2023
By Zhang, Bosong ; Zhao, Ming ; He, Haozhe ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Zhang, Bosong ; Zhao, Ming ; He, Haozhe ; Soden, Brian J. ; Tan, Zhihong ; Xiang, Baoqiang ; Wang, Chenggong
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
Description:

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. The varied forcing patterns led to highly divergent climate sensitivities. Specifically, the climate is nearly twice as sensitive to Southern Ocean forcing as tropical forcing. Strong coupling between the surface and free troposphere in the tropics increases the inversion strength, leading to smaller cloud feedback in the tropical forcing experiments. In contrast, the extratropics exhibit weaker coupling, a decrease or near‐zero change in the inversion strength, and strong positive cloud feedback. These results contrast with the conventional SST‐pattern effect in which tropical surface temperature changes regulate climate sensitivity. They also have important implications for other potentially asymmetric forcings, such as those from geoengineering, volcanic eruptions, and paleoclimatic changes.
Keywords:

General Earth And Planetary Sciences Geophysics General Earth And Planetary Sciences General Earth And Planetary Sciences
Source:

Geophysical Research Letters, 50(18)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl105492
ISSN:

0094-8276 ; 1944-8007
Publisher:

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA21OAR4310351
License:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:7263eaca9f61425da7d4a86bcdc6f96628a1aebe00219e5741d42edee8cc0b0d
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/58446/noaa_58446_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 4.47 MB ]

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