How do you calculate climate sensitivity?

How do you calculate climate sensitivity?

Climate sensitivity is typically estimated in three ways: using direct observations of temperature and levels of greenhouse gases taken during the industrial age, using indirectly-estimated temperature and other measurements from the Earth’s more distant past, and Computer modelling the various aspects of the climate …

What is the climate sensitivity factor?

Climate sensitivity refers to the amount of global surface warming that will occur in response to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentrations compared to pre-industrial levels. CO2 has increased from its pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million (ppm) to around 408 ppm today.

What is the climate sensitivity of a climate model?

Climate sensitivity is typically defined as the global temperature rise following a doubling of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere compared to pre-industrial levels. Pre-industrial CO2 was about 260 parts per million (ppm), so a doubling would be at roughly 520 ppm.

What are the three feedbacks that determine climate sensitivity?

There are three primary feedback effects — clouds, sea ice and water vapor; these, combined with other feedback effects, produce the greatest uncertainties in predicting the planet’s future climate. With no feedback effects at all, the change would be just 1 degree Celsius, climate scientists agree.

How do you determine climate?

The two most important factors in the climate of an area are temperature and precipitation. The yearly average temperature of the area is obviously important, but the yearly range in temperature is also important. Some areas have a much larger range between highest and lowest temperature than other areas.

What are climate change models?

Climate change models allow the simulation of the effects of the buildup of greenhouse gases centuries into the future, based on current understanding of atmospheric physics and chemistry. These models are often referred to as GCMs because they simulate general atmospheric circulation patterns.

What are the two most important climate factors?

What are the three most important factors of climate?

The most important natural factors are:

  • distance from the sea.
  • ocean currents.
  • direction of prevailing winds.
  • shape of the land (known as ‘relief’ or ‘topography’)
  • distance from the equator.
  • the El Niño phenomenon.

What factors can kick the climate system?

The “factors” are natural phenomena such as water vapor, clouds, sea ice, dust and vegetation—all of which exert varying pulls on the climate. Water vapor and sea ice, for instance, are potent warming agents, while dust and sea ice are cooling agents..

How is the sensitivity of the climate determined?

Thus, most values for climate sensitivity are given today as the temperature change predicted for doubling the CO2 concentration, ΔT2xCO2, or the equivalent of its doubling, taking all the greenhouse gas radiative forcing into account.

How is climate sensitivity related to radiative imbalance?

Other agents can also cause a radiative imbalance. Climate sensitivity is the change in surface air temperature per unit change in radiative forcing, and the climate sensitivity parameter is therefore expressed in units of °C/ (W/m 2 ).

How is climate sensitivity related to climate feedback?

2, and a further contribution arises from climate feedback, both positive and negative. Without feedbacks the radiative forcing of approximately 3.7 W/m 2, due to doubling CO 2 from the pre-industrial 280 ppm, would eventually result in roughly 1 °C global warming. This is easy to calculate and undisputed.

What is the equilibrium and transient climate sensitivity?

Equilibrium and transient climate sensitivity. The equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) refers to the equilibrium change in global mean near-surface air temperature that would result from a sustained doubling of the atmospheric (equivalent) carbon dioxide concentration (ΔTx2).

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