Climate model errors, feedbacks and forcings: a comparison of perturbed physics and multi-model ensembles

Ensembles of climate model simulations are required for input into probabilistic assessments of the risk of future climate change in which uncertainties are quantified. Here we document and compare aspects of climate model ensembles from the multi-model archive and from perturbed physics ensembles generated using the third version of the Hadley Centre climate model (HadCM3). Model-error characteristics derived from time-averaged two-dimensional fields of observed climate variables indicate that the perturbed physics approach is capable of sampling a relatively wide range of different mean climate states, consistent with simple estimates of observational uncertainty and comparable to the range of mean states sampled by the multi-model ensemble. The perturbed physics approach is also capable of sampling a relatively wide range of climate forcings and climate feedbacks under enhanced levels of greenhouse gases, again comparable with the multi-model ensemble. By examining correlations between global time-averaged measures of model error and global measures of climate change feedback strengths, we conclude that there are no simple emergent relationships between climate model errors and the magnitude of future global temperature change. Algorithms for quantifying uncertainty require the use of complex multivariate metrics for constraining projections.     

The risk of sea level rise

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change requires nations to implement measures for adapting to rising sea level and other effects of changing climate. To decide upon an appropriate response, coastal planners and engineers must weigh the cost of these measures against the likely cost of failing to prepare, which depends on the probability of the sea rising a particular amount.This study estimates such a probability distribution, using models employed by previous assessments, as well as the subjective assessments of twenty climate and glaciology reviewers about the values of particular model coefficients. The reviewer assumptions imply a 50 percent chance that the average global temperature will rise 2 °C, as well as a 5 percent chance that temperatures will rise 4.7 °C by 2100. The resulting impact of climate change on sea level has a 50 percent chance of exceeding 34 cm and a 1% chance of exceeding one meter by the year 2100, as well as a 3 percent chance of a 2 meter rise and a 1 percent chance of a 4 meter rise by the year 2200.The models and assumptions employed by this study suggest that greenhouse gases have contributed 0.5 mm/yr to sea level over the last century. Tidal gauges suggest that sea level is rising about 1.8 mm/yr worldwide, and 2.5–3.0 mm/yr along most of the U.S. Coast. It is reasonable to expect that sea level in most locations will continue to rise more rapidly than the contribution from climate change alone.We provide a set of normalized projections which express the extent to which climate change is likely to accelerate the rate of sea level rise. Those projections suggest that there is a 65 percent chance that sea level will rise 1 mm/yr more rapidly in the next 30 years than it has been rising in the last century. Assuming that nonclimatic factors do not change, there is a 50 percent chance that global sea level will rise 45 cm, and a 1 percent chance of a 112 cm rise by the year 2100; the corresponding estimates for New York City are 55 and 122 cm.Climate change impact assessments concerning agriculture, forests, water resources, and other noncoastal resources should also employ probability-based projections of regional climate change. Results from general circulation models usually provide neither the most likely scenario nor the full range of possible outcomes; probabilistic projections do convey this information. Moreover, probabilistic projections can make use of all the available knowledge, including the views of skeptics; the opinions of those who study ice cores, fossils, and other empirical evidence; and the insights of climate modelers, which may be as useful as the model results themselves.The U.S. Government right to retain a non-exclusive royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

The ‘ultimate objective’ of the framework convention on climate change requires a new approach in climate change research

In the Framework Convention on Climate Change an ultimate objective is formulated that calls for stabilization of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would allow ecosystems to adapt naturally, safeguard food supply and enable sustainable development to proceed in a sustainable manner. This paper addresses the possible contribution of science to translate this rather vague and ambiguous objective into more practicable terms. We propose a regionalized, risk-based six-step approach that couples an analysis of ecosystem vulnerability to the results of simulations of climate change. An ultimate objective level could be determined in terms of stabilized concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The level and timing of this stabilization would be determined by a political appreciation of associated risks for managed and unmanaged ecosystems. These risks would be assessed by region in an internationally coordinated scientific effort, followed by a global synthesis.     

古气候的启示

回顾了近20～30年古气候的研究进展,包括下列问题:雪球和热力极大期、冰期-间冰期旋回、古季风、D/O循环和H事件、全新世季风、全新世气候突变、气候变化与古文明、近2000年的气候。研究表明,第四纪前的气候变化中CO_2起着重要的作用,但是在冰期-间冰期旋回中CO_2变化落后于温度变化。这说明虽然影响机制不同,但是温室气体和气候间有着密切的相互作用这一点则是可以肯定的。地球目前处于间冰期,面临着冰期来临的威胁。人类活动造成的气候变暖有可能推迟下一次冰期的到来。21世纪全球变暖仍将继续,人们可能做的、也是必须要做的,是尽可能地降低变暖的速率,以及可能达到的变暖峰值。     

Climate Change Impacts for the Conterminous USA: An Integrated Assessment

As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and contribute to rising global temperatures, it is important to examine how derivative changes in climate may affect natural and managed ecosystems. In this series of papers, we study the impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources and natural ecosystems in the conterminous United States using twelve scenarios derived from General Circulation Model (GCM) projections to drive biophysical impact models. These scenarios are described in this paper. The scenarios are first put into the context of recent work on climate-change by the IPCC for the 21st century and span two levels of global-mean temperature change and three sets of spatial patterns of change derived from GCM results. In addition, the effect of either the presence or absence of a CO₂ fertilization effect on vegetation is examined by using two levels of atmospheric CO₂ concentration as a proxy variable. Results from three GCM experiments were used to produce different regional patterns of climate change. The three regional patterns for the conterminous United States range from: an increase in temperature above the global-mean level along with a significant decline in precipitation; temperature increases in line with the global-mean with an average increase in precipitation; and, with a sulfate aerosol effect added to in the same model, temperature increases that are lower than the global-mean. The resulting set of scenarios span a wide range of potential climate changes and allows examination of the relative importance of global-mean temperature change, regional climate patterns, aerosol cooling, and CO₂ fertilization effects.     

Towards quantifying uncertainty in transient climate change

Ensembles of coupled atmosphere–ocean global circulation model simulations are required to make probabilistic predictions of future climate change. “Perturbed physics” ensembles provide a new approach in which modelling uncertainties are sampled systematically by perturbing uncertain parameters. The aim is to provide a basis for probabilistic predictions in which the impact of prior assumptions and observational constraints can be clearly distinguished. Here we report on the first perturbed physics coupled atmosphere–ocean model ensemble in which poorly constrained atmosphere, land and sea-ice component parameters are varied in the third version of the Hadley Centre model (the variation of ocean parameters will be the subject of future study). Flux adjustments are employed, both to reduce regional sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity biases and also to admit the use of combinations of model parameter values which give non-zero values for the global radiation balance. This improves the extent to which the ensemble provides a credible basis for the quantification of uncertainties in climate change, especially at a regional level. However, this particular implementation of flux-adjustments leads to a weakening of the Atlantic overturning circulation, resulting in the development of biases in SST and sea ice in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Nevertheless, model versions are produced which are of similar quality to the unperturbed and un-flux-adjusted version. The ensemble is used to simulate pre-industrial conditions and a simple scenario of a 1% per year compounded increase in CO₂. The range of transient climate response (the 20 year averaged global warming at the time of CO₂ doubling) is 1.5–2.6°C, similar to that found in multi-model studies. Measures of global and large scale climate change from the coupled models show simple relationships with associated measures computed from atmosphere-mixed-layer-ocean climate change experiments, suggesting that recent advances in computing the probability density function of climate change under equilibrium conditions using the perturbed physics approach may be extended to the transient case.     

人为热释放:全球分布的估算及其气候效应的探索

人类生产和生活中大量消费各种形式的能源,除了向大气里排放温室气体和气溶胶外,还释放大量热量。人为热释放伴随着人类社会发展而长期存在,随着全球人口增长和经济发展,其影响效应不断加剧。人为热释放具有典型地域集中、不均匀分布的特征:虽然全球平均人为热释放通量仅约为0.03 W m-2,在人口密集的城市地区,人为热释放可高达每平方米数百瓦,足以影响局地气候。伴随全球经济的发展,人口的增长及城市化进程的加剧,人为热释放分布更集中,影响气候的范围逐步扩大,其对气候的影响能力逐步增强。全球气候模式的结果表明:人为热释放能够对全球大气环流产生影响,进而影响到全球气候变化。人为热释放可以导致全球地表温度增温约0.06 K,500 hPa温度场平均升温约0.04 K,尤其对北半球中高纬度升温效应明显。研究结果表明,人为热释放虽然没有温室气体如二氧化碳等影响因子对全球气候的影响那么显著,但是其仍然能够对全球气候产生影响,是全球气候变化不可忽视的影响因子。     

Impacts of Climate Change on the Global Forest Sector

The path and magnitude of future anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide will likely influence changes in climate that may impact the global forest sector. These responses in the global forest sector may have implications for international efforts to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. This study takes a step toward including the role of global forest sector in integrated assessments of the global carbon cycle by linking global models of climate dynamics, ecosystem processes and forest economics to assess the potential responses of the global forest sector to different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. We utilize three climate scenarios and two economic scenarios to represent a range of greenhouse gas emissions and economic behavior. At the end of the analysis period (2040), the potential responses in regional forest growing stock simulated by the global ecosystem model range from decreases and increases for the low emissions climate scenario to increases in all regions for the high emissions climate scenario. The changes in vegetation are used to adjust timber supply in the softwood and hardwood sectors of the economic model. In general, the global changes in welfare are positive, but small across all scenarios. At the regional level, the changes in welfare can be large and either negative or positive. Markets and trade in forest products play important roles in whether a region realizes any gains associated with climate change. In general, regions with the lowest wood fiber production cost are able to expand harvests. Trade in forest products leads to lower prices elsewhere. The low-cost regions expand market shares and force higher-cost regions to decrease their harvests. Trade produces different economic gains and losses across the globe even though, globally, economic welfare increases. The results of this study indicate that assumptions within alternative climate scenarios and about trade in forest products are important factors that strongly influence the effects of climate change on the global forest sector.     

Comparison of formalisms for attributing responsibility for climate change: Non-linearities in the Brazilian Proposal approach

The Brazilian Proposal for setting emission targets is based on attribution of responsibility for climate change due to historical emissions of greenhouse gases. Numerical models are used to calculate the temperature increase due to past emissions of greenhouse gases, and to partition the warming among nations or groups of nations. When non-linearities are included in the models, there are different approaches that can be used to partition global warming into regional or national contributions, and the methods give different results. Here we describe and compare seven different approaches for attributing indicators of climate change for regional emissions. We illustrate these methods with simple and realistic examples, and discuss their characteristics. Of the seven attribution methods discussed, two (the marginal and time-sliced methods) are seen as best-suited for attribution of climate change. Differences between attribution methods are typically up to a few percent for the examples considered, with differences greatest for regions with emission time histories that differ most from the average. The range due to choice of attribution method in the relative contributions of temperature change in 2000 is typically around one fifth of the range generated when other choices such as different models, forcing agents, feedbacks and other assumptions are included.     

气候变化对中国农业生产的影响研究进展

气候变化已成为当今科学界、各国政府和社会公众普遍关注的环境问题之一,气候变化可能对生态系统和社会经济产生灾难性影响,农业是受气候变化影响最直接的脆弱行业。因此,气候变化对农业生产的影响研究一直是气候变化研究领域中的热点问题之一。该文系统介绍了有关全球气候变化对中国农业生产影响研究的现状与进展,包括气候变化对农业影响的研究方法、大气中温室气体浓度增加对农作物的影响试验、气候变化对农业气候资源的影响、气候变化对农作物生长发育和产量的影响、气候变化对农业种植制度和品种布局的影响、气候变化对农作物气候生产潜力和气候资源利用率的影响等,指出当前在研究气候变化对农业影响评估中存在的问题,提出了今后应加强对气候变化情景和预测模式不确定性的研究、气候变化对农业影响的方法研究。此外,气候变化背景下极端天气气候事件对农业生产的影响以及气候变化对农业病虫害的影响研究等仍较薄弱,有待进一步加强和深入。     

温室气体源汇及其对气候影响的研究现状

温室气体对全球气候变化将产生深远的影响。本文拟从温室气体源汇研究以及温室气体对气候环境的影响等方面论述温室气体研究进展。尽管目前国内外对主要的温室气体源与汇研究报道很多,但不同的研究结果不尽一致,有些研究间甚至出现相反的结论。温室气体增加对气候的影响及其检测,主要是利用不同复杂程度的数值模式进行研究。     

The socio-economic impact of sea-level rise on the Netherlands: A study of possible scenarios

This paper describes a simulation study of some of the socio-economic consequences of a rise in sea level on Dutch society. A computer simulation model for the greenhouse problem has been developed, which tries to capture the climate change cause-effect relationship for a combination of greenhouse-gas emissions. The impact of emissions of greenhouse gases on global temperature and sea-level rise can be calculated using the model. Additionally, separate, independent modules have been implemented in order to quantify the socio-economic consequences for the Netherlands. Four consistent sets of scenarios have been developed, based on differences in economic growth, energy use, international environmental measures, etc. On the basis of these scenarios estimates are made of the costs of coastal defence and water management in the Netherlands as a result of adaptation to the impacts of sea-level rise.     

A mental picture of the greenhouse effect

The popular picture of the greenhouse effect emphasises the radiation transfer but fails to explain the observed climate change. An old conceptual model for the greenhouse effect is revisited and presented as a useful resource in climate change communication. It is validated against state-of-the-art data, and nontraditional diagnostics show a physically consistent picture. The earth’s climate is constrained by well-known and elementary physical principles, such as energy balance, flow, and conservation. Greenhouse gases affect the atmospheric optical depth for infrared radiation, and increased opacity implies higher altitude from which earth’s equivalent bulk heat loss takes place. Such an increase is seen in the reanalyses, and the outgoing long-wave radiation has become more diffuse over time, consistent with an increased influence of greenhouse gases on the vertical energy flow from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. The reanalyses further imply increases in the overturning in the troposphere, consistent with a constant and continuous vertical energy flow. The increased overturning can explain a slowdown in the global warming, and the association between these aspects can be interpreted as an entanglement between the greenhouse effect and the hydrological cycle, where reduced energy transfer associated with increased opacity is compensated by tropospheric overturning activity.     

Impact of global warming on the geobotanic zones: an experiment with a statistical�Cdynamical climate model

In this study, a zonally-averaged statistical climate model (SDM) is used to investigate the impact of global warming on the distribution of the geobotanic zones over the globe. The model includes a parameterization of the biogeophysical feedback mechanism that links the state of surface to the atmosphere (a bidirectional interaction between vegetation and climate). In the control experiment (simulation of the present-day climate) the geobotanic state is well simulated by the model, so that the distribution of the geobotanic zones over the globe shows a very good agreement with the observed ones. The impact of global warming on the distribution of the geobotanic zones is investigated considering the increase of CO₂ concentration for the B1, A2 and A1FI scenarios. The results showed that the geobotanic zones over the entire earth can be modified in future due to global warming. Expansion of subtropical desert and semi-desert zones in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, retreat of glaciers and sea-ice, with the Arctic region being particularly affected and a reduction of the tropical rainforest and boreal forest can occur due to the increase of the greenhouse gases concentration. The effects were more pronounced in the A1FI and A2 scenarios compared with the B1 scenario. The SDM results confirm IPCC AR4 projections of future climate and are consistent with simulations of more complex GCMs, reinforcing the necessity of the mitigation of climate change associated to global warming.     

Climate model simulation of anthropogenic influence on greenhouse-induced climate change (early agriculture to modern): the role of ocean feedbacks

We present further steps in our analysis of the early anthropogenic hypothesis (Ruddiman, Clim Change 61:261–293, 2003) that increased levels of greenhouse gases in the current interglacial, compared to lower levels in previous interglacials, were initiated by early agricultural activities, and that these increases caused a warming of climate long before the industrial era (～1750). These steps include updating observations of greenhouse gas and climate trends from earlier interglacials, reviewing recent estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from early agriculture, and describing a simulation by a climate model with a dynamic ocean forced by the low levels of greenhouse gases typical of previous interglacials in order to gauge the magnitude of the climate change for an inferred (natural) low greenhouse gas level relative to a high present day level. We conduct two time slice (equilibrium) simulations using present day orbital forcing and two levels of greenhouse gas forcing: the estimated low (natural) levels of previous interglacials, and the high levels of the present (control). By comparing the former to the latter, we estimate how much colder the climate would be without the combined greenhouse gas forcing of the early agriculture era (inferred from differences between this interglacial and previous interglacials) and the industrial era (the period since ～1750). With the low greenhouse gas levels, the global average surface temperature is 2.7 K lower than present day—ranging from ～2 K lower in the tropics to 4–8 K lower in polar regions. These changes are large, and larger than those reported in a pre-industrial (～1750) simulation with this model, because the imposed low greenhouse gas levels (CH₄ = 450 ppb, CO₂ = 240 ppm) are lower than both pre-industrial (CH₄ = 760 ppb, CO₂ = 280 ppm) and modern control (CH₄ = 1,714 ppb, CO₂ = 355 ppm) values. The area of year-round snowcover is larger, as found in our previous simulations and some other modeling studies, indicating that a state of incipient glaciation would exist given the current configuration of earth’s orbit (reduced insolation in northern hemisphere summer) and the imposed low levels of greenhouse gases. We include comparisons of these snowcover maps with known locations of earlier glacial inception and with locations of twentieth century glaciers and ice caps. In two earlier studies, we used climate models consisting of atmosphere, land surface, and a shallow mixed-layer ocean (Ruddiman et al., Quat Sci Rev 25:1–10, 2005; Vavrus et al., Quat Sci Rev 27:1410–1425, 2008). Here, we replaced the mixed-layer ocean with a complete dynamic ocean. While the simulated climate of the atmosphere and the surface with this improved model configuration is similar to our earlier results (Vavrus et al., Quat Sci Rev 27:1410–1425, 2008), the added information from the full dynamical ocean is of particular interest. The global and vertically-averaged ocean temperature is 1.25 K lower, the area of sea ice is larger, and there is less upwelling in the Southern Ocean. From these results, we infer that natural ocean feedbacks could have amplified the greenhouse gas changes initiated by early agriculture and possibly account for an additional increment of CO₂ increase beyond that attributed directly to early agricultural, as proposed by Ruddiman (Rev Geophys 45:RG4001, 2007). However, a full test of the early anthropogenic hypothesis will require additional observations and simulations with models that include ocean and land carbon cycles and other refinements elaborated herein.     

Potential impact of climate change on marine dimethyl sulfide emissions

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is a biogenic compound produced in sea-surface water and outgased to the atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, DMS is a significant source of cloud condensation nuclei in the unpolluted marine atmosphere. It has been postulated that climate may be partly modulated by variations in DMS production through a DMS-cloud condensation nuclei-albedo feedback. We present here a modelled estimation of the response of DMS sea-water concentrations and DMS fluxes to climate change, following previous work on marine DMS modeling ( Aumont et al., 2002 ) and on the global warming impact on marine biology ( Bopp et al., 2001 ). An atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (GCM) was coupled to a marine biogeochemical scheme and used without flux correction to simulate climate response to increased greenhouse gases (a 1% increase per year in atmospheric CO₂ until it has doubled). The predicted global distribution of DMS at  1 × CO₂  compares reasonably well with observations; however, in the high latitudes, very elevated concentrations of DMS due to spring and summer blooms of Phaeocystis can not be reproduced. At  2 × CO₂  , the model estimates a small increase of global DMS flux to the atmosphere (+2%) but with large spatial heterogeneities (from −15% to +30% for the zonal mean). Mechanisms affecting DMS fluxes are changes in (1) marine biological productivity, (2) relative abundance of phytoplankton species and (3) wind intensity. The mean DMS flux perturbation we simulate represents a small negative feedback on global warming; however, the large regional changes may significantly impact regional temperature and precipitation patterns.     

Evaluation of the impact of climate changes on water storage and groundwater recharge at the watershed scale

 The increase of concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will certainly affect hydrological regimes. Global warning is thus expected to have major implications on water resources management. Our objective is to present a general approach to evaluate the effect of potential climate changes on groundwater resources. In the current stage of knowledge, large-scale global climate models are probably the best available tools to provide estimates of the effects of raising greenhouse gases on rainfall and evaporation patterns through a continuous, three dimensional simulation of atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric processes. However their spatial resolution (generally some thousands of square kilometers) is not compatible with that of watershed hydrologic models. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of potential climate changes upon groundwater resources. A general methodology is proposed in order to disaggregate outputs of large-scale models and thus to make information directly usable by hydrologic models. As an illustration, this method is applied to a CO₂-doubling scenario through the development of a local weather generator, although many uncertainties are not yet assessed about the results of climate models. Two important hydrological variables: rainfall and potential evapotranspiration are thus generated. They are then used by coupling with a physically based hydrological model to estimate the effects of climate changes on groundwater recharge and soil moisture in the root zone. Received: 17 April 1998 / Accepted: 29 September 1998     

大气圈碳循环的模拟研究进展

碳元素是地球生命的重要组成元素,而大气中的ＣＯ２是生命物质中碳元素的最主要来源,它也是引起气候长期变化的外强迫作用中最主要的温室气体,观测资料表明,在工业革命后,由于人类工农业活动的影响,大气圈中ＣＯ２含量增加很快。了解碳的源汇分布,大气圈碳循环动力机制以及碳循环与气候系统的相互作用,并进一步了解碳循环在整个地球系统内的作用过程十分重要。本文综合了近年来一关于碳循环在整个地球系统内的作用过程十分重     

影响青藏高原植被生理过程与大气CO2浓度及气候变化的相互作用

利用一陆面过程模式,初步模拟研究了青藏高原夏季风盛行期植被生理过程与大气CO2浓度及气候变化的相互作用。结果表明,气候以及大气CO2浓度变化对青藏高原地区的植被生理过程有较明显的影响,高温、高温和高CO2浓度将加强高原植被的光合作用和呼吸作用,有利于植被生长。高原植被也可通过生理过程,产生净CO2呼收,降低大气CO2含量,起到调整温室效应的作用,从而影响全球气候变化;当气温升高、大气CO2增加时,这种作用更加有效。青藏高原地区大气CO2浓度加倍,对高原地区气候的直接影响不明显。植被的存在也会影响区域气候变化,并可通过改变高原热源,进而影响高原及其周边地区气候变化。文中还归纳出了植被生理与气候相互作用的简单概念模型。     

Changes in atmospheric chemistry and the greenhouse effect: A Southern Hemisphere perspective

In the past decades there has been an explosive increase in studies of the chemistry of the atmosphere. These studies have shown that the chemical composition of the global atmosphere is far from constant. There is a clearly discernible chemical weather and climate and the latter is changing.Global atmospheric chemistry is at a relatively embryonic stage and much of the effort thus far has been directed towards the establishment of an observational basis upon which a sound theoretical understanding of chemical weather and climate can be built. Without this framework we will remain unable to rationally assess the consequences of, or even distinguish between, natural and man-made perturbations to the chemistry of the atmosphere or to understand the instabilities that already exist.Parallel with this development is the major upsurge of interest in the warming of the planet now expected with high probability as a result of the increase of the atmospheric levels of the so-called greenhouse gases. Such changes; although not the only environmental changes expected, are likely to have far-reaching effects on society and the natural environment. Serious decisions are ahead as we strive to adapt to and avoid climatically induced change.