The modification of greenhouse gas warming by the direct effect of sulphate aerosols |
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Authors: | Reader M C Boer G J |
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Institution: | (1) Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Atmospheric Environment Service, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700, Victoria, B.C. V8W 2Y2, Canada E-mail: George.Boer@ec.gc.ca, CA |
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Abstract: | The Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) second generation climate model (GCMII) consists of an atmospheric
GCM coupled to mixed layer ocean. It is used to investigate the climate response to a doubling of the CO2 concentration together with the direct effect of scattering by sulphate aerosols. As expected, the aerosols offset some of
the greenhouse gas (GHG) warming; the global annual mean screen temperature change due to doubled CO2 is 3.4 °C in this model and this is reduced to 2.7 °C when an estimate of the direct effect of anthropogenic sulphate aerosols
is included. The pattern of climate response to the comparatively localized aerosol forcing is not itself localized, and it
bears a striking resemblance to the response pattern that arises from the globally distributed change in GHG forcing. This
“non-local” response to “localized” forcing indicates that the pattern of climate response is determined, to first order,
by the overall magnitude of the change in forcing rather than its detailed nature or structure. Feedback processes operating
in the system apparently determine this pattern by locally amplifying and suppressing the response to the magnitude of the
change in forcing. The influence of the location of the change in forcing is relatively small. These “non-local” and “local”
effects of aerosol forcing are characterized and displayed and some of their consequences discussed. Effects on the moisture
budget and on the energetics of the global climate are also examined.
Received: 10 June 1997 / Accepted: 8 January 1998 |
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