Standard climate models radiation codes underestimate black carbon radiative forcing
Radiative forcing (RF) of black carbon (BC) in the atmosphere is estimated using radiative transfer codes of various complexities. Here we show that the two-stream radiative transfer codes used most in climate models give too strong forward scattering, leading to enhanced absorption at the surface a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/2883/2015/acp-15-2883-2015.pdf |
| Summary: | Radiative forcing (RF) of black carbon (BC) in the atmosphere is estimated
using radiative transfer codes of various complexities. Here we show that
the two-stream radiative transfer codes used most in climate models give too
strong forward scattering, leading to enhanced absorption at the surface and
too weak absorption by BC in the atmosphere. Such calculations are found to
underestimate the positive RF of BC by 10% for global mean, all sky
conditions, relative to the more sophisticated multi-stream models. The
underestimation occurs primarily for low surface albedo, even though BC is
more efficient for absorption of solar radiation over high surface albedo. |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |