An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise

Abstract Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) refers to the total global warming caused by an instantaneous doubling of CO2 from the preindustrial level. It is mainly estimated through the linear fit between the changes in global-mean surface temperature and top-of-atmosphere net radiative flux, du...

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Main Authors: Shufan Li, Ping Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2022-09-01
Series:Geoscience Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-022-00244-9
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author Shufan Li
Ping Huang
author_facet Shufan Li
Ping Huang
author_sort Shufan Li
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) refers to the total global warming caused by an instantaneous doubling of CO2 from the preindustrial level. It is mainly estimated through the linear fit between the changes in global-mean surface temperature and top-of-atmosphere net radiative flux, due to the high costs of millennial-length simulations for reaching a stable climate. However, the accuracy can be influenced by the response’s nonlinearity and the internal noise, especially when using a limited-length simulation. Here, we propose a new method that derives a new series using an exponential-interval sampling (EIS) method for the original simulation to reduce the noise and estimate the ECS more accurately. Utilizing the millennial-length simulations of LongRunMIP, we prove that the EIS method can effectively reduce the influence of internal variability, and the estimated ECS based on the first 150 years of simulation is closer to the final ECS in the millennial-length simulations than previous estimations with the deviation rate decreased by around 1/3. The ECS in CMIP6 models estimated by the EIS method ranges from 1.93 to 6.78 K, and suggests that the multimodel mean ECS derived from the original series with previous methods could be underestimated.
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spelling doaj.art-c4897c8a2c1c4887a872b5cc7d222a522022-12-22T03:46:39ZengSpringerOpenGeoscience Letters2196-40922022-09-019111010.1186/s40562-022-00244-9An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noiseShufan Li0Ping Huang1Center for Monsoon System Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesCenter for Monsoon System Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesAbstract Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) refers to the total global warming caused by an instantaneous doubling of CO2 from the preindustrial level. It is mainly estimated through the linear fit between the changes in global-mean surface temperature and top-of-atmosphere net radiative flux, due to the high costs of millennial-length simulations for reaching a stable climate. However, the accuracy can be influenced by the response’s nonlinearity and the internal noise, especially when using a limited-length simulation. Here, we propose a new method that derives a new series using an exponential-interval sampling (EIS) method for the original simulation to reduce the noise and estimate the ECS more accurately. Utilizing the millennial-length simulations of LongRunMIP, we prove that the EIS method can effectively reduce the influence of internal variability, and the estimated ECS based on the first 150 years of simulation is closer to the final ECS in the millennial-length simulations than previous estimations with the deviation rate decreased by around 1/3. The ECS in CMIP6 models estimated by the EIS method ranges from 1.93 to 6.78 K, and suggests that the multimodel mean ECS derived from the original series with previous methods could be underestimated.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-022-00244-9Global warmingEquilibrium climate sensitivityInternal variabilityLongRunMIPCMIP6
spellingShingle Shufan Li
Ping Huang
An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
Geoscience Letters
Global warming
Equilibrium climate sensitivity
Internal variability
LongRunMIP
CMIP6
title An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
title_full An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
title_fullStr An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
title_full_unstemmed An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
title_short An exponential-interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
title_sort exponential interval sampling method for evaluating equilibrium climate sensitivity via reducing internal variability noise
topic Global warming
Equilibrium climate sensitivity
Internal variability
LongRunMIP
CMIP6
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-022-00244-9
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