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High-resolution simulations of global climate, part 2: effects of increased greenhouse cases

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Abstract

We report results from the highest-resolution simulations of global warming yet performed with an atmospheric general circulation model. We compare the climatic response to increased greenhouse gases of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) climate model, CCM3, at T42 and T170 resolutions (horizontal grid spacing of 300 and 75 km respectively). All simulations use prescribed sea surface temperatures (SST). Simulations of the climate of 2100 ad use SSTs based on those from NCAR coupled model, Climate System Model (CSM). We find that the global climate sensitivity and large-scale patterns of climate change are similar at T42 and T170. However, there are important regional scale differences that arise due to better representation of topography and other factors at high resolution. Caution should be exercised in interpreting specific features in our results both because we have performed climate simulations using a single atmospheric general circulation model and because we used with prescribed sea surface temperatures rather than interactive ocean and sea-ice models.

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Acknowledgements.

This work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract W-7405-Eng-48. We thank Drs. Karl Taylor and Mike Wehner of PCMDI, Dr. I. Held of GFDL and Dr. Ken Caldeira of LLNL for their interest in this work. We also thank Dr. J. Hack of NCAR for his encouraging comments and help in this study.

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  1. Climate and Carbon Cycle Modelling Group, Atmospheric Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA 94550, USA

    B. Govindasamy, P. B. Duffy & J. Coquard

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  1. B. Govindasamy
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  2. P. B. Duffy
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  3. J. Coquard
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Correspondence to B. Govindasamy.

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Govindasamy, B., Duffy, P.B. & Coquard, J. High-resolution simulations of global climate, part 2: effects of increased greenhouse cases. Climate Dynamics 21, 391–404 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-003-0340-6

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