Abstract
Two sensitivity experiments, in which CO2 is doubled and sea-surface temperatures are enhanced, were carried out using a general circulation model to determine the influence of the convective parametrization on simulated climate change. In the first experiment, a non-penetrative “layer-swapping” convection scheme is used; in the second, a penetrative scheme is used. It is found that the penetrative scheme gives the greater upper tropospheric warming (over 4.5 K compared to 4 K) and the greater reduction in upper tropospheric cloud, consistent with recent CO2 sensitivity studies. However, there is a 0.7 Wm−2 greater increase in net downward radiation at the top of the atmosphere in the experiment with the non-penetrative scheme, implying a larger tropical warming which is inconsistent with recent CO2 studies. Other possible explanations for discrepancies between recent studies of the equilibrium climate response to increasing CO2 are considered and discussed. The changes in the atmospheric fluxes of heat and moisture from the tropical continents in the model with the penetrative scheme differ from those found using the non-penetrative scheme, and those in an equilibrium experiment using the penetrative scheme. Thus, changes in circulation may explain the apparent discrepancy in the current experiments, but prescribed sea-surface temperature experiments may not provide a reliable indication of a model's equilibrium climate sensitivity.
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Cunnington, W.M., Mitchell, J.F.B. On the dependence of climate sensitivity on convective parametrization. Climate Dynamics 4, 85–93 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208904
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208904