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Importance of instantaneous radiative forcing for rapid tropospheric adjustment

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Abstract

To better understand CFMIP/CMIP inter-model differences in rapid low cloud responses to CO2 increases and their associated effective radiative forcings, we examined the tropospheric adjustment of the lower tropospheric stability (LTS) in three general circulation models (GCMs): HadGEM2-A, MIROC3.2 medres, and MIROC5. MIROC3.2 medres showed a reduction in LTS over the sub-tropical ocean, in contrast to the other two models. This reduction was consistent with a temperature decrease in the mid-troposphere. The temperature decrease was mainly driven by instantaneous radiative forcing (RF) caused by an increase in CO2. Reductions in radiative and latent heating, due to clouds, and in adiabatic and advective heating, also contribute to the temperature decrease. The instantaneous RF in the mid-troposphere in MIROC3.2 medres is inconsistent with the results of line-by-line (LBL) calculations, and thus it is considered questionable. These results illustrate the importance of evaluating the vertical profile of instantaneous RF with LBL calculations; improved future model performance in this regard should help to increase our confidence in the tropospheric adjustment in GCMs.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Radiative Transfer Model Intercomparison Project (RTMIP) for providing atmospheric profile and LBL data and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program for distributing the RTMIP data. We also acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Program for Risk Information on Climate Change from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. This work was also supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 23310014 and 23340137. The contribution to this work from the Hadley Centre was supported by the Joint DECC/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101) and funding from the European Union, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013), under Grant Agreement Number 244067 via the EU CLoud Intercomparison and Process Study Evaluation Project (EUCLIPSE). The Earth Simulator at JAMSTEC and the NEC SX-8R/128M16 at NIES were used to carry out the model simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8506, Japan

    Tomoo Ogura

  2. Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK

    Mark J. Webb & Yoko Tsushima

  3. Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8568, Japan

    Masahiro Watanabe

  4. College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Harrison Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QF, UK

    F. Hugo Lambert

  5. Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 2-1-6 Etchujima, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-8533, Japan

    Miho Sekiguchi

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  1. Tomoo Ogura
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Correspondence to Tomoo Ogura.

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Ogura, T., Webb, M.J., Watanabe, M. et al. Importance of instantaneous radiative forcing for rapid tropospheric adjustment. Clim Dyn 43, 1409–1421 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1955-x

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