Abstract
The shortwave (SW) feedback to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the largest biases in climate models, as the feedback includes atmosphere–ocean interactions and cloud processes. In this study, the performance of SW feedback over tropical Pacific in 19 models from the 6th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) is evaluated and the biases are attributed using the historical and Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) runs and two coupled assimilation experiments. The results demonstrate that while superior to CMIP5 counterparts, most CMIP6 models still underestimate the strength of SW feedback. The underestimates of SW feedback arise mainly from the biased feedbacks to El Niño in the four models with relatively better skills, while from both underestimated negative feedbacks to El Niño and overestimated positive feedbacks to La Niña in other models, which reproduce better seasonal variations than corresponding CMIP5 models. Furthermore, the SW feedback bias is connected to weak convective/stratiform rainfall feedback, which is sensitive/insensitive to sea surface temperature (SST) biases during El Niño/La Niña. The total rainfall feedbacks and dynamical feedbacks are underestimated in the historical runs, more than in CMIP5. Finally, the causes and relationships between feedbacks and mean states are investigated.
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Data availability
The GCM datasets used in this research were made available through the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system (https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/search/cmip6/). Observed and reanalysis data used in this study were provided by NASA (https://isccp.giss.nasa.gov, https://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov), ECMWF (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5) and Met Office (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst/).
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Acknowledgements
This research was jointly funded by the National Key Research Project (Grant 2022YFC3104804), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 42288101, 42230606), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant XDB42010404), and the Special Founds for Creative Research (Grant No. 2022C61540). The assimilation experiments were performed on the supercomputers provided by Earth System Science Numerical Simulator Facility (EarthLab).
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Lijuan Li conceived the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Junjie Huang and Lijuan Li. Assimilation experiments were conducted by Yujun He and Junjie Huang. Haiyan Ran, Juan Liu, Bin Wang, Tao Feng, Youli Chang, and Yimin Liu provide comments and suggestions for improving the quality of this study.
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Huang, J., Li, L., He, Y. et al. Evaluation and attribution of shortwave feedbacks to ENSO in CMIP6 models. Clim Dyn (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07190-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07190-6