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Climate Modelling pp 175–197Cite as

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Reconciling Climate Model/Data Discrepancies: The Case of the ‘Trees That Didn’t Bark’

Abstract

Estimates of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS)—the temperature with a doubling of CO2—usually are between 1.5 °C and 5 °C warming, with a mid-range/most likely value close to 3 °C. Notably, comparisons of simulations of temperature changes over the past millennium with paleoreconstructions of past temperatures tend to suggest an ECS value toward the lower end of the range closer to 2 °C, which deserves closer scrutiny. In this chapter, I review evidence that paleoreconstructions may selectively underestimate the cooling signal associated with large explosive volcanic eruptions of the past millennium, due to their reliance on tree-ring data from tree-line-proximal environments. Once large volcanic episodes are masked, these comparisons instead support a mid-range of ~3 °C of ECS. Regardless of the reason for the model/paleodata discrepancy, ECS estimates—I argue—should not rely on comparisons that include these episodes.

Keywords

  • Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS)
  • Past Millennium
  • Large Explosive Volcanic Eruptions
  • Dendrochronology
  • Missing Rings

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Michael E. Mann

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  1. Michael E. Mann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Prof. Elisabeth A. Lloyd

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Prof. Eric Winsberg

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Mann, M.E. (2018). Reconciling Climate Model/Data Discrepancies: The Case of the ‘Trees That Didn’t Bark’. In: A. Lloyd, E., Winsberg, E. (eds) Climate Modelling. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65058-6_7

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