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Predictive Use of the Maximum Entropy Production Principle for Past and Present Climates

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Beyond the Second Law

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

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Abstract

In this chapter, we show how the MaxEP hypothesis may be used to build simple climate models without representing explicitly the energy transport by the atmosphere. The purpose is twofold. First, we assess the performance of the MaxEP hypothesis by comparing a simple model with minimal input data to a complex, state-of-the-art General Circulation Model. Next, we show how to improve the realism of MaxEP climate models by including climate feedbacks, focusing on the case of the water-vapour feedback. We also discuss the dependence of the entropy production rate and predicted surface temperature on the resolution of the model.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The uniform relative humidity in version 3 is chosen as the mean relative humidity in the MaxEP v0 case.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307, USA

    Corentin Herbert

  2. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, UMR 8212, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Didier Paillard

Authors
  1. Corentin Herbert
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  2. Didier Paillard
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Correspondence to Corentin Herbert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Research School of Biology, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Roderick C. Dewar

  2. Australian National University, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Research School of Earth Sciences, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Charles H. Lineweaver

  3. School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales at ADFA, Canberra, Aust Capital Terr, Australia

    Robert K. Niven

  4. School of Earth and Environment, University of Western Australia, CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering, Crawley, West Australia, Australia

    Klaus Regenauer-Lieb

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Herbert, C., Paillard, D. (2014). Predictive Use of the Maximum Entropy Production Principle for Past and Present Climates. In: Dewar, R., Lineweaver, C., Niven, R., Regenauer-Lieb, K. (eds) Beyond the Second Law. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40154-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40154-1_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40153-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40154-1

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