Abstract
This article is a review of the modeling of potential CO2 effects on climate, intended for an interdisciplinary audience of ‘mathematically oriented’ scientists and engineers. The carbon dioxide (CO2) content of the atmosphere has shown a systematic increase each year since regular measurements began in 1958. A major source of CO2 is the combustion of fossil fuels. A number of studies of the sensitivity of climate to increases in the CO2 content of the atmosphere have been published. This report is an assimilation of the results of some of these studies. The climate sensitivity problem is introduced through a discussion of the various atmospheric feedbacks and the ice albedo feedback. The most recent estimates of the various feedbacks are used to estimate upper and lower bounds of the globally averaged temperature increase that would accompany a doubling of atmospheric CO2 content. The results of a CO2 doubling experiment using a simple general circulation model are reviewed, and the possible response of the cryosphere is discussed.
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Watts, R.G. Climate models and CO2-induced climatic changes. Climatic Change 2, 387–408 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00137207
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00137207