A large ozone-circulation feedback and its implications for global warming assessments.

ABSTRACT: State-of-the-art climate models now include more climate processes which are simulated at higher spatial resolution than ever¹. Nevertheless, some processes, such as atmospheric chemical feedbacks, are still computationally expensive and are often ignored in climate simulations^1,2. Here we present evidence that how stratospheric ozone is represented in climate models can have a first order impact on estimates of effective climate sensitivity. Using a comprehensive atmosphere-ocean chemistry-climate model, we find an increase in global mean surface warming of around 1°C (~20%) after 75 years when ozone is prescribed at pre-industrial levels compared with when it is allowed to evolve self-consistently in response to an abrupt 4×CO₂ forcing. The difference is

SUBMITTER: Nowack PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4338532 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature