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The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2: large-scale climate features and climate sensitivity.
- Source :
- Climate of the Past; 2020, Vol. 16 Issue 6, p2095-2123, 29p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- The Pliocene epoch has great potential to improve our understanding of the long-term climatic and environmental consequences of an atmospheric CO2 concentration near ∼400 parts per million by volume. Here we present the large-scale features of Pliocene climate as simulated by a new ensemble of climate models of varying complexity and spatial resolution based on new reconstructions of boundary conditions (the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2; PlioMIP2). As a global annual average, modelled surface air temperatures increase by between 1.7 and 5.2 ∘ C relative to the pre-industrial era with a multi-model mean value of 3.2 ∘ C. Annual mean total precipitation rates increase by 7 % (range: 2 %–13 %). On average, surface air temperature (SAT) increases by 4.3 ∘ C over land and 2.8 ∘ C over the oceans. There is a clear pattern of polar amplification with warming polewards of 60 ∘ N and 60 ∘ S exceeding the global mean warming by a factor of 2.3. In the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, meridional temperature gradients are reduced, while tropical zonal gradients remain largely unchanged. There is a statistically significant relationship between a model's climate response associated with a doubling in CO2 (equilibrium climate sensitivity; ECS) and its simulated Pliocene surface temperature response. The mean ensemble Earth system response to a doubling of CO2 (including ice sheet feedbacks) is 67 % greater than ECS; this is larger than the increase of 47 % obtained from the PlioMIP1 ensemble. Proxy-derived estimates of Pliocene sea surface temperatures are used to assess model estimates of ECS and give an ECS range of 2.6–4.8 ∘ C. This result is in general accord with the ECS range presented by previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18149324
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Climate of the Past
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 147966489
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2095-2020