What is the climate system able to do ‘on its own’?

Bengtsson, L. (2013) What is the climate system able to do ‘on its own’? Tellus B, 65. 20189. ISSN 1600-0889 doi: 10.3402/tellusb.V65i0.20189

Abstract/Summary

The climate of the Earth, like planetary climates in general, is broadly controlled by solar irradiation, planetary albedo and emissivity as well as its rotation rate and distribution of land (with its orography) and oceans. However, the majority of climate fluctuations that affect mankind are internal modes of the general circulation of the atmosphere and the oceans. Some of these modes, such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), are quasi-regular and have some longer-term predictive skill; others like the Arctic and Antarctic Oscillation are chaotic and generally unpredictable beyond a few weeks. Studies using general circulation models indicate that internal processes dominate the regional climate and that some like ENSO events have even distinct global signatures. This is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to separate internal climate processes from external ones caused, for example, by changes in greenhouse gases and solar irradiation. However, the accumulation of the warmest seasons during the latest two decades is lending strong support to the forcing of the greenhouse gases. As models are getting more comprehensive, they show a gradually broader range of internal processes including those on longer time scales, challenging the interpretation of the causes of past and present climate events further.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/31643
Identification Number/DOI	10.3402/tellusb.V65i0.20189
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	climate change, general circulation models, natural climate variability
Publisher	Co-Action Publishing
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