Climate sensitivity from radiative-convective equilibrium: A chalkboard approach

2023/08/23 by Nadir Jeevanjee · 1 voice · 2 citations
Environmental Science · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Climate variability and models #Climate Change Policy and Economics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1119/5.0135727

Abstract

Simple models for Earth's climate sensitivity (i.e. its temperature response to radiative forcing) are developed by combining the time-tested idealization of one-dimensional radiative-convective equilibrium (RCE) with simple yet quantitatively reasonable models for CO2 forcing and the water vapor feedback. Along the way, we introduce key paradigms including the emission level approximation, the forcing-feedback decomposition of climate sensitivity, and “Simpson's law” for water vapor thermal emission. We also discuss climate feedbacks unaccounted for in this RCE framework, as well as differing variants of climate sensitivity, all of which may be ripe for their own chalkboard treatments.

Cited by

• A Holistic View of Climate Sensitivity
• Water Vapor Spectroscopy and Thermodynamics Constrain Earth's Tropopause Temperature

Discussions

• American Journal of Physics recently had some pedagogical articles on the basis of climate change, including the logarithmic nature of forcing, which might be of interest to readers here doi.org/10.11 [bsky, 6 points, 0 comments]

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