On the limitations of general circulation climate models
Journal Article
·
· Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA)
- Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge (USA)
General Circulation Models (GCMs) by definition calculate large-scale dynamical and thermodynamical processes and their associated feedbacks from first principles. This aspect of GCMs is widely believed to give them an advantage in simulating global scale climate changes as compared to simpler models which do not calculate the large-scale processes from first principles. However, the authors point out that the meridional transports of heat simulation by GCMs used in climate change experiments differ from observational analyses and from other GCMs by as much as a factor of two. They also demonstrate that GCM simulations of the large scale transports of heat are sensitive to the (uncertain) subgrid scale parameterizations. This leads the authors to question whether current GCMs are in fact superior to simpler models for simulating temperature changes associated with global scale climate change.
- OSTI ID:
- 5609883
- Journal Information:
- Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA) Vol. 17:12; ISSN 0094-8276; ISSN GPRLA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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