Surface energy balances of three general circulation models: Current climate and response to increasing atmospheric CO[sub 2]

Technical Report · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6658649· OSTI ID:6658649

Gutowski, W J; Gutzler, D S; Portman, D; Wang, W C

The surface energy balance simulated by state-of-the-art general circulation models at GFDL, GISS and NCAR for climates with current levels of atmospheric CO[sub 2] concentration (control climate) and with twice the current levels. The work is part of an effort sponsored by the US Department of Energy to assess climate simulations produced by these models. The surface energy balance enables us to diagnose differences between models in surface temperature climatology and sensitivity to doubling CO[sub 2] in terms of the processes that control surface temperature. Our analysis compares the simulated balances by averaging the fields of interest over a hierarchy of spatial domains ranging from the entire globe down to regions a few hundred kilometers across.

• Research Organization: Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-86ER60422
• OSTI ID: 6658649
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/60422-T2; ON: DE93009947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ENERGY BALANCE
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
HYDROLOGY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS