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Using the Radiative Kernel Technique to Calculate Climate Feedbacks in NCAR’s Community Atmospheric Model

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Abstract
  • Climate models differ in their responses to imposed forcings, such as increased greenhouse gas concentrations, due to different climate feedback strengths. Feedbacks in NCAR’s Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) are separated into two components: the change in climate components in response to an imposed forcing and the “radiative kernel,” the effect that climate changes have on the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative budget. This technique’s usefulness depends on the linearity of the feedback processes. For the case of CO2 doubling, the sum of the effects of water vapor, temperature, and surface albedo changes on the TOA clear-sky flux is similar to the clear-sky flux changes directly calculated by CAM. When monthly averages are used rather than values from every time step, the global-average TOA shortwave change is underestimated by a quarter, partially as a result of intramonth correlations of surface albedo with the radiative kernel. The TOA longwave flux changes do not depend on the averaging period. The longwave zonal averages are within 10% of the model-calculated values, while the global average differs by only 2%. Cloud radiative forcing (ΔCRF) is often used as a diagnostic of cloud feedback strength. The net effect of the water vapor, temperature, and surface albedo changes on ΔCRF is −1.6 W m⁻², based on the kernel technique, while the total ΔCRF from CAM is −1.3 W m⁻², indicating these components contribute significantly to ΔCRF and make it more negative. Assuming linearity of the ΔCRF contributions, these results indicate that the net cloud feedback in CAM is positive.
  • Keywords: Radiative budgets, Radiative fluxes, Cloud radiative effects, Climate models
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  • Shell, Karen M., Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Christine A. Shields, 2008: Using the Radiative Kernel Technique to Calculate Climate Feedbacks in NCAR’s Community Atmospheric Model. Journal of Climate, 21, 2269–2282.
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  • 21
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  • 10
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  • NCAR’s Advanced Study Program provided support for this research. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Kiehl acknowledges support from the Department of Energy Office of Science Climate Change Prediction Program. Shields was supported in part by a grant from NOAA/GFDL.
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