Identification

Title

Present-day springtime high-latitude surface albedo as a predictor of simulated climate sensitivity

Abstract

Simulations by the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) and 15 other climate models suggest that climate sensitivity is linked to continental middle to high latitude present-day springtime albedo. We compare 1 × CO&#x2082 and 2 × CO&#x2082 CAM simulations against similar simulations with snow cover fraction purposely increased. Greater snow cover fraction leads to higher albedo and lower temperatures at 1 × CO&#x2082 but has less influence at 2 × CO&#x2082 when little snow remains due to global warming. This makes the simulation with higher albedo at 1 × CO&#x2082 more sensitive to increased CO&#x2082, in agreement with past work. We show that the wide variation in simulated snow-albedo feedbacks and climate sensitivities among 15 other models correlates well with variations in the continental middle to high latitude present-day springtime albedo, in agreement with our CAM results. The development of more accurate snow and albedo parameterizations should improve model estimates of climate sensitivity.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71r6qs9

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-09-05T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact