Cloud Feedbacks from CanESM2 to CanESM5.0 and their influence on climate sensitivity

Virgin, John G.; Fletcher, Christopher G.; Cole, Jason N. S.; von Salzen, Knut; Mitovski, Toni

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5355-2021

Articles | Volume 14, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5355-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

The Canadian Earth System Model version 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5355-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 9

Model evaluation paper

|

31 Aug 2021

Model evaluation paper |

| 31 Aug 2021

Cloud Feedbacks from CanESM2 to CanESM5.0 and their influence on climate sensitivity

John G. Virgin, Christopher G. Fletcher, Jason N. S. Cole, Knut von Salzen, and Toni Mitovski

Model code and software

The Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM) - v5.0.3 Neil C. Swart, Jason Cole, Slava Kharin, Mike Lazare, John Scinocca, Nathan Gillett, James Anstey, Vivek Arora, James Christian, Sarah Hanna, Yanjun Jiao, Warren Lee, Fouad Majaess, Oleg Saenko, Christian Seiler, Clint Seinen, Andrew Shao, Larry Solheim, Knut von Salzen, Duo Yang, and Barbara Winter https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3251114

CCCma CanESM5 model output prepared for CMIP6 CMIP. Version 20190429 Neil Cameron Swart, Jason N. S. Cole, Viatcheslav V. Kharin, Mike Lazare, John F. Scinocca, Nathan P. Gillett, James Anstey, Vivek Arora, James R. Christian, Yanjun Jiao, Warren G. Lee, Fouad Majaess, Oleg A. Saenko, Christian Seiler, Clint Seinen, Andrew Shao, Larry Solheim, Knut von Salzen, Duo Yang, Barbara Winter, and Michael Sigmond https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.1303

Short summary

Equilibrium climate sensitivity, or the amount of warming the Earth would exhibit a result of a doubling of atmospheric CO₂, is a common metric used in assessments of climate models. Here, we compare climate sensitivity between two versions of the Canadian Earth System Model. We find the newest iteration of the model (version 5) to have higher climate sensitivity due to reductions in low-level clouds, which reflect radiation and cool the planet, as the surface warms.