Evaluating and understanding top of the atmosphere cloud radiative effects in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models using satellite observations

INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE Summary for Policymakers to Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report of the IPCC Third Assessment Report

Radiative forcing by well-mixed greenhouse gases: Estimates from climate models in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4)

[1] The radiative effects from increased concentrations of well-mixed greenhouse gases (WMGHGs) represent the most significant and best understood anthropogenic forcing of the climate system. The most comprehensive tools for simulating past and future climates influenced by WMGHGs are fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). Because of the importance of WMGHGs as forc...

Global warming under old and new scenarios using IPCC climate sensitivity range estimates

Climate projections for the fourth assessment report1 (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were based on scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios2 (SRES) and simulations of the third phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project3 (CMIP3). Since then, a new set of four scenarios (the representative concentration pathways or RCPs) was designed4. Clima...

Annular mode time scales in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report models

[1] The ability of climate models in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report to capture the temporal structure of the annular modes is evaluated. The vertical structure and annual cycle of the variability is quantified by the e-folding time scale of the annular mode autocorrelation function. Models vaguely capture the qualitative features of the Northern and South...

Forced annular variations in the 20th century Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report models

[1] We examine the annular mode within each hemisphere (defined here as the leading empirical orthogonal function and principal component of hemispheric sea level pressure) as simulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report ensembles of coupled ocean-atmosphere models. The simulated annular patterns exhibit a high spatial correlation with the observed pattern...