Early Online Release Current Gcms' Unrealistic Negative Feedback in the Arctic

We investigate the large spread of the response to anthropogenic forcing simulated by state-of-the-art climate models in the Arctic. A feedback analysis framework specific to the Arctic is developed to address this issue. The feedback analysis shows that a large part of the spread of Arctic climate change is explained by the longwave feedback parameter. The large spread of the negative longwave feedback parameter is in turn mainly due to variations in temperature feedback. The vertical temperature structure of the atmosphere in the Arctic, characterized by a surface inversion during wintertime exerts a strong control on the temperature feedback and consequently on simulated Arctic climate change. Most current climate models likely overestimate the climatological strength of the inversion, leading to excessive negative longwave feedback. We conclude that their near equilibrium response to anthropogenic forcing is generally too small.