Adjustments to climate perturbations -mechanisms, implications, observational constraints
Abstract
Since the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR5) an extended concept of the energetic analysis of climate change including forcings, feedbacks and adjustment processes has become widely adopted. Adjustments are defined as processes that occur in response to the introduction of a climate forcing agent, but that are independent of global-mean surface temperature changes. Most considered are the adjustments that impact the Earth energy budget and strengthen or weaken the instantaneous radiative forcing due to the forcing agent. Some adjustment mechanisms also impact other aspects of climate not related to the Earth radiation budget. Since AR5 and a following description by Sherwood et al. (2015), much research on adjustments has been performed and is reviewed here. We classify the adjustment mechanisms into six main categories, and discuss methods of quantifying these adjustments in terms of their potentials, shortcomings and practicality. We furthermore describe aspects of adjustments that act beyond the energetic framework, and we propose new ideas to observe adjustments or to make use of observations to constrain their representation in models. Altogether, the problem of adjustments is now on a robust scientific footing, and better quantification and observational constraint is possible. This allows for improvements in understanding and quantifying climate change.
Authors 28
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Johannes Quaas corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Met Office, Hadley Centre
Met Office, Hadley Centre, Exeter, U.K
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Sorbonne Université · Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace · University of Reading
Affiliation as printed
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Sorbonne Université / CNRS
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, U.K
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Affiliation as printed
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Sorbonne Université · Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace
Affiliation as printed
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Sorbonne Université / CNRS
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Affiliation as printed
Imperial College London
Imperial College London, U.K
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Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Affiliation as printed
Hebrew University Jerusalem
Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel
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Affiliation as printed
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
University of Leeds
University of Leeds, U.K
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Bar-Ilan University · Leipzig University
Affiliation as printed
Bar Ilan University
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
Bar Ilan University, Israel
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Imperial College London
Imperial College London, U.K
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CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Affiliation as printed
CICERO Oslo
CICERO Oslo, Norway
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Hailing Jia Aachen
Space Research Organisation Netherlands · Leipzig University
Affiliation as printed
Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University
SRON
Leipzig University, Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
SRON, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Goddard Space Flight Center · National Aeronautics and Space Administration · NASA Earth Science · University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Affiliation as printed
Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
GESTAR-II, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA
GESTAR-II, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, USA
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Affiliation as printed
University of Leeds
University of Leeds, U.K
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Affiliation as printed
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Affiliation as printed
CICERO Oslo
CICERO Oslo, Norway
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Met Office · University of Exeter
Affiliation as printed
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
Met Office, Hadley Centre
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, U.K
Met Office, Hadley Centre, Exeter, U.K
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Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory · Columbia University
Affiliation as printed
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, USA
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CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Affiliation as printed
CICERO Oslo
CICERO Oslo, Norway
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Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
Affiliation as printed
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, U.K
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University of Leeds · International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Affiliation as printed
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
University of Leeds
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria
University of Leeds, U.K
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CICERO Center for International Climate Research
Affiliation as printed
CICERO Oslo
CICERO Oslo, Norway
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Affiliation as printed
Kyushu University
Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
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Affiliation as printed
University of Tartu
University of Tartu, Estonia
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Affiliation as printed
University of Oslo
University of Oslo, Norway
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