TY - JOUR
T1 - ESD Reviews
T2 - Climate feedbacks in the Earth system and prospects for their evaluation
AU - Heinze, Christoph
AU - Eyring, Veronika
AU - Friedlingstein, Pierre
AU - Jones, Colin
AU - Balkanski, Yves
AU - Collins, William
AU - Fichefet, Thierry
AU - Gao, Shuang
AU - Siebesma, Pier
AU - More Authors, null
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Earth system models (ESMs) are key tools for providing climate projections under different scenarios of human-induced forcing. ESMs include a large number of additional processes and feedbacks such as biogeochemical cycles that traditional physical climate models do not consider. Yet, some processes such as cloud dynamics and ecosystem functional response still have fairly high uncertainties. In this article, we present an overview of climate feedbacks for Earth system components currently included in state-of-the-art ESMs and discuss the challenges to evaluate and quantify them. Uncertainties in feedback quantification arise from the interdependencies of biogeochemical matter fluxes and physical properties, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of processes, and the lack of long-term continuous observational data to constrain them. We present an outlook for promising approaches that can help to quantify and to constrain the large number of feedbacks in ESMs in the future. The target group for this article includes generalists with a background in natural sciences and an interest in climate change as well as experts working in interdisciplinary climate research (researchers, lecturers, and students). This study updates and significantly expands upon the last comprehensive overview of climate feedbacks in ESMs, which was produced 15 years ago (NRC, 2003).
AB - Earth system models (ESMs) are key tools for providing climate projections under different scenarios of human-induced forcing. ESMs include a large number of additional processes and feedbacks such as biogeochemical cycles that traditional physical climate models do not consider. Yet, some processes such as cloud dynamics and ecosystem functional response still have fairly high uncertainties. In this article, we present an overview of climate feedbacks for Earth system components currently included in state-of-the-art ESMs and discuss the challenges to evaluate and quantify them. Uncertainties in feedback quantification arise from the interdependencies of biogeochemical matter fluxes and physical properties, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of processes, and the lack of long-term continuous observational data to constrain them. We present an outlook for promising approaches that can help to quantify and to constrain the large number of feedbacks in ESMs in the future. The target group for this article includes generalists with a background in natural sciences and an interest in climate change as well as experts working in interdisciplinary climate research (researchers, lecturers, and students). This study updates and significantly expands upon the last comprehensive overview of climate feedbacks in ESMs, which was produced 15 years ago (NRC, 2003).
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068865710&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5194/esd-10-379-2019
DO - 10.5194/esd-10-379-2019
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85068865710
SN - 2190-4979
VL - 10
SP - 379
EP - 452
JO - Earth System Dynamics
JF - Earth System Dynamics
IS - 3
ER -