Dai et al. (2025) Understanding the Climate Response to Different Vertical Patterns of Radiative Forcing

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-26
• Authors: An‐Zhuo Dai, Jonathan M. Gregory, Paulo Ceppi
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl119138

Research Groups

Not available from the abstract.

Short Summary

This study investigates how the vertical structure of radiative forcing influences climate response, finding that higher-altitude forcings lead to less global warming due to more negative cloud feedback, a phenomenon linked to sea-surface temperature patterns and tropospheric static stability. It highlights the critical need to accurately represent the vertical distribution of anthropogenic forcings for precise climate projections.

Objective

• To study the dependence of climate response on the vertical structure of radiative forcing using idealized experiments.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with horizontally uniform and vertically confined forcings. Specific focus on the tropical warm pool.
• Temporal Scale: Long-term climate change response to instantaneous radiative forcings.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Idealized climate model experiments.
• Data sources: Not specified in the abstract.

Main Results

• For a given effective forcing magnitude, higher-altitude radiative forcing results in smaller global warming.
• This reduced warming is attributed to a more negative cloud feedback.
• The altitude dependence of climate response is linked to changes in sea-surface temperature (SST) patterns and tropospheric static stability.
• Higher-altitude forcings more effectively suppress convection in the tropical warm pool.
• This suppression leads to a more positive effective (adjusted) surface forcing in the tropical warm pool region.
• The subsequent climate change exhibits a greater warming contrast between the warm pool and the rest of the globe.
• This increased warming contrast contributes to an increase in low cloud amount.
• Accurate representation of the vertical structures of applied radiative forcing is crucial for precise climate projections under anthropogenic forcings.

Contributions

• Presents novel evidence relating the altitude dependence of climate response to sea-surface temperature patterns and tropospheric static stability.
• Emphasizes the importance of correctly representing the vertical structure of radiative forcing for accurate climate projections, providing a new perspective on climate sensitivity.

Funding

Not available from the abstract.

Citation

@article{Dai2025Understanding,
  author = {Dai, An‐Zhuo and Gregory, Jonathan M. and Ceppi, Paulo},
  title = {Understanding the Climate Response to Different Vertical Patterns of Radiative Forcing},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl119138},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl119138}
}