Articles | Volume 18, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5147-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5147-2018
Research article
 | 
17 Apr 2018
Research article |  | 17 Apr 2018

The influence of internal variability on Earth's energy balance framework and implications for estimating climate sensitivity

Andrew E. Dessler, Thorsten Mauritsen, and Bjorn Stevens

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Cited articles

Aldrin, M., Holden, M., Guttorp, P., Skeie, R. B., Myhre, G., and Berntsen, T. K.: Bayesian estimation of climate sensitivity based on a simple climate model fitted to observations of hemispheric temperatures and global ocean heat content, Environmetrics, 23, 253–271, https://doi.org/10.1002/env.2140, 2012. 
Andrews, T. and Webb, M. J.: The dependence of global cloud and lapse rate feedbacks on the spatial structure of Tropical Pacific warming, J. Climate, 31, 641–654, https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-17-0087.1, 2018. 
Andrews, T., Gregory, J. M., and Webb, M. J.: The dependence of radiative forcing and feedback on evolving patterns of surface temperature change in climate models, J. Climate, 28, 1630–1648, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00545.1, 2015. 
Annan, J. D. and Hargreaves, J. C.: Using multiple observationally-based constraints to estimate climate sensitivity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06704, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005gl025259, 2006. 
Armour, K. C.: Energy budget constraints on climate sensitivity in light of inconstant climate feedbacks, Nat. Clim. Change, 7, 331–335, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3278, 2017. 
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Short summary
One of the most important parameters in climate science is the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). Estimates of this quantity based on 20th-century observations suggest low values of ECS (below 2 °C). We show that these calculations may be significantly in error. Together with other recent work on this problem, it seems probable that the ECS is larger than suggested by the 20th-century observations.
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