Bias in CMIP6 models as compared to observed regional  dimming and brightening

Moseid, Kine Onsum; Schulz, Michael; Storelvmo, Trude; Julsrud, Ingeborg Rian; Olivié, Dirk; Nabat, Pierre; Wild, Martin; Cole, Jason N. S.; Takemura, Toshihiko; Oshima, Naga; Bauer, Susanne E.; Gastineau, Guillaume

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-16023-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 24

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-16023-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-16023-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 24

Research article

|

22 Dec 2020

Research article |

| 22 Dec 2020

Bias in CMIP6 models as compared to observed regional dimming and brightening

Kine Onsum Moseid, Michael Schulz, Trude Storelvmo, Ingeborg Rian Julsrud, Dirk Olivié, Pierre Nabat, Martin Wild, Jason N. S. Cole, Toshihiko Takemura, Naga Oshima, Susanne E. Bauer, and Guillaume Gastineau

Data sets

Gap filled GEBA data T. Storelvmo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4382033

CRU TS v4.02 cloud cover data University og East Anglia https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/hrg/

Model code and software

CMIP6 project data WCRP https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/search/cmip6/

Short summary

In this study we compare solar radiation at the surface from observations and Earth system models from 1961 to 2014. We find that the models do not reproduce the so-called global dimming as found in observations. Only model experiments with anthropogenic aerosol emissions display any dimming at all. The discrepancies between observations and models are largest in China, which we suggest is in part due to erroneous aerosol precursor emission inventories in the emission dataset used for CMIP6.