Climate Change: Greenhouse Gas Pace May Be Why Warming Hasn't Kept Up
Monday, September 30, 2013 - 15:20
in Earth & Climate
Most research has focused on the amount of global warming resulting from increased greenhouse gas concentrations but there has been relatively little study of the pace of the change following these increases. A new paper concludes that about half of the warming occurs within the first 10 years after an instantaneous step increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, but about one-quarter of the warming occurs more than a century after the step increase. The authors used results from the majority of the world's leading climate models - over 50 climate simulations, which were performed using 20 different climate models for the Climate Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5 (CMIP5). read more