Origins of climate model discrepancies in atmospheric shortwave absorption and global precipitation changes

Fildier, Benjamin and Collins, William D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4463-9848 (2015) Origins of climate model discrepancies in atmospheric shortwave absorption and global precipitation changes. Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (20). pp. 8749-8757. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Projected increases in mean precipitation are constrained by the atmospheric energy budget through radiative-convective equilibrium. However, significant differences persist between climate models on the rate of increase in precipitation per unit warming, mostly arising from the clear-sky radiative response. While the intermodel spread in clear-sky longwave cooling has been explained by climate feedbacks, the sources of spread in clear-sky shortwave heating are still unclear. This article focuses on the latter. Since water vapor contributes most of the atmospheric shortwave absorption, both intermodel differences in its spatial distribution and in radiative transfer parameterizations are plausible hypotheses for the spread. This work reestablishes the primary contribution from water vapor relative to other shortwave-absorbing species and evaluates the validity of both hypotheses. It is found that the intermodel spread in shortwave absorption change most likely originates from the radiation schemes, possibly because of simplifications induced by their low spectral resolutions.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: © 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	atmospheric shortwave absorption,general circulation models,global water cycle,radiative transfer parameterizations,geophysics,general earth and planetary sciences,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	06 Jul 2026 14:26
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2026 23:03
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103651
DOI:	10.1002/2015GL065931

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