Quantifying the feedback between ocean heating and CO2 solubility as an equivalent carbon emission

Goodwin, Philip and Lenton, Timothy M. (2009) Quantifying the feedback between ocean heating and CO2 solubility as an equivalent carbon emission. Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (15). ISSN 1944-8007

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Abstract

There are inherent difficulties in quantifying carbon cycle-climate feedbacks over the 21st century because the system is in a transient state. The conventional approach of deriving gain factors only strictly applies at equilibrium, and they differ with scenario and with respect to different climate variables (e.g., CO2, radiative forcing, and temperature) which have different time lags. Here we show that the positive feedback whereby ocean heating reduces the solubility of CO2 can be quantified in a. scenario-independent way, directly from ocean heat content changes, by expressing it as an 'equivalent carbon emission'. On annual to centennial timescales, the feedback has the same impact on atmospheric CO2 as an equivalent emission flux of fossil fuel carbon. From ocean heat-content data we quantify the ocean heating-CO2 solubility positive feedback, which increased in average strength from an equivalent emission of ~0.08 PgC yr-I oyer 1961-2003 to ~0.19 PgC yr-1 during 1993-2003.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User: Rosie Cullington
Date Deposited: 23 Feb 2011 09:21
Last Modified: 24 Oct 2022 00:16
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/24322
DOI: 10.1029/2009GL039247

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