Authors: Chris M Brierley Matthew Collins Alan J Thorpe
Publish Date: 2008/11/11
Volume: 34, Issue: 2-3, Pages: 325-343
Abstract
Assessments of the impacts of uncertainties in parameters on mean climate and climate change in complex climate models have to date largely focussed on perturbations to parameters in the atmosphere component of the model Here we expand on a previously published study which found the global impacts of perturbed ocean parameters on the rate of transient climate change to be small compared to perturbed atmosphere parameters By separating the climatechangeinduced ocean vertical heat transport in each perturbed member into components associated with the resolved flow and each parameterisation scheme we show that variations in global mean heat uptake in different perturbed versions are an order of magnitude smaller than the average heat uptake The lack of impact of the perturbations is attributed to 1 the relatively small impact of the perturbation on the direct vertical heat transport associated with the perturbed process and 2 a compensation between those direct changes and indirect changes in heat transport from other processes Interactions between processes and changes appear to combine in complex ways to limit ensemble spread and uncertainty in the rate of warming We also investigate regional impacts of the perturbations that may be important for climate change predictions We find variations across the ensemble that are significant when measured against natural variability In terms of the experimental setup used here models without flux adjustments we conclude that perturbed physics ensembles with ocean parameter perturbations are an important component of any probabilistic estimate of future climate change despite the low spread in global mean quantities Hence careful consideration should be given to assessing uncertainty in ocean processes in future probabilistic assessments of regional climate change
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