Contributions of High-Latitude Feedbacks to Climate Model Sensitivity

Climate sensitivity, which is commonly defined as the equilibrium change in global mean surface temperature following a unit change in radiative forcing, is determined by climate system feedbacks. Many of these feedbacks involve high-latitude climate processes. An offline radiative transfer model is used to quantify the feedbacks operating in recent climate model versions developed at GFDL. Results from this radiative feedback analysis are analyzed to determine the contribution of high-latitude processes to the climate sensitivities of these models.