Top-of-atmosphere radiative contribution to unforced decadal global temperature variability in climate models
Abstract
Much recent work has focused on unforced global mean surface air temperature (T) variability
associated with the efficiency of heat transport into the deep ocean. Here the relationship
between unforced variability in T and the Earth's top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy balance
is explored in preindustrial control runs of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
Phase 5 multimodel ensemble. It is found that large decadal scale variations in T
tend to be significantly enhanced by the net energy flux at the TOA. This indicates
that unforced decadal variability in T is not only caused by a redistribution of heat
within the climate system but can also be associated with unforced changes in the
total amount of heat in the climate system. It is found that the net TOA radiation
imbalances result mostly from changes in albedo associated with the Interdecadal Pacific
Oscillation that temporarily counteracts the climate system's outgoing longwave (i.e.,
Stefan-Boltzmann) response to T change. © 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights
Reserved.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9167Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1002/2014GL060625Publication Info
Brown, PT; Li, W; Li, L; & Ming, Y (2014). Top-of-atmosphere radiative contribution to unforced decadal global temperature variability
in climate models. Geophysical Research Letters, 41(14). pp. 5175-5183. 10.1002/2014GL060625. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9167.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Wenhong Li
Associate Professor of Climate
Dr. Li's research interests focus primarily on climate dynamics, land-atmosphere interaction,
hydroclimatology, and climate modeling. Her current research is to understand how
the hydrological cycle changes in the current and future climate and their impacts
on the ecosystems, subtropical high variability and change, unforced global temperature variability,
and climate and health issues.

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