Cloud Feedbacks, Rapid Adjustments, and the Forcing–Response Relationship in a Transient CO2 Reversibility Scenario

Abstract The Hadley Centre Global Environment Model, version 2–Earth System (HadGEM2-ES) climate model is forced by a 1% yr−1 compound increase in atmospheric CO2 for 140 years, followed by a 1% yr−1 CO2 decrease back to the starting level. Analogous atmosphere-only simulations are performed to diagnose the component of change associated with the effective radiative forcing and rapid adjustments. The residual change is associated with radiative feedbacks that are shown to be linearly related to changes in global-mean surface air temperature and are found to be reversible under this experimental design, even for regional cloud feedback changes. The cloud adjustment is related to changes in cloud amount, with little indication of any large-scale changes in cloud optical depth. Plant physiological forcing plays a significant role in determining the cloud adjustment in this model and is the dominant contribution to the low-level cloud changes over land. Low-level cloud adjustments are associated with changes in surface turbulent fluxes and lower tropospheric stability, with significant adjustments in boundary layer cloud types and in the depth of the boundary layer itself. The linearity of simple forcing–response frameworks are examined and found to be generally applicable. Small regional departures from linearity occur during the early part of the ramp-down phase, where the Southern Ocean and eastern tropical Pacific continue to warm for a few decades, despite the reversal in radiative forcing and global temperatures. The importance of considering time-varying patterns of warming and regional phenomena when diagnosing and understanding feedbacks in a coupled atmosphere–ocean framework is highlighted.