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Revision as of 17:34, 14 June 2024 editEfbrazil (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,058 edits Definition and terminology: Attempting to synthesize the talk page discussion on whether the Planck response is a feedback into the definition section.Tag: Reverted← Previous edit Latest revision as of 19:35, 15 December 2024 edit undoJCW-CleanerBot (talk | contribs)Bots130,177 editsm taskTag: AWB 
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{{short description|Feedback related to climate change}} {{short description|Feedback related to climate change}}
{{redirect|Climate feedback|the fact-checking website|Climate Feedback}} {{redirect|Climate feedback|the fact-checking website|Climate Feedback}}
]s which amplify the global warming response to ] and ]s which reduce it. This diagram shows the relative magnitude of the top 6 feedbacks and what they influence.<ref>{{cite web |title=(a) Feedbacks in the climate system / (b) Carbon-cycle climate feedbacks |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/figures/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS_Figure_17.png |website=IPCC.ch |publisher=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502124530/https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/figures/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS_Figure_17.png |archive-date=2 May 2024 |date=November 2022 |url-status=live}} AR6 WG1 Technical Summary Fig. TS-17.</ref>]] ]s amplify the global warming response to ] and ]s reduce it.<ref>{{cite web |title=(a) Feedbacks in the climate system / (b) Carbon-cycle climate feedbacks |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/figures/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS_Figure_17.png |website=IPCC.ch |publisher=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502124530/https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/figures/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS_Figure_17.png |archive-date=2 May 2024 |date=November 2022 |url-status=live}} AR6 WG1 Technical Summary Fig. TS-17.</ref> In this chart, the horizontal lengths of the red and blue bars indicate the strength of respective feedbacks.]]


'''Climate change feedbacks''' are natural processes which impact how much global temperatures will increase for a given amount of ]. ]s amplify global warming while ]s diminish it.<ref name="AR6_WG1_Glossary">IPCC, 2021: . In . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, ].</ref>{{rp|2233}} Feedbacks influence both the amount of ] in the atmosphere and the amount of ]. While emissions are the ] that causes climate change, feedbacks combine to control ] to that forcing.<ref name="AR6 WG1 SPM">{{Cite book |author=IPCC |title=The Physical Science Basis |year=2021 |isbn=978-92-9169-158-6 |series=Contribution of Working Group I to the ] of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |page=40 |chapter=Summary for Policymakers |author-link=IPCC |chapter-url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM_final.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|11}} '''Climate change feedbacks''' are natural processes that impact how much global temperatures will increase for a given amount of ]. ]s amplify global warming while ]s diminish it.<ref name="AR6_WG1_Glossary">IPCC, 2021: . In . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, ].</ref>{{rp|2233}} Feedbacks influence both the amount of ] in the atmosphere and the amount of ]. While emissions are the ] that causes climate change, feedbacks combine to control ] to that forcing.<ref name="AR6 WG1 SPM">{{Cite book |author=IPCC |title=The Physical Science Basis |year=2021 |isbn=978-92-9169-158-6 |series=Contribution of Working Group I to the ] of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |page=40 |chapter=Summary for Policymakers |author-link=IPCC |chapter-url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM_final.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|11}}


While the overall sum of feedbacks is negative, it is becoming less negative as ] continue. This means that warming is slower than it would be in the absence of feedbacks, but that warming will accelerate if emissions continue at current levels.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95-96}} Net feedbacks will stay negative largely because of ], which is an effect that is several times larger than any other singular feedback.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|96}} Accordingly, anthropogenic climate change alone cannot cause a ].<ref name="Kang2023">{{Cite journal |last1=Kang |first1=Sarah M. |last2=Ceppi |first2=Paulo |last3=Yu |first3=Yue |last4=Kang |first4=In-Sik |date=24 August 2023 |title=Recent global climate feedback controlled by Southern Ocean cooling |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=16 |issue=9 |pages=775–780 |doi=10.1038/s41561-023-01256-6 |bibcode=2023NatGe..16..775K |quote="Net climate feedback is negative as the climate system acts to counteract the forcing; otherwise, the system would be unstable." |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="IPCC2009">{{cite report |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/inf3-6.pdf |title=Scoping of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report Cross Cutting Issues |work=Thirty-first Session of the IPCC Bali, 26–29 October 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109215503/http://www.ipcc.ch/meetings/session31/inf3.pdf |archive-date=9 November 2009 |access-date=24 March 2019 |quote="For instance, a "runaway greenhouse effect"—analogous to Venus--appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities." }}</ref> While the overall sum of feedbacks is negative, it is becoming less negative as ] continue. This means that warming is slower than it would be in the absence of feedbacks, but that warming will accelerate if emissions continue at current levels.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95–96}} Net feedbacks will stay negative largely because of ], which is an effect that is several times larger than any other singular feedback.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|96}} Accordingly, anthropogenic climate change alone cannot cause a ].<ref name="Kang2023">{{Cite journal |last1=Kang |first1=Sarah M. |last2=Ceppi |first2=Paulo |last3=Yu |first3=Yue |last4=Kang |first4=In-Sik |date=24 August 2023 |title=Recent global climate feedback controlled by Southern Ocean cooling |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=16 |issue=9 |pages=775–780 |doi=10.1038/s41561-023-01256-6 |bibcode=2023NatGe..16..775K |quote="Net climate feedback is negative as the climate system acts to counteract the forcing; otherwise, the system would be unstable." |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="IPCC2009">{{cite report |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/inf3-6.pdf |title=Scoping of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report Cross Cutting Issues |work=Thirty-first Session of the IPCC Bali, 26–29 October 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091109215503/http://www.ipcc.ch/meetings/session31/inf3.pdf |archive-date=9 November 2009 |access-date=24 March 2019 |quote="For instance, a "runaway greenhouse effect"—analogous to Venus--appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities." }}</ref>


Feedbacks can be divided into physical feedbacks and partially biological feedbacks. Physical feedbacks include increased ] from evaporation, altered ] distribution, decreased ] as snow and ice cover diminishes, and an amplification of the ]. Biological feedbacks are mostly associated with changes to the rate at which plant matter accumulates {{CO2}} as part of the ].<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|967}} The carbon cycle absorbs more than half of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions every year ] and into the ocean.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|676}} Over the long term the percentage will be reduced as ] become saturated and higher temperatures lead to effects like ] and ]s.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|698}}<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|96}}<ref name="AR6 WG1 SPM" />{{rp|20}} Feedbacks can be divided into physical feedbacks and partially biological feedbacks. Physical feedbacks include decreased ] (from diminished snow and ice cover) and increased water vapor in the atmosphere. ] is not only a powerful greenhouse gas, it also influences feedbacks in the distribution of ] and ]. Biological feedbacks are mostly associated with changes to the rate at which plant matter accumulates {{CO2}} as part of the ].<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|967}} The carbon cycle absorbs more than half of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions every year ] and into the ocean.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|676}} Over the long term the percentage will be reduced as ]s become saturated and higher temperatures lead to effects like ] and ]s.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|698}}<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|96}}<ref name="AR6 WG1 SPM" />{{rp|20}}


Feedback strengths and relationships are estimated through global ]s, with their estimates calibrated against observational data whenever possible.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS">{{Cite report |last1=Arias |first1=Paola A. |last2=Bellouin |first2=Nicolas |last3=Coppola |first3=Erika |last4=Jones |first4=Richard G. |last5=Krinner |first5=Gerhard |year=2021 |title=Technical Summary |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=35–144 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220721021347/https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2022 }}</ref>{{rp|967}} Some feedbacks rapidly impact climate sensitivity, while the feedback response from ]s is drawn out over several centuries.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7">{{Cite report |last1=Forster |first1=P. |last2=Storelvmo |first2=T. |last3=Armour |first3=K. |last4=Collins |first4=W. |last5=Dufresne |first5=J.-L. |last6=Frame |first6=D. |last7=Lunt |first7=D.J. |last8=Mauritsen |first8=T. |last9=Watanabe |first9=M. |last10=Wild |first10=M. |last11=Zhang |first11=H. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 7: The Earth's Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter07.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=923–1054 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 }}</ref>{{rp|967}} Feedbacks can also result in localized differences, such as ] resulting from feedbacks that include reduced snow and ice cover. While basic relationships are well understood, feedback uncertainty exists in certain areas, particularly regarding cloud feedbacks.<ref name="Zelinka2020" /><ref name="SD2020" /> Carbon cycle uncertainty is driven by the large rates at which {{CO2}} is both absorbed into plants and released when biomass burns or decays. For instance, ] thaw produces both {{CO2}} and ] emissions in ways that are difficult to model.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|677}} ]s use models to estimate how Earth will respond to greenhouse gas emissions over time, including how feedbacks will change as the planet warms.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://climatefeedback.org/claimreview/2c-not-known-point-of-no-return-as-jonathan-franzen-claims-new-yorker/ |title=2°C is not known to be a "point of no return", as Jonathan Franzen claims |work=Climate Feedback |author= |date=September 17, 2019 |accessdate=January 20, 2023}}</ref> Feedback strengths and relationships are estimated through global ]s, with their estimates calibrated against observational data whenever possible.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS">{{Cite report |last1=Arias |first1=Paola A. |last2=Bellouin |first2=Nicolas |last3=Coppola |first3=Erika |last4=Jones |first4=Richard G. |last5=Krinner |first5=Gerhard |year=2021 |title=Technical Summary |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=35–144 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220721021347/https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_TS.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2022 }}</ref>{{rp|967}} Some feedbacks rapidly impact climate sensitivity, while the feedback response from ]s is drawn out over several centuries.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7">{{Cite report |last1=Forster |first1=P. |last2=Storelvmo |first2=T. |last3=Armour |first3=K. |last4=Collins |first4=W. |last5=Dufresne |first5=J.-L. |last6=Frame |first6=D. |last7=Lunt |first7=D.J. |last8=Mauritsen |first8=T. |last9=Watanabe |first9=M. |last10=Wild |first10=M. |last11=Zhang |first11=H. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 7: The Earth's Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter07.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=923–1054 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 }}</ref>{{rp|967}} Feedbacks can also result in localized differences, such as ] resulting from feedbacks that include reduced snow and ice cover. While basic relationships are well understood, feedback uncertainty exists in certain areas, particularly regarding cloud feedbacks.<ref name="Zelinka2020" /><ref name="SD2020" /> Carbon cycle uncertainty is driven by the large rates at which {{CO2}} is both absorbed into plants and released when biomass burns or decays. For instance, ] thaw produces both {{CO2}} and ] emissions in ways that are difficult to model.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|677}} ]s use models to estimate how Earth will respond to greenhouse gas emissions over time, including how feedbacks will change as the planet warms.<ref name="CF2019">{{cite web |url=https://science.feedback.org/review/2c-not-known-point-of-no-return-as-jonathan-franzen-claims-new-yorker/ |title=2°C is not known to be a "point of no return", as Jonathan Franzen claims |author=Scott Johnson |website=Science Feedback |publisher=Climate Feedback |date=September 17, 2019 |accessdate=September 16, 2024}}</ref>


== Definition and terminology == == Definition and terminology ==
{{See also|Climate system|positive feedback|negative feedback}} {{See also|Climate system|positive feedback|negative feedback}}


Climate change feedbacks are only sometimes defined to include the ], which defines how much more thermal radiation warmer objects emit. The Planck response is included when calculating the net feedback parameter that determines ]. However, it can also be excluded in the context of ] as it is considered to be an intrinsic aspect of warming rather than a response to it. To be precise it is best to qualify climate change feedbacks as net feedbacks or to speak of net feedback categories, which are the Planck response, radiative feedbacks, and carbon cycle feedbacks.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95-96}} The ] is the additional ] objects emit as they get warmer. Whether Planck response is a climate change feedback depends on the context. In ] the Planck response can be treated as an intrinsic part of warming that is separate from ] feedbacks and ] feedbacks. However, the Planck response is included when calculating ].<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95–96}}


A feedback that ''amplifies'' an initial warming is called a '']''.<ref name="NASA_IntegratedSystem">{{cite web |title=The Study of Earth as an Integrated System |url=https://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_science/science/ |website=nasa.gov |publisher=NASA |date=2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102022200/https://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_science/science/ |archive-date=November 2, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> On the other hand, a feedback that ''reduces'' an initial warming is called a '']''.<ref name="NASA_IntegratedSystem" /> Naming a feedback ''positive'' or ''negative'' does not imply that the feedback is good or bad.<ref name="NOAA_StudentOutreach">{{cite web |title=Climate change and feedback loops |url=https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/PSA_analyzing_a_feedback_mechanism.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725160643/https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/PSA_analyzing_a_feedback_mechanism.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2023 |publisher=National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)}}</ref> A feedback that ''amplifies'' an initial change is called a '']''<ref name="NASA_IntegratedSystem">{{cite web |title=The Study of Earth as an Integrated System |url=https://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_science/science/ |website=nasa.gov |publisher=NASA |date=2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102022200/https://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_science/science/ |archive-date=November 2, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> while a feedback that ''reduces'' an initial change is called a '']''.<ref name="NASA_IntegratedSystem" /> Climate change feedbacks are in the context of global warming, so positive feedbacks enhance warming and negative feedbacks diminish it. Naming a feedback ''positive'' or ''negative'' does not imply that the feedback is good or bad.<ref name="NOAA_StudentOutreach">{{cite web |title=Climate change and feedback loops |url=https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/PSA_analyzing_a_feedback_mechanism.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230725160643/https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/PSA_analyzing_a_feedback_mechanism.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2023 |publisher=National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)}}</ref>


A 2021 ] glossary defines a positive feedback as one in which an ''initial ]'' is enhanced, and a negative feedback as one in which the initial perturbation is weakened by the changes it causes.<ref name="AR_WG1_Glossary">IPCC, 2021: . In . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, ].</ref>{{rp|2222}} The glossary explains that the initial perturbation may be ], or may arise through the ]'s ].<ref name="AR_WG1_Glossary"/>{{rp|2222}} The initial change that triggers a feedback may be ], or may arise through the ]'s ].<ref name="AR6_WG1_Glossary">IPCC, 2021: . In . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, ].</ref>{{rp|2222}} ''External forcing'' refers to "a forcing agent outside the climate system causing a change in the climate system"<ref name="AR6_WG1_Glossary"/>{{rp|2229}} that may push the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling.<ref>{{citation |author=US NRC |title=Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices / How much are human activities heating Earth |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/98458016/Climate-Change-Lines-of-Evidence |year=2012 |publisher=US National Research Council (US NRC)}}, p.9. Also available as {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130220184517/http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/files/2012/06/19014_cvtx_R1.pdf|date=2013-02-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lacis |first=Andrew |date=October 2010 |title={{CO2}}: The Thermostat that Controls Earth's Temperature |url=http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/lacis_01/ |url-status=dead |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020041139/http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/lacis_01/ |archive-date=20 October 2010 }}</ref> External forcings may be human-caused (for example, ] or ]) or natural (for example, ]).<ref name="AR6_WG1_Glossary"/>{{rp|2229}}

Here, ''external forcing'' refers to "a forcing agent outside the climate system causing a change in the climate system"<ref name="AR_WG1_Glossary" />{{rp|2229}} that may push the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling.<ref>{{citation |author=US NRC |title=Climate Change: Evidence, Impacts, and Choices / How much are human activities heating Earth |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/98458016/Climate-Change-Lines-of-Evidence |year=2012 |publisher=US National Research Council (US NRC)}}, p.9. Also available as {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130220184517/http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/files/2012/06/19014_cvtx_R1.pdf|date=2013-02-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lacis |first=Andrew |date=October 2010 |title={{CO2}}: The Thermostat that Controls Earth's Temperature |url=http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/lacis_01/ |url-status=dead |publisher=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020041139/http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/lacis_01/ |archive-date=20 October 2010 }}</ref> External forcings may be human-caused (for example, ] or ]) or natural (for example, ]).<ref name="AR_WG1_Glossary" />{{rp|2229}}


== Physical feedbacks == == Physical feedbacks ==
=== Planck response (negative) === === Planck response (negative) ===
] absorbed by different parts of the Earth's environment currently exceeds the amount radiated away to space.<ref name="vonSchuckmann2021">{{cite journal |last1=von Schuckmann |first1=Karina |last2=Minière |first2=Audrey. |last3=Gues |first3=Flora |last4=Cuesta-Valero |first4=Francisco José |last5=Kirchengast |first5=Gottfried |last6=Adusumilli |first6=Susheel |last7=Straneo |first7=Flammetta |last8=Ablain |first8=Michaël |last9=Allen |first9=Richard P. |last10=Barker |first10=Paul M. |display-authors=7 |title=Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go? |journal=Earth System Science Data |date=17 April 2023 |doi=10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023 |doi-access=free |url=https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/1675/2023/essd-15-1675-2023.html |volume=15 |issue=4 |page=1675-1709 ] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a |hdl=20.500.11850/619535 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> As the warming increases, outgoing radiation to space increases quickly due to the Planck response, which eventually helps to stabilize the Earth at some higher temperature level<ref name="YangUT" />]] ] absorbed by different parts of the Earth's environment currently exceeds the amount radiated away to space.<ref name="vonSchuckmann2021">{{cite journal |last1=von Schuckmann |first1=Karina |last2=Minière |first2=Audrey. |last3=Gues |first3=Flora |last4=Cuesta-Valero |first4=Francisco José |last5=Kirchengast |first5=Gottfried |last6=Adusumilli |first6=Susheel |last7=Straneo |first7=Flammetta |last8=Ablain |first8=Michaël |last9=Allen |first9=Richard P. |last10=Barker |first10=Paul M. |display-authors=7 |title=Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go? |journal=Earth System Science Data |date=17 April 2023 |doi=10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023 |doi-access=free |url=https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/1675/2023/essd-15-1675-2023.html |volume=15 |issue=4 |page=1675-1709 ] Material was copied from this source, which is available under a |hdl=20.500.11850/619535 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> As the warming increases, outgoing radiation to space increases quickly due to the Planck response, which eventually helps to stabilize the Earth at some higher temperature level<ref name="YangUT" />]]
Planck response is "the most fundamental feedback in the climate system".<ref name="NRC2003" />{{rp|19}} As the temperature of a ] increases, the emission of infrared radiation increases with the fourth power of its ] according to the ]. This increases the amount of ] back into space as the Earth warms.<ref name="YangUT">{{Cite web |last=Yang |first=Zong-Liang |title=Chapter 2: The global energy balance |url=http://www.geo.utexas.edu/courses/387H/Lectures/chap2.pdf |access-date=2010-02-15 |publisher=University of Texas}}</ref> It is a strong stabilizing response and has sometimes been called the "no-feedback response" because it is an ] of a thermodynamic system when considered to be purely a function of temperature.<ref name="Cronin2023">{{cite journal |last1=Cronin |first1=Timothy W. |last2=Dutta |first2=Ishir |date=17 July 2023 |title=How Well Do We Understand the Planck Feedback |journal=Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |volume=15 |issue=7 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1029/2023MS003729 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2023JAMES..1503729C }} </ref> Although Earth has an effective ] less than unity, the ideal black body radiation emerges as a separable quantity when investigating perturbations to the planet's outgoing radiation. Planck response is "the most fundamental feedback in the climate system".<ref name="NRC2003" />{{rp|19}} As the temperature of a ] increases, the emission of infrared radiation increases with the fourth power of its ] according to the ]. This increases the amount of ] back into space as the Earth warms.<ref name="YangUT">{{Cite web |last=Yang |first=Zong-Liang |title=Chapter 2: The global energy balance |url=http://www.geo.utexas.edu/courses/387H/Lectures/chap2.pdf |access-date=2010-02-15 |publisher=University of Texas}}</ref> It is a strong stabilizing response and has sometimes been called the "no-feedback response" because it is an ] of a thermodynamic system when considered to be purely a function of temperature.<ref name="Cronin2023">{{cite journal |last1=Cronin |first1=Timothy W. |last2=Dutta |first2=Ishir |date=17 July 2023 |title=How Well Do We Understand the Planck Feedback |journal=Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |volume=15 |issue=7 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1029/2023MS003729 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2023JAMES..1503729C }}</ref> Although Earth has an effective ] less than unity, the ideal black body radiation emerges as a separable quantity when investigating perturbations to the planet's outgoing radiation.


The Planck "feedback" or ] is the comparable radiative response obtained from analysis of practical observations or ]s (GCMs). Its expected strength has been most simply estimated from the derivative of the ] as -4σT<sup>3</sup> = -3.8&nbsp;W/m<sup>2</sup>/K (watts per square meter per degree of warming).<ref name="YangUT" /><ref name="Cronin2023" /> Accounting from GCM applications has sometimes yielded a reduced strength, as caused by ] of the stratosphere and similar ] subsequently identified as being absent from such models.<ref name="Cronin2023" /> The Planck "feedback" or ] is the comparable radiative response obtained from analysis of practical observations or ]s (GCMs). Its expected strength has been most simply estimated from the derivative of the ] as -4σT<sup>3</sup> = -3.8&nbsp;W/m<sup>2</sup>/K (watts per square meter per degree of warming).<ref name="YangUT" /><ref name="Cronin2023" /> Accounting from GCM applications has sometimes yielded a reduced strength, as caused by ] of the stratosphere and similar ] subsequently identified as being absent from such models.<ref name="Cronin2023" />
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=== Water vapor feedback (positive) === === Water vapor feedback (positive) ===
] ]
According to ], ] is higher in a warmer atmosphere, and so the absolute amount of water vapor will increase as the atmosphere warms. It is sometimes also called the ''specific humidity'' feedback,<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7">{{Cite report |last1=Forster |first1=P. |last2=Storelvmo |first2=T. |last3=Armour |first3=K. |last4=Collins |first4=W. |last5=Dufresne |first5=J.-L. |last6=Frame |first6=D. |last7=Lunt |first7=D.J. |last8=Mauritsen |first8=T. |last9=Watanabe |first9=M. |last10=Wild |first10=M. |last11=Zhang |first11=H. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 7: The Earth's Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter07.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=923–1054 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 }}</ref>{{rp|969}} because ] (RH) stays practically constant over the oceans, but it decreases over land.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Byrne |first1=Michael P. |last2=O’Gorman |first2=Paul A. |date=23 April 2018 |title=Trends in continental temperature and humidity directly linked to ocean warming |journal=] |volume=115 |issue=19 |pages=4863-4868 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1722312115 |doi-access=free|pmc=5948989 }}</ref> This occurs because land experiences faster warming than the ocean, and a decline in RH has been observed after the year 2000.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|86}} According to ], ] is higher in a warmer atmosphere, and so the absolute amount of water vapor will increase as the atmosphere warms. It is sometimes also called the ''specific humidity'' feedback,<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7">{{Cite report |last1=Forster |first1=P. |last2=Storelvmo |first2=T. |last3=Armour |first3=K. |last4=Collins |first4=W. |last5=Dufresne |first5=J.-L. |last6=Frame |first6=D. |last7=Lunt |first7=D.J. |last8=Mauritsen |first8=T. |last9=Watanabe |first9=M. |last10=Wild |first10=M. |last11=Zhang |first11=H. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 7: The Earth's Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter07.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=923–1054 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.009 }}</ref>{{rp|969}} because ] (RH) stays practically constant over the oceans, but it decreases over land.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Byrne |first1=Michael P. |last2=O’Gorman |first2=Paul A. |date=23 April 2018 |title=Trends in continental temperature and humidity directly linked to ocean warming |journal=] |volume=115 |issue=19 |pages=4863–4868 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1722312115 |doi-access=free|pmc=5948989 }}</ref> This occurs because land experiences faster warming than the ocean, and a decline in RH has been observed after the year 2000.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|86}}


Since water vapor is a ], the increase in water vapor content makes the atmosphere warm further, which allows the atmosphere to hold still more water vapor. Thus, a positive feedback loop is formed, which continues until the negative feedbacks bring the system to equilibrium.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|969}} Increases in atmospheric water vapor have been detected from ]s, and calculations based on these observations place this feedback strength at 1.85 ± 0.32 m<sup>2</sup>/K. This is very similar to model estimates, which are at 1.77 ± 0.20 m<sup>2</sup>/K<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|969}} Either value effectively doubles the warming that would otherwise occur from CO<sub>2</sub> increases alone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Science Magazine February 19, 2009 |url=http://geotest.tamu.edu/userfiles/216/dessler09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714153743/http://geotest.tamu.edu/userfiles/216/dessler09.pdf |archive-date=2010-07-14 |access-date=2010-09-02}}</ref> Like with the other physical feedbacks, this is already accounted for in the warming projections under ]s.<ref name="CF2019">{{cite web |url=https://climatefeedback.org/claimreview/2c-not-known-point-of-no-return-as-jonathan-franzen-claims-new-yorker/ |title=2°C is not known to be a "point of no return", as Jonathan Franzen claims |work=Climate Feedback |author= |date=September 17, 2019 |accessdate=January 20, 2023}}</ref> Since water vapor is a ], the increase in water vapor content makes the atmosphere warm further, which allows the atmosphere to hold still more water vapor. Thus, a positive feedback loop is formed, which continues until the negative feedbacks bring the system to equilibrium.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|969}} Increases in atmospheric water vapor have been detected from ]s, and calculations based on these observations place this feedback strength at 1.85 ± 0.32 m<sup>2</sup>/K. This is very similar to model estimates, which are at 1.77 ± 0.20 m<sup>2</sup>/K<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|969}} Either value effectively doubles the warming that would otherwise occur from CO<sub>2</sub> increases alone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Science Magazine February 19, 2009 |url=http://geotest.tamu.edu/userfiles/216/dessler09.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714153743/http://geotest.tamu.edu/userfiles/216/dessler09.pdf |archive-date=2010-07-14 |access-date=2010-09-02}}</ref> Like with the other physical feedbacks, this is already accounted for in the warming projections under ]s.<ref name="CF2019" />


=== Lapse rate (negative) === === Lapse rate (negative) ===
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]s. The net climate feedback (black) becomes less negative if it were excluded (orange)<ref name="Bonan2024">{{cite journal |last1=Bonan |first1=David B. |last2=Feldl |first2=Nicole |last3=Siler |first3=Nicholas |last4=Kay |first4=Jennifer E. |last5=Armour |first5=Kyle C. |last6=Eisenman |first6=Ian |last7=Roe |first7=Gerard H. |date=8 February 2024 |title= ]s. The net climate feedback (black) becomes less negative if it were excluded (orange)<ref name="Bonan2024">{{cite journal |last1=Bonan |first1=David B. |last2=Feldl |first2=Nicole |last3=Siler |first3=Nicholas |last4=Kay |first4=Jennifer E. |last5=Armour |first5=Kyle C. |last6=Eisenman |first6=Ian |last7=Roe |first7=Gerard H. |date=8 February 2024 |title=
The Influence of Climate Feedbacks on Regional Hydrological Changes Under Global Warming |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=e2023GL106648 |doi=10.1029/2023GL106648 }}</ref> ]] The Influence of Climate Feedbacks on Regional Hydrological Changes Under Global Warming |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=e2023GL106648 |doi=10.1029/2023GL106648 }}</ref> ]]
The ''lapse rate'' is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally ] in ], falls with ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Mark Zachary |title=Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling |publisher=] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-83970-9 |edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ahrens |first=C. Donald |title=Meteorology Today |publisher=Brooks/Cole Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-495-01162-0 |edition=8th}}</ref> It is therefore a quantification of temperature, related to radiation, as a function of altitude, and is not a separate phenomenon in this context. The lapse rate feedback is generally a negative feedback. However, it is in fact a positive feedback in polar regions where it strongly contributed to polar amplified warming, one of the biggest consequences of climate change.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction to climate dynamics and climate modelling - Water vapour and lapse rate feedbacks |url=http://www.climate.be/textbook/chapter4_node7.html |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=www.climate.be}}</ref> This is because in regions with strong ], such as the polar regions, the lapse rate feedback can be positive because the surface warms faster than higher altitudes, resulting in inefficient ].<ref name="Armour2013" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goosse |first1=Hugues |last2=Kay |first2=Jennifer E. |last3=Armour |first3=Kyle C. |last4=Bodas-Salcedo |first4=Alejandro |last5=Chepfer |first5=Helene |last6=Docquier |first6=David |last7=Jonko |first7=Alexandra |last8=Kushner |first8=Paul J. |last9=Lecomte |first9=Olivier |last10=Massonnet |first10=François |last11=Park |first11=Hyo-Seok |last12=Pithan |first12=Felix |last13=Svensson |first13=Gunilla |last14=Vancoppenolle |first14=Martin |date=15 May 2018 |title=Quantifying climate feedbacks in polar regions |journal=Nature Communications |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=1919 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.1919G |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-04173-0 |pmc=5953926 |pmid=29765038 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hahn |first1=L. C. |last2=Armour |first2=K. C. |last3=Battisti |first3=D. S. |last4=Donohoe |first4=A. |last5=Pauling |first5=A. G. |last6=Bitz |first6=C. M. |date=28 August 2020 |title=Antarctic Elevation Drives Hemispheric Asymmetry in Polar Lapse Rate Climatology and Feedback |url=http://eartharxiv.org/6fbjk/ |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=47 |issue=16 |pages=e88965 |bibcode=2020GeoRL..4788965H |doi=10.1029/2020GL088965 |s2cid=225410590|doi-access=free }}</ref> The ''lapse rate'' is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally ] in ], falls with ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Mark Zachary |title=Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling |publisher=] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-83970-9 |edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ahrens |first=C. Donald |title=Meteorology Today |publisher=Brooks/Cole Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-495-01162-0 |edition=8th}}</ref> It is therefore a quantification of temperature, related to radiation, as a function of altitude, and is not a separate phenomenon in this context. The lapse rate feedback is generally a negative feedback. However, it is in fact a positive feedback in polar regions where it strongly contributed to polar amplified warming, one of the biggest consequences of climate change.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction to climate dynamics and climate modelling - Water vapour and lapse rate feedbacks |url=http://www.climate.be/textbook/chapter4_node7.html |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=www.climate.be}}</ref> This is because in regions with strong ], such as the polar regions, the lapse rate feedback can be positive because the surface warms faster than higher altitudes, resulting in inefficient ].<ref name="Armour2013" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goosse |first1=Hugues |last2=Kay |first2=Jennifer E. |last3=Armour |first3=Kyle C. |last4=Bodas-Salcedo |first4=Alejandro |last5=Chepfer |first5=Helene |last6=Docquier |first6=David |last7=Jonko |first7=Alexandra |last8=Kushner |first8=Paul J. |last9=Lecomte |first9=Olivier |last10=Massonnet |first10=François |last11=Park |first11=Hyo-Seok |last12=Pithan |first12=Felix |last13=Svensson |first13=Gunilla |last14=Vancoppenolle |first14=Martin |date=15 May 2018 |title=Quantifying climate feedbacks in polar regions |journal=Nature Communications |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=1919 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.1919G |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-04173-0 |pmc=5953926 |pmid=29765038 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hahn |first1=L. C. |last2=Armour |first2=K. C. |last3=Battisti |first3=D. S. |last4=Donohoe |first4=A. |last5=Pauling |first5=A. G. |last6=Bitz |first6=C. M. |date=28 August 2020 |title=Antarctic Elevation Drives Hemispheric Asymmetry in Polar Lapse Rate Climatology and Feedback |url=http://eartharxiv.org/6fbjk/ |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=47 |issue=16 |pages=e88965 |bibcode=2020GeoRL..4788965H |doi=10.1029/2020GL088965 |s2cid=225410590|doi-access=free }}</ref>


The atmosphere's temperature decreases with height in the ]. Since emission of infrared radiation varies with temperature, ] escaping to space from the relatively cold upper atmosphere is less than that emitted toward the ground from the lower atmosphere. Thus, the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the atmosphere's rate of temperature decrease with height. Both theory and climate models indicate that global warming will reduce the rate of temperature decrease with height, producing a negative ''lapse rate feedback'' that weakens the greenhouse effect.<ref name="Armour2013">{{cite journal |last1=Armour |first1=Kyle C. |last2=Bitz |first2=Cecilia M. |last3=Roe |first3=Gerard H. |title=Time-Varying Climate Sensitivity from Regional Feedbacks |journal=Journal of Climate |date=1 July 2013 |volume=26 |issue=13 |pages=4518–4534 |doi=10.1175/jcli-d-12-00544.1|bibcode=2013JCli...26.4518A |hdl=1721.1/87780 |s2cid=2252857 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The atmosphere's temperature decreases with height in the ]. Since emission of infrared radiation varies with temperature, ] escaping to space from the relatively cold upper atmosphere is less than that emitted toward the ground from the lower atmosphere. Thus, the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the atmosphere's rate of temperature decrease with height. Both theory and climate models indicate that global warming will reduce the rate of temperature decrease with height, producing a negative ''lapse rate feedback'' that weakens the greenhouse effect.<ref name="Armour2013">{{cite journal |last1=Armour |first1=Kyle C. |last2=Bitz |first2=Cecilia M. |last3=Roe |first3=Gerard H. |title=Time-Varying Climate Sensitivity from Regional Feedbacks |journal=Journal of Climate |date=1 July 2013 |volume=26 |issue=13 |pages=4518–4534 |doi=10.1175/jcli-d-12-00544.1|bibcode=2013JCli...26.4518A |hdl=1721.1/87780 |s2cid=2252857 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>


=== Surface albedo feedback (positive) === === Surface albedo feedback (positive) ===
Line 60: Line 58:
| caption2 = Annual trend in the Arctic sea ice extent and area for the 2011-2022 time period. | caption2 = Annual trend in the Arctic sea ice extent and area for the 2011-2022 time period.
}} }}
] is the measure of how strongly the planetary surface can reflect solar radiation, which prevents its absorption and thus has a cooling effect. Brighter and more reflective surfaces have a high albedo and darker surfaces have a low albedo, so they heat up more. The most reflective surfaces are ] and ], so surface albedo changes are overwhelmingly associated with what is known as the ice-albedo feedback. A minority of the effect is also associated with changes in ], ] and vegetation cover.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|970}} ] is the measure of how strongly the planetary surface can reflect solar radiation, which prevents its absorption and thus has a cooling effect. Brighter and more reflective surfaces have a high albedo and darker surfaces have a low albedo, so they heat up more. The most reflective surfaces are ] and ], so surface albedo changes are overwhelmingly associated with what is known as the ice-albedo feedback. A minority of the effect is also associated with changes in ], ] and vegetation cover.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|970}}


The presence of ice cover and ] makes the ] and the ] colder than they would have been without it.<ref name="Deser2000">{{cite journal |last1=Deser |first1=Clara |last2=Walsh |first2=John E. |last3=Timlin |first3=Michael S. |date=1 February 2000 |title=Arctic Sea Ice Variability in the Context of Recent Atmospheric Circulation Trends |journal=J. Climate |volume=13|issue=3 |pages=617–633 |citeseerx=10.1.1.384.2863 |doi=10.1175/1520-0442(2000)013<0617:ASIVIT>2.0.CO;2 |bibcode=2000JCli...13..617D }}</ref> During ]s, additional ice increases the reflectivity and thus lowers absorption of solar radiation, cooling the planet.<ref name="Treut1990">{{Cite journal |last1=Treut |first1=H. Le |last2=Hansen |first2=J. |last3=Raynaud |first3=D. |last4=Jouzel |first4=J. |last5=Lorius |first5=C. |date=September 1990 |title=The ice-core record: climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming |journal=Nature |volume=347 |issue=6289 |pages=139–145 |doi=10.1038/347139a0 |issn=1476-4687 |bibcode=1990Natur.347..139L |s2cid=4331052}}</ref> But when warming occurs and the ice melts, darker land or open water takes its place and this causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting. In both cases, a self-reinforcing cycle continues until an equilibrium is found.<ref name="DeVrese2021">{{cite journal |last1=De Vrese |first1=Philipp |last2=Stacke |first2=Tobias |last3=Rugenstein |first3=Jeremy Caves |last4=Goodman |first4=Jason |last5=Brovkin |first5=Victor |date=14 May 2021 |title=Snowfall-albedo feedbacks could have led to deglaciation of snowball Earth starting from mid-latitudes |journal=] |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=91 |doi=10.1038/s43247-021-00160-4 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021ComEE...2...91D }}</ref><ref name="Pistone2019">{{Cite journal |last1=Pistone |first1=Kristina |last2=Eisenman |first2=Ian |last3=Ramanathan |first3=Veerabhadran |author-link3=Veerabhadran Ramanathan |date=2019 |title=Radiative Heating of an Ice-Free Arctic Ocean |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/678849wc |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=46 |issue=13 |pages=7474–7480 |bibcode=2019GeoRL..46.7474P |doi=10.1029/2019GL082914 |issn=1944-8007 |s2cid=197572148}}</ref> Consequently, recent ] is a key reason behind the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979 (the start of continuous satellite readings), in a phenomenon known as ].<ref name="Rantanen2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Rantanen |first1=Mika |last2=Karpechko |first2=Alexey Yu |last3=Lipponen |first3=Antti |last4=Nordling |first4=Kalle |last5=Hyvärinen |first5=Otto |last6=Ruosteenoja |first6=Kimmo |last7=Vihma |first7=Timo |last8=Laaksonen |first8=Ari |date=11 August 2022 |title=The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979 |journal=Communications Earth & Environment |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=168 |doi=10.1038/s43247-022-00498-3 |bibcode=2022ComEE...3..168R |s2cid=251498876 |issn=2662-4435|doi-access=free |hdl=11250/3115996 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Dai2019">{{Cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Aiguo |last2=Luo |first2=Dehai |last3=Song |first3=Mirong |last4=Liu |first4=Jiping |date=10 January 2019 |title=Arctic amplification is caused by sea-ice loss under increasing {{CO2}} |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=121 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07954-9 |pmid=30631051 |pmc=6328634 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10..121D }}</ref> Conversely, the high stability of ice cover in ], where the ] rises nearly 4&nbsp;km above the sea level, means that it has experienced very little net warming over the past seven decades.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Singh |first1=Hansi A. |last2=Polvani |first2=Lorenzo M. |date=10 January 2020 |title=Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |journal=npj Climate and Atmospheric Science |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=39 |doi=10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w |s2cid=222179485 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020npCAS...3...39S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Steig |first1=Eric |last2=Schneider |first2=David |last3=Rutherford |first3=Scott |last4=Mann |first4=Michael E. |last5=Comiso |first5=Josefino |last6=Shindell |first6=Drew |date=1 January 2009 |title=Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year |url=https://docs.rwu.edu/fcas_fp/313 |journal=Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xin |first1=Meijiao |last2=Li |first2=Xichen |last3=Stammerjohn |first3=Sharon E |last4=Cai |first4=Wenju |last5=Zhu |first5=Jiang |last6=Turner |first6=John |last7=Clem |first7=Kyle R |last8=Song |first8=Chentao |last9=Wang |first9=Wenzhu |last10=Hou |first10=Yurong |date=17 May 2023 |title=A broadscale shift in antarctic temperature trends |journal=Climate Dynamics |volume=61 |issue=9–10 |pages=4623–4641 |doi=10.1007/s00382-023-06825-4|bibcode=2023ClDy...61.4623X |s2cid=258777741 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Eric Steig |author2=Gavin Schmidt |date=4 December 2004 |title=Antarctic cooling, global warming? |url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=18 |access-date=2008-01-20 |publisher=RealClimate}}</ref> The presence of ice cover and ] makes the ] and the ] colder than they would have been without it.<ref name="Deser2000">{{cite journal |last1=Deser |first1=Clara |last2=Walsh |first2=John E. |last3=Timlin |first3=Michael S. |date=1 February 2000 |title=Arctic Sea Ice Variability in the Context of Recent Atmospheric Circulation Trends |journal=J. Climate |volume=13|issue=3 |pages=617–633 |citeseerx=10.1.1.384.2863 |doi=10.1175/1520-0442(2000)013<0617:ASIVIT>2.0.CO;2 |bibcode=2000JCli...13..617D }}</ref> During ]s, additional ice increases the reflectivity and thus lowers absorption of solar radiation, cooling the planet.<ref name="Treut1990">{{Cite journal |last1=Treut |first1=H. Le |last2=Hansen |first2=J. |last3=Raynaud |first3=D. |last4=Jouzel |first4=J. |last5=Lorius |first5=C. |date=September 1990 |title=The ice-core record: climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming |journal=Nature |volume=347 |issue=6289 |pages=139–145 |doi=10.1038/347139a0 |issn=1476-4687 |bibcode=1990Natur.347..139L |s2cid=4331052}}</ref> But when warming occurs and the ice melts, darker land or open water takes its place and this causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting. In both cases, a self-reinforcing cycle continues until an equilibrium is found.<ref name="DeVrese2021">{{cite journal |last1=De Vrese |first1=Philipp |last2=Stacke |first2=Tobias |last3=Rugenstein |first3=Jeremy Caves |last4=Goodman |first4=Jason |last5=Brovkin |first5=Victor |date=14 May 2021 |title=Snowfall-albedo feedbacks could have led to deglaciation of snowball Earth starting from mid-latitudes |journal=] |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=91 |doi=10.1038/s43247-021-00160-4 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2021ComEE...2...91D }}</ref><ref name="Pistone2019">{{Cite journal |last1=Pistone |first1=Kristina |last2=Eisenman |first2=Ian |last3=Ramanathan |first3=Veerabhadran |author-link3=Veerabhadran Ramanathan |date=2019 |title=Radiative Heating of an Ice-Free Arctic Ocean |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/678849wc |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=46 |issue=13 |pages=7474–7480 |bibcode=2019GeoRL..46.7474P |doi=10.1029/2019GL082914 |issn=1944-8007 |s2cid=197572148}}</ref> Consequently, recent ] is a key reason behind the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979 (the start of continuous satellite readings), in a phenomenon known as ].<ref name="Rantanen2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Rantanen |first1=Mika |last2=Karpechko |first2=Alexey Yu |last3=Lipponen |first3=Antti |last4=Nordling |first4=Kalle |last5=Hyvärinen |first5=Otto |last6=Ruosteenoja |first6=Kimmo |last7=Vihma |first7=Timo |last8=Laaksonen |first8=Ari |date=11 August 2022 |title=The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979 |journal=Communications Earth & Environment |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=168 |doi=10.1038/s43247-022-00498-3 |bibcode=2022ComEE...3..168R |s2cid=251498876 |issn=2662-4435|doi-access=free |hdl=11250/3115996 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Dai2019">{{Cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Aiguo |last2=Luo |first2=Dehai |last3=Song |first3=Mirong |last4=Liu |first4=Jiping |date=10 January 2019 |title=Arctic amplification is caused by sea-ice loss under increasing {{CO2}} |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=121 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07954-9 |pmid=30631051 |pmc=6328634 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10..121D }}</ref> Conversely, the high stability of ice cover in ], where the ] rises nearly 4&nbsp;km above the sea level, means that it has experienced very little net warming over the past seven decades.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Singh |first1=Hansi A. |last2=Polvani |first2=Lorenzo M. |date=10 January 2020 |title=Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |journal=npj Climate and Atmospheric Science |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=39 |doi=10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w |s2cid=222179485 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020npCAS...3...39S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Steig |first1=Eric |last2=Schneider |first2=David |last3=Rutherford |first3=Scott |last4=Mann |first4=Michael E. |last5=Comiso |first5=Josefino |last6=Shindell |first6=Drew |date=1 January 2009 |title=Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year |url=https://docs.rwu.edu/fcas_fp/313 |journal=Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xin |first1=Meijiao |last2=Li |first2=Xichen |last3=Stammerjohn |first3=Sharon E |last4=Cai |first4=Wenju |last5=Zhu |first5=Jiang |last6=Turner |first6=John |last7=Clem |first7=Kyle R |last8=Song |first8=Chentao |last9=Wang |first9=Wenzhu |last10=Hou |first10=Yurong |date=17 May 2023 |title=A broadscale shift in antarctic temperature trends |journal=Climate Dynamics |volume=61 |issue=9–10 |pages=4623–4641 |doi=10.1007/s00382-023-06825-4|bibcode=2023ClDy...61.4623X |s2cid=258777741 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author1=Eric Steig |author2=Gavin Schmidt |date=4 December 2004 |title=Antarctic cooling, global warming? |url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=18 |access-date=2008-01-20 |publisher=RealClimate}}</ref>
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As of 2021, the total surface feedback strength is estimated at 0.35 W m<sup>2</sup>/K.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}} On its own, Arctic sea ice decline between 1979 and 2011 was responsible for 0.21 (W/m<sup>2</sup>) of ]. This is equivalent to a quarter of impact from {{CO2}} emissions over the same period.<ref name="Pistone2019" /> The combined change in all sea ice cover between 1992 and 2018 is equivalent to 10% of all the anthropogenic ].<ref name="Riihelä2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Riihelä |first1=Aku |last2=Bright |first2=Ryan M. |last3=Anttila |first3=Kati |date=28 October 2021 |title=Recent strengthening of snow and ice albedo feedback driven by Antarctic sea-ice loss |journal=Nature Geoscience |language=en |volume=14 |issue=11 |pages=832–836 |doi=10.1038/s41561-021-00841-x |bibcode=2021NatGe..14..832R |hdl=11250/2830682 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Ice-albedo feedback strength is not constant and depends on the rate of ice loss - models project that under high warming, its strength peaks around 2100 and declines afterwards, as most easily melted ice would already be lost by then.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andry |first1=Olivier |last2=Bintanja |first2=Richard |last3=Hazeleger |first3=Wilco |title=Time-Dependent Variations in the Arctic’s Surface Albedo Feedback and the Link to Seasonality in Sea Ice |journal=Journal of Climate |date=1 January 2017 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=393–410 |doi=10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0849.1 |doi-access=free }}</ref> As of 2021, the total surface feedback strength is estimated at 0.35 W m<sup>2</sup>/K.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}} On its own, Arctic sea ice decline between 1979 and 2011 was responsible for 0.21 (W/m<sup>2</sup>) of ]. This is equivalent to a quarter of impact from {{CO2}} emissions over the same period.<ref name="Pistone2019" /> The combined change in all sea ice cover between 1992 and 2018 is equivalent to 10% of all the anthropogenic ].<ref name="Riihelä2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Riihelä |first1=Aku |last2=Bright |first2=Ryan M. |last3=Anttila |first3=Kati |date=28 October 2021 |title=Recent strengthening of snow and ice albedo feedback driven by Antarctic sea-ice loss |journal=Nature Geoscience |language=en |volume=14 |issue=11 |pages=832–836 |doi=10.1038/s41561-021-00841-x |bibcode=2021NatGe..14..832R |hdl=11250/2830682 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Ice-albedo feedback strength is not constant and depends on the rate of ice loss - models project that under high warming, its strength peaks around 2100 and declines afterwards, as most easily melted ice would already be lost by then.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andry |first1=Olivier |last2=Bintanja |first2=Richard |last3=Hazeleger |first3=Wilco |title=Time-Dependent Variations in the Arctic’s Surface Albedo Feedback and the Link to Seasonality in Sea Ice |journal=Journal of Climate |date=1 January 2017 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=393–410 |doi=10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0849.1 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


When ] models estimate a total loss of Arctic sea ice cover from June to September (a plausible outcome under higher levels of warming), it increases the global temperatures by {{convert|0.19|C-change|F-change}}, with a range of 0.16–0.21&nbsp;°C, while the regional temperatures would increase by over {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}. These calculations include second-order effects such as the impact from ice loss on regional lapse rate, water vapor and cloud feedbacks,<ref name="Wunderling2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Wunderling |first1=Nico |last2=Willeit |first2=Matteo |last3=Donges |first3=Jonathan F. |last4=Winkelmann |first4=Ricarda |date=27 October 2020 |title=Global warming due to loss of large ice masses and Arctic summer sea ice |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=5177 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-18934-3 |pmid=33110092 |pmc=7591863 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.5177W }}</ref> and do not cause "additional" warming on top of the existing model projections.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sledd |first1=Anne |last2=L’Ecuyer |first2=Tristan S. |date=2 December 2021 |title=A Cloudier Picture of Ice-Albedo Feedback in CMIP6 Models |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |language=en |volume=9 |page=1067 |doi=10.3389/feart.2021.769844 |bibcode=2021FrEaS...9.1067S |doi-access=free }}</ref> When ] models estimate a total loss of Arctic sea ice cover from June to September (a plausible outcome under higher levels of warming), it increases the global temperatures by {{convert|0.19|C-change|F-change}}, with a range of 0.16–0.21&nbsp;°C, while the regional temperatures would increase by over {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}. These calculations include second-order effects such as the impact from ice loss on regional lapse rate, water vapor and cloud feedbacks,<ref name="Wunderling2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Wunderling |first1=Nico |last2=Willeit |first2=Matteo |last3=Donges |first3=Jonathan F. |last4=Winkelmann |first4=Ricarda |date=27 October 2020 |title=Global warming due to loss of large ice masses and Arctic summer sea ice |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=5177 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-18934-3 |pmid=33110092 |pmc=7591863 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.5177W }}</ref> and do not cause "additional" warming on top of the existing model projections.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sledd |first1=Anne |last2=L’Ecuyer |first2=Tristan S. |date=2 December 2021 |title=A Cloudier Picture of Ice-Albedo Feedback in CMIP6 Models |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |language=en |volume=9 |page=1067 |doi=10.3389/feart.2021.769844 |bibcode=2021FrEaS...9.1067S |doi-access=free }}</ref>


=== Cloud feedback (positive) === === Cloud feedback (positive) ===
] ]
{{main|Cloud feedback}} {{main|Cloud feedback}}
Seen from below, clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, which has a warming effect; seen from above, clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space, leading to a cooling effect. Low clouds are bright and very reflective, so they lead to strong cooling, while high clouds are too thin and transparent to effectively reflect sunlight, so they cause overall warming.<ref name="Stephens2005">{{Cite journal|last=Stephens|first=Graeme L.|date=2005-01-01|title=Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review|journal=Journal of Climate|volume=18|issue=2|pages=237–273|doi=10.1175/JCLI-3243.1|issn=0894-8755|bibcode=2005JCli...18..237S|citeseerx=10.1.1.130.1415|s2cid=16122908 }}</ref> As a whole, clouds have a substantial cooling effect.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|1022}} However, climate change is expected to alter the distribution of cloud ] in a way which collectively reduces their cooling and thus accelerates overall warming.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|975}} While changes to clouds act as a negative feedback in some latitudes,<ref name="Bonan2024" /> they represent a clear positive feedback on a global scale.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}} Seen from below, clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, which has a warming effect; seen from above, clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space, leading to a cooling effect. Low clouds are bright and very reflective, so they lead to strong cooling, while high clouds are too thin and transparent to effectively reflect sunlight, so they cause overall warming.<ref name="Stephens2005">{{Cite journal|last=Stephens|first=Graeme L.|date=2005-01-01|title=Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review|journal=Journal of Climate|volume=18|issue=2|pages=237–273|doi=10.1175/JCLI-3243.1|issn=0894-8755|bibcode=2005JCli...18..237S|citeseerx=10.1.1.130.1415|s2cid=16122908 }}</ref> As a whole, clouds have a substantial cooling effect.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|1022}} However, climate change is expected to alter the distribution of cloud ] in a way which collectively reduces their cooling and thus accelerates overall warming.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|975}} While changes to clouds act as a negative feedback in some latitudes,<ref name="Bonan2024" /> they represent a clear positive feedback on a global scale.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}}


As of 2021, cloud feedback strength is estimated at 0.42 W m<sup>2</sup>/K.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}} This is the largest ] of any climate feedback, and it occurs because some cloud types (most of which are present over the oceans) have been very difficult to observe, so climate models don't have as much data to go on with when they attempt to simulate their behaviour.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|975}} Additionally, clouds have been strongly affected by ] particles, mainly from the unfiltered burning of ]-rich fossil fuels such as ] and ]. Any estimate of cloud feedback needs to disentangle the effects of so-called ] caused by these particles as well.<ref name="AGU2021">{{cite web |date=18 February 2021 |title=Aerosol pollution has caused decades of global dimming |url=https://news.agu.org/press-release/aerosol-pollution-caused-decades-of-global-dimming/ |website=] |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327143716/https://news.agu.org/press-release/aerosol-pollution-caused-decades-of-global-dimming/ |archive-date=27 March 2023 }}</ref><ref name="McCoy2020">{{cite journal |last1 =McCoy |first1=Daniel T. |last2=Field |first2=Paul |last3=Gordon |first3=Hamish |last4=Elsaesser |first4=Gregory S. |last5=Grosvenor |first5=Daniel P. | date=6 April 2020 | title=Untangling causality in midlatitude aerosol–cloud adjustments | url=https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/4085/2020/ |journal=Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | volume=20 |issue=7 | pages=4085–4103 |doi=10.5194/acp-20-4085-2020 |doi-access = free |bibcode=2020ACP....20.4085M }}</ref> As of 2021, cloud feedback strength is estimated at 0.42 W m<sup>2</sup>/K.<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|95}} This is the largest ] of any climate feedback, and it occurs because some cloud types (most of which are present over the oceans) have been very difficult to observe, so climate models don't have as much data to go on with when they attempt to simulate their behaviour.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|975}} Additionally, clouds have been strongly affected by ] particles, mainly from the unfiltered burning of ]-rich fossil fuels such as ] and ]. Any estimate of cloud feedback needs to disentangle the effects of so-called ] caused by these particles as well.<ref name="AGU2021">{{cite web |date=18 February 2021 |title=Aerosol pollution has caused decades of global dimming |url=https://news.agu.org/press-release/aerosol-pollution-caused-decades-of-global-dimming/ |website=] |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327143716/https://news.agu.org/press-release/aerosol-pollution-caused-decades-of-global-dimming/ |archive-date=27 March 2023 }}</ref><ref name="McCoy2020">{{cite journal |last1 =McCoy |first1=Daniel T. |last2=Field |first2=Paul |last3=Gordon |first3=Hamish |last4=Elsaesser |first4=Gregory S. |last5=Grosvenor |first5=Daniel P. | date=6 April 2020 | title=Untangling causality in midlatitude aerosol–cloud adjustments | url=https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/4085/2020/ |journal=Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics | volume=20 |issue=7 | pages=4085–4103 |doi=10.5194/acp-20-4085-2020 |doi-access = free |bibcode=2020ACP....20.4085M }}</ref>


Thus, estimates of cloud feedback differ sharply between climate models. Models with the strongest cloud feedback have the highest ], which means that they simulate much stronger warming in response to a doubling of {{CO2}} (or equivalent ]) concentrations than the rest.<ref name="Zelinka2020">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Zelinka MD, Myers TA, McCoy DT, Po-Chedley S, Caldwell PM, Ceppi P, Klein SA, Taylor KE |date=2020 |title=Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |page=e2019GL085782 |bibcode=2020GeoRL..4785782Z |doi=10.1029/2019GL085782 |issn=1944-8007 |doi-access=free|hdl=10044/1/76038 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="SD2020">{{cite journal |date=24 June 2020 |title=Increased warming in latest generation of climate models likely caused by clouds: New representations of clouds are making models more sensitive to carbon dioxide. |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200624151600.htm |url-status=live |journal=Science Daily |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626005318/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200624151600.htm |archive-date=26 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref> Around 2020, a small fraction of models was found to simulate so much warming as the result that they had contradicted ] evidence from ]s,<ref name="Zhu2020">{{cite journal |last1=Zhu |first1=Jiang |last2=Poulsen |first2=Christopher J. |last3=Otto-Bliesner |first3=Bette L. |title=High climate sensitivity in CMIP6 model not supported by paleoclimate |journal=Nature Climate Change |date=30 April 2020 |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=378–379 |doi=10.1038/s41558-020-0764-6 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020NatCC..10..378Z }}</ref><ref name="EricksonPhys2020">{{Cite web |last1=Erickson |first1=Jim |date=30 April 2020 |title=Some of the latest climate models provide unrealistically high projections of future warming |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-04-latest-climate-unrealistically-high-future.html |access-date=12 May 2024 |website=] |language=en |quote=But the CESM2 model projected Early Eocene land temperatures exceeding 55 degrees Celsius (131 F) in the tropics, which is much higher than the temperature tolerance of plant photosynthesis—conflicting with the fossil evidence. On average across the globe, the model projected surface temperatures at least 6 C (11 F) warmer than estimates based on geological evidence. }}</ref> and their output was effectively excluded from the climate sensitivity estimate of the ].<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|93}}<ref name="VoosenSciMag2022">{{Cite web |last1=Voosen |first1=Paul |date=4 May 2022 |title=Use of 'too hot' climate models exaggerates impacts of global warming |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/use-too-hot-climate-models-exaggerates-impacts-global-warming |access-date=12 May 2024|website=]|language=en|quote=But for the 2019 CMIP6 round, 10 out of 55 of the models had sensitivities higher than 5°C—a stark departure. The results were also at odds with a landmark study that eschewed global modeling results and instead relied on paleoclimate and observational records to identify Earth’s climate sensitivity. It found that the value sits somewhere between 2.6°C and 3.9°C.}}</ref> Thus, estimates of cloud feedback differ sharply between climate models. Models with the strongest cloud feedback have the highest ], which means that they simulate much stronger warming in response to a doubling of {{CO2}} (or equivalent ]) concentrations than the rest.<ref name="Zelinka2020">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Zelinka MD, Myers TA, McCoy DT, Po-Chedley S, Caldwell PM, Ceppi P, Klein SA, Taylor KE |date=2020 |title=Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |page=e2019GL085782 |bibcode=2020GeoRL..4785782Z |doi=10.1029/2019GL085782 |issn=1944-8007 |doi-access=free|hdl=10044/1/76038 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="SD2020">{{cite journal |date=24 June 2020 |title=Increased warming in latest generation of climate models likely caused by clouds: New representations of clouds are making models more sensitive to carbon dioxide. |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200624151600.htm |url-status=live |journal=Science Daily |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626005318/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200624151600.htm |archive-date=26 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020}}</ref> Around 2020, a small fraction of models was found to simulate so much warming as the result that they had contradicted ] evidence from ]s,<ref name="Zhu2020">{{cite journal |last1=Zhu |first1=Jiang |last2=Poulsen |first2=Christopher J. |last3=Otto-Bliesner |first3=Bette L. |title=High climate sensitivity in CMIP6 model not supported by paleoclimate |journal=Nature Climate Change |date=30 April 2020 |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=378–379 |doi=10.1038/s41558-020-0764-6 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020NatCC..10..378Z }}</ref><ref name="EricksonPhys2020">{{Cite web |last1=Erickson |first1=Jim |date=30 April 2020 |title=Some of the latest climate models provide unrealistically high projections of future warming |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-04-latest-climate-unrealistically-high-future.html |access-date=12 May 2024 |website=] |language=en |quote=But the CESM2 model projected Early Eocene land temperatures exceeding 55 degrees Celsius (131 F) in the tropics, which is much higher than the temperature tolerance of plant photosynthesis—conflicting with the fossil evidence. On average across the globe, the model projected surface temperatures at least 6 C (11 F) warmer than estimates based on geological evidence. }}</ref> and their output was effectively excluded from the climate sensitivity estimate of the ].<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|93}}<ref name="VoosenSciMag2022">{{Cite web |last1=Voosen |first1=Paul |date=4 May 2022 |title=Use of 'too hot' climate models exaggerates impacts of global warming |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/use-too-hot-climate-models-exaggerates-impacts-global-warming |access-date=12 May 2024|website=]|language=en|quote=But for the 2019 CMIP6 round, 10 out of 55 of the models had sensitivities higher than 5°C—a stark departure. The results were also at odds with a landmark study that eschewed global modeling results and instead relied on paleoclimate and observational records to identify Earth’s climate sensitivity. It found that the value sits somewhere between 2.6°C and 3.9°C.}}</ref>
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==== Primary production through photosynthesis ==== ==== Primary production through photosynthesis ====
] ]
] of plants' and ] grows as the increased {{CO2}} fuels their photosynthesis in what is known as the ]. Additionally, plants require less water as the atmospheric {{CO2}} concentrations increase, because they lose less moisture to ] through open ] (the pores in leaves through which {{CO2}} is absorbed). However, increased droughts in certain regions can still limit plant growth, and the warming beyond optimum conditions has a consistently negative impact. Thus, estimates for the 21st century show that plants would become a lot more abundant at high latitudes near the poles but grow much less near the tropics - there is only ''medium confidence'' that tropical ecosystems would gain more carbon relative to now. However, there is ''high confidence'' that the total land carbon sink will remain positive.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5">{{Cite report |last1=Canadell |first1=J.G. |last2=Monteiro |first2=P.M.S. |last3=Costa |first3=M.H. |last4=Cotrim da Cunha |first4=L. |last5=Cox |first5=P. M. |last6=Eliseev |first6=A.V. |last7=Henson |first7=S. |last8=Ishii |first8=M. |last9=Jaccard |first9=S. |last10=Koven |first10=C. |last11=Lohila |first11=A. |last12=Patra |first12=P. K. |last13=Piao |first13=S. |last14=Rogelj |first14=J. |last15=Syampungani |first15=S. |last16=Zaehle |first16=S. |last17=Zickfeld |first17=K. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 5: Global Carbon and other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter05.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=673–816 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.007 }}</ref>{{rp|677}} ] of plants' and ] grows as the increased {{CO2}} fuels their photosynthesis in what is known as the ]. Additionally, plants require less water as the atmospheric {{CO2}} concentrations increase, because they lose less moisture to ] through open ] (the pores in leaves through which {{CO2}} is absorbed). However, increased droughts in certain regions can still limit plant growth, and the warming beyond optimum conditions has a consistently negative impact. Thus, estimates for the 21st century show that plants would become a lot more abundant at high latitudes near the poles but grow much less near the tropics - there is only ''medium confidence'' that tropical ecosystems would gain more carbon relative to now. However, there is ''high confidence'' that the total land carbon sink will remain positive.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5">{{Cite report |last1=Canadell |first1=J.G. |last2=Monteiro |first2=P.M.S. |last3=Costa |first3=M.H. |last4=Cotrim da Cunha |first4=L. |last5=Cox |first5=P. M. |last6=Eliseev |first6=A.V. |last7=Henson |first7=S. |last8=Ishii |first8=M. |last9=Jaccard |first9=S. |last10=Koven |first10=C. |last11=Lohila |first11=A. |last12=Patra |first12=P. K. |last13=Piao |first13=S. |last14=Rogelj |first14=J. |last15=Syampungani |first15=S. |last16=Zaehle |first16=S. |last17=Zickfeld |first17=K. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S. L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Chapter 5: Global Carbon and other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks |url=https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Chapter05.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, US |pages=673–816 |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.007 }}</ref>{{rp|677}}
<!--Observations show that soils in the U.K have been losing carbon at the rate of four million tonnes a year for the past 25 years<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/life/science/story/0,12996,1565050,00.html |title=Loss of soil carbon 'will speed global warming' |author=Tim Radford |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2005-09-08 |access-date=2008-01-02}}</ref> according to a paper in Nature by Bellamy et al. in September 2005, who note that these results are unlikely to be explained by land use changes. Results such as this rely on a dense sampling network and thus are not available on a global scale. ] to all of the United Kingdom, they estimate annual losses of 13 million tons per year. This is as much as the annual reductions in carbon dioxide emissions achieved by the UK under the Kyoto Treaty (12.7 million tons of carbon per year).<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Nature |title=Environmental science: Carbon unlocked from soils |first=E. Detlef |last=Schulze |author2=Annette Freibauer |volume=437 |issue=7056 |pages=205–6 |date=September 8, 2005 |doi=10.1038/437205a |pmid=16148922|bibcode = 2005Natur.437..205S |s2cid=4345985 |doi-access=free }}</ref> --> <!--Observations show that soils in the U.K have been losing carbon at the rate of four million tonnes a year for the past 25 years<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/life/science/story/0,12996,1565050,00.html |title=Loss of soil carbon 'will speed global warming' |author=Tim Radford |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2005-09-08 |access-date=2008-01-02}}</ref> according to a paper in Nature by Bellamy et al. in September 2005, who note that these results are unlikely to be explained by land use changes. Results such as this rely on a dense sampling network and thus are not available on a global scale. ] to all of the United Kingdom, they estimate annual losses of 13 million tons per year. This is as much as the annual reductions in carbon dioxide emissions achieved by the UK under the Kyoto Treaty (12.7 million tons of carbon per year).<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Nature |title=Environmental science: Carbon unlocked from soils |first=E. Detlef |last=Schulze |author2=Annette Freibauer |volume=437 |issue=7056 |pages=205–6 |date=September 8, 2005 |doi=10.1038/437205a |pmid=16148922|bibcode = 2005Natur.437..205S |s2cid=4345985 |doi-access=free }}</ref> -->


=== Non-{{CO2}} (unclear) === === Non-{{CO2}} climate-relevant gases (unclear) ===
] ]
Release of gases of biological origin would be affected by global warming, and this includes climate-relevant gases such as ], ] or ].<ref>{{Cite journal| first1 = M. E.| last2 = Susiluoto| last3 = Lind | first2 = S.| first3 = S. E.| last5 = Elsakov| last6 = Biasi| last4 = Jokinen| last7 = Virtanen | first4 = S.| last1 = Repo| first5 = V.| first6 = C.| first7 = T. | first8 = P. J.| title = Large N2O emissions from cryoturbated peat soil in tundra| journal = Nature Geoscience| volume = 2| page = 189| year = 2009| doi = 10.1038/ngeo434| last8 = Martikainen|bibcode = 2009NatGe...2..189R | issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-chemist-permafrost-n2o-levels-12-times-higher-than-expected/ |title=No laughing matter |journal=The Harvard Gazette |author1=Caitlin McDermott-Murphy |access-date=22 July 2019 |year=2019}}</ref> Others, such as ] released from oceans, have indirect effects.<ref>{{Cite journal| first1 = R.| last2 = Dachs| first2 = J.| last1 = Simó| title = Global ocean emission of dimethylsulfide predicted from biogeophysical data| journal = Global Biogeochemical Cycles| volume = 16| issue = 4| page = 1018| year = 2002| doi = 10.1029/2001GB001829|bibcode = 2002GBioC..16.1018S | s2cid = 129266687| doi-access = free}}</ref> Emissions of methane from land (particularly ]) and of nitrous oxide from land and oceans are a known positive feedback.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dean|first1=Joshua F.|last2=Middelburg|first2=Jack J.|last3=Röckmann|first3=Thomas|last4=Aerts|first4=Rien|last5=Blauw|first5=Luke G.|last6=Egger|first6=Matthias|last7=Jetten|first7=Mike S. M.|last8=de Jong|first8=Anniek E. E.|last9=Meisel|first9=Ove H.|date=2018|title=Methane Feedbacks to the Global Climate System in a Warmer World|journal=Reviews of Geophysics|volume=56|issue=1|pages=207–250|doi=10.1002/2017RG000559|bibcode=2018RvGeo..56..207D|hdl=1874/366386|doi-access=free|hdl-access=free}}</ref> I.e. long-term warming changes the balance in the methane-related microbial community within freshwater ecosystems so they produce more methane while proportionately less is oxidised to carbon dioxide.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zhu|first1=Yizhu|last2=Purdy|first2=Kevin J.|last3=Eyice|first3=Özge|last4=Shen|first4=Lidong|last5=Harpenslager|first5=Sarah F.|last6=Yvon-Durocher|first6=Gabriel|last7=Dumbrell|first7=Alex J.|last8=Trimmer|first8=Mark|date=2020-06-29|title=Disproportionate increase in freshwater methane emissions induced by experimental warming|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0824-y|journal=Nature Climate Change|volume=10|issue=7|language=en|pages=685–690|doi=10.1038/s41558-020-0824-y|bibcode=2020NatCC..10..685Z|s2cid=220261158|issn=1758-6798}}</ref> There would also be biogeophysical changes which affect the albedo. For instance, ] in some sub-arctic forests are being replaced by ] trees. This has a limited contribution to warming, because larch trees shed their needles in winter and so they end up more extensively covered in snow than the spruce trees which retain their dark needles all year.<ref>{{cite web |author=University of Virginia |date=March 25, 2011 |title=Russian boreal forests undergoing vegetation change, study shows |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110325022352.htm |access-date=March 9, 2018 |website=ScienceDaily.com}}</ref> Release of gases of biological origin would be affected by global warming, and this includes climate-relevant gases such as ], ] or ].<ref>{{Cite journal| first1 = M. E.| last2 = Susiluoto| last3 = Lind | first2 = S.| first3 = S. E.| last5 = Elsakov| last6 = Biasi| last4 = Jokinen| last7 = Virtanen | first4 = S.| last1 = Repo| first5 = V.| first6 = C.| first7 = T. | first8 = P. J.| title = Large N2O emissions from cryoturbated peat soil in tundra| journal = Nature Geoscience| volume = 2| page = 189| year = 2009| doi = 10.1038/ngeo434| last8 = Martikainen|bibcode = 2009NatGe...2..189R | issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-chemist-permafrost-n2o-levels-12-times-higher-than-expected/ |title=No laughing matter |journal=The Harvard Gazette |author1=Caitlin McDermott-Murphy |access-date=22 July 2019 |year=2019}}</ref> Others, such as ] released from oceans, have indirect effects.<ref>{{Cite journal| first1 = R.| last2 = Dachs| first2 = J.| last1 = Simó| title = Global ocean emission of dimethylsulfide predicted from biogeophysical data| journal = Global Biogeochemical Cycles| volume = 16| issue = 4| page = 1018| year = 2002| doi = 10.1029/2001GB001829|bibcode = 2002GBioC..16.1018S | s2cid = 129266687| doi-access = free}}</ref> Emissions of methane from land (particularly ]) and of nitrous oxide from land and oceans are a known positive feedback.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dean|first1=Joshua F.|last2=Middelburg|first2=Jack J.|last3=Röckmann|first3=Thomas|last4=Aerts|first4=Rien|last5=Blauw|first5=Luke G.|last6=Egger|first6=Matthias|last7=Jetten|first7=Mike S. M.|last8=de Jong|first8=Anniek E. E.|last9=Meisel|first9=Ove H.|date=2018|title=Methane Feedbacks to the Global Climate System in a Warmer World|journal=Reviews of Geophysics|volume=56|issue=1|pages=207–250|doi=10.1002/2017RG000559|bibcode=2018RvGeo..56..207D|hdl=1874/366386|doi-access=free|hdl-access=free}}</ref> I.e. long-term warming changes the balance in the methane-related microbial community within freshwater ecosystems so they produce more methane while proportionately less is oxidised to carbon dioxide.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zhu|first1=Yizhu|last2=Purdy|first2=Kevin J.|last3=Eyice|first3=Özge|last4=Shen|first4=Lidong|last5=Harpenslager|first5=Sarah F.|last6=Yvon-Durocher|first6=Gabriel|last7=Dumbrell|first7=Alex J.|last8=Trimmer|first8=Mark|date=2020-06-29|title=Disproportionate increase in freshwater methane emissions induced by experimental warming|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0824-y|journal=Nature Climate Change|volume=10|issue=7|language=en|pages=685–690|doi=10.1038/s41558-020-0824-y|bibcode=2020NatCC..10..685Z|s2cid=220261158|issn=1758-6798}}</ref> There would also be biogeophysical changes which affect the albedo. For instance, ] in some sub-arctic forests are being replaced by ] trees. This has a limited contribution to warming, because larch trees shed their needles in winter and so they end up more extensively covered in snow than the spruce trees which retain their dark needles all year.<ref>{{cite web |author=University of Virginia |date=March 25, 2011 |title=Russian boreal forests undergoing vegetation change, study shows |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110325022352.htm |access-date=March 9, 2018 |website=ScienceDaily.com}}</ref>


On the other hand, changes in emissions of compounds such sea salt, dimethyl sulphide, dust, ozone and a range of biogenic volatile organic compounds are expected to be negative overall. As of 2021, all of these non-{{CO2}} feedbacks are believed to practically cancel each other out, but there is only low confidence, and the combined feedbacks could be up to 0.25 W m<sup>2</sup>/K in either direction.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|967}} On the other hand, changes in emissions of compounds such sea salt, dimethyl sulphide, dust, ozone and a range of biogenic volatile organic compounds are expected to be negative overall. As of 2021, all of these non-{{CO2}} feedbacks are believed to practically cancel each other out, but there is only low confidence, and the combined feedbacks could be up to 0.25 W m<sup>2</sup>/K in either direction.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|967}}


=== Permafrost (positive) === === Permafrost (positive) ===
Line 110: Line 108:
=== Ice sheets === === Ice sheets ===
] ]
The Earth's two remaining ice sheets, the ] and the ], cover the world's largest island and an entire continent, and both of them are also around {{cvt|2|km|mi|frac=2}} thick on average.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ice Sheets |url=https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/antarct/science/icesheet.jsp |publisher=National Science Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2012 |title=About the Greenland Ice Sheet |url=https://nsidc.org/ice-sheets-today/analyses/about-greenland-ice-sheet |publisher=National Snow and Ice Data Center }}</ref> Due to this immense size, their response to warming is measured in thousands of years and is believed to occur in two stages.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}} The Earth's two remaining ice sheets, the ] and the ], cover the world's largest island and an entire continent, and both of them are also around {{cvt|2|km|mi|frac=2}} thick on average.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ice Sheets |url=https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/antarct/science/icesheet.jsp |publisher=National Science Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2012 |title=About the Greenland Ice Sheet |url=https://nsidc.org/ice-sheets-today/analyses/about-greenland-ice-sheet |publisher=National Snow and Ice Data Center }}</ref> Due to this immense size, their response to warming is measured in thousands of years and is believed to occur in two stages.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}}


The first stage would be the effect from ice melt on ]. Because ] is completely fresh, it makes it harder for the surface layer of water to sink beneath the lower layers, and this disrupts the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and heat between the layers. This would act as a negative feedback - sometimes estimated as a cooling effect of {{convert|0.2|C-change|F-change}} over a 1000-year average, though the research on these timescales has been limited.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}} An even longer-term effect is the ice-albedo feedback from ice sheets reaching their ultimate state in response to whatever the long-term temperature change would be. Unless the warming is reversed entirely, this feedback would be positive.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}} The first stage would be the effect from ice melt on ]. Because ] is completely fresh, it makes it harder for the surface layer of water to sink beneath the lower layers, and this disrupts the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and heat between the layers. This would act as a negative feedback - sometimes estimated as a cooling effect of {{convert|0.2|C-change|F-change}} over a 1000-year average, though the research on these timescales has been limited.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}} An even longer-term effect is the ice-albedo feedback from ice sheets reaching their ultimate state in response to whatever the long-term temperature change would be. Unless the warming is reversed entirely, this feedback would be positive.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH7" />{{rp|977}}


The total loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet is estimated to add {{convert|0.13|C-change|F-change}} to global warming (with a range of 0.04–0.06&nbsp;°C), while the loss of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet adds {{convert|0.05|C-change|F-change}} (0.04–0.06&nbsp;°C), and East Antarctic ice sheet {{convert|0.6|C-change|F-change}}<ref name="Wunderling2020" /> Total loss of the Greenland ice sheet would also increase regional temperatures in the Arctic by between {{convert|0.5|C-change|F-change}} and {{convert|3|C-change|F-change}}, while the regional temperature in Antarctica is likely to go up by {{convert|1|C-change|F-change}} after the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet and {{convert|2|C-change|F-change}} after the loss of the East Antarctic ice sheet.<ref name="ArmstrongMcKay2022" /><ref name="Explainer" /> The total loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet is estimated to add {{convert|0.13|C-change|F-change}} to global warming (with a range of 0.04–0.06&nbsp;°C), while the loss of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet adds {{convert|0.05|C-change|F-change}} (0.04–0.06&nbsp;°C), and East Antarctic ice sheet {{convert|0.6|C-change|F-change}}<ref name="Wunderling2020" /> Total loss of the Greenland ice sheet would also increase regional temperatures in the Arctic by between {{convert|0.5|C-change|F-change}} and {{convert|3|C-change|F-change}}, while the regional temperature in Antarctica is likely to go up by {{convert|1|C-change|F-change}} after the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet and {{convert|2|C-change|F-change}} after the loss of the East Antarctic ice sheet.<ref name="ArmstrongMcKay2022" /><ref name="Explainer" />


These estimates assume that global warming stays at an average of {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}. Because of the ] of the ],<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|80}} the impact from ice loss would be larger at the slightly lower warming level of 2020s, but it would become lower if the warming proceeds towards higher levels.<ref name="Wunderling2020" /> While Greenland and the West Antartic ice sheet are likely committed to melting entirely if the long-term warming is around {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}, the East Antarctic ice sheet would not be at risk of complete disappearance until the very high global warming of {{convert|5-10|C-change|F-change}}<ref name="ArmstrongMcKay2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Armstrong McKay |first1=David|last2=Abrams |first2=Jesse |last3=Winkelmann |first3=Ricarda |last4=Sakschewski |first4=Boris |last5=Loriani |first5=Sina |last6=Fetzer |first6=Ingo|last7=Cornell|first7=Sarah |last8=Rockström |first8=Johan |last9=Staal |first9=Arie |last10=Lenton |first10=Timothy |date=9 September 2022 |title=Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=377 |issue=6611 |pages=eabn7950 |doi=10.1126/science.abn7950 |pmid=36074831 |hdl=10871/131584 |s2cid=252161375 |issn=0036-8075|hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Explainer">{{Cite web |last=Armstrong McKay |first=David |date=9 September 2022 |title=Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points – paper explainer |url=https://climatetippingpoints.info/2022/09/09/climate-tipping-points-reassessment-explainer/ |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=climatetippingpoints.info |language=en}}</ref> These estimates assume that global warming stays at an average of {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}. Because of the ] of the ],<ref name="IPCC_AR6_WG1_TS" />{{rp|80}} the impact from ice loss would be larger at the slightly lower warming level of 2020s, but it would become lower if the warming proceeds towards higher levels.<ref name="Wunderling2020" /> While Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheet are likely committed to melting entirely if the long-term warming is around {{convert|1.5|C-change|F-change}}, the East Antarctic ice sheet would not be at risk of complete disappearance until the very high global warming of {{convert|5-10|C-change|F-change}}<ref name="ArmstrongMcKay2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Armstrong McKay |first1=David|last2=Abrams |first2=Jesse |last3=Winkelmann |first3=Ricarda |last4=Sakschewski |first4=Boris |last5=Loriani |first5=Sina |last6=Fetzer |first6=Ingo|last7=Cornell|first7=Sarah |last8=Rockström |first8=Johan |last9=Staal |first9=Arie |last10=Lenton |first10=Timothy |date=9 September 2022 |title=Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=377 |issue=6611 |pages=eabn7950 |doi=10.1126/science.abn7950 |pmid=36074831 |hdl=10871/131584 |s2cid=252161375 |issn=0036-8075|hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Explainer">{{Cite web |last=Armstrong McKay |first=David |date=9 September 2022 |title=Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points – paper explainer |url=https://climatetippingpoints.info/2022/09/09/climate-tipping-points-reassessment-explainer/ |access-date=2 October 2022 |website=climatetippingpoints.info |language=en}}</ref>


=== Methane hydrates === === Methane hydrates ===
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where ''ASR'' is the absorbed ] and ''OLR'' is the ] at top of atmosphere. When ''EEI'' is positive the system is warming, when it is negative they system is cooling, and when it is approximately zero then there is neither warming or cooling. The ''ASR'' and ''OLR'' terms in this expression encompass many temperature-dependent properties and complex interactions that govern system behavior.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_16/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041743/http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_16/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-02-04 |title=Earth's Energy Imbalance |last1=Hansen |first1=James |last2=Sato |first2=Makiko |date=January 2012 |publisher=NASA |last3=Kharecha |first3=Pushker |last4=von Schuckmann |first4=Karina}}</ref> where ''ASR'' is the absorbed ] and ''OLR'' is the ] at top of atmosphere. When ''EEI'' is positive the system is warming, when it is negative they system is cooling, and when it is approximately zero then there is neither warming or cooling. The ''ASR'' and ''OLR'' terms in this expression encompass many temperature-dependent properties and complex interactions that govern system behavior.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_16/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204041743/http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/hansen_16/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-02-04 |title=Earth's Energy Imbalance |last1=Hansen |first1=James |last2=Sato |first2=Makiko |date=January 2012 |publisher=NASA |last3=Kharecha |first3=Pushker |last4=von Schuckmann |first4=Karina}}</ref>


In order to diagnose that behavior around a ''relatively'' stable ], one may consider a ] to ''EEI'' as indicated by the symbol Δ. Such a perturbation is induced by a ] (''ΔF'') which can be natural or man-made. Responses within the system to either return back towards the stable state, or to move further away from the stable state are called feedbacks ''λΔT'': In order to diagnose that behavior around a ''relatively'' stable ], one may consider a ] to ''EEI'' as indicated by the symbol Δ. Such a perturbation is typically induced by a ] (''ΔF'') which can be natural or man-made. Responses within the system to either return towards the stable state, or to move further away from the stable state are called feedbacks ''λΔT'':
: <math> \Delta EEI = \Delta F + \lambda \Delta T</math>. : <math> \Delta EEI = \Delta F + \lambda \Delta T</math>.
A feedback is a ] while a forcing is a ] according to ].
Collectively the feedbacks are approximated by the ] parameter ''λ'' and the perturbed temperature ''ΔT'' because all components of λ (assumed to be first-order to act independently and additively) are also functions of temperature, albeit to varying extents, by definition for a thermodynamic system:

Collectively the feedbacks may be approximated by the ] parameter ''λ'' and the perturbed temperature ''ΔT'' because all components of λ (assumed to be first-order to act independently and additively) are also functions of temperature, albeit to varying extents, by definition for a thermodynamic system:
: <math> \lambda = \sum_{i} \lambda_i = (\lambda_{wv} + \lambda_c + \lambda_a + \lambda_{cc} + \lambda_p + \lambda_{lr} + ...) </math>. : <math> \lambda = \sum_{i} \lambda_i = (\lambda_{wv} + \lambda_c + \lambda_a + \lambda_{cc} + \lambda_p + \lambda_{lr} + ...) </math>.
Some feedback components having significant influence on ''EEI'' are: Some feedback components having significant influence on ''EEI'' are:
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For example <math>g_{wv} \approx 0.5</math> for the water vapor feedback. For example <math>g_{wv} \approx 0.5</math> for the water vapor feedback.


Within the context of modern numerical climate modelling and analysis, the linearized formulation has limited use. One such use is to diagnose the relative strengths of different feedback mechanisms. An estimate of ] to a forcing is then obtained for the case where the net feedback remains negative and the system reaches a new equilibrium state (''ΔEEI=0'') after some time has passed:<ref name="NRC2003" />{{rp|19-20}} Within the context of modern numerical climate modelling and analysis, the linearized formulation has limited use. One such use is to diagnose the relative strengths of different feedback mechanisms. An estimate of ] to a forcing is then obtained for the case where the net feedback remains negative and the system reaches a new equilibrium state (''ΔEEI=0'') after some time has passed:<ref name="NRC2003" />{{rp|19–20}}
: <math> \Delta T = \frac{\Delta F}{\lambda_p \times (1 - \sum_{i} g_i)} </math>. : <math> \Delta T = \frac{\Delta F}{\lambda_p \times (1 - \sum_{i} g_i)} </math>.


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{{See also|Climate sensitivity}} {{See also|Climate sensitivity}}
] ]
Uncertainty over climate change feedbacks has implications for climate policy. For instance, uncertainty over carbon cycle feedbacks may affect targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (]).<ref>Meehl, G.A., T.F. Stocker, W.D. Collins, P. Friedlingstein, A.T. Gaye, J.M. Gregory, A. Kitoh, R. Knutti, J.M. Murphy, A. Noda, S.C.B. Raper, I.G. Watterson, A.J. Weaver and Z.-C. Zhao, 2007: . In: . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. (Section 10.4.1 Carbon Cycle/Vegetation Feedbacks)</ref> Emissions targets are often based on a target stabilization level of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, or on a target for limiting global warming to a particular magnitude. Both of these targets (concentrations or temperatures) require an understanding of future changes in the carbon cycle.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|678}} Uncertainty over climate change feedbacks has implications for climate policy. For instance, uncertainty over carbon cycle feedbacks may affect targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (]).<ref>Meehl, G.A., T.F. Stocker, W.D. Collins, P. Friedlingstein, A.T. Gaye, J.M. Gregory, A. Kitoh, R. Knutti, J.M. Murphy, A. Noda, S.C.B. Raper, I.G. Watterson, A.J. Weaver and Z.-C. Zhao, 2007: . In: . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. (Section 10.4.1 Carbon Cycle/Vegetation Feedbacks)</ref> Emissions targets are often based on a target stabilization level of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, or on a target for limiting global warming to a particular magnitude. Both of these targets (concentrations or temperatures) require an understanding of future changes in the carbon cycle.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|678}}


If models incorrectly project future changes in the carbon cycle, then concentration or temperature targets could be missed. For example, if models underestimate the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere due to positive feedbacks (e.g., due to thawing permafrost), then they may also underestimate the extent of emissions reductions necessary to meet a concentration or temperature target.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|678}}<ref name="Natali2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Natali |first1=Susan M. |last2=Holdren |first2=John P. |last3=Rogers |first3=Brendan M. |last4=Treharne |first4=Rachael |last5=Duffy |first5=Philip B. |last6=Pomerance |first6=Rafe |last7=MacDonald |first7=Erin |date=10 December 2020 |title=Permafrost carbon feedbacks threaten global climate goals |journal=Biological Sciences |volume=118 |issue=21 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2100163118|pmid=34001617 |pmc=8166174 |doi-access=free }}</ref> If models incorrectly project future changes in the carbon cycle, then concentration or temperature targets could be missed. For example, if models underestimate the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere due to positive feedbacks (e.g., due to thawing permafrost), then they may also underestimate the extent of emissions reductions necessary to meet a concentration or temperature target.<ref name="IPCC AR6 WG1 CH5" />{{rp|678}}<ref name="Natali2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Natali |first1=Susan M. |last2=Holdren |first2=John P. |last3=Rogers |first3=Brendan M. |last4=Treharne |first4=Rachael |last5=Duffy |first5=Philip B. |last6=Pomerance |first6=Rafe |last7=MacDonald |first7=Erin |date=10 December 2020 |title=Permafrost carbon feedbacks threaten global climate goals |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=118 |issue=21 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2100163118|pmid=34001617 |pmc=8166174 |doi-access=free }}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
{{Portal|Climate change}}
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
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{{Portal|Climate change}}
{{Climate change}} {{Climate change}}



Latest revision as of 19:35, 15 December 2024

Feedback related to climate change "Climate feedback" redirects here. For the fact-checking website, see Climate Feedback.
The relative magnitude of the top 6 climate change feedbacks and what they influence. Positive feedbacks amplify the global warming response to greenhouse gas emissions and negative feedbacks reduce it. In this chart, the horizontal lengths of the red and blue bars indicate the strength of respective feedbacks.

Climate change feedbacks are natural processes that impact how much global temperatures will increase for a given amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Positive feedbacks amplify global warming while negative feedbacks diminish it. Feedbacks influence both the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the amount of temperature change that happens in response. While emissions are the forcing that causes climate change, feedbacks combine to control climate sensitivity to that forcing.

While the overall sum of feedbacks is negative, it is becoming less negative as greenhouse gas emissions continue. This means that warming is slower than it would be in the absence of feedbacks, but that warming will accelerate if emissions continue at current levels. Net feedbacks will stay negative largely because of increased thermal radiation as the planet warms, which is an effect that is several times larger than any other singular feedback. Accordingly, anthropogenic climate change alone cannot cause a runaway greenhouse effect.

Feedbacks can be divided into physical feedbacks and partially biological feedbacks. Physical feedbacks include decreased surface reflectivity (from diminished snow and ice cover) and increased water vapor in the atmosphere. Water vapor is not only a powerful greenhouse gas, it also influences feedbacks in the distribution of clouds and temperatures in the atmosphere. Biological feedbacks are mostly associated with changes to the rate at which plant matter accumulates CO2 as part of the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle absorbs more than half of CO2 emissions every year into plants and into the ocean. Over the long term the percentage will be reduced as carbon sinks become saturated and higher temperatures lead to effects like drought and wildfires.

Feedback strengths and relationships are estimated through global climate models, with their estimates calibrated against observational data whenever possible. Some feedbacks rapidly impact climate sensitivity, while the feedback response from ice sheets is drawn out over several centuries. Feedbacks can also result in localized differences, such as polar amplification resulting from feedbacks that include reduced snow and ice cover. While basic relationships are well understood, feedback uncertainty exists in certain areas, particularly regarding cloud feedbacks. Carbon cycle uncertainty is driven by the large rates at which CO2 is both absorbed into plants and released when biomass burns or decays. For instance, permafrost thaw produces both CO2 and methane emissions in ways that are difficult to model. Climate change scenarios use models to estimate how Earth will respond to greenhouse gas emissions over time, including how feedbacks will change as the planet warms.

Definition and terminology

See also: Climate system, positive feedback, and negative feedback

The Planck response is the additional thermal radiation objects emit as they get warmer. Whether Planck response is a climate change feedback depends on the context. In climate science the Planck response can be treated as an intrinsic part of warming that is separate from radiative feedbacks and carbon cycle feedbacks. However, the Planck response is included when calculating climate sensitivity.

A feedback that amplifies an initial change is called a positive feedback while a feedback that reduces an initial change is called a negative feedback. Climate change feedbacks are in the context of global warming, so positive feedbacks enhance warming and negative feedbacks diminish it. Naming a feedback positive or negative does not imply that the feedback is good or bad.

The initial change that triggers a feedback may be externally forced, or may arise through the climate system's internal variability. External forcing refers to "a forcing agent outside the climate system causing a change in the climate system" that may push the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling. External forcings may be human-caused (for example, greenhouse gas emissions or land use change) or natural (for example, volcanic eruptions).

Physical feedbacks

Planck response (negative)

Climate change occurs because the amount of thermal radiation absorbed by different parts of the Earth's environment currently exceeds the amount radiated away to space. As the warming increases, outgoing radiation to space increases quickly due to the Planck response, which eventually helps to stabilize the Earth at some higher temperature level

Planck response is "the most fundamental feedback in the climate system". As the temperature of a black body increases, the emission of infrared radiation increases with the fourth power of its absolute temperature according to the Stefan–Boltzmann law. This increases the amount of outgoing radiation back into space as the Earth warms. It is a strong stabilizing response and has sometimes been called the "no-feedback response" because it is an intensive property of a thermodynamic system when considered to be purely a function of temperature. Although Earth has an effective emissivity less than unity, the ideal black body radiation emerges as a separable quantity when investigating perturbations to the planet's outgoing radiation.

The Planck "feedback" or Planck response is the comparable radiative response obtained from analysis of practical observations or global climate models (GCMs). Its expected strength has been most simply estimated from the derivative of the Stefan-Boltzmann equation as -4σT = -3.8 W/m/K (watts per square meter per degree of warming). Accounting from GCM applications has sometimes yielded a reduced strength, as caused by extensive properties of the stratosphere and similar residual artifacts subsequently identified as being absent from such models.

Most extensive "grey body" properties of Earth that influence the outgoing radiation are usually postulated to be encompassed by the other GCM feedback components, and to be distributed in accordance with a particular forcing-feedback formulation of the climate system. Ideally the Planck response strength obtained from GCMs, indirect measurements, and black body estimates will further converge as analysis methods continue to mature.

Water vapor feedback (positive)

Atmospheric gases only absorb some wavelengths of energy but are transparent to others. The absorption patterns of water vapor (blue peaks) and carbon dioxide (pink peaks) overlap in some wavelengths.

According to Clausius–Clapeyron relation, saturation vapor pressure is higher in a warmer atmosphere, and so the absolute amount of water vapor will increase as the atmosphere warms. It is sometimes also called the specific humidity feedback, because relative humidity (RH) stays practically constant over the oceans, but it decreases over land. This occurs because land experiences faster warming than the ocean, and a decline in RH has been observed after the year 2000.

Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the increase in water vapor content makes the atmosphere warm further, which allows the atmosphere to hold still more water vapor. Thus, a positive feedback loop is formed, which continues until the negative feedbacks bring the system to equilibrium. Increases in atmospheric water vapor have been detected from satellites, and calculations based on these observations place this feedback strength at 1.85 ± 0.32 m/K. This is very similar to model estimates, which are at 1.77 ± 0.20 m/K Either value effectively doubles the warming that would otherwise occur from CO2 increases alone. Like with the other physical feedbacks, this is already accounted for in the warming projections under climate change scenarios.

Lapse rate (negative)

Main article: Lapse rate
Lapse rate (green) is a negative feedback everywhere on Earth besides the polar latitudes. The net climate feedback (black) becomes less negative if it were excluded (orange)

The lapse rate is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally temperature in Earth's atmosphere, falls with altitude. It is therefore a quantification of temperature, related to radiation, as a function of altitude, and is not a separate phenomenon in this context. The lapse rate feedback is generally a negative feedback. However, it is in fact a positive feedback in polar regions where it strongly contributed to polar amplified warming, one of the biggest consequences of climate change. This is because in regions with strong inversions, such as the polar regions, the lapse rate feedback can be positive because the surface warms faster than higher altitudes, resulting in inefficient longwave cooling.

The atmosphere's temperature decreases with height in the troposphere. Since emission of infrared radiation varies with temperature, longwave radiation escaping to space from the relatively cold upper atmosphere is less than that emitted toward the ground from the lower atmosphere. Thus, the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the atmosphere's rate of temperature decrease with height. Both theory and climate models indicate that global warming will reduce the rate of temperature decrease with height, producing a negative lapse rate feedback that weakens the greenhouse effect.

Surface albedo feedback (positive)

Main articles: Arctic sea ice decline and Ice–albedo feedback Average decadal extent and area of the Arctic Ocean sea ice since 1979.Average decadal extent and area of the Arctic Ocean sea ice since the start of satellite observations.Annual trend in the Arctic sea ice extent and area for the 2011-2022 time period.Annual trend in the Arctic sea ice extent and area for the 2011-2022 time period.

Albedo is the measure of how strongly the planetary surface can reflect solar radiation, which prevents its absorption and thus has a cooling effect. Brighter and more reflective surfaces have a high albedo and darker surfaces have a low albedo, so they heat up more. The most reflective surfaces are ice and snow, so surface albedo changes are overwhelmingly associated with what is known as the ice-albedo feedback. A minority of the effect is also associated with changes in physical oceanography, soil moisture and vegetation cover.

The presence of ice cover and sea ice makes the North Pole and the South Pole colder than they would have been without it. During glacial periods, additional ice increases the reflectivity and thus lowers absorption of solar radiation, cooling the planet. But when warming occurs and the ice melts, darker land or open water takes its place and this causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting. In both cases, a self-reinforcing cycle continues until an equilibrium is found. Consequently, recent Arctic sea ice decline is a key reason behind the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the global average since 1979 (the start of continuous satellite readings), in a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. Conversely, the high stability of ice cover in Antarctica, where the East Antarctic ice sheet rises nearly 4 km above the sea level, means that it has experienced very little net warming over the past seven decades.

Aerial photograph showing a section of sea ice. The lighter blue areas are melt ponds and the darkest areas are open water; both have a lower albedo than the white sea ice, so their presence increases local and global temperatures, which helps to spur more melting

As of 2021, the total surface feedback strength is estimated at 0.35 W m/K. On its own, Arctic sea ice decline between 1979 and 2011 was responsible for 0.21 (W/m) of radiative forcing. This is equivalent to a quarter of impact from CO2 emissions over the same period. The combined change in all sea ice cover between 1992 and 2018 is equivalent to 10% of all the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Ice-albedo feedback strength is not constant and depends on the rate of ice loss - models project that under high warming, its strength peaks around 2100 and declines afterwards, as most easily melted ice would already be lost by then.

When CMIP5 models estimate a total loss of Arctic sea ice cover from June to September (a plausible outcome under higher levels of warming), it increases the global temperatures by 0.19 °C (0.34 °F), with a range of 0.16–0.21 °C, while the regional temperatures would increase by over 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). These calculations include second-order effects such as the impact from ice loss on regional lapse rate, water vapor and cloud feedbacks, and do not cause "additional" warming on top of the existing model projections.

Cloud feedback (positive)

Details of how clouds interact with shortwave and longwave radiation at different atmospheric heights
Main article: Cloud feedback

Seen from below, clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, which has a warming effect; seen from above, clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space, leading to a cooling effect. Low clouds are bright and very reflective, so they lead to strong cooling, while high clouds are too thin and transparent to effectively reflect sunlight, so they cause overall warming. As a whole, clouds have a substantial cooling effect. However, climate change is expected to alter the distribution of cloud types in a way which collectively reduces their cooling and thus accelerates overall warming. While changes to clouds act as a negative feedback in some latitudes, they represent a clear positive feedback on a global scale.

As of 2021, cloud feedback strength is estimated at 0.42 W m/K. This is the largest confidence interval of any climate feedback, and it occurs because some cloud types (most of which are present over the oceans) have been very difficult to observe, so climate models don't have as much data to go on with when they attempt to simulate their behaviour. Additionally, clouds have been strongly affected by aerosol particles, mainly from the unfiltered burning of sulfur-rich fossil fuels such as coal and bunker fuel. Any estimate of cloud feedback needs to disentangle the effects of so-called global dimming caused by these particles as well.

Thus, estimates of cloud feedback differ sharply between climate models. Models with the strongest cloud feedback have the highest climate sensitivity, which means that they simulate much stronger warming in response to a doubling of CO2 (or equivalent greenhouse gas) concentrations than the rest. Around 2020, a small fraction of models was found to simulate so much warming as the result that they had contradicted paleoclimate evidence from fossils, and their output was effectively excluded from the climate sensitivity estimate of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

Biogeophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks

CO2 feedbacks (mostly negative)

See also: Carbon cycle and Soil carbon feedback
This diagram of the fast carbon cycle shows the movement of carbon between land, atmosphere, soil and oceans in billions of tons of carbon per year. Yellow numbers are natural fluxes, red are human contributions in billions of tons of carbon per year. White numbers indicate stored carbon.

There are positive and negative climate feedbacks from Earth's carbon cycle. Negative feedbacks are large, and play a great role in the studies of climate inertia or of dynamic (time-dependent) climate change. Because they are considered relatively insensitive to temperature changes, they are sometimes considered separately or disregarded in studies which aim to quantify climate sensitivity. Global warming projections have included carbon cycle feedbacks since the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in 2007. While the scientific understanding of these feedbacks was limited at the time, it had improved since then. These positive feedbacks include an increase in wildfire frequency and severity, substantial losses from tropical rainforests due to fires and drying and tree losses elsewhere. The Amazon rainforest is a well-known example due to its enormous size and importance, and because the damage it experiences from climate change is exacerbated by the ongoing deforestation. The combination of two threats can potentially transform much or all of the rainforest to a savannah-like state, although this would most likely require relatively high warming of 3.5 °C (6.3 °F).

Altogether, carbon sinks in the land and ocean absorb around half of the current emissions. Their future absorption is dynamic. In the future, if the emissions decrease, the fraction they absorb will increase, and they will absorb up to three-quarters of the remaining emissions - yet, the raw amount absorbed will decrease from the present. On the contrary, if the emissions will increase, then the raw amount absorbed will increase from now, yet the fraction could decline to one-third by the end of the 21st century. If the emissions remain very high after the 21st century, carbon sinks would eventually be completely overwhelmed, with the ocean sink diminished further and land ecosystems outright becoming a net source. Hypothetically, very strong carbon dioxide removal could also result in land and ocean carbon sinks becoming net sources for several decades.

Role of oceans

The impulse response following a 100 GtC injection of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere. The majority of excess carbon is removed by ocean and land sinks in less than a few centuries, while a substantial portion persists.

Following Le Chatelier's principle, the chemical equilibrium of the Earth's carbon cycle will shift in response to anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The primary driver of this is the ocean, which absorbs anthropogenic CO2 via the so-called solubility pump. At present this accounts for only about one third of the current emissions, but ultimately most (~75%) of the CO2 emitted by human activities will dissolve in the ocean over a period of centuries: "A better approximation of the lifetime of fossil fuel CO2 for public discussion might be 300 years, plus 25% that lasts forever". However, the rate at which the ocean will take it up in the future is less certain, and will be affected by stratification induced by warming and, potentially, changes in the ocean's thermohaline circulation. It is believed that the single largest factor in determining the total strength of the global carbon sink is the state of the Southern Ocean - particularly of the Southern Ocean overturning circulation.

Chemical weathering

Chemical weathering over the geological long term acts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. With current global warming, weathering is increasing, demonstrating significant feedbacks between climate and Earth surface. Biosequestration also captures and stores CO2 by biological processes. The formation of shells by organisms in the ocean, over a very long time, removes CO2 from the oceans. The complete conversion of CO2 to limestone takes thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.

Primary production through photosynthesis

Increase in global leaf area between 1982 and 2015, which was primarily caused by the CO2 fertilization effect

Net primary productivity of plants' and phytoplankton grows as the increased CO2 fuels their photosynthesis in what is known as the CO2 fertilization effect. Additionally, plants require less water as the atmospheric CO2 concentrations increase, because they lose less moisture to evapotranspiration through open stomata (the pores in leaves through which CO2 is absorbed). However, increased droughts in certain regions can still limit plant growth, and the warming beyond optimum conditions has a consistently negative impact. Thus, estimates for the 21st century show that plants would become a lot more abundant at high latitudes near the poles but grow much less near the tropics - there is only medium confidence that tropical ecosystems would gain more carbon relative to now. However, there is high confidence that the total land carbon sink will remain positive.

Non-CO2 climate-relevant gases (unclear)

Methane climate feedbacks in natural ecosystems.

Release of gases of biological origin would be affected by global warming, and this includes climate-relevant gases such as methane, nitrous oxide or dimethyl sulfide. Others, such as dimethyl sulfide released from oceans, have indirect effects. Emissions of methane from land (particularly from wetlands) and of nitrous oxide from land and oceans are a known positive feedback. I.e. long-term warming changes the balance in the methane-related microbial community within freshwater ecosystems so they produce more methane while proportionately less is oxidised to carbon dioxide. There would also be biogeophysical changes which affect the albedo. For instance, larch in some sub-arctic forests are being replaced by spruce trees. This has a limited contribution to warming, because larch trees shed their needles in winter and so they end up more extensively covered in snow than the spruce trees which retain their dark needles all year.

On the other hand, changes in emissions of compounds such sea salt, dimethyl sulphide, dust, ozone and a range of biogenic volatile organic compounds are expected to be negative overall. As of 2021, all of these non-CO2 feedbacks are believed to practically cancel each other out, but there is only low confidence, and the combined feedbacks could be up to 0.25 W m/K in either direction.

Permafrost (positive)

Permafrost is not included in the estimates above, as it is difficult to model, and the estimates of its role is strongly time-dependent as its carbon pools are depleted at different rates under different warming levels. Instead, it is treated as a separate process that will contribute to near-term warming, with the best estimates shown below.

This section is an excerpt from Permafrost § Impact on global temperatures.
Nine probable scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost thaw during the 21st century, which show a limited, moderate and intense CO2 and CH4 emission response to low, medium and high-emission Representative Concentration Pathways. The vertical bar uses emissions of selected large countries as a comparison: the right-hand side of the scale shows their cumulative emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution, while the left-hand side shows each country's cumulative emissions for the rest of the 21st century if they remained unchanged from their 2019 levels.

Altogether, it is expected that cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost thaw will be smaller than the cumulative anthropogenic emissions, yet still substantial on a global scale, with some experts comparing them to emissions caused by deforestation. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that carbon dioxide and methane released from permafrost could amount to the equivalent of 14–175 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per 1 °C (1.8 °F) of warming. For comparison, by 2019, annual anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide alone stood around 40 billion tonnes. A major review published in the year 2022 concluded that if the goal of preventing 2 °C (3.6 °F) of warming was realized, then the average annual permafrost emissions throughout the 21st century would be equivalent to the year 2019 annual emissions of Russia. Under RCP4.5, a scenario considered close to the current trajectory and where the warming stays slightly below 3 °C (5.4 °F), annual permafrost emissions would be comparable to year 2019 emissions of Western Europe or the United States, while under the scenario of high global warming and worst-case permafrost feedback response, they would approach year 2019 emissions of China.

Fewer studies have attempted to describe the impact directly in terms of warming. A 2018 paper estimated that if global warming was limited to 2 °C (3.6 °F), gradual permafrost thaw would add around 0.09 °C (0.16 °F) to global temperatures by 2100, while a 2022 review concluded that every 1 °C (1.8 °F) of global warming would cause 0.04 °C (0.072 °F) and 0.11 °C (0.20 °F) from abrupt thaw by the year 2100 and 2300. Around 4 °C (7.2 °F) of global warming, abrupt (around 50 years) and widespread collapse of permafrost areas could occur, resulting in an additional warming of 0.2–0.4 °C (0.36–0.72 °F).

Long-term feedbacks

Ice sheets

The loss of albedo from major ice areas on Earth adds to warming: the values shown are for the initial warming of 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Total ice sheet loss requires multiple millennia: the others can be lost in a century or two

The Earth's two remaining ice sheets, the Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet, cover the world's largest island and an entire continent, and both of them are also around 2 km (1 mi) thick on average. Due to this immense size, their response to warming is measured in thousands of years and is believed to occur in two stages.

The first stage would be the effect from ice melt on thermohaline circulation. Because meltwater is completely fresh, it makes it harder for the surface layer of water to sink beneath the lower layers, and this disrupts the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and heat between the layers. This would act as a negative feedback - sometimes estimated as a cooling effect of 0.2 °C (0.36 °F) over a 1000-year average, though the research on these timescales has been limited. An even longer-term effect is the ice-albedo feedback from ice sheets reaching their ultimate state in response to whatever the long-term temperature change would be. Unless the warming is reversed entirely, this feedback would be positive.

The total loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet is estimated to add 0.13 °C (0.23 °F) to global warming (with a range of 0.04–0.06 °C), while the loss of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet adds 0.05 °C (0.090 °F) (0.04–0.06 °C), and East Antarctic ice sheet 0.6 °C (1.1 °F) Total loss of the Greenland ice sheet would also increase regional temperatures in the Arctic by between 0.5 °C (0.90 °F) and 3 °C (5.4 °F), while the regional temperature in Antarctica is likely to go up by 1 °C (1.8 °F) after the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet and 2 °C (3.6 °F) after the loss of the East Antarctic ice sheet.

These estimates assume that global warming stays at an average of 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Because of the logarithmic growth of the greenhouse effect, the impact from ice loss would be larger at the slightly lower warming level of 2020s, but it would become lower if the warming proceeds towards higher levels. While Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheet are likely committed to melting entirely if the long-term warming is around 1.5 °C (2.7 °F), the East Antarctic ice sheet would not be at risk of complete disappearance until the very high global warming of 5–10 °C (9.0–18.0 °F)

Methane hydrates

See also: Clathrate gun hypothesis

Methane hydrates or methane clathrates are frozen compounds where a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice. On Earth, they generally lie beneath sediments on the ocean floors, (approximately 1,100 m (3,600 ft) below the sea level). Around 2008, there was a serious concern that a large amount of hydrates from relatively shallow deposits in the Arctic, particularly around the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, could quickly break down and release large amounts of methane, potentially leading to 6 °C (11 °F) within 80 years. Current research shows that hydrates react very slowly to warming, and that it's very difficult for methane to reach the atmosphere after dissociation on the seafloor. Thus, no "detectable" impact on the global temperatures is expected to occur in this century due to methane hydrates. Some research suggests hydrate dissociation can still cause a warming of 0.4–0.5 °C (0.72–0.90 °F) over several millennia.

Mathematical formulation of global energy imbalance

Earth is a thermodynamic system for which long-term temperature changes follow the global energy imbalance (EEI stands for Earth's energy imbalance):

E E I A S R O L R {\displaystyle EEI\equiv ASR-OLR}

where ASR is the absorbed solar radiation and OLR is the outgoing longwave radiation at top of atmosphere. When EEI is positive the system is warming, when it is negative they system is cooling, and when it is approximately zero then there is neither warming or cooling. The ASR and OLR terms in this expression encompass many temperature-dependent properties and complex interactions that govern system behavior.

In order to diagnose that behavior around a relatively stable equilibrium state, one may consider a perturbation to EEI as indicated by the symbol Δ. Such a perturbation is typically induced by a radiative forcing (ΔF) which can be natural or man-made. Responses within the system to either return towards the stable state, or to move further away from the stable state are called feedbacks λΔT:

Δ E E I = Δ F + λ Δ T {\displaystyle \Delta EEI=\Delta F+\lambda \Delta T} .

A feedback is a thermodynamic process while a forcing is a thermodynamic operation according to classical principles.

Collectively the feedbacks may be approximated by the linearized parameter λ and the perturbed temperature ΔT because all components of λ (assumed to be first-order to act independently and additively) are also functions of temperature, albeit to varying extents, by definition for a thermodynamic system:

λ = i λ i = ( λ w v + λ c + λ a + λ c c + λ p + λ l r + . . . ) {\displaystyle \lambda =\sum _{i}\lambda _{i}=(\lambda _{wv}+\lambda _{c}+\lambda _{a}+\lambda _{cc}+\lambda _{p}+\lambda _{lr}+...)} .

Some feedback components having significant influence on EEI are: w v {\displaystyle wv} = water vapor, c {\displaystyle c} = clouds, a {\displaystyle a} = surface albedo, c c {\displaystyle cc} = carbon cycle, p {\displaystyle p} = Planck response, and l r {\displaystyle lr} = lapse rate. All quantities are understood to be global averages, while T is usually translated to temperature at the surface because of its direct relevance to humans and much other life.

The negative Planck response, being an especially strong function of temperature, is sometimes factored out to give an expression in terms of the relative feedback gains gi from other components:

λ = ¬ λ p × ( 1 i g i ) {\displaystyle \lambda =\neg \lambda _{p}\times (1-\sum _{i}g_{i})} .

For example g w v 0.5 {\displaystyle g_{wv}\approx 0.5} for the water vapor feedback.

Within the context of modern numerical climate modelling and analysis, the linearized formulation has limited use. One such use is to diagnose the relative strengths of different feedback mechanisms. An estimate of climate sensitivity to a forcing is then obtained for the case where the net feedback remains negative and the system reaches a new equilibrium state (ΔEEI=0) after some time has passed:

Δ T = Δ F λ p × ( 1 i g i ) {\displaystyle \Delta T={\frac {\Delta F}{\lambda _{p}\times (1-\sum _{i}g_{i})}}} .

Implications for climate policy

See also: Climate sensitivity
diagram showing five historical estimates of equilibrium climate sensitivity by the IPCC
Historical estimates of climate sensitivity from the IPCC assessments. The first three reports gave a qualitative likely range, and the next three had formally quantified it, by adding >66% likely range (dark blue). This uncertainty primarily depends on feedbacks.

Uncertainty over climate change feedbacks has implications for climate policy. For instance, uncertainty over carbon cycle feedbacks may affect targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (climate change mitigation). Emissions targets are often based on a target stabilization level of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, or on a target for limiting global warming to a particular magnitude. Both of these targets (concentrations or temperatures) require an understanding of future changes in the carbon cycle.

If models incorrectly project future changes in the carbon cycle, then concentration or temperature targets could be missed. For example, if models underestimate the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere due to positive feedbacks (e.g., due to thawing permafrost), then they may also underestimate the extent of emissions reductions necessary to meet a concentration or temperature target.

See also

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