Print Email Facebook Twitter ESD Reviews Title ESD Reviews: Climate feedbacks in the Earth system and prospects for their evaluation Author Heinze, Christoph (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research; NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS) Eyring, Veronika (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR); University of Bremen) Friedlingstein, Pierre (University of Exeter) Jones, Colin (University of Leeds) Balkanski, Yves (Université de Versailles St-Quentin) Collins, William (University of Reading) Fichefet, Thierry (Université Catholique de Louvain) Gao, Shuang (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research; Institute of Marine Research) Siebesma, A.P. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing; Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)) Date 2019 Abstract Earth system models (ESMs) are key tools for providing climate projections under different scenarios of human-induced forcing. ESMs include a large number of additional processes and feedbacks such as biogeochemical cycles that traditional physical climate models do not consider. Yet, some processes such as cloud dynamics and ecosystem functional response still have fairly high uncertainties. In this article, we present an overview of climate feedbacks for Earth system components currently included in state-of-the-art ESMs and discuss the challenges to evaluate and quantify them. Uncertainties in feedback quantification arise from the interdependencies of biogeochemical matter fluxes and physical properties, the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of processes, and the lack of long-term continuous observational data to constrain them. We present an outlook for promising approaches that can help to quantify and to constrain the large number of feedbacks in ESMs in the future. The target group for this article includes generalists with a background in natural sciences and an interest in climate change as well as experts working in interdisciplinary climate research (researchers, lecturers, and students). This study updates and significantly expands upon the last comprehensive overview of climate feedbacks in ESMs, which was produced 15 years ago (NRC, 2003). To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d15bd5f5-b147-4959-90ff-d617f70d64d0 DOI https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-379-2019 ISSN 2190-4979 Source Earth System Dynamics, 10 (3), 379-452 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type review Rights © 2019 Christoph Heinze, Veronika Eyring, Pierre Friedlingstein, Colin Jones, Yves Balkanski, William Collins, Thierry Fichefet, Shuang Gao, A.P. Siebesma, More Authors Files PDF esd_10_379_2019.pdf 11.31 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:d15bd5f5-b147-4959-90ff-d617f70d64d0/datastream/OBJ/view