Scale-Dependent Detection of Climate Change

Abstract Spatially and temporally dependent fingerprint patterns of near-surface temperature change are derived from transient climate simulations of the second Hadley Centre coupled ocean–atmosphere GCM (HADCM2). Trends in near-surface temperature are calculated from simulations in which HADCM2 is forced with historical increases in greenhouse gases only and with both greenhouse gases and anthropogenic sulfur emissions. For each response an ensemble of four simulations is carried out. An estimate of the natural internal variability of the ocean–atmosphere system is taken from a long multicentury control run of HADCM2. The aim of the study is to investigate the spatial and temporal scales on which it is possible to detect a significant change in climate. Temporal scales are determined by taking temperature trends over 10, 30, and 50 yr using annual mean data, and spatial scales are defined by projecting these trends onto spherical harmonics. Each fingerprint pattern is projected onto the recent observed p...

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