Encyclopedia of Climate System Science provides authoritative, up-to-date information on the observing, functioning, modeling, and projected future states of the Climate System. With contributions from hundreds of experts in the field, it is the most complete go-to reference for those interested in a discriminating understanding of climate variability and change.
The Climate System is complex, consisting of myriad interactions and feedbacks within and across oceans, atmosphere, land surface, cryosphere, and biosphere, which lead to natural variability on timescales ranging from sub-seasonal to multidecadal. Superposed on the natural variations is Climate Change - a raging concern that has generated widespread interest in several facets of climate science. This encyclopedia highlights system interactions that play a leading role in shaping climate variability, their modulation by climate change, the multivariate structure of climate change in each subsystem, the extraction of this signal, and the robustness of climate projections. The Encyclopedia content is a balanced blend of observational analysis, theory, and numerical modeling. Its discussion of climate change is presented against a historically expansive backdrop populated by paleoclimates and the Anthropocene.
This unique Encyclopedia provides readers with the knowledge framework for interpreting 20th-21st century climate variations and assessing 21st-22nd century climate projections.
Table of Contents
Section I. The Climate System
1. Characterization
1.1 Heat and Energy Flows; Angular Momentum Cycle; Water Cycle; Carbon Cycle
2. Paleoclimate
3. The Anthropocene
4. Analysis of Climate Variability
4.1 20th-21st Century Climate Variability: Sub-seasonal, Seasonal, Interannual, and Decadal-Multidecadal timescale Variability; Climate Extremes
Section II. Climate System Components
5. Oceans
6. Atmosphere
7. Land-Surface
8. Cryosphere
9. Biosphere
Section III. Climate System Interactions
10. Ocean-Atmosphere: Physical Interactions (heat, momentum, and water transfers)
10.1 Tropical basin
10.2 High-latitude basins
11. Land-Atmosphere: Physical Interactions (energy, momentum, and aerosol transfers)
12. Ocean-Cryosphere: Physical Interactions (e.g., from ice melt/growth)
13. Ocean-Biosphere-Atmosphere: Biogeochemical Interactions through Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems (e.g., carbon cycling; aerosol injections)
Section IV. Climate Observing System
14. In-situ Observations
15. Space-based Observations (e.g., satellites, COSMIC occultations, autonomous vehicles)
16. Climate Datasets
17. Assimilation of Observations in the governing Dynamical and Thermodynamical Framework: Reanalyses
The Modern Climate Record
18. Gaps in Observing System
Section V. Climate Modeling System
19. Model Hierarchy for Improved Simulation and Understanding
20. Simple Climate Models
21. General Circulation Models
22. Component Models
23. Coupling Models: Earth System Models
23.1 Land-Atmosphere coupling
23.2 Ocean-Atmosphere coupling
23.3 Carbon Cycle coupling
23.4 Machine Learning enabled models
24. Ensemble Modeling
25. Structural Uncertainty
26. Internal Variability
27. Forcing Uncertainty
28. Regional Climate/Impact Modeling
Section VI. Climate Simulations. An Assessment of CMIP6 Models
29. CMIP6 Paleoclimate reconstruction
29.1 The Younger Dryas
29.2 African Humid Period
29.3 Little Ice Age
30. CMIP6 20th-21st Century Climate Simulations: Spatiotemporal Structure of Natural Variability
30.1 Subseasonal Variability: Climate Teleconnections (e.g., PNA, NPO, NAO, MJO)
30.2 Seasonal Variability: Hadley Circulation, Subtropical Highs, Storm Tracks, Secular Warming, etc.
30.3 Interannual Variability: El Nino Southern Oscillation, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, etc.
30.4 Decadal-Multidecadal Atmospheric Variability: Hydroclimate episodes (e.g., Dust Bowl, Sahel Desertification)
30.5 Multidecadal Ocean Variability: Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, etc.
31. CMIP6 20th-21st Century Climate Simulations: Incidence of Extreme Events (heat waves, droughts, intense storms, floods, hurricanes (if resolved))
32. CMIP6 Downscaled 20th-21st Century Climate
Section VII. Climate Change
33. Observed and CMIP6-Modeled 20th-21st Century Climate Change
34. Surface Hydroclimate Change
35. Temperature and Precipitation change: Regional Desertification and Wetting
36. Seasonal variations in Warming and Precipitation Change
37. Multidecadal Variability’s contribution in Sub-Centennial Change
38. Sea-level Rise
39. Troposphere-Stratosphere Structure of Warming
40. Circulation Change
40.1 Hadley Circulation change, Tropical Widening
40.2 Walker Circulation Slowdown
41. Change in Extreme Events’ Statistics
42. Modeled Hydroclimate and Circulation Changes
43. CMIP6 Ensemble-mean and Ensemble Spread; Inter-Model Spread
44. Climate Sensitivity: Observations and Model-based Estimates
45. Integrated Assessment Models
46. CMIP6 Climate Projections
46.1 Scenarios
46.2 Global Averaged Surface Temperature: Transient and Equilibrium Projections
46.3 Surface Hydroclimate: Regional Temperature and Precipitation Projections
46.4 Natural Ecosystems
47. CMIP6 Downscaled Projections
48. Climate Risk Assessment
