2008 NOV 17 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Climate feedback analysis constitutes a useful framework for comparing the global mean surface temperature responses to an external forcing predicted by general circulation models (GCMs). Nevertheless, the contributions of the different radiative feedbacks to global warming (in equilibrium or transient conditions) and their comparison with the contribution of other processes (e.g., the ocean heat uptake) have not been quantified explicitly," scientists writing in the Journal of Climate report ...read more

  2008 NOV 17 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from Germany, "The direct impact of aircraft condensation trails (contrails) on surface temperature in regions of high aircraft density has been a matter of recent debate in climate research. Based on data analysis for the 3-day aviation grounding period over the United States. following the terrorists' attack of 11 September 2001, a strong effect of contrails reducing the surface diurnal temperature range (DTR) has been suggested. ...read more

  2008 NOV 17 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Cloud effects have repeatedly been pointed out as the leading source of uncertainty in projections of future climate, yet clouds remain poorly understood and simulated in climate models. Aquaplanets provide a simplified framework for comparing and understanding cloud effects. and how they, are partitioned as a function of regime, in large-scale models," scientists in the United States report.

  "This work uses two climate models to demonstrate that aquaplanets can successfully predict a climate model's sensitivity to an idealized climate change. For both models. aquaplanet climate sensitivity is similar to that of the realistic configuration. tropical low clouds appear to play a leading role in determining the sensitivity. Regions of large-scale subsidence, which cover much of the tropics, are most directly responsible for the differences between the models," wrote B. Medeiros and colleagues, University of California ...read more