TY - JOUR A1 - Risbey, James S. A1 - Lewandowsky, Stephan A1 - Cowtan, Kevin A1 - Oreskes, Naomi A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Jokimäki, Ari A1 - Foster, Grant T1 - A fluctuation in surface temperature in historical context BT - reassessment and retrospective on the evidence JF - Environmental research letters N2 - This work reviews the literature on an alleged global warming 'pause' in global mean surface temperature (GMST) to determine how it has been defined, what time intervals are used to characterise it, what data are used to measure it, and what methods used to assess it. We test for 'pauses', both in the normally understood meaning of the term to mean no warming trend, as well as for a 'pause' defined as a substantially slower trend in GMST. The tests are carried out with the historical versions of GMST that existed for each pause-interval tested, and with current versions of each of the GMST datasets. The tests are conducted following the common (but questionable) practice of breaking the linear fit at the start of the trend interval ('broken' trends), and also with trends that are continuous with the data bordering the trend interval. We also compare results when appropriate allowance is made for the selection bias problem. The results show that there is little or no statistical evidence for a lack of trend or slower trend in GMST using either the historical data or the current data. The perception that there was a 'pause' in GMST was bolstered by earlier biases in the data in combination with incomplete statistical testing. KW - climate variability KW - climate trends KW - temperature fluctuation KW - pause hiatus Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf342 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 13 IS - 12 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - GEN A1 - Risbey, James S. A1 - Lewandowsky, Stephan A1 - Cowtan, Kevin A1 - Oreskes, Naomi A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Jokimäki, Ari A1 - Foster, Grant T1 - A fluctuation in surface temperature in historical context BT - reassessment and retrospective on the evidence T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - This work reviews the literature on an alleged global warming 'pause' in global mean surface temperature (GMST) to determine how it has been defined, what time intervals are used to characterise it, what data are used to measure it, and what methods used to assess it. We test for 'pauses', both in the normally understood meaning of the term to mean no warming trend, as well as for a 'pause' defined as a substantially slower trend in GMST. The tests are carried out with the historical versions of GMST that existed for each pause-interval tested, and with current versions of each of the GMST datasets. The tests are conducted following the common (but questionable) practice of breaking the linear fit at the start of the trend interval ('broken' trends), and also with trends that are continuous with the data bordering the trend interval. We also compare results when appropriate allowance is made for the selection bias problem. The results show that there is little or no statistical evidence for a lack of trend or slower trend in GMST using either the historical data or the current data. The perception that there was a 'pause' in GMST was bolstered by earlier biases in the data in combination with incomplete statistical testing. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1023 KW - climate variability KW - climate trends KW - temperature fluctuation KW - pause hiatus Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-468041 SN - 1866-8372 VL - 13 IS - 1023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlbrodt, Till A1 - Titz, Sven Holger A1 - Feudel, Ulrike A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan T1 - A simple model of seasonal open ocean convection. Part II: Labrador Sea stability and stochastic forcing N2 - Aspects of open ocean deep convection variability are explored with a two-box model. In order to place the model in a region of parameter space relevant to the real ocean, it is fitted to observational data from the Labrador Sea. A systematic fit to OWS Bravo data allows us to determine the model parameters and to locate the position of the Labrador Sea on a stability diagram. The model suggests that the Labrador Sea is in a bistable regime where winter convection can be either ?on? or ?off?, with both these possibilities being stable climate states. When shifting the surface buoyancy forcing slightly to warmer or fresher conditions, the only steady solution is one without winter convection. We then introduce short-term variability by adding a noise term to the surface temperature forcing, turning the box model into a stochastic climate model. The surface forcing anomalies generated in this way induce jumps between the two model states. These state transitions occur on the interannual to decadal timescale. Changing the average surface forcing towards more buoyant conditions lowers the frequency of convection. However, convection becomes more frequent with stronger variability in the surface forcing. As part of the natural variability, there is a non-negligible probability for decadal interruptions of convection. The results highlight the role of surface forcing variability for the persistence of convection in the ocean. Y1 - 2001 SN - 1616-7341 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lenton, Timothy M. A1 - Rockstroem, Johan A1 - Gaffney, Owen A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Richardson, Katherine A1 - Steffen, Will A1 - Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim T1 - Climate tipping points - too risky to bet against : Comment T2 - Nature : the international weekly journal of science Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 575 IS - 7784 SP - 592 EP - 595 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim T1 - Der Klimawandel T3 - Schriftenreihe / Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung ; Band 10520 Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-3-7425-0520-0 PB - Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung CY - Bonn ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim T1 - Der Klimawandel T3 - Becksche Reihe Y1 - 2006 SN - 3-406-50866-9 VL - 2366 PB - Beck CY - München ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lewandowsky, Stephan A1 - Cowtan, Kevin A1 - Risbey, James S. A1 - Mann, Michael E. A1 - Steinman, Byron A. A1 - Oreskes, Naomi A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan T1 - Erratum: The 'pause' in global warming in historical context: II. Comparing models to observations (Environmental research letters. - Vol 13, (2018) 123007) T2 - Environmental research letters N2 - We review the evidence for a putative early 21st-century divergence between global mean surface temperature (GMST) and Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) projections. We provide a systematic comparison between temperatures and projections using historical versions of GMST products and historical versions of model projections that existed at the times when claims about a divergence were made. The comparisons are conducted with a variety of statistical techniques that correct for problems in previous work, including using continuous trends and a Monte Carlo approach to simulate internal variability. The results show that there is no robust statistical evidence for a divergence between models and observations. The impression of a divergence early in the 21st century was caused by various biases in model interpretation and in the observations, and was unsupported by robust statistics. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aafbb7 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 14 IS - 4 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Horton, Benjamin P. A1 - Khan, Nicole S. A1 - Cahill, Niamh A1 - Lee, Janice S. H. A1 - Shaw, Timothy A. A1 - Garner, Andra J. A1 - Kemp, Andrew C. A1 - Engelhart, Simon E. A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan T1 - Estimating global mean sea-level rise and its uncertainties by 2100 and 2300 from an expert survey JF - npj Climate and Atmospheric Science N2 - Sea-level rise projections and knowledge of their uncertainties are vital to make informed mitigation and adaptation decisions. To elicit projections from members of the scientific community regarding future global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise, we repeated a survey originally conducted five years ago. Under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 106 experts projected a likely (central 66% probability) GMSL rise of 0.30-0.65 m by 2100, and 0.54-2.15 m by 2300, relative to 1986-2005. Under RCP 8.5, the same experts projected a likely GMSL rise of 0.63-1.32 m by 2100, and 1.67-5.61 m by 2300. Expert projections for 2100 are similar to those from the original survey, although the projection for 2300 has extended tails and is higher than the original survey. Experts give a likelihood of 42% (original survey) and 45% (current survey) that under the high-emissions scenario GMSL rise will exceed the upper bound (0.98 m) of the likely range estimated by the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is considered to have an exceedance likelihood of 17%. Responses to open-ended questions suggest that the increases in upper-end estimates and uncertainties arose from recent influential studies about the impact of marine ice cliff instability on the meltwater contribution to GMSL rise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. KW - projections KW - Greenland KW - consequences KW - climate Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-0121-5 SN - 2397-3722 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Horton, Benjamin P. A1 - Khan, Nicole S. A1 - Cahill, Niamh A1 - Lee, Janice S. H. A1 - Shaw, Timothy A. A1 - Garner, Andra J. A1 - Kemp, Andrew C. A1 - Engelhart, Simon E. A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan T1 - Estimating global mean sea-level rise and its uncertainties by 2100 and 2300 from an expert survey T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Sea-level rise projections and knowledge of their uncertainties are vital to make informed mitigation and adaptation decisions. To elicit projections from members of the scientific community regarding future global mean sea-level (GMSL) rise, we repeated a survey originally conducted five years ago. Under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 106 experts projected a likely (central 66% probability) GMSL rise of 0.30-0.65 m by 2100, and 0.54-2.15 m by 2300, relative to 1986-2005. Under RCP 8.5, the same experts projected a likely GMSL rise of 0.63-1.32 m by 2100, and 1.67-5.61 m by 2300. Expert projections for 2100 are similar to those from the original survey, although the projection for 2300 has extended tails and is higher than the original survey. Experts give a likelihood of 42% (original survey) and 45% (current survey) that under the high-emissions scenario GMSL rise will exceed the upper bound (0.98 m) of the likely range estimated by the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is considered to have an exceedance likelihood of 17%. Responses to open-ended questions suggest that the increases in upper-end estimates and uncertainties arose from recent influential studies about the impact of marine ice cliff instability on the meltwater contribution to GMSL rise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1437 KW - projections KW - Greenland KW - consequences KW - climate Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-516788 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kornhuber, Kai A1 - Petoukhov, Vladimir A1 - Petri, Stefan A1 - Rahmstorf, Stefan A1 - Coumou, Dim T1 - Evidence for wave resonance as a key mechanism for generating high-amplitude quasi-stationary waves in boreal summer JF - Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system N2 - Several recent northern hemisphere summer extremes have been linked to persistent high-amplitude wave patterns (e.g. heat waves in Europe 2003, Russia 2010 and in the US 2011, Floods in Pakistan 2010 and Europe 2013). Recently quasi-resonant amplification (QRA) was proposed as a mechanism that, when certain dynamical conditions are fulfilled, can lead to such high-amplitude wave events. Based on these resonance conditions a detection scheme to scan reanalysis data for QRA events in boreal summer months was implemented. With this objective detection scheme we analyzed the occurrence and duration of QRA events and the associated atmospheric flow patterns in 1979-2015 reanalysis data. We detect a total number of 178 events for wave 6, 7 and 8 and find that during roughly one-third of all high amplitude events QRA conditions were met for respective waves. Our analysis reveals a significant shift for quasi-stationary waves 6 and 7 towards high amplitudes during QRA events, lagging first QRA-detection by typically one week. The results provide further evidence for the validity of the QRA hypothesis and its important role in generating high amplitude waves in boreal summer. KW - Rossby waves KW - Wave resonance KW - Atmospheric dynamics KW - Extreme weather Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3399-6 SN - 0930-7575 SN - 1432-0894 VL - 49 SP - 1961 EP - 1979 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -