Articles | Volume 12, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1591-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1591-2016
Research article
 | 
01 Aug 2016
Research article |  | 01 Aug 2016

Could the Pliocene constrain the equilibrium climate sensitivity?

J. C. Hargreaves and J. D. Annan

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Cited articles

Andrews, T., Gregory, J. M., and Webb, M. J.: The Dependence of Radiative Forcing and Feedback on Evolving Patterns of Surface Temperature Change in Climate Models, Journal of Climate, 28, 1630–1648, https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-14-00545.1, 2015.
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Bragg, F. J.: Understanding The Climate Of The Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period, PhD Thesis, Bristol University, 2014.
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Short summary
The mid-Pliocene Warm Period, 3 million years ago, was the most recent interval with high greenhouse gases. By modelling the period with the same models used for future projections, we can link the past and future climates. Here we use data from the mid-Pliocene to produce a tentative result for equilibrium climate sensitivity. We show that there are considerable uncertainties that strongly influence the result, but we are optimistic that these may be reduced in the next few years.