Radiative forcing at high concentrations of well-mixed greenhouse gases

What is it about?

In this study we examine the limitations of the simplified expressions of radiative forcing (equations used to estimate the radiative forcing resulting from a change in the concentration of a greenhouse gas) which are supplied in the IPCC reports. We show that the simplified expressions perform poorly for large changes in concentration and we provide better expressions for large changes in concentration.

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Why is it important?

Our results show that some IPCC simplified expressions should not be used to estimate the radiative forcing for large changes in greenhouse gases. For example, they should not be used to estimate radiative forcings for the large changes of CO2 which have occurred in the Phanerozoic. Instead, the simplified expressions provided in this study can be used to estimate these radiative forcings