Why Does E3SMv2 Have High Aerosol Sensitivity?

Summary

The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) version 2 struggles to accurately simulate 20th-century temperature trends due to an unusually high aerosol cooling effect, specifically an excessive effective radiative forcing (ERF). This study identifies that E3SMv2's high ERF is primarily caused by an unrealistically large anthropogenic aerosol optical depth, especially over oceans. Sensitivity simulations successfully demonstrate that reducing the simulated anthropogenic aerosol burden can effectively dampen the strong ERF, leading to better alignment with historical temperature records.

Key Facts

Source Document

https://example-government.gov/policy-document-link