Published March 12, 2025 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Confronting Earth System Model trends with observations

  • 1. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • 2. University of Chicago
  • 3. Imperial College London
  • 4. University of Miami
  • 5. ETH Zurich
  • 6. University of Virginia
  • 7. University of Exeter
  • 8. University of Oxford
  • 9. Environment and Climate Change Canada
  • 10. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Description

Anthropogenically forced climate change signals are emerging from the noise of internal variability in observations, and the impacts on society are growing. For decades, Climate or Earth System Models have been predicting how these climate change signals will unfold. While challenges remain, given the growing forced trends and the lengthening observational record, the climate science community is now in a position to confront the signals, as represented by historical trends, in models with observations. This review covers the state of the science on the ability of models to represent historical trends in the climate system. It also outlines robust procedures that should be used when comparing modeled and observed trends and how to move beyond quantification into understanding. Finally, this review discusses cutting-edge methods for identifying sources of discrepancies and the importance of future confrontations.

Data availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the materials cited herein. CMIP5 or CMIP6 data are available from data portals https://aims2.llnl.gov/search or download sites for the cited reanalyses.

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sciadv.adt8035.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.adt8035
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:14722

Funding

National Science Foundation
AGS-2300037
National Science Foundation
AGS-2330009
National Science Foundation
AGS-2241752
U.S. Department of Energy
DE-AC52-07NA27344
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
NA23OAR4310597
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NA23OAR4310634
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NA23OAR4310441
National Center for Atmospheric Research
1852977
UK Research and Innovation
EP/Y036123
U.S. Department of Energy
DE-SC0022070
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
UK Natural Environment Research Council
NE/V012045/1
UK Natural Environment Research Council
NE/T006250/1
Swiss National Science Foundation
PCEFP2-203376

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Physical Sciences Division
Department(s)
Geophysical Sciences