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Free keywords:
Arctic; Feedback; General circulation models; Inversions; Model comparison; Statistics
Abstract:
In contrast to prior studies showing a positive lapse-rate feedback associated with the Arctic inversion, Boe
et al. reported that strong present-day Arctic temperature inversions are associated with stronger negative
longwave feedbacks and thus reduced Arctic amplification in the model ensemble from phase 3 of the
Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3). A permutation test reveals that the relation between
longwave feedbacks and inversion strength is an artifact of statistical self-correlation and that shortwave
feedbacks have a stronger correlation with intermodel spread. The present comment concludes that the
conventional understanding of a positive lapse-rate feedback associated with the Arctic inversion is consistent
with the CMIP3 model ensemble.
