Articles | Volume 5, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-375-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-5-375-2014
Short communication
 | 
30 Oct 2014
Short communication |  | 30 Oct 2014

Impact of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) on deriving anthropogenic warming rates from the instrumental temperature record

G. R. van der Werf and A. J. Dolman

Abstract. The instrumental surface air temperature record has been used in several statistical studies to assess the relative role of natural and anthropogenic drivers of climate change. The results of those studies varied considerably, with anthropogenic temperature trends over the past 25–30 years suggested to range from 0.07 to 0.20 °C decade−1. In this short communication, we assess the origin of these differences and highlight the inverse relation between the temperature trend of the past 30 years and the weight given to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) as an explanatory factor in the multiple linear regression (MLR) tool that is usually employed. We highlight that robust MLR outcomes require a better understanding of the AMO in general and, more specifically, of its characterization. Our results indicate that both the high and the low end of the anthropogenic trend over the past 30 years found in previous studies are unlikely and that a transient climate response of 1.6 (1.0–3.3) °C best captures the historic instrumental temperature record.

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Short summary
Climate sensitivity can be quantified using measured changes in temperature and forcings. This approach requires disentangling natural and anthropogenic influences on global climate. We focused on the role of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in this and show how different AMO characterizations influence the anthropogenic temperature trends (we found they were in between previously published values) and transient climate sensitivity, which we found to be 1.6 (1.0-3.3)°C.
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