edu.ucar.opensky::articles:43919 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T17:45:30.764808 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7wm1jw2 Mid-Pliocene climate forcing, sea surface temperature patterns, and implications for modern-day climate sensitivity 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7wm1jw2 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0410.1 Dvorak, M. author Armour, K. C. author Feng, R. author Cooper, V. T. author Zhu, Jiang author Burls, N. author Proistosescu, C. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Characterized by similar-to-today CO 2 levels (&#8764;400 ppm) and surface temperatures approximately 3&#176;&#8211;4&#176;C warmer than the preindustrial, the mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP) has often been used as an analog for modern CO 2 -driven climate change and as a constraint on the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). However, model intercomparison studies suggest that non-CO 2 boundary conditions&#8212;such as changes in ice sheets&#8212;contribute substantially to the higher global mean temperatures and strongly shape the pattern of sea surface warming during the mPWP. Here, we employ a set of CESM2 simulations to quantify mPWP effective radiative forcings, study the role of ocean circulation changes in shaping the patterns of sea surface temperatures, and calculate radiative feedbacks during the mPWP. We find that the non-CO 2 boundary conditions of the mPWP, enhanced by changes in ocean circulation, contributed to larger high-latitude warming and less-stabilizing feedbacks relative to those induced by CO 2 alone. Accounting for differences in feedbacks between the mPWP and the modern (greenhouse gas&#8211;driven) climate provides stronger constraints on the high-end of modern-day ECS. However, a quantification of the forcing of non-CO 2 boundary condition changes combined with the distinct radiative feedbacks that they induce suggests that Earth system sensitivity may be higher than previously estimated. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication <span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright 2025 American Meteorological Society (AMS).</span> None eng geoscientificInformation