Refounding the Concepts of Climate Feedback and Radiative Forcing Using a Model of Minimal Complexity

Abstract

Philippe de Larminat

Radiative forcing and climate feedback are metrics whose function is to assess and compare the behavior of the earth's climate system in response to disturbance factors. Decades after their introduction, their definitions are still unclear and assessments imprecise. This paper sets out to refound these concepts and their assessment methodology. It is based on a climate model of minimal complexity, and reduces the problem to that of its parametric estimation. In addition to redefining and assessing the above metrics, the identification of the model on the basis of millennial data raises the question of the respective contributions of human and natural factors to current global warming.

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