Find in Library

<p>Recent analyses show the importance of methane shortwave absorption, which many climate models lack. In particular, Allen et al. (2023) used idealized climate model simulations to show that methane shortwave absorption mutes up to 30 % of the surface warming and 60 % of the precipitation increase associated with its longwave radiative effects. Here, we explicitly quantify the radiative and climate impacts due to shortwave absorption of the present-day methane perturbation. Our results corroborate the hypothesis that present-day methane shortwave absorption mutes the warming effects of longwave absorption. For example, the global mean cooling in response to the present-day methane shortwave absorption is <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.10</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.07</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="64pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="2383d728ab9d031e493676fd00037b58"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-24-11207-2024-ie00001.svg" width="64pt" height="10pt" src="acp-24-11207-2024-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> K, which offsets 28 % (7 %–55 %) of the surface warming associated with present-day methane longwave radiative effects. The precipitation increase associated with the longwave radiative effects of the present-day methane perturbation (<span class="inline-formula">0.012±0.006</span> mm d<span class="inline-formula">⁻¹</span>) is also muted by shortwave absorption but not significantly so (<span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>-</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.008</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.009</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="76pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="cdceb8c35435b4f274d398e8127320af"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-24-11207-2024-ie00002.svg" width="76pt" height="10pt" src="acp-24-11207-2024-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> mm d<span class="inline-formula">⁻¹</span>). The unique responses to methane shortwave absorption are related to its negative top-of-the-atmosphere effective radiative forcing but positive atmospheric heating and in part to methane's distinctive vertical atmospheric solar heating profile. We also find that the present-day methane shortwave radiative effects, relative to its longwave radiative effects, are about 5 times larger than those under idealized carbon dioxide perturbations. Additional analyses show consistent but non-significant differences between the longwave versus shortwave radiative effects for both methane and carbon dioxide, including a stronger (negative) climate feedback when shortwave radiative effects are included (particularly for methane). We conclude by reiterating that methane remains a potent greenhouse gas.</p>