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    Original Research Papers

    Are response function representations of the global carbon cycle ever interpretable?

    Authors:

    Sile Li ,

    Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, GB
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    Andrew J. Jarvis,

    Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, GB
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    David T. Leedal

    Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, GB
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    Abstract

    Response function models are often used to represent the behaviour of complex, high order global carbon cycle (GCC) and climate models in applications which require short model run times. Although apparently black-box, these response function models need not necessarily be entirely opaque, but instead may also convey useful insights into the properties of the parent model or process. By exploiting a transfer function (TF) framework to analyse the Lenton GCC model, this paper attempts to demonstrate that response function representations of GCC models can sometimes also provide structural information on the parent model from which they are identified and calibrated. We take a fifth-order TF identified from the impulse response of the Lenton model atmospheric burden, and decompose this to show how it can be re-expresses in a generic five-box form in sympathy with the structure of the parent model.

    How to Cite: Li, S., Jarvis, A.J. and Leedal, D.T., 2009. Are response function representations of the global carbon cycle ever interpretable?. Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 61(2), pp.361–371. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2008.00401.x
      Published on 01 Jan 2009
    Peer Reviewed
     CC BY 4.0
     Accepted on 22 Sep 2008            Submitted on 7 May 2008

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