A new one-dimensional simple energy balance and carbon cycle coupled model for global warming simulation

Global warming and accompanying climate change may be caused by an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gasses generated by anthropogenic activities. In order to supply such a mechanism of global warming with a quantitative underpinning, we need to understand the multifaceted roles of the Earth's energy balance and material cycles. In this study, we propose a new one-dimensional simple Earth system model. The model consists of carbon and energy balance submodels with a north–south zonal structure. The two submodels are coupled by interactive feedback processes such as CO2 fertilization of net primary production (NPP) and temperature dependencies of NPP, soil respiration, and ocean surface chemistry. The most important characteristics of the model are not only that the model requires a relatively short calculation time for carbon and energy simulation compared with a General Circulation Model (GCM) and an Earth system Model of Intermediate Complexity (EMIC), but also that the model can simulate average latitudinal variations. In order to analyze the response of the Earth system due to increasing greenhouse gasses, several simulations were conducted in one dimension from the years 1750 to 2000. Evaluating terrestrial and oceanic carbon uptake output of the model in the meridional direction through comparison with observations and satellite data, we analyzed the time variation patterns of air temperature in low- and middle-latitude belts. The model successfully reproduced the temporal variation in each latitude belt and the latitudinal distribution pattern of carbon uptake. Therefore, this model could more accurately demonstrate a difference in the latitudinal response of air temperature than existing models. As a result of the model evaluations, we concluded that this new one-dimensional simple Earth system model is a good tool for conducting global warming simulations. From future projections using various emission scenarios, we showed that the spatial distribution of terrestrial carbon uptake may vary greatly, not only among models used for climate change simulations, but also amongst emission scenarios.