Observational constraints on parameter estimates for a simple climate model

Abstract

Observations of ocean temperature and ocean heat content changes are investigated in order to better estimate the primary ocean parameters in a simple climate model, namely MAGICC (Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse gas Induced Climate Change). A re-examination of the simulated 20th century ocean temperature changes has been made possible by the release of new observational data, which indicates that complex climate models and MAGICC are mixing too much heat into the deeper ocean. Goodness-of-fit testing between the simulated and observed 1960-2008 world ocean temperature change leads to a revised set of parameters for the simple climate model that include a value for the ocean effective..