Abstract
Abstract The component of the indirect aerosol effect related to changes in precipitation efficiency (the second indirect or Albrecht effect) is presently evaluated in climate models by taking the difference in net irradiance between a present-day and a preindustrial simulation using fixed sea surface temperatures (SSTs). This approach gives a “quasi forcing,” which differs from a pure forcing in that fields other than the initially perturbed quantity have been allowed to vary. It is routinely used because, in contrast to the first indirect (Twomey) effect, there is no straightforward method of calculating a pure forcing for the second indirect effect. This raises the question of whether evaluation of the second indirect effect in this manner is adequate as an indication of the likely effect of this perturbation on the global-mean surface temperature. An atmospheric global climate model (AGCM) is used to compare the evaluation of different radiative perturbations as both pure forcings (when available) and...
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