Surface Air Temperature Response Research Articles

Soil Moisture Dominates the Land Surface Feedback in the Development of Compound Drought–Heat Extremes in Tropical South America

Abstract Observational evidence has demonstrated that heat extremes consistently coincide with droughts in tropical South America. However, the underlying causes and associated physical mechanisms remain relatively unexplored. In this study, we employ numerical experiments using Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2), with prescribed oceanic forcing to assess how extreme soil temperature and moisture affect subsequent hydrometeorological conditions during the premonsoon season in tropical South America, a season when land can play an important role in regional climate. The results reveal a different diurnal pattern in the strength of the surface air temperature response, with a stronger response at night to soil temperature anomalies and a stronger response at noon to soil moisture anomalies. Elevated initial soil temperature or reduced initial soil moisture tends to yield warmer and drier hydrometeorological conditions and increase the occurrence of both drought and heat extremes, with stronger and longer-lasting responses to soil moisture anomalies (than soil temperature anomalies). The simulated responses to initial soil moisture anomalies alone closely resemble those in the experiment with combined soil temperature and moisture anomalies. These findings underscore the dominant role of soil moisture feedback in shaping compound drought–heat extremes, in regions where evaporation plays a significant role, highlighting its importance in the modeling and prediction of hydrometeorological extremes.

A Forensic Investigation of Climate Model Biases in Teleconnections: The Case of the Relationship Between ENSO and the Northern Stratospheric Polar Vortex

AbstractTeleconnections are crucial in shaping climate variability and regional climate change. The fidelity of teleconnections in climate models is important for reliable climate projections. As the observed sample size is limited, scientific judgment is required when models disagree with observed teleconnections. We illustrate this using the example of the relationship between El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the northern stratospheric polar vortex (SPV), where the MIROC6 large ensemble exhibits an ENSO‐SPV correlation opposite in sign to observations. Yet the model well captures the upward planetary‐wave propagation pathway through which ENSO is known to affect the SPV. We show that the discrepancy arises from the model showing an additional linkage related to horizontal stratospheric wave propagation. Observations do not provide strong statistical evidence for or against the existence of this linkage. Thus, depending on the research purpose, a choice has to be made in how to use the model simulations. Under the assumption that the additional linkage is spurious, a physically‐based bias adjustment is applied to the SPV, which effectively aligns the modeled ENSO‐SPV relationship with the observations, and thereby removes the model‐observations discrepancy in the surface air temperature response. However, if one believed that the additional linkage was genuine and was undersampled in the observations, a different approach could be taken. Our study emphasizes that caution is needed when concluding that a model is not suitable for studying teleconnections. We propose a forensic approach and argue that it helps to better understand model performance and utilize climate model data more effectively.

Seasonal Dependence of Recovery From Surface Cooling Induced by Strong Tropical Volcanic Eruptions

AbstractThis study investigates the response of surface air temperature (SAT) to strong tropical volcanic eruptions (STVEs), focusing on the seasonal anchoring of SAT recovery, using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) and CMIP6 climate model outputs. The decrease in SAT was more significant in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. After the STVEs, shortwave radiation at the surface (SW) decreased rapidly and reached a minimum in approximately 6 months, whereas the decrease in SAT lasted for approximately 1 year; thus, the SAT minima lagged behind those of SW. The recovery of SAT from the major minimum SAT after the STVEs occurred in the same seasons, the second boreal autumn and winter. The SAT recovery occurred during the climatologically low solar radiation season after the STVEs. During this season, the decreasing effects of the downward SW (DSRS) by volcanic aerosols could become negligible. The weakening of the decrease in SAT and DSRS had a seasonal cycle in the high‐latitude regions of both hemispheres, which could be a significant factor in the seasonal alignment of returning SATs. Furthermore, the SAT response to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was examined using composite analysis based on the initial state of ENSO. The influence of ENSO on surface cooling after the STVE was at least 1/5 that of the STVEs and might exceed that of the STVEs, particularly in moderate STVEs. These results were commonly found in the CMIP5 and CMIP6 climate models.

Distinct response of near surface air temperature to clouds in North China

AbstractUsing the daily 2 m maximum temperature (Tmax), 2 m minimum temperature (Tmin) and cloud cover data measured at ground sites of the China Meteorological Administration in North China from 2000 to 2017, this study investigates the influence of clouds on the daily temperature range (DTR) defined as the difference between Tmax and Tmin. As expected, the cloud cover shows the similar averaged spatial distribution and monthly variation with Tmin. Surprisingly, it also shows the similar average spatial distribution and monthly variation with Tmax, suggesting the more important roles of regions (latitude) and seasons associated with the variations of land surface temperature, which is further related to solar radiation absorbed and surface heat capacity. By comparing monthly variations of temperature between cloudy and clear skies, we find that clouds can weaken Tmax and increase Tmin, and thus decrease DTR. As a result, the spatial distribution of DTR is opposite to the cloud cover. The clouds have relatively stronger impact on Tmin and DTR over mountain region, which is most likely caused by the stronger longwave cloud radiative forcing associated with higher cloud tops over the mountain region.

Impact of stratospheric aerosol intervention geoengineering on surface air temperature in China: a surface energy budget perspective

Abstract. Stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI) geoengineering is a proposed scheme to counteract anthropogenic global warming, but the climate response to SAI, with great regional disparities, remains uncertain. In this study, we use Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project G4 experiment simulations from six models that counteract anthropogenic forcing under medium–low emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 – RCP4.5) by injecting a certain amount of SO2 into the stratosphere every year to investigate the surface air temperature response to SAI geoengineering over China. We have found that SAI has led to surface cooling over China during the last 40 years of injection simulation (2030–2069), which varies among models, regions, and seasons. Decreased tropospheric temperature and water vapor and increased stratospheric aerosols induce robust decreases in downward clear-sky longwave and shortwave radiation fluxes at the surface, respectively, dominating the temperature change over China. Changes in cloud effective forcing and surface albedo feedback also relate to the temperature response but with large spatial and seasonal variations. We find that the increased summer cloud cover and winter surface albedo lead to strong cooling, while the decreased summer cloud cover and winter surface albedo lead to weak cooling or even insignificant warming for the certain subregions and models. Our results suggest that cloud and land surface processes in models dominate the spatial pattern of SAI-induced surface air temperature change over China.

Reversibility of the Hydrological Response in East Asia from CO2-Derived Climate Change Based on CMIP6 Simulation

Understanding the response of the Earth system to CO2 removal (CDR) is crucial because the possibility of irreversibility exists. Therefore, the Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Inter-comparison Project (CDRMIP) for the protocol experiment in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) has been developed. Our analysis focuses on the regional response in the hydrological cycle, especially in East Asia (EA). The peak temperature changes in EA (5.9 K) and the Korean peninsula (KO) (6.1 K) are larger than the global mean surface air temperature (GSAT) response. The precipitation changes are approximately 9.4% (EA) and 23.2% (KO) at the phase change time (130–150 years); however, the largest increase is approximately 16.6% (EA) and 36.5% (KO) in the ramp-down period (150–160 years). In addition, the differences are below 5 mm/day and 1 day for the precipitation intensity indices (Rx1day and Rx5day) and frequency indices (R95 and R99), respectively. Furthermore, the monsoon rainband of the ramp-down period moves northward as the earlier onset with high confidence compared to the ramp-up period; however, it does not move north to the KO region. The results suggest that reducing CO2 moves the rainband southward. However, a detailed interpretation in terms of the mechanism needs to be carried out in further research.

Reconciling the climate and ozone response to the 1257 CE Mount Samalas eruption

The 1257 CE eruption of Mount Samalas (Indonesia) is the source of the largest stratospheric injection of volcanic gases in the Common Era. Sulfur dioxide emissions produced sulfate aerosols that cooled Earth's climate with a range of impacts on society. The coemission of halogenated species has also been speculated to have led to wide-scale ozone depletion. Here we present simulations from HadGEM3-ES, a fully coupled Earth system model, with interactive atmospheric chemistry and a microphysical treatment of sulfate aerosol, used to assess the chemical and climate impacts from the injection of sulfur and halogen species into the stratosphere as a result of the Mt. Samalas eruption. While our model simulations support a surface air temperature response to the eruption of the order of -1°C, performing well against multiple reconstructions of surface temperature from tree-ring records, we find little evidence to support significant injections of halogens into the stratosphere. Including modest fractions of the halogen emissions reported from Mt. Samalas leads to significant impacts on the composition of the atmosphere and on surface temperature. As little as 20% of the halogen inventory from Mt. Samalas reaching the stratosphere would result in catastrophic ozone depletion, extending the surface cooling caused by the eruption. However, based on available proxy records of surface temperature changes, our model results support only very minor fractions (1%) of the halogen inventory reaching the stratosphere and suggest that further constraints are needed to fully resolve the issue.

Distinct response of Northern Hemisphere land monsoon precipitation to transient and stablized warming scenarios

To better understand the climate response under stabilized, overshoot, and transient global warming, four types of ensemble experiments on 1.5 °C/2 °C global warming scenarios (i.e., stabilized 1.5 °C, 1.5 °C overshoot, stabilized 2 °C, and transient 2 °C) are elaborately designed using the Nanjing University Information Science and Technology Earth System Model (NESM). Compared with the modern climate (1985–2014), the projected surface air temperature (SAT) change is characterized by a robust ‘Northern Hemisphere (NH)-warmer than-Southern Hemisphere (SH)’ and ‘land-warmer than-ocean’ patterns. The projected precipitation change exhibits ‘NH-wetter than-SH’ pattern in the tropics. Although the response of SAT and precipitation climatology show similar pattern between stabilized and overshoot scenarios, some significant differences are still found. The projected change in the Northern Hemisphere land monsoon precipitation (NHLMP) is 30% larger in the transient 2 °C experiment compared with that in the stabilized 2 °C experiment. The more vigorous NHLMP in the transient global warming scenario is mainly due to the enhanced land–sea thermal contrast and interhemispheric temperature difference. The enlarged land–sea thermal contrast increases the surface pressure gradient between the NH continents and its adjacent oceans, thus enhancing the NH monsoon circulation and moisture convergence. The enhanced interhemispheric temperature difference shifts the Hadley circulation and intertropical convergence zone northward, leading to the enhanced moisture convergence and the shifts of tropical rain band over the NH monsoon region. This result highlights that climate responses may depend on different warming trajectories and, which could facilitate the strategic planning of governments.

Processes shaping the spatial pattern and seasonality of the surface air temperature response to anthropogenic forcing

In the period 1960–2010, the land surface air temperature (SAT) warmed more rapidly over some regions relative to the global mean. Using a set of time-slice experiments, we highlight how different physical processes shape the regional pattern of SAT warming. The results indicate an essential role of anthropogenic forcing in regional SAT changes from the 1970s to 2000s, and show that both surface–atmosphere interactions and large-scale atmospheric circulation changes can shape regional responses to forcing. Single forcing experiments show that an increase in greenhouse gases can lead to regional changes in land surface warming in winter (DJF) due to snow-albedo feedbacks, and in summer (JJA) due to soil-moisture and cloud feedbacks. Changes in anthropogenic aerosol and precursor (AA) emissions induce large spatial variations in SAT, characterized by warming over western Europe, Eurasia, and Alaska. In western Europe, SAT warming is stronger in JJA than in DJF due to substantial increases in clear sky shortwave radiation over Europe, associated with decreases in local AA emissions since the 1980s. In Alaska, the amplified SAT warming in DJF is due to increased downward longwave radiation, which is related to increased water vapor and cloud cover. In this case, although the model was able to capture the regional pattern of SAT change, and the associated local processes, it did not simulate all processes and anomalies correctly. For the Alaskan warming, the model is seen to achieve the correct regional response in the context of a wider North Pacific anomaly that is not consistent with observations. This demonstrates the importance of model evaluation that goes beyond the target variable in detection and attribution studies.

Boreal Winter Surface Air Temperature Responses to Large Tropical Volcanic Eruptions in CMIP5 Models

AbstractWe analyzed global surface air temperature (SAT) responses to five major tropical volcanic eruptions from 1870 to 2005 using outputs from 97 historical and 58 Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) runs that participated in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). In observations, there was a 3-yr global cooling trend after the eruption due to reduced shortwave radiation, and a 0.1-K average global-mean SAT recovery, consisting of El Niño–like tropical warming and Eurasian warming, occurred in the first posteruption boreal winter. This global cooling pause was simulated by the multimodel ensemble (MME) mean of the AMIP runs, but not the MME of the historical runs due to the absence of El Niño–like warming. In the historical runs, simulation of El Niño–like warming was influenced by the initial ocean condition (IOC). An El Niño–like response was simulated when the IOC was not in an El Niño state, but the warming was much weaker compared to observations. The Eurasian warming response, despite being reproduced by the MME mean of both AMIP and historical runs, was not as strong as in observations. This is because the simulated positive polar vortex response, an important stratospheric forcing for Eurasian warming, was very weak, which suggests that the CMIP5 models, and even the Climate Forecast System model, underestimate volcanic effects on the stratosphere. Most of the coupled models failed to replicate both the El Niño and the enhanced polar vortex responses, indicating an urgent need for improving air–sea interaction and stratospheric processes in these models.

How Robust is the Atmospheric Response to Projected Arctic Sea Ice Loss Across Climate Models?

AbstractWe assess the reliability of an indirect method of inferring the atmospheric response to projected Arctic sea ice loss from CMIP5 simulations, by comparing the response inferred from the indirect method to that explicitly simulated in sea ice perturbation experiments. We find that the indirect approach works well in winter, but has limited utility in the other seasons. We then apply a modified version of the indirect method to 11 CMIP5 models to reveal the robust and non‐robust aspects of the wintertime atmospheric response to projected Arctic sea ice loss. Despite limitations of the indirect method, we identify a robust enhancement of the Siberian High, weakening of the Icelandic Low, weakening of the westerly wind on the poleward flank of the eddy‐driven jet, strengthening of the subtropical jet, and weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex. The surface air temperature response to projected Arctic sea ice loss over mid‐latitude continents is non‐robust across the models.

Different response of surface temperature and air temperature to deforestation in climate models

Abstract. When quantifying temperature changes induced by deforestation (e.g., cooling in high latitudes, warming in low latitudes), satellite data, in situ observations, and climate models differ concerning the height at which the temperature is typically measured/simulated. In this study the effects of deforestation on surface temperature, near-surface air temperature, and lower atmospheric temperature are compared by analyzing the biogeophysical temperature effects of large-scale deforestation in the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) separately for local effects (which are only apparent at the location of deforestation) and nonlocal effects (which are also apparent elsewhere). While the nonlocal effects (cooling in most regions) influence the temperature of the surface and lowest atmospheric layer equally, the local effects (warming in the tropics but a cooling in the higher latitudes) mainly affect the temperature of the surface. In agreement with observation-based studies, the local effects on surface and near-surface air temperature respond differently in the MPI-ESM, both concerning the magnitude of local temperature changes and the latitude at which the local deforestation effects turn from a cooling to a warming (at 45–55∘ N for surface temperature and around 35∘ N for near-surface air temperature). Subsequently, our single-model results are compared to model data from multiple climate models from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). This inter-model comparison shows that in the northern midlatitudes, both concerning the summer warming and winter cooling, near-surface air temperature is affected by the local effects only about half as strongly as surface temperature. This study shows that the choice of temperature variable has a considerable effect on the observed and simulated temperature change. Studies about the biogeophysical effects of deforestation must carefully choose which temperature to consider.

Response of surface air temperature to the change of leaf area index in the source region of the Yellow River by the WRF model

Leaf area index (LAI) is a crucial land-atmosphere exchange parameter. LAI change can cause a variation of other land surface parameter. In this research, three experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of LAI and albedo change on surface air temperature in the source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Three experiments used the same settings, initial and boundary conditions except for the LAI and albedo data. The control simulation (CTL) used the WRF model climatological LAI data, the second simulation (LAI) used the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LAI data, and the third simulation (LAIALB) used the MODIS LAI and MODIS albedo. The results show MODIS LAI is greater by 34.5% than WRF climatological LAI, and the MODIS albedo is lower by 24.3% than WRF climatological albedo over the whole growing season of 2006 in SRYR. All the experiments can simulate the surface air temperature (Ta) spatial distribution characteristics, but underestimate the values of 1.3 °C in CTL experiment and 0.6 °C in LAIALB experiment in SRYR. The simulated Ta by LAI experiment is lower 0.1 °C than by the CTL experiment, but the simulated Ta by the LAIALB experiment is obviously higher 0.6 °C than the CTL experiment. The LAI experiment shows a cooling effect because the higher MODIS LAI decreases the canopy resistance, which induces a positive average 2.1 Wm−2 latent heat flux (LH) and a negative average − 2.1 Wm−2 sensible heat flux (Hs). The LAIALB experiment presents a warming effect because of low MODIS albedo comparing WRF albedo, which changes the radiation components and results in an obvious negative − 14.0 Wm−2 upward short wave radiation, a positive 11.7 Wm−2 net radiation, and a positive 10.9 Wm−2 heat flux. In fact, more precipitation produces more snow and high surface albedo in the WRF model, which results in a cold temperature bias in SRYR.

Simulated Global Climate Response to Tropospheric Ozone‐Induced Changes in Plant Transpiration

AbstractTropospheric ozone (O3) pollution is known to damage vegetation, reducing photosynthesis and stomatal conductance, resulting in modified plant transpiration to the atmosphere. We use an Earth system model to show that global transpiration response to near‐present‐day surface tropospheric ozone results in large‐scale global perturbations to net outgoing long‐wave and incoming shortwave radiation. Our results suggest that the radiative effect is dominated by a reduction in shortwave cloud forcing in polluted regions, in response to ozone‐induced reduction in land‐atmosphere moisture flux and atmospheric humidity. We simulate a statistically significant response of annual surface air temperature of up to ~ +1.5 K due to this ozone effect in vegetated regions subjected to ozone pollution. This mechanism is expected to further increase the net warming resulting from historic and future increases in tropospheric ozone.

Asymmetric dynamical ocean responses in warming icehouse and cooling greenhouse climates

Warm periods in Earth’s history tend to cool more slowly than cool periods warm. Here we explore initial differences in how the global ocean takes up and gives up heat and carbon in forced rapid warming and cooling climate scenarios. We force an intermediate-complexity earth system model using two atmospheric CO2 scenarios. A ramp-up (1% per year increase in atmospheric CO2 for 150 years) starts from an average global CO2 concentration of 285 ppm to represent warming of an icehouse climate. A ramp-down (1% per year decrease in atmospheric CO2 for 150 years) starts from an average global CO2 concentration of 1257 ppm to represent cooling of a greenhouse climate. Atmospheric CO2 is then held constant in each simulation and the model is integrated an additional 350 years. The ramp-down simulation shows a weaker response of surface air temperature to changes in radiative forcing relative to the ramp-up scenario. This weaker response is due to a relatively large and fast release of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere. This asymmetry in heat exchange in cooling and warming scenarios exists mainly because of differences in the response of the ocean circulation to forcing. In the ramp-up, increasing stratification and weakening of meridional overturning circulation slows ocean heat and carbon uptake. In the ramp-down, cooling accelerates meridional overturning and deepens vertical mixing, accelerating the release of heat and carbon stored at depth. Though idealized, our experiments offer insight into differences in ocean dynamics in icehouse and greenhouse climate transitions.

Sensitivity of Surface Temperature to Oceanic Forcing via q-Flux Green’s Function Experiments. Part II: Feedback Decomposition and Polar Amplification

A large set of Green’s function-type experiments is performed with q-flux forcings mimicking the effects of the ocean heat uptake (OHU) to examine the global surface air temperature (SAT) sensitivities to the location of the forcing. The result of the experiments confirms the earlier notion derived from experiments with different model complexities that the global mean SAT is far more sensitive to the oceanic forcing from high latitudes than the tropics. Remarkably, no matter in which latitude the q-flux forcings are placed, the SAT response is always characterized by a feature of polar amplification, implicating that it is intrinsic to our climate system. Considerable zonal asymmetry is also present in the efficacy of the tropical OHU, with the tropical eastern Pacific being much more efficient than the Indian Ocean and tropical Atlantic in driving global SAT warming by exciting the leading neutral mode of the SAT that projects strongly onto global mean warming. Using a radiative kernel, feedback analysis is also conducted to unravel the underlying processes responsible for the spatial heterogeneity in the global OHU efficacy, the polar amplification structures, and the tropical altruism of sharing the warmth with remote latitudes. Warming “altruism” for a q flux at a given latitude is also investigated in terms of the ratio of the induced remote latitudes versus the directly forced local warming. It is found that the tropics are much more altruistic than higher latitudes because of the high-energy transport efficiency of the Hadley circulation.

Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

The surface air temperature response to vegetation changes has been studied for the extreme case of land-cover change; yet, it has never been quantified for the slow but persistent increase in leaf area index (LAI) observed over the past 30 years (Earth greening). Here we isolate the fingerprint of increasing LAI on surface air temperature using a coupled land–atmosphere global climate model prescribed with satellite LAI observations. We find that the global greening has slowed down the rise in global land-surface air temperature by 0.09 ± 0.02 °C since 1982. This net cooling effect is the sum of cooling from increased evapotranspiration (70%), changed atmospheric circulation (44%), decreased shortwave transmissivity (21%), and warming from increased longwave air emissivity (−29%) and decreased albedo (−6%). The global cooling originated from the regions where LAI has increased, including boreal Eurasia, Europe, India, northwest Amazonia, and the Sahel. Increasing LAI did not, however, significantly change surface air temperature in eastern North America and East Asia, where the effects of large-scale atmospheric circulation changes mask local vegetation feedbacks. Overall, the sum of biophysical feedbacks related to the greening of the Earth mitigated 12% of global land-surface warming for the past 30 years.

Global Influence of Tropical Pacific Variability with Implications for Global Warming Slowdown

The impact of internal tropical Pacific variability on global mean surface temperature (GMST) is quantified using a multimodel ensemble. A tropical Pacific index (TPI) is defined to track tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variability. The simulated GMST is highly correlated with TPI on the interannual time scale but this correlation weakens on the decadal time scale. The time-scale dependency is such that the GMST regression equation derived from the observations, which are dominated by interannual variability, would underestimate the magnitude of decadal GMST response to tropical Pacific variability. The surface air temperature response to tropical Pacific variability is strong in the tropics but weakens in the extratropics. The regression coefficient of GMST against TPI shows considerable intermodel variations, primarily because of differences in high latitudes. The results have important implications for the planned intercomparison of pacemaker experiments that force Pacific variability to follow the observed evolution. The model dependency of the GMST regression suggests that in pacemaker experiments—model performance in simulating the recent “slowdown” in global warming—will vary substantially among models. It also highlights the need to develop observational constraints and to quantify the TPI effect on the decadal variability of GMST. Compared to GMST, the correlation between global mean tropospheric temperature and TPI is high on both interannual and decadal time scales because of a common structure in the tropical tropospheric temperature response that is upward amplified and meridionally broad.

Assessment of aerosol effective radiative forcing and surface air temperature response over eastern China in CMIP5 models

AbstractThe effective radiative forcing (ERF) and associated surface air temperature change over eastern China are estimated using multi-model results from CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5). The model results show that, relative to 1850, the multi-model and annual mean aerosol ERF for the year 2005 is −4.14 W m−2 at the top of the atmosphere over eastern China (20°–45°N, 105°–122.5°E). As a result of this ERF, the multi-model and annual mean surface air temperature change in eastern China during 1850–2005 is −1.05 °C, leading to a climate sensitivity of 0.24 °C/(W m−2) in this region.

Climate responses to SATIRE and SIM-based spectral solar forcing in a 3D atmosphere-ocean coupled GCM

We apply two reconstructed spectral solar forcing scenarios, one SIM (Spectral Irradiance Monitor) based, the other the SATIRE (Spectral And Total Irradiance REconstruction) modeled, as inputs to the GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) GCMAM (Global Climate Middle Atmosphere Model) to examine climate responses on decadal to centennial time scales, focusing on quantifying the difference of climate response between the two solar forcing scenarios. We run the GCMAM for about 400 years with present day trace gas and aerosol for the two solar forcing inputs. We find that the SIM-based solar forcing induces much larger long-term response and 11-year variation in global averaged stratospheric temperature and column ozone. We find significant decreasing trends of planetary albedo for both forcing scenarios in the 400-year model runs. However the mechanisms for the decrease are very different. For SATIRE solar forcing, the decreasing trend of planetary albedo is associated with changes in cloud cover. For SIM-based solar forcing, without significant change in cloud cover on centennial and longer time scales, the apparent decreasing trend of planetary albedo is mainly due to out-of-phase variation in shortwave radiative forcing proxy (downwelling flux for wavelength >330 nm) and total solar irradiance (TSI). From the Maunder Minimum to present, global averaged annual mean surface air temperature has a response of ~0.1 °C to SATIRE solar forcing compared to ~0.04 °C to SIM-based solar forcing. For 11-year solar cycle, the global surface air temperature response has 3-year lagged response to either forcing scenario. The global surface air 11-year temperature response to SATIRE forcing is about 0.12 °C, similar to recent multi-model estimates, and comparable to the observational-based evidence. However, the global surface air temperature response to 11-year SIM-based solar forcing is insignificant and inconsistent with observation-based evidence.