Finally, we examine ways to improve the application of radiative and
nonradiative forcing metrics in policy analyses directed at climate change.
Further work is needed to quantify links of regional
nonradiative forcing to regional and global climate response
Does not fully characterize the climate impact of
nonradiative forcing, the indirect aerosol effect (other than the first), and the semidirect aerosol effect
Some types of
nonradiative forcing are not easily quantified in watts per square meter, thus it is not clear how to compare them to radiative forcing
Nonetheless, the limitations call for broadening the concept to account for
nonradiative forcing, spatial and temporal heterogeneity of forcing, and nonlinearities.
As is the case for regional radiative forcing, further work is needed to quantify links between regional
nonradiative forcing and climate response.
No metrics for quantifying such
nonradiative forcings have been accepted.
Other
nonradiative forcings modify the biological components of the climate system by changing the fluxes of trace gases and heat between vegetation, soils, and the atmosphere and by modifying the amount and types of vegetation.
Nonradiative forcings have eventual radiative impacts, so one option would be to quantify these radiative impacts.
However, this approach may not convey appropriately the impacts of
nonradiative forcings on societally relevant climate variables such as precipitation or ecosystem function.
These nonradiative forcings generally have radiative impacts, but describing them only in terms of this radiative impact does not convey fully their influence on climate variables of societal relevance.
Furthermore, quantifying
nonradiative forcings in
Nonradiative forcings generally have significant regional variation, making it important that any new metrics be able to characterize the regional structure in forcing and climate response — whether the response occurs in the region, in a distant region through teleconnections, or globally.
However, not
all nonradiative forcings are easily quantified in these units.
Several
nonradiative forcings involve the biological components of the climate system.
Indeed, because
nonradiative forcings affect multiple climate variables, there is no single metric that can be applied to characterize all
nonradiative forcings (Marland et al., 2003; Kabat et al., 2004).
Another consideration in devising metrics for
nonradiative forcings is enabling direct comparison with radiative forcings, computed in units of watts per square meter.
Not exact matches
Some
forcings affect the climate system in
nonradiative ways, in particular by modifying the hydrological cycle or vegetation dynamics.
It needs to be expanded to account for the vertical and regional structure of radiative
forcing and also for
nonradiative climate
forcings.