Knowledge Gain: Relative role of rapid adjustment processes and their timescales and constraint of ERF from spatiotemporal patterns

Figure: The six mechanisms of radiative adjustments (Quaas et al., 2024)

CONSTRAIN’s new report summarises recent developments in research on rapid changes to concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and what this might mean for climate research. The report explores six aspects of these rapid changes, referred to in climate research as rapid adjustments: thermodynamical, dynamical, microphysical, chemical, land surface and vegetation adjustments; in terms of days, weeks, decades, and centuries.

The report also builds on an earlier report on rapid adjustments (Quaas and Myhre, 2020) harvesting achievements by the CONSTRAIN project and beyond. These were discussed and analysed in depth in a CONSTRAIN workshop, 28 – 29 November 2022 in Leipzig.