Representation of Northern Hemisphere winter storm tracks in climate models

Northern Hemisphere winter storm tracks are a key element of the winter weather and climate at mid-latitudes. Before projections of climate change are made for these regions, it is necessary to be sure that climate models are able to reproduce the main features of observed storm tracks. The simulated storm tracks are assessed for a variety of Hadley Centre models and are shown to be well modelled on the whole. The atmosphere-only model with the semi-Lagrangian dynamical core produces generally more realistic storm tracks than the model with the Eulerian dynamical core, provided the horizontal resolution is high enough. The two models respond in different ways to changes in horizontal resolution: the model with the semi-Lagrangian dynamical core has much reduced frequency and strength of cyclonic features at lower resolution due to reduced transient eddy kinetic energy. The model with Eulerian dynamical core displays much smaller changes in frequency and strength of features with changes in horizontal resolution, but the location of the storm tracks as well as secondary development are sensitive to resolution. Coupling the atmosphere-only model (with semi-Lagrangian dynamical core) to an ocean model seems to affect the storm tracks largely via errors in the tropical representation. For instance a cold SST bias in the Pacific and a lack of ENSO variability lead to large changes in the Pacific storm track. Extratropical SST biases appear to have a more localised effect on the storm tracks.     

Projections of global warming-induced impacts on winter storm losses in the German private household sector

We present projections of winter storm-induced insured losses in the German residential building sector for the 21st century. With this aim, two structurally most independent downscaling methods and one hybrid downscaling method are applied to a 3-member ensemble of ECHAM5/MPI-OM1 A1B scenario simulations. One method uses dynamical downscaling of intense winter storm events in the global model, and a transfer function to relate regional wind speeds to losses. The second method is based on a reshuffling of present day weather situations and sequences taking into account the change of their frequencies according to the linear temperature trends of the global runs. The third method uses statistical-dynamical downscaling, considering frequency changes of the occurrence of storm-prone weather patterns, and translation into loss by using empirical statistical distributions. The A1B scenario ensemble was downscaled by all three methods until 2070, and by the (statistical-) dynamical methods until 2100. Furthermore, all methods assume a constant statistical relationship between meteorology and insured losses and no developments other than climate change, such as in constructions or claims management. The study utilizes data provided by the German Insurance Association encompassing 24 years and with district-scale resolution. Compared to 1971–2000, the downscaling methods indicate an increase of 10-year return values (i.e. loss ratios per return period) of 6–35 % for 2011–2040, of 20–30 % for 2041–2070, and of 40–55 % for 2071–2100, respectively. Convolving various sources of uncertainty in one confidence statement (data-, loss model-, storm realization-, and Pareto fit-uncertainty), the return-level confidence interval for a return period of 15 years expands by more than a factor of two. Finally, we suggest how practitioners can deal with alternative scenarios or possible natural excursions of observed losses.     

Present and future near-surface wind climate of Greenland from high resolution regional climate modelling

The present and twenty-first century near-surface wind climate of Greenland is presented using output from the regional atmospheric climate model RACMO2. The modelled wind variability and wind distribution compare favourably to observations from three automatic weather stations in the ablation zone of southwest Greenland. The Weibull shape parameter is used to classify the wind climate. High values (κ > 4) are found in northern Greenland, indicative of uniform winds and a dominant katabatic forcing, while lower values (κ < 3) are found over the ocean and southern Greenland, where the synoptic forcing dominates. Very high values of the shape parameter are found over concave topography where confluence strengthens the katabatic circulation, while very low values are found in a narrow band along the coast due to barrier winds. To simulate the future (2081–2098) wind climate RACMO2 was forced with the HadGEM2-ES general circulation model using a scenario of mid-range radiative forcing of +4.5 W m^?2 by 2100. For the future simulated climate, the near-surface potential temperature deficit reduces in all seasons in regions where the surface temperature is below the freezing point, indicating a reduction in strength of the near-surface temperature inversion layer. This leads to a wind speed reduction over the central ice sheet where katabatic forcing dominates, and a wind speed increase over steep coastal topography due to counteracting effects of thermal and katabatic forcing. Thermally forced winds over the seasonally sea ice covered region of the Greenland Sea are reduced by up to 2.5 m s^?1.     

Scale dependency of regional climate modeling of current and future climate extremes in Germany

A 26-year simulation (1980–2005) was performed with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model over the Volta Basin in West Africa. This was to investigate the ability of a climate version of WRF to reproduce present day temperature and precipitation over the Volta Basin. The ERA-Interim reanalysis and one realization of the ECHAM6 global circulation model (GCM) data were dynamically downscaled using two nested domains within the WRF model. The outer domain had a horizontal resolution of 50 km and covered the whole of West Africa while the inner domain had a horizontal resolution of 10 km. It was observed that biases in the respective forcing data were carried over to the RCM, but also the RCM itself contributed to the mean bias of the model. Also, the biases in the 50-km domain were transferred unchanged, especially in the case of temperature, to the 10-km domain, but, for precipitation, the higher-resolution simulations increased the mean bias in some cases. While in general, WRF underestimated temperature in both the outer (mean biases of ?1.6 and ?2.3 K for ERA-Interim and ECHAM6, respectively) and the inner (mean biases of ?0.9 K for the reanalysis and ?1.8 K for the GCM) domains, WRF slightly underestimated precipitation in the coarser domain but overestimated precipitation in the finer domain over the Volta Basin. The performance of the GCM, in general, is good, particularly for temperature with mean bias of ?0.7 K over the outer domain. However, for precipitation, the added value of the RCM cannot be overlooked, especially over the whole West African region on the annual time scale (mean biases of ?3% for WRF and ?8% for ECHAM6). Over the whole Volta Basin and the Soudano-Sahel for the month of April and spring (MAM) rainfall, respectively, mean bias close to 0% was simulated. Biases in the interannual variability in both temperature and precipitation over the basin were smaller in the WRF than the ECHAM6. High spatial pattern correlations between 0.7 and 0.8 were achieved for the autumn precipitation and low spatial correlation in the range of 0.0 and 0.2 for the winter season precipitation over the whole basin and all the three belts over the basin.     

Modelling daily temperature extremes: recent climate and future changes over Europe

Probability distributions of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in a suite of ten RCMs are investigated for (1) biases compared to observations in the present day climate and (2) climate change signals compared to the simulated present day climate. The simulated inter-model differences and climate changes are also compared to the observed natural variability as reflected in some very long instrumental records. All models have been forced with driving conditions from the same global model and run for both a control period and a future scenario period following the A2 emission scenario from IPCC. We find that the bias in the fifth percentile of daily minimum temperatures in winter and at the 95th percentile of daily maximum temperature during summer is smaller than 3 (±5°C) when averaged over most (all) European sub-regions. The simulated changes in extreme temperatures both in summer and winter are larger than changes in the median for large areas. Differences between models are larger for the extremes than for mean temperatures. A comparison with historical data shows that the spread in model predicted changes in extreme temperatures is larger than the natural variability during the last centuries.     

Mid latitude Atlantic SST influence on European winter climate variability in the NCEP Reanalysis

 Forty one years (1958–1998) of NCEP reanalysis data are used to perform a set of statistical analyses, investigating the interactions between the sea surface temperature (SST), the storm track activity (STA) and the time mean atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic-Europe (NAE) region. When the atmospheric region of study is restricted to Europe, the singular value decomposition (SVD) lead-lag analysis between seasonal 500 hPa geopotential height (Z500) and SST captures a significant covariance between a summer SST anomaly and a strong winter anticyclonic anomaly over Europe. The summer SST pattern is close to the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of SST for the consecutive months J-A-S-O-N. The same analysis, but extending the atmospheric area of interest to the entire NAE region, points out the same signal with a phase shift of one month. A more zonally oriented North-Atlantic-Oscillation-like (NAO) pattern is then found as the SST structure remains practically unchanged. This summer SST anomaly is found to persist through surface heat fluxes exchanges until winter, when it can finally have an impact on the atmospheric circulation. Composites are made from the former SST SVD scores, showing the winter STA and different transient and stationary eddies diagnostics associated with the extreme positive and negative events of the SST anomaly. These suggest that the SST anomaly induces an anomalous stationary wave in winter, creating an initially small anticyclonic anomaly over Europe. Anomalous transient eddies located over northern Europe then strengthen this anomaly and maintain it during winter, thus acting as a positive feedback. Received: 15 September 2000 / Accepted: 17 April 2001     

Changes in the occurrence of storm surges around the United Kingdom under a future climate scenario using a dynamic storm surge model driven by the Hadley Centre climate models

 A potential consequence of climate change is an alteration of the frequency of extreme coastal storm surge events. It is these extreme events which, from an impacts point of view, will be of more concern than the slow inundation of coastal areas by century scale changes in mean sea level. In this study, a 35 km resolution storm surge model of the North west European continental shelf region has been driven by winds and pressures from the Hadley Centre nested regional climate model. Simulations of both present day and future climate (the end of the twentyfirst century) have been performed. The results suggest that, in addition to the effect of rising mean sea level, at many locations around the United Kingdom coastline future changes in local meteorology will lead to further significant changes in the return periods of extreme storm surge events. At most sites, this meteorologically forced change represents a reduction in return period. Received: 18 September 2000 / Accepted: 8 February 2001     

一次罕见的冬季雷暴天气成因分析

利用天气图和哈尔滨多普勒雷达资料,详细分析了在初冬哈尔滨及周边地区一次雷暴天气的背景场、雷达回波演变过程和回波特征,对雷暴天气成因及临近预报方法进行了初步探讨。     

欧洲多个耦合气候模式对东亚冬季气候的预测性能研究

在短期气候预测方法中,多模式集合预测作为一种实用方法得到了广泛的研究。利用DEMETER多模式集合预测系统1980—2001年的回报试验,研究了欧洲7个耦合模式对东亚地区(0°—60°N,70°—140°E)冬季大气环流和气候异常的预测效能。研究的气候要素是冬季500 hPa高度场、850 hPa风场、表面气温场和降水场。集合平均(EM)是最基本的多模式集合构建方法。为了进一步订正模式预测的误差,基于经验正交函数分解进行订正,产生“合成数据集”,并利用该数据集进行合成集合平均或合成超级集合(SEM/SSE)。研究表明,东亚地区冬季气候异常的模式预测效能热带高于中高纬度地区,海洋高于内陆。多模式集合平均和合成集合平均或合成超级集合均从整体上对东亚地区冬季气候异常的预测效能有一定程度的提高,体现了其相对于7个单一模式的优势。两类不同的多模式集合方法对预测结果也有一定的影响,其中,合成集合平均或合成超级集合对冬季500 hPa高度场、850 hPa风场和降水场异常的预测效能优于集合平均;但是对于冬季表面气温场异常的预测,集合平均优于合成集合平均或合成超级集合。     

The influence of future climate change on wind energy potential in the Republic of Serbia

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - In this paper, we analyzed the influence of future climate change on wind energy potential in the Republic of Serbia. We used climate projections from two...     

Using the Twentieth Century Reanalysis to assess climate variability for the European wind industry

We characterise the long-term variability of European near-surface wind speeds using 142 years of data from the Twentieth Century Reanalysis (20CR), and consider the potential of such long-baseline climate data sets for wind energy applications. The low resolution of the 20CR would severely restrict its use on its own for wind farm site-screening. We therefore perform a simple statistical calibration to link it to the higher-resolution ERA-Interim data set (ERAI), such that the adjusted 20CR data has the same wind speed distribution at each location as ERAI during their common period. Using this corrected 20CR data set, wind speeds and variability are characterised in terms of the long-term mean, standard deviation and corresponding trends. Many regions of interest show extremely weak trends on century timescales, but contain large multidecadal variability. Since reanalyses such as ERAI are often used to provide the background climatology for wind farm site assessments, but contain only a few decades of data, our results can be used as a way of incorporating decadal-scale wind climate variability into such studies, allowing investment risks for wind farms to be reduced.     

Flood insurance arrangements in the European Union for future flood risk under climate and socioeconomic change

Flood risk will increase in many areas around the world due to climate change and increase in economic exposure. This implies that adequate flood insurance schemes are needed to adapt to increasing flood risk and to minimise welfare losses for households in flood-prone areas. Flood insurance markets may need reform to offer sufficient and affordable financial protection and incentives for risk reduction. Here, we present the results of a study that aims to evaluate the ability of flood insurance arrangements in Europe to cope with trends in flood risk, using criteria that encompass common elements of the policy debate on flood insurance reform. We show that the average risk-based flood insurance premium could double between 2015 and 2055 in the absence of more risk reduction by households exposed to flooding. We show that part of the expected future increase in flood risk could be limited by flood insurance mechanisms that better incentivise risk reduction by policyholders, which lowers vulnerability. The affordability of flood insurance can be improved by introducing the key features of public-private partnerships (PPPs), which include public reinsurance, limited premium cross-subsidisation between low- and high-risk households, and incentives for policyholder-level risk reduction. These findings were evaluated in a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and support ongoing reforms in Europe and abroad that move towards risk-based premiums and link insurance with risk reduction, strengthen purchase requirements, and engage in multi-stakeholder partnerships.     

Modelling mid-Holocene tropical climate and ENSO variability: towards constraining predictions of future change with palaeo-data

Palaeoclimate simulations provide an opportunity for climate model evaluation as well as having a potential role in assigning relative likelihood to different ensemble members in probabilistic climate change prediction, supplementing constraints provided by the instrumental record. Here we take some initial steps towards such an approach by performing ensemble experiments with the Hadley Centre HadCM3 model under pre-industrial and mid-Holocene (6,000 years before present) forcing conditions. We examine the changes in both mean tropical climate and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability, as palaeoclimate records suggest that ENSO amplitude was reduced in the mid-Holocene. Experiments are performed with perturbations to physical parameters in the atmosphere–surface component of the model, and with different implementations of heat and freshwater flux adjustments. Heat flux adjustments are required to stabilise model versions in which perturbations cause a net radiative imbalance. While we find broad agreement between different model versions in terms of changes in mean climate in the mid-Holocene, a detailed and quantitative comparison with the geographically-sparse palaeo-record is limited by systematic model biases. In the simulations without seasonally-varying flux adjustments there are modest reductions in ENSO amplitude of the order of 10–15%, lower than the range of reductions inferred from coral proxy records. We examine the mechanisms for these changes, and discuss the implications for the design of future ensemble experiments to formally quantify uncertainty in climate change predictions using palaeoclimate simulations.     

Modelling waving crops in a wind tunnel

Analysis of movie films of a field of barley, combined with observations of the motions of individual plants, show that single stalks oscillate at a well-defined natural frequency even when stimulated by turbulent winds. Treating single stalks as resonant cantilevers allows the use of standard engineering methods to determine their elastic properties. Armed with these values, the application of similarity analysis to the equation of motion of a single stalk leads to criteria for aeroelastic modelling of wheat plants in the wind tunnel. A representative value for the spacing of stalks in a small section of model wheat field was calculated by referring to published data on momentum absorption in a variety of real and model canopies. Preliminary measurements of first and second moments of velocity in the model appear to confirm the importance of including elastic properties in wind-tunnel simulations of airflow in flexible crops.     

冬季北大西洋风暴轴的变化及其对西伯利亚高压的影响

采用1948—2010年NCEP/NCAR逐日再分析资料,计算大西洋风暴轴特征指数和西伯利亚高压特征指数,研究了冬季北大西洋风暴轴的变化及其对西伯利亚高压的影响。结果表明:风暴轴经度指数与西伯利亚高压纬度、强度、面积指数显著相关。风暴轴经度指数正异常月,大西洋天气尺度瞬变波活动向东扩展到欧洲乃至乌拉尔山以东,西伯利亚及东亚地区反气旋式波破碎加强,瞬变波对月平均气流的反馈作用使得欧亚大陆上空50°N以北西风加速、50°N以南西风减速;中纬度经向环流加强,气候态的西欧沿岸脊、欧洲东部槽、青藏高原北部脊均加强,东亚大槽减弱东移;在西伯利亚地区,暖空气向北输送加强,来自极区的冷空气南下减弱,致使西伯利亚及东亚地区温度偏高,西伯利亚高压面积减少、纬度偏南、强度减弱。风暴轴经度指数负异常月的情况则反之。