The impact of potential abrupt climate changes on near-term policy choices

We investigate an important scientific uncertainty facing climate-change policymakers, namely, the impact of potential abrupt climatic change. We examine sequential decision strategies for abating climate change where near-term policies are viewed as the first of a series of decisions which adapt over the years to improving scientific information. We compare two illustrative near-term (1992–2002) policies - moderate and aggressive emission reductions - followed by a subsequent long-term policy chosen to limit global-mean temperature change to a specified ‘climate target’. We calculate the global-mean surface temperature change using a simple climate/ocean model and simple models of greenhouse-gas concentrations. We alter model parameters to examine the impact of abrupt changes in the sinks of carbon dioxide, the sources of methane, the circulation of the oceans, and the climate sensitivity, ΔT _2x. Although the abrupt changes increase the long-term costs of responding to climate change, they do not significantly affect the comparatively small cost difference between near-term strategies. Except for an abrupt increase in ΔT _2x, the investigated abrupt climate changes do not significantly alter the values of the climate target for which each near-term strategy is preferred. In contrast, innovations that reduce the cost of limiting greenhouse-gas emissions offer the potential for substantial abatement cost savings, regardless of which level of near-term abatement is selected.     

大西洋热盐环流与气候突变

未来是否会发生由大西洋热盐环流崩溃引起的气候突变是目前极富争议性的全球气候变化问题。首先回顾了过去发生的气候突变事件以及若干成因假说,介绍了McGill地球系统模拟组的有关研究成果,并探讨了过去气候突变事件中的南北半球遥相关,最后讨论了未来是否会发生大西洋热盐环流崩溃引起的气候突变。对过去发生的大西洋热盐环流突变的研究表明,它产生的气候背景与现代气候以及将来进一步变暖的气候截然不同,因此不能凭过去发生过的突变事件来推论将来会发生类似的气候突变。尽管有的气候模式预测全球变暖会导致大西洋热盐环流减弱甚至崩溃而引发气候突变,但是目前全球气候系统的观测有许多不足之处,并且现代气候模式也存在较大的不确定性,因此尚不能确信现在的全球变暖会导致这样的气候突变。     

Abrupt changes as indicators of decadal climate variability

 A statistical test has revealed that abrupt regional climate changes are produced in a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model. Abrupt changes are detected over much of the globe although the occurrence frequency is small over the continents. Over the tropical Pacific Ocean and northern Pacific Ocean, surface air temperature (SAT) and sea level pressure (SLP) shift rapidly on decadal time scales. The regional climate changes presented here have been classified into three types. The first type consists of statistically significant shifts in SLP and statistically significant shifts in SAT which are of opposite sign, and which are reinforced through a positive feedback between the atmosphere and the ocean. The second type is for those occurrences where changes are of the same sign. The third type includes those with a significant shift in only one meteorological element. The second and third types are generally generated by changes in air pressure and wind fields induced by changes of the first type. For example, when SLP increases and sea surface temperature (SST) decreases abruptly in the tropical Pacific Ocean, it triggers abrupt regional changes in middle and high latitudes. The abrupt changes in the model climate have characteristics which are very similar to those of observed rapid shifts. Thus, it is concluded that abrupt changes are a predominant part of regional climate change on decadal time scales. Received: 11 February 1999 / Accepted: 18 May 2000     

Integrated assessment of abrupt climatic changes

One of the most controversial conclusions to emerge from many of the first generation of integrated assessment models (IAMs) of climate policy was the perceived economic optimality of negligible near-term abatement of greenhouse gases. Typically, such studies were conducted using smoothly varying climate change scenarios or impact responses. Abrupt changes observed in the climatic record and documented in current models could substantially alter the stringency of economically optimal IAM policies. Such abrupt climatic changes — or consequent impacts — would be less foreseeable and provide less time to adapt, and thus would have far greater economic or environmental impacts than gradual warming. We extend conventional, smooth IAM analysis by coupling a climate model capable of one type of abrupt change to a well-established energy–economy model (DICE). We compare the DICE optimal policy using the standard climate sub-model to our version that allows for abrupt change — and consequent enhanced climate damage — through changes in the strength (and possible collapse) of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC). We confirm the potential significance of abrupt climate change to economically optimal IAM policies, thus calling into question all previous work neglecting such possibilities — at the least for the wide ranges of relevant social and climate system parameters we consider. In addition, we obtain an emergent property of our coupled social–natural system model: “optimal policies” that do consider abrupt changes may, under relatively low discount rates, calculate emission control levels sufficient to avoid significant abrupt change, whereas “optimal policies” disregarding abrupt change would not prevent this non-linear event. However, there is a threshold in discount rate above which the present value of future damages is so low that even very large enhanced damages in the 22nd century, when a significant abrupt change such as a THC collapse would be most likely to occur, do not increase optimal control levels sufficiently to prevent such a collapse. Thus, any models not accounting for potential abrupt non-linear behavior and its interaction with the discounting formulation are likely to miss an important set of possibilities relevant to the climate policy debate.     

Decreasing predictability as a precursor indicator for abrupt climate change

Abrupt climate change has an important impact on sustainable economic and social development, as well as ecosystem. However, it is very difficult to predict abrupt climate changes because the climate system is a complex and nonlinear system. In the present paper, the nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent (NLLE) is proposed as a new early warning signal for an abrupt climate change. The performance of NLLE as an early warning signal is first verified by those simulated abrupt changes based on four folding models. That is, NLLE in all experiments showed an almost monotonous increasing trend as a dynamic system approached its tipping point. For a well-studied abrupt climate change in North Pacific in 1976/1977, it is also found that NLLE shows an almost monotonous increasing trend since 1970 which give up to 6 years warning before the abrupt climate change. The limit of the predictability for a nonlinear dynamic system can be quantitatively estimated by NLLE, and lager NLLE of the system means less predictability. Therefore, the decreasing predictability may be an effective precursor indicator for abrupt climate change.

     

从地球系统的观点看气候突变

在地球的气候史中,经历了许多次气候突变事件。这些突变对地球表层系统的演变与进化产生了巨大影响。随着全球气候变暖的持续发展,人类赖以生存的气候环境正在经历重大变化。如何科学地理解和认识这些变化,尤其是气候突变。是人类寻求对策,应对气候变化,保护自己持续发展的科学基础。文中从地球系统的角度对气候突变的科学问题进行了探讨,认为对气候突变的研究不应仅局限于大气圈,而应该对地球系统的整体变化进行研究。     

新疆克州地区气温年代际变化及均生函数预报模型的应用

讨论了克州地区气温突变及年代际变化特征，并利用均生函数预测模型对克州地区气温进行预测试验，1995－2001年预测试验表明，均生函数预测模型可以较好地拟合出气温的气候变化趋势，对年、季气温有较好的预测能力。     

气候突变的定义和检测方法

气候突变现象及其理论的研究是近代气候学一个新兴的研究领域.本文是气候突变研究评述的第一部分,着重讨论了突变,主要是气候突变的定义和气候突变信号的各种检测方法.把气候突变归纳为四类,即均值突变、变率突变、转折突变和翘翘板(seasaw)突变.并通过Mann-Kendall法的检测,发现在本世纪20年代经历了一次全球范围的气候突变.     

Simulating multi-decadal variability of Caspian Sea level changes using regional climate model outputs

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on earth, covering approximately 4×10⁵ km² and sharing its coast with five countries (Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan). Because it has no outlet to the ocean the Caspian Sea level (CSL) has undergone rapid shifts in response to climatic forcings, and these have been devastating for the surrounding countries. In this paper we present the initial results of a modeling effort aimed at building a regional climate model for the Caspian Sea basin suitable to study the response of the CSL to interdecadal climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. Simulations are performed using the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) regional climate model RegCM at a 50 km grid spacing for the period 1948–1990. During this period an abrupt shift occurred in the sea level after 1977, when the CSL rose about two meters until the early 1990s. Using a simple equation of hydrologic balance for the Caspian Sea basin to predict the CSL, we show that the model is able to reproduce the observed CSL changes at interannual to multidecadal scales. The correlation coefficient between the simulated and observed annual CSL changes is 0.91 and the model is able to reproduce the abrupt shift in CSL which occurred after 1977. Analysis of the climatologies before and after 1977 indicate that the CSL rise was mostly due to an increase in precipitation over the northern basin and a decrease in evaporation over the sea, primarily during the warm season. We plan to apply our model to the investigation of the response of the CSL to anthropogenic climate forcings.     

气候突变现象的研究

本文分析了各种时间尺度的气候突变现象，特别是本世纪以来的三次主要气候突变（1900、1920和1960），讨论了十年尺度气候突变现象的几个主要特点:气候突变与全球温度变化的关系、突变的空间尺度以及季风系统 在气候突变中的敏感性等。     

川东北地区大春季农业气候资源的年代际变化特征分析

以1961~2008年川东北地区21个气象站的气象资料为基础,对大春生长季农业气候资源要素进行统计分析,并应用M ann-Kendall方法对各资源要素的突变性进行了检测。结果表明,≥10℃初日呈提前趋势;≥20℃终日、≥22℃终日均呈推迟趋势;界限温度内积温随年际增加,降水随年际变化不大,日照时数随年际减少;各农业气候资源除日照外均没有发生较明显突变,86%的地区的日照时数在1980年左右发生了减少型突变。这些变化必将影响到农业生产的布局和结构,为更加合理利用农业气候资源和应对气候变化提供科学依据。      

Ecosystem Responses to Abrupt Climate Change: Teleconnections, Scale and the Hydrological Cycle

The occurrence of past and future abrupt climate change, such as could occur under thermohaline circulation (THC) weakening, is increasingly evident in the paleoclimate record and model experiments. We examine potential responses of ecosystem structure and function to abrupt climate change using temperature and precipitation patterns generated by HadCM3 in response to forced THC weakening. The large changes in potential ecosystem structure and function that occur are not focused in the North Atlantic region where temperature sensitivity to THC is highest but occur throughout the world in response to climate system teleconnections. Thus, THC weakening, which is often viewed as a European problem, has globally distributed ecosystem implications. Although temperature changes associated with THC weakening affect the extent of several high latitude biomes, the distribution of ecosystem change results primarily from changes in the hydrological cycle. Currently there remains large uncertainty in climate model projections of the hydrological cycle. Therefore, the predictions of the magnitude andlocation of ecosystem perturbations will also be characterized by large uncertainty, making impact assessment, and thus adaptation, more difficult. Finally, these results illustrate the importance of scale and disaggregation in assessing ecosystem responses. Small globally aggregated ecosystem responses to THC weakening, approximately five percent for NPP and biomass, mask large local and regional changes.     

中国、北半球和全球的气温突变分析及其趋势预测研究

本文采用均值差异假设检验研究了中国、北半球和全球气温历史序列的突变现象。分析表明，中国气温从本世纪以来，在４０年代末扣年代初曾出现一次由暖到冷的突变。北半球和全球均曾在１９世纪末和本世纪２０年代发生了突变现象。功率谱分析表明，气温的突变指数曲线具有明显的周期性。一系列比较研究证明，按照分析出的突变点将气温序列分段建模，无论数值误差还是变化趋势，效果均优于整段序列的模型。所以，对未来气温变化趋势作预测，应首先搞清楚未来会处在怎样的气候阶段中，会不会出现突变。研究表明，本文叙述的均生函数累加延拓的时序建模方案，对气温序列有很好的拟合和预测效果。     

Detecting abrupt climate changes on different time scales

Two concepts are introduced for detecting abrupt climate changes. In the first case, the sampling frequency of climate data is high as compared to the frequency of climate events examined. The method is based on a separation of trend and noise in the data and is applicable to any dataset that satisfies some mild smoothness and statistical dependence conditions for the trend and the noise, respectively. We say that an abrupt change occurs when the first derivative of the trend function has a discontinuity and the task is to identify such points. The technique is applied to Northern Hemisphere temperature data from 1850 to 2009, Northern Hemisphere temperature data from proxy data, a.d. 200?C1995 and Holocene ??¹⁸O values going back to 11,700 years BP. Several abrupt changes are detected that are, among other things, beneficial for determining the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and Holocene Climate Optimum. In the second case, the sampling frequency is low relative to the frequency of climate events studied. A typical example includes Dansgaard?COeschger events. The methodology used here is based on a refinement of autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic models. The key element of this approach is the volatility that characterises the time-varying variance, and abrupt changes are defined by high volatilities. The technique applied to ??¹⁸O values going back to 122,950 years BP is suitable for identifying DO events. These two approaches for the two cases are closely related despite the fact that at first glance, they seem quite different.     

Climate fluctuations of the Weddell Sea and its surroundings in a transient climate change scenario

The response of the Weddell Sea and Antarctic Peninsula to anthropogenic forcing simulated by a global climate model is analyzed. The model, despite its low resolution, is able to capture several aspects of the observed regional pattern of climate change. A strong warming and depletion of the sea ice cover in the western Weddell Sea contrasts with a slight cooling and a sea-ice extension in the eastern Weddell Sea. This simulated long-term climate change is modulated by interdecadal variability but also affected by some abrupt regional changes in the oceanic mixed layer depth. Between 1960 and 2030 a reorganization of the deep convection activity in the Weddell Sea sustains the opposition between the eastern and western Weddell Sea. The deep convection collapses in the western Weddell Sea in the 2030s. The sea ice retreat trend is then followed by an increase of the sea ice cover in the western Weddell Sea. In the eastern Weddell Sea another abrupt collapse of the deep convection activity occurs around 2080. This event is followed by a rapid cooling and sea ice extension during the next 20 years. Most of the surface changes are associated with large-scale atmospheric circulation changes that project on the dominant mode of natural variability but also with oceanic convection and circulation changes.     

近60年来渤海海域波候变化及其与东亚环流的联系

研究海洋的波候变化是了解海洋动力过程对气候变迁响应的关键。渤海所处特殊的地理位置,使其波候在长期风场变化影响下存在阶段性变化特征。文章采用1950~2011年NCEP再分析资料中的渤海海域10 m风场资料,利用SWAN模式模拟逐月渤海波浪的有效波高、波向、波周期,分析该海区波候的变化特征。分析结果显示:1950~2011年期间渤海海域的有效波高呈现下降的趋势;波向角度均呈现上升的趋势,波周期相对平稳,略有上升;有效波高平均下降0.3 cm/a,波向角度平均增加0.12°/a。有效波高在1968年前后显现突变点,波向角度约在1960年突变,波周期在1965年左右出现突变点。渤海波候变化与海气振荡密切相关,是大尺度的大气环流变异导致的结果,长期气候变化背景下,东亚环流天气系统的长期变化(包括东亚季风强度、夏季风北界的移动,西太平洋副热带高压面积与强度的变化、脊点位置西伸与北进,以及西风指数的强弱变化等),是影响和控制渤海海域波气长期变化的主要原因。     

长江源区近44年气候变化的若干统计分析

利用长江源区5个气象站44年的气温、降水量资料以及其中2个探空站500hPa露点资料,分析了该地区气候变化趋势、突变等情况。结果表明：近44年来长江源区气温普遍升高,冬季升温幅度较大,夏季增温趋势明显,进入21世纪后,长江源区春季平均气温在降低,夏、秋季平均气温增高较趋缓,而冬季增温加剧的趋势十分明显;年、夏季降水量变化呈微弱减少趋势,而冬、春和秋季降水量呈现出增加趋势,其中春季增幅较大,冬季增湿趋势明显;长江源区年平均气温在20世纪60年代末70年代初就显现出波动回升的趋势,在1986年前后发生了由冷到暖的突变,冬、春季降水量均在20世纪70年代和80年代出现了由少向多的突变。长江源区气候在波动性变暖变干过程中,自1986年起出现了气候转向暖湿的信号,其主要原因在于全球变暖并由此引起的海洋蒸发和陆地蒸散加强,地气水分循环加快,空中水汽输送加强。     

1951—2010年大连市气温变化特征

利用1951—2010年大连市气温资料,采用气候趋势系数和气候倾向率、Mann-Kendal1突变分析等方法对年和季平均气温、最高最低气温变化特征进行了分析和突变检验。结果表明：大连市年和季平均气温呈上升趋势,进入21世纪,升温趋势有所减缓;大连市年平均气温的增温速率为0.33/10 a,明显高于近50 a中国平均增温速率0.22/10 a,更高于近50 a全球平均0.13/10 a的增温速率。大连市平均气温的升高主要发生在春季和冬季;年平均最低气温的升温幅度大于年平均最高气温的升温幅度;年、季平均气温存在突变,突变始于1987—1990年前后,突变前后平均气温均值相差较大;年、季平均最高气温和最低气温大都存在突变,但秋季平均最高气温无突变。     

1951—2010年大连市气温变化特征

利用1951—2010年大连市气温资料,采用气候趋势系数和气候倾向率、Mann-Kendal1突变分析等方法对年和季平均气温、最高最低气温变化特征进行了分析和突变检验。结果表明：大连市年和季平均气温呈上升趋势,进入21世纪,升温趋势有所减缓;大连市年平均气温的增温速率为0.33/10 a,明显高于近50 a中国平均增温...     

Tropical pacific forcing of a 1998–1999 climate shift: observational analysis and climate model results for the boreal spring season

Observational data and climate model simulations and experiments are utilized to document an abrupt shift in Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and associated atmospheric conditions, which occurred in 1998–1999. Emphasis is placed on the March–May (MAM) season, as the motivation for the work is to extend a recent study that reported an abrupt decline in East African MAM rainfall at that time. An empirical orthogonal function analysis of MAM SSTs over the last century following the removal of the concurrent influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and global warming trend by linear regression reveals a pattern of multidecadal variability in the Pacific similar to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Examination of MAM precipitation variations since 1940 indicates, among other findings, that recurrent drought events since 1999 in East Africa, central-southwest Asia, parts of eastern Australia and the southwestern US are all regional manifestations of a global scale multidecadal pattern. Associated shifts in the low-level wind field and upper-level stationary waves are discussed. Simulations using an atmospheric climate model forced with observed, global SSTs capture many of the salient precipitation and atmospheric circulation features associated with the observed shift. Further, when the model is forced only with observed SSTs from the tropical Pacific it also captures many of the observed atmospheric changes, including the abrupt shift in 1999. The results point to the fundamental role played by the tropical Pacific in driving the response to multidecadal variability of SSTs in the basin and provide important context for recent seasonal climate extremes in several regions of the globe.