Projections of climate change impacts on central America tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, accounting for a large part of global net primary productivity and contributing to CO₂ sequestration. The objective of this work is to simulate potential changes in the rainforest biome in Central America subject to anthropogenic climate change under two emissions scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The use of a dynamic vegetation model and climate change scenarios is an approach to investigate, assess or anticipate how biomes respond to climate change. In this work, the Inland dynamic vegetation model was driven by the Eta regional climate model simulations. These simulations accept boundary conditions from HadGEM2-ES runs in the two emissions scenarios. The possible consequences of regional climate change on vegetation properties, such as biomass, net primary production and changes in forest extent and distribution, were investigated. The Inland model projections show reductions in tropical forest cover in both scenarios. The reduction of tropical forest cover is greater in RCP8.5. The Inland model projects biomass increases where tropical forest remains due to the CO₂ fertilization effect. The future distribution of predominant vegetation shows that some areas of tropical rainforest in Central America are replaced by savannah and grassland in RCP4.5. Inland projections under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 show a net primary productivity reduction trend due to significant tropical forest reduction, temperature increase, precipitation reduction and dry spell increments, despite the biomass increases in some areas of Costa Rica and Panama. This study may provide guidance to adaptation studies of climate change impacts on the tropical rainforests in Central America.     

Robust intensification of hydroclimatic intensity over East Asia from multi-model ensemble regional projections

This study assesses the hydroclimatic response to global warming over East Asia from multi-model ensemble regional projections. Four different regional climate models (RCMs), namely, WRF, HadGEM3-RA, RegCM4, and GRIMs, are used for dynamical downscaling of the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 2–Atmosphere and Ocean (HadGEM2-AO) global projections forced by the representative concentration pathway (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) scenarios. Annual mean precipitation, hydroclimatic intensity index (HY-INT), and wet and dry extreme indices are analyzed to identify the robust behavior of hydroclimatic change in response to enhanced emission scenarios using high-resolution (12.5 km) and long-term (1981–2100) daily precipitation. Ensemble projections exhibit increased hydroclimatic intensity across the entire domain and under both the RCP scenarios. However, a geographical pattern with predominantly intensified HY-INT does not fully emerge in the mean precipitation change because HY-INT is tied to the changes in the precipitation characteristics rather than to those in the precipitation amount. All projections show an enhancement of high intensity precipitation and a reduction of weak intensity precipitation, which lead to a possible shift in hydroclimatic regime prone to an increase of both wet and dry extremes. In general, projections forced by the RCP8.5 scenario tend to produce a much stronger response than do those by the RCP4.5 scenario. However, the temperature increase under the RCP4.5 scenario is sufficiently large to induce significant changes in hydroclimatic intensity, despite the relatively uncertain change in mean precipitation. Likewise, the forced responses of HY-INT and the two extreme indices are more robust than that of mean precipitation, in terms of the statistical significance and model agreement.

     

新疆地区未来气候变化的区域气候模式集合预估

本文基于一套在5个全球气候模式结果驱动下,RegCM4区域气候模式对东亚25 km水平分辨率的集合预估,分析了中、高温室气体典型排放路径（RCP4.5和RCP8.5）下,21世纪不同时期新疆地区的未来气候变化。对模式当代气候模拟结果的检验表明,区域模式的模拟集合（ensR）总体上能够很好地再现当代新疆平均气温、降水和极端气温、降水分布特征。ensR预估21世纪未来新疆平均气温和降水将不断升高或增加,RCP8.5下的变化大于RCP4.5。在21世纪末期RCP8.5下,区域年平均气温和降水将分别增加4.9°C和28%（102 mm）,夏季（6～8月）的升温幅度略高于冬季（12～2月）,降水则以冬季增加为主。极端温度以及高温日数同样将不断升高,其中年日最低气温最小值的增幅总体高于年日最高气温最大值,未来新疆地区的极端冷事件将减少,高温、热浪事件将增加。由极端降水指标日最大降水量反应的强降水事件将普遍增加,连续无降水日数总体以减少为主。积雪变化存在一定区域差异,具体表现为除塔里木盆地外的普遍减少。对总径流量和表层土壤湿度的预估分析表明,二者在新疆地区均以增加为主,但水文干旱在北疆会加重。ensR各模拟间无论是在当代模拟还是未来预估中都表现出较好的一致性,但在变化的具体数量及个别情况下符号均存在一定差异。最后,综合考虑ensR对各要素的预估发现,总体而言新疆未来更趋向于“暖湿化”,但这不会改变其干旱、半干旱气候的本质,而且水文干旱频率在一些地区会增加,未来新疆的水资源状况仍不容乐观。     

两种统计降尺度方法在秦岭山地的适用性

基于ASD（automated statistical downscaling）统计降尺度模型提供的多元线性回归和岭回归两种统计降尺度方法,采用RCP4.5（representative concentration pathways 4.5）和RCP8.5情景下全球气候模式MPI-ESM-LR输出的预报因子数据、NCEP/NCAR再分析数据和秦岭山地周边10个气象站观测数据,评估两种统计降尺度方法在秦岭山地的适用性及预估秦岭山地未来3个时期（2006-2040年、2041-2070年和2071-2100年）的平均气温和降水。结果表明:率定期和验证期内,两种统计降尺度方法均可以较好地模拟研究区域的平均气温和降水的变化特征,且多元线性回归的模拟效果优于岭回归。在未来气候情景下,两种统计降尺度方法预估的研究区域平均气温均呈明显上升趋势,气温增幅随辐射强迫增加而增大。降水方面,21世纪未来3个时期降水均呈不明显减少趋势,但季节分配发生变化。综合考虑两种统计降尺度方法在秦岭山地对平均气温和降水的模拟效果和情景预估结果,认为多元线性回归降尺度方法更适用于秦岭山地气候变化的降尺度预估研究。     

Projected Climate Change in the Northwestern Arid Regions of China: An Ensemble of Regional Climate Model Simulations

The projected temperature and precipitationchange under different emissions scenarios using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models over the northwestern arid regions of China(NWAC) were analyzed using the ensemble of three high-resolution dynamical downscaling simulations: the simulation of the Regional Climate Model version 4.0(Reg CM4) forced by the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model version 1.1(BCC_CSM1.1); the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 3 regional climate model(Had GEM3-RA) forced by the Atmosphere-Ocean coupled Had GEM version 2(Had GEM2-AO); and the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model forced by the Norwegian community Earth System Model(Nor ESM1-M). Model validation indicated that the multimodel simulations reproduce the spatial and temporal distribution of temperature and precipitation well. The temperature is projected to increase over NWAC under both the 4.5 and 8.5 Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios(RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) in the middle of the 21 st century, but the warming trend is larger under the RCP8.5 scenario. Precipitation shows a significant increasing trend in spring and winter under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5; but in summer, precipitation is projected to decrease in the Tarim Basin and Junggar Basin. The regional averaged temperature and precipitation show increasing trends in the future over NWAC; meanwhile, the large variability of the winter mean temperature and precipitation may induce more extreme cold events and intense snowfall events in these regions in the future.     

中、高温室气体排放情景下2069~2098年中国冬小麦气候适宜种植分区对比北大核心CSCD

基于温度、降水、光照等指标,通过利用区域气候模式所预估的分辨率为1°(纬度)×1°(经度)的未来气候预估数据,对1981~2005年的基准期和RCP4.5、RCP8.5两排放情景下2069~2098年中国热量资源以及冬小麦种植界限、理论生育期和气候适宜种植分区的空间分布特征进行了对比分析。研究主要结论为:与基准期相比,两未来气候变化情景下我国热量资源、冬小麦种植条件与气候适宜性差异显著。且相比于RCP4.5情景,在RCP8.5情景下中国2069~2098年多数地区热量资源增加、冬小麦种植北界和南界北移东扩、可种植面积扩大,多数区域理论适宜播种期推迟、理论成熟期提前、潜在生长季缩短,且潜在生长季内的光—温—水配置使得冬小麦气候适宜性有所提高。但由于冬小麦为喜凉作物,对高温胁迫非常敏感,RCP8.5情景下更多的极端高温天气和不对称增温等因素带来的负面影响很可能抵消前述光—温—水配置所带来的有利影响,从而降低冬小麦的种植适宜性。因此,未来研究工作仍应致力于减缓气候变化,以保障我国粮食生产的安全。     

未来气候变化情景下长江上游年径流量变化趋势研究

依据政府间气候变化委员会(IPCC)第五次评估报告(AR5)未来不同排放情景(RCPs)下的多模式(CMIP5)气温和降水预估结果,构建基于气温和降水的未来径流量预估模型,并以宜昌站为例分析了不同模式不同排放情景下未来80年(2020～2099年)长江上游年径流量的变化趋势。多模式集合平均预估结果表明:在99%的置信水平下,未来80年长江上游年径流量在RCP2.6排放情景下呈不显著增加趋势,在RCP4.5排放情景下呈不显著减小趋势,而在RCP8.5排放情景下则呈显著减小趋势;在RCP2.6、RCP4.5和RCP8.5排放情景下未来80年长江上游年径流量预估均值相对于1961～2000年分别减少6.42%、10.99%和13.25%;同时,未来80年长江上游年径流量变化具有一定的年代际特征,在RCP2.6和RCP4.5排放情景下21世纪初期偏多、中期偏少而后期变化并不明显,在RCP8.5排放情景下则是21世纪中期以前偏多而中期以后明显偏少。本研究方法可为未来气候变化情景预估分析提供技术参考,本研究成果可供气候变化背景下长江上游乃至长江流域水资源开发利用及对策分析提供决策依据。      

CMIP5多模式集合对江苏省气候变化模拟评估及情景预估

利用中国气象局所属的2 400余个台站观测资料制作的分辨率为0.25°×0.25°数据集中的气温、降水量资料评估了CMIP5中17个模式对于1961—2004年江苏省气温和降水量空间分布特征的模拟能力,筛选出了5个对江苏省气候特征模拟较好的模式。之后基于5个优选模式集合平均的结果预估了3种典型浓度路径(Representative Concentration Pathways,RCPs)下江苏省2006—2100年的气温和降水量变化趋势。结果表明:(1)全球耦合气候模式对江苏省的气温和降水量空间分布特征具有一定的模拟能力,并且模式集合平均的气温和降水量与观测资料的空间相关系数分别为0.85和0.93;(2)在低浓度路径(RCP2.6)、中浓度路径(RCP4.5)和高浓度路径(RCP8.5)3种温室气体排放情景下,江苏省2006—2100年的地表温度均呈现明显的增温趋势,并且苏北的增温幅度要高于苏南;(3)3种温室气体排放情景下,江苏省未来百年降水量均呈现出北方增多南方减少的趋势;(4)未来百年江苏省降水量随气温变化的趋势并不稳定,RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下降水量随气温的升高而增加,而RCP8.5情景下降水量随气温的增加而减少。     

RegCM4对华北区域21世纪气候变化预估研究

利用国家气候中心完成的RegCM4区域气候模式在RCP4.5和RCP8.5两种排放路径下的气候变化动力降尺度试验结果,在检验模式对基准期(1986—2005年)气温和降水模拟能力基础上,进行华北区域21世纪气候变化预估分析。结果表明:RegCM4对华北区域基准期气温和降水的模拟能力较好。未来21世纪,两种情景下华北区域气温、降水、持续干期(consecutive dry days, CDD)和强降水量(R95p)变化逐渐增大,但变化幅度在高排放的RCP8.5情景下更为显著,其中近期(2021—2035年)、中期(2046—2065年)、远期(2080—2098年)RCP8.5情景下年平均气温分别升高1.77、3.44、5.82℃,年平均降水分别增加8.1%、14%、19.3%,CDD分别减少3、3、12 d, R95p分别增加30.8%、41.9%、69.8%。空间上,未来21世纪华北区域内年、冬季、夏季平均气温将一致升高,夏季升温幅度最大;年、冬季、夏季平均降水整体以增加为主,冬季降水增加幅度最大;CDD以减少为主,但近期和中期在山西和京津冀有所增加,而R95p以增加为主,表明21世纪华北区域干旱事件逐渐减少、极端降水事件不断增加。     

西南地区持续性气候事件的未来变化预估

利用RegCM4.0区域气候模式单向嵌套BCC_CSM1.1模式输出资料进行连续积分获得的模拟预估数据,对西南地区未来2025-2055年在两种温室气体排放情景下持续性干期和持续湿期事件的特征及其相对于历史基准期的变化进行了预估分析。结果表明,最长持续干期和湿期在RCP4.5和RCP8.5两种情景下的变化趋势不一致,RCP8.5情景下的最长湿期和持续湿期事件的发生频次相较RCP4.5并没有大幅增加,而是比RCP4.5情景具有更高的年际变率特征。相对于历史基准期,两种情景下的最长持续性气候事件的日数和发生频次在西南地区的东南部区域显著性增加,而在川西高原地区显著减少。对于持续干期发生的频次FCDD和最长持续湿期而言,四川中部以及四川、云南和贵州三省邻接处在RCP4.5情景下表现为显著增加的区域在RCP8.5情景下转变为显著减少。未来几十年西南地区持续性湿期和干期的分布特征可能更加趋于不均匀。     

Dynamical Downscaling of Temperature and Precipitation Extremes in China under Current and Future Climates

Climate changes over China from the present (1996–2005) to the future (2046–2055) under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5) and Representative Concentration Pathways 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenarios are projected using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, version 3.7.1. The WRF model was driven by the Global 6-Hourly Bias-corrected Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5 (CMIP5), Community Earth System Model dataset over China with a resolution of 30?km. The results demonstrate that WRF downscaling generally simulates more reliable spatial distributions of surface air temperature and precipitation in China with higher spatial pattern correlations and closer in magnitude to the Community Climate System Model, version 4.0, simulation results, especially near mountain ranges. The WRF projections for temperature and precipitation for the future under the two emission scenarios are compared with the present simulation. Generally stronger warming, both in mean temperature and extreme statistics, is produced by WRF-RCP8.5 than by WRF-RCP4.5. The projections for precipitation changes are more varied with season and region for both scenarios.     

Projected Heat Wave Characteristics over the Korean Peninsula During the Twenty-First Century

Climate change is expected to increase temperatures globally, and consequently more frequent, longer, and hotter heat waves are likely to occur. Ambiguity in defining heat waves appropriately makes it difficult to compare changes in heat wave events over time. This study provides a quantitative definition of a heat wave and makes probabilistic heat wave projections for the Korean Peninsula under two global warming scenarios. Changes to heat waves under global warming are investigated using the representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) and 8.5 (RCP8.5) experiments from 30 coupled models participating in phase five of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project. Probabilistic climate projections from multi-model ensembles have been constructed using both simple and weighted averaging. Results from both methods are similar and show that heat waves will be more intense, frequent, and longer lasting. These trends are more apparent under the RCP8.5 scenario as compared to the RCP4.5 scenario. Under the RCP8.5 scenario, typical heat waves are projected to become stronger than any heat wave experienced in the recent measurement record. Furthermore, under this scenario, it cannot be ruled out that Korea will experience heat wave conditions spanning almost an entire summer before the end of the 21st century.     

CSIRO Mk3.6.0模式及其驱动下RegCM4.4模式对中国气候变化的预估

使用区域气候模式RegCM4.4,对全球模式CSIRO-Mk3.6.0在RCP4.5情景下的气候变化试验结果（1950-2100年）在东亚地区进行25 km动力降尺度试验,比较了CSIRO-Mk3.6.0和RegCM4.4预估中国地区的21世纪气候变化。结果表明,两个模式预估未来中国地区气温持续升高,升温幅度具有区域性特征,RegCM4.4预估区域平均升温幅度低于CSIRO-Mk3.6.0,但二者年际波动基本一致。两个模式预估未来降水在中国西部以持续增加为主,东部则表现出较大的不一致性,预估区域平均年降水量变化不大,呈现冬季明显增加,夏季微弱减少的特点。此外,为了解区域气候模式对中国降水预估的不确定性,对本研究和以往RegCM3使用相同分辨率模拟得到的未来降水预估进行了对比,两个区域模式预估中国西部大部分地区未来降水一致性增加,东部存在明显不一致（冬季中、高纬除外）。     

Downscaling future climate change projections over Puerto Rico using a non-hydrostatic atmospheric model

We present results from 20-year “high-resolution” regional climate model simulations of precipitation change for the sub-tropical island of Puerto Rico. The Japanese Meteorological Agency Non-Hydrostatic Model (NHM) operating at a 2-km grid resolution is nested inside the Regional Spectral Model (RSM) at 10-km grid resolution, which in turn is forced at the lateral boundaries by the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4). At this resolution, the climate change experiment allows for deep convection in model integrations, which is an important consideration for sub-tropical regions in general, and on islands with steep precipitation gradients in particular that strongly influence local ecological processes and the provision of ecosystem services. Projected precipitation change for this region of the Caribbean is simulated for the mid-twenty-first century (2041–2060) under the RCP8.5 climate-forcing scenario relative to the late twentieth century (1986–2005). The results show that by the mid-twenty-first century, there is an overall rainfall reduction over the island for all seasons compared to the recent climate but with diminished mid-summer drought (MSD) in the northwestern parts of the island. Importantly, extreme rainfall events on sub-daily and daily time scales also become slightly less frequent in the projected mid-twenty-first-century climate over most regions of the island.     

Regional and global projections of twenty-first century glacier mass changes in response to climate scenarios from global climate models

A large component of present-day sea-level rise is due to the melt of glaciers other than the ice sheets. Recent projections of their contribution to global sea-level rise for the twenty-first century range between 70 and 180 mm, but bear significant uncertainty due to poor glacier inventory and lack of hypsometric data. Here, we aim to update the projections and improve quantification of their uncertainties by using a recently released global inventory containing outlines of almost every glacier in the world. We model volume change for each glacier in response to transient spatially-differentiated temperature and precipitation projections from 14 global climate models with two emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) prepared for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The multi-model mean suggests sea-level rise of 155 ± 41 mm (RCP4.5) and 216 ± 44 mm (RCP8.5) over the period 2006–2100, reducing the current global glacier volume by 29 or 41 %. The largest contributors to projected global volume loss are the glaciers in the Canadian and Russian Arctic, Alaska, and glaciers peripheral to the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Although small contributors to global volume loss, glaciers in Central Europe, low-latitude South America, Caucasus, North Asia, and Western Canada and US are projected to lose more than 80 % of their volume by 2100. However, large uncertainties in the projections remain due to the choice of global climate model and emission scenario. With a series of sensitivity tests we quantify additional uncertainties due to the calibration of our model with sparsely observed glacier mass changes. This gives an upper bound for the uncertainty range of ±84 mm sea-level rise by 2100 for each projection.     

Steric sea level change in twentieth century historical climate simulation and IPCC-RCP8.5 scenario projection: A comparison of two versions of FGOALS model

To reveal the steric sea level change in 20th century historical climate simulations and future climate change projections under the IPCC’s Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario, the results of two versions of LASG/IAP’s Flexible Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land System model (FGOALS) are analyzed. Both models reasonably reproduce the mean dynamic sea level features, with a spatial pattern correlation coefficient of 0.97 with the observation. Characteristics of steric sea level changes in the 20th century historical climate simulations and RCP8.5 scenario projections are investigated. The results show that, in the 20th century, negative trends covered most parts of the global ocean. Under the RCP8.5 scenario, global-averaged steric sea level exhibits a pronounced rising trend throughout the 21st century and the general rising trend appears in most parts of the global ocean. The magnitude of the changes in the 21st century is much larger than that in the 20th century. By the year 2100, the global-averaged steric sea level anomaly is 18 cm and 10 cm relative to the year 1850 in the second spectral version of FGOALS (FGOALS-s2) and the second grid-point version of FGOALS (FGOALS-g2), respectively. The separate contribution of the thermosteric and halosteric components from various ocean layers is further evaluated. In the 20th century, the steric sea level changes in FGOALS-s2 (FGOALS-g2) are largely attributed to the thermosteric (halosteric) component relative to the pre-industrial control run. In contrast, in the 21st century, the thermosteric component, mainly from the upper 1000 m, dominates the steric sea level change in both models under the RCP8.5 scenario. In addition, the steric sea level change in the marginal sea of China is attributed to the thermosteric component.     

Decreasing precipitation occurs in daily extreme precipitation intervals across China in observations and model simulations

Extreme precipitation response to increasing temperature includes not only changes of frequency and intensity, but also changes of extreme precipitation interval (EPIV) and the precipitation during the neighboring daily extreme precipitations interval (EPIP). These changes have not been fully evaluated yet in observations or climate model simulations although they are very useful to understand variations of extreme precipitation. We used daily precipitation data from 669 meteorological stations during the past five decades across China and projections of 19 general circulation models from CMIP5 under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios to investigate variations of EPIV and EPIP. We found the national average annual EPIV increased across China during the last five decades, while annual EPIP significantly decreased. The decreases mainly occurred in southwest China, east China, and southeast China. At national and regional scales, the average annual EPIV and EPIP showed greater decreases under the RCP8.5 scenario than those under the RCP4.5 scenario from 2006 to 2100. Annual EPIP showed a stronger correlation with extreme precipitation intensity than EPIV. The national average annual EPIP had a significant positive correlation with the Western Pacific Subtropical High Area Index. The abnormal geopotential heights over western Mongolia and the western Pacific at 500 hpa as well as the abnormal SSTs in Japan Sea and the western of Pacific in rainy seasons would result in abnormal annual EPIVs and EPIPs in China. This study may provide references for flooding prediction, water resources management, and disaster prevention and mitigation.     

Abrupt CO2 experiments as tools for predicting and understanding CMIP5 representative concentration pathway projections

A fast simple climate modelling approach is developed for predicting and helping to understand general circulation model (GCM) simulations. We show that the simple model reproduces the GCM results accurately, for global mean surface air temperature change and global-mean heat uptake projections from 9 GCMs in the fifth coupled model inter-comparison project (CMIP5). This implies that understanding gained from idealised CO₂ step experiments is applicable to policy-relevant scenario projections. Our approach is conceptually simple. It works by using the climate response to a CO₂ step change taken directly from a GCM experiment. With radiative forcing from non-CO₂ constituents obtained by adapting the Forster and Taylor method, we use our method to estimate results for CMIP5 representative concentration pathway (RCP) experiments for cases not run by the GCMs. We estimate differences between pairs of RCPs rather than RCP anomalies relative to the pre-industrial state. This gives better results because it makes greater use of available GCM projections. The GCMs exhibit differences in radiative forcing, which we incorporate in the simple model. We analyse the thus-completed ensemble of RCP projections. The ensemble mean changes between 1986–2005 and 2080–2099 for global temperature (heat uptake) are, for RCP8.5: 3.8 K (2.3 × 10²⁴ J); for RCP6.0: 2.3 K (1.6 × 10²⁴ J); for RCP4.5: 2.0 K (1.6 × 10²⁴ J); for RCP2.6: 1.1 K (1.3 × 10²⁴ J). The relative spread (standard deviation/ensemble mean) for these scenarios is around 0.2 and 0.15 for temperature and heat uptake respectively. We quantify the relative effect of mitigation action, through reduced emissions, via the time-dependent ratios (change in RCPx)/(change in RCP8.5), using changes with respect to pre-industrial conditions. We find that the effects of mitigation on global-mean temperature change and heat uptake are very similar across these different GCMs.     

Present and future climatologies in the phase I CREMA experiment

We provide an overall assessment of the surface air temperature and precipitation present day (1976–2005) and future (2070–2099) ensemble climatologies in the Phase I CREMA experiment. This consists of simulations performed with different configurations (physics schemes) of the ICTP regional model RegCM4 over five CORDEX domains (Africa, Mediterranean, Central America, South America, South Asia), driven by different combinations of three global climate models (GCMs) and two greenhouse gas (GHG) representative concentration pathways (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). The biases (1976–2005) in the driving and nested model ensembles compared to observations show a high degree of spatial variability and, when comparing GCMs and RegCM4, similar magnitudes and more similarity for precipitation than for temperature. The large scale patterns of change (2070–2099 minus 1976–2005) are broadly consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles and with previous analyses of GCM projections, indicating that the GCMs selected in the CREMA experiment are representative of the more general behavior of current GCMs. The RegCM4, however, shows a lower climate sensitivity (reduced warming) than the driving GCMs, especially when using the CLM land surface scheme. While the broad patterns of precipitation change are consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles, greater differences are found at sub-regional scales over the various domains, evidently tied to the representation of local processes. This paper serves to provide a reference view of the behavior of the CREMA ensemble, while more detailed and process-based analysis of individual domains is left to companion papers of this special issue.     

Assessment of future climate change over East Asia due to the RCP scenarios downscaled by GRIMs-RMP

This study assesses future climate change over East Asia using the Global/Regional Integrated Model system—Regional Model Program (RMP). The RMP is forced by two types of future climate scenarios produced by the Hadley Center Global Environmental Model version 2 (HG2); the representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios for the intergovernmental panel on climate change fifth assessment report (AR5). Analyses for the current (1980–2005) climate are performed to evaluate the RMP’s ability to reproduce precipitation and temperature. Two different future (2006–2050) simulations are compared with the current climatology to investigate the climatic change over East Asia centered in Korea. The RMP satisfactorily reproduces the observed seasonal mean and variation of precipitation and temperature. The spatial distribution of the simulated large-scale features and precipitation by the RMP is generally less reflective of current climatic conditions than that is given by the HG2, but their inter-annual variations in East Asia are better captured by the RMP. Furthermore, the RMP shows higher reproducibility of climate extremes including excessive heat wave and precipitation events over South Korea. In the future, strong warming is distinctly coupled with intensified monsoonal precipitation over East Asia. In particular, extreme weather conditions are increased and intensified over South Korea as follows: (1) The frequency of heat wave events with temperature greater than 30 °C is projected to increase by 131 and 111 % in the RCP 8.5 and 4.5 downscaling, relative to the current climate. (2) The RCP 8.5 downscaling shows the frequency and variability of heavy rainfall to increase by 24 and 31.5 %, respectively, while the statistics given by the RCP 4.5 downscaling are similar to those of the current climate.