A regional climate model downscaling projection of China future climate change

Climate changes over China from the present (1990–1999) to future (2046–2055) under the A1FI (fossil fuel intensive) and A1B (balanced) emission scenarios are projected using the Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3) nests with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate System Model (CCSM). For the present climate, RegCM3 downscaling corrects several major deficiencies in the driving CCSM, especially the wet and cold biases over the Sichuan Basin. As compared with CCSM, RegCM3 produces systematic higher spatial pattern correlation coefficients with observations for precipitation and surface air temperature except during winter. The projected future precipitation changes differ largely between CCSM and RegCM3, with strong regional and seasonal dependence. The RegCM3 downscaling produces larger regional precipitation trends (both decreases and increases) than the driving CCSM. Contrast to substantial trend differences projected by CCSM, RegCM3 produces similar precipitation spatial patterns under different scenarios except autumn. Surface air temperature is projected to consistently increase by both CCSM and RegCM3, with greater warming under A1FI than A1B. The result demonstrates that different scenarios can induce large uncertainties even with the same RCM-GCM nesting system. Largest temperature increases are projected in the Tibetan Plateau during winter and high-latitude areas in the northern China during summer under both scenarios. This indicates that high elevation and northern regions are more vulnerable to climate change. Notable discrepancies for precipitation and surface air temperature simulated by RegCM3 with the driving conditions of CCSM versus the model for interdisciplinary research on climate under the same A1B scenario further complicated the uncertainty issue. The geographic distributions for precipitation difference among various simulations are very similar between the present and future climate with very high spatial pattern correlation coefficients. The result suggests that the model present climate biases are systematically propagate into the future climate projections. The impacts of the model present biases on projected future trends are, however, highly nonlinear and regional specific, and thus cannot be simply removed by a linear method. A model with more realistic present climate simulations is anticipated to yield future climate projections with higher credibility.     

Mean, interannual variability and trends in a regional climate change experiment over Europe. II: climate change scenarios (2071–2100)

We present an analysis of climate change over Europe as simulated by a regional climate model (RCM) nested within time-slice atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments. Changes in mean and interannual variability are discussed for the 30-year period of 2071–2100 with respect to the present day period of 1961–1990 under forcing from the A2 and B2 IPCC emission scenarios. In both scenarios, the European region undergoes substantial warming in all seasons, in the range of 1–5.5°C, with the warming being 1–2°C lower in the B2 than in the A2 scenario. The spatial patterns of warming are similar in the two scenarios, with a maximum over eastern Europe in winter and over western and southern Europe in summer. The precipitation changes in the two scenarios also show similar spatial patterns. In winter, precipitation increases over most of Europe (except for the southern Mediterranean regions) due to increased storm activity and higher atmospheric water vapor loadings. In summer, a decrease in precipitation is found over most of western and southern Europe in response to a blocking-like anticyclonic circulation over the northeastern Atlantic which deflects summer storms northward. The precipitation changes in the intermediate seasons (spring and fall) are less pronounced than in winter and summer. Overall, the intensity of daily precipitation events predominantly increases, often also in regions where the mean precipitation decreases. Conversely the number of wet days decreases (leading to longer dry periods) except in the winter over western and central Europe. Cloudiness, snow cover and soil water content show predominant decreases, in many cases also in regions where precipitation increases. Interannual variability of both temperature and precipitation increases substantially in the summer and shows only small changes in the other seasons. A number of statistically significant regional trends are found throughout the scenario simulations, especially for temperature and for the A2 scenario. The results from the forcing AGCM simulations and the nested RCM simulations are generally consistent with each other at the broad scale. However, significant differences in the simulated surface climate changes are found between the two models in the summer, when local physics processes are more important. In addition, substantial fine scale detail in the RCM-produced change signal is found in response to local topographical and coastline features.     

土地利用变化对我国区域气候影响的数值试验

使用RegCM2区域气候模式单向嵌套澳大利亚CSIRO R21L9全球海-气耦合模式,通过将中国区域植被覆盖由理想状况改变为实际状况的数值试验对比分析,探讨了当代中国土地利用变化对中国区域气候的影响,并对结果进行了统计显著性检验。研究表明,土地利用的变化,会导致我国西北等地区年平均降水减少,导致年平均气温在内陆部分地区升高和在沿海个别地区降低,引起许多地方夏季日平均最高气温升高,而冬季日平均最低气温则在我国东部部分地区降低的同时在西北地区升高,土壤湿度的变化表现为大范围的降低。研究同时表明,相同的土地变化在不同的地理环境下引起的气候要素变化有一定的不一致性。     

High-resolution simulations for Vietnam - methodology and evaluation of current climate

To assist the government of Vietnam in its efforts to better understand the impacts of climate change and prioritise its adaptation measures, dynamically downscaled climate change projections were produced across Vietnam. Two Regional Climate Models (RCMs) were used: CSIRO’s variable-resolution Conformal-Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) and the limited-area model Regional Climate Model system version 4.2 (RegCM4.2). First, global CCAM simulations were completed using bias- and variance-corrected sea surface temperatures as well as sea ice concentrations from six Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global climate models. This approach is different from other downscaling approaches as it does not use any atmospheric fields from the GCMs. The global CCAM simulations were then further downscaled to 10 km using CCAM and to 20 km using RegCM4.2. Evaluations of temperature and precipitation for the current climate (1980-2000) were completed using station data as well as various gridded observational datasets. The RCMs were able to reproduce reasonably well most of the important characteristics of observed spatial patterns and annual cycles of temperature. Average and minimum temperatures were well simulated (biases generally less than 1oC), while maximum temperatures had biases of around 1oC. For precipitation, although the RCMs captured the annual cycle, RegCM4.2 was too dry in Oct.-Nov. (-60% bias), while CCAM was too wet in Dec.- Mar. (130% bias). Both models were too dry in summer and too wet in winter (especially in northern Vietnam). The ability of the ensemble simulations to capture current climate increases confidence in the simulations of future climate.     

Mean, interannual variability and trends in a regional climate change experiment over Europe. I. Present-day climate (1961–1990)

We present an analysis of a multidecadal simulation of present-day climate (1961–1990) over Europe with the regional climate model RegCM nested within the global atmospheric model HadAMH. Climatic means, interannual variability and trends are examined, with focus on surface air temperature and precipitation. The RegCM driven by HadAMH fields is able to reproduce the basic features of the observed mean surface climate over Europe, its seasonal evolution and the regional detail due to topographic forcing. Surface air temperature biases are mostly less than 1–2 °C and precipitation biases mostly within 10–20%. The RegCM has more intense vertical transport of temperature and water vapor than HadAMH, which results in lower surface air temperatures and greater precipitation than found in the HadAMH simulation. In some cases this is in the direction of greater agreement with observations, while in others it is in the opposite direction. The simulation shows a tendency to overestimate interannual variability of temperature and precipitation compared to observations, particularly during summer and over the Mediterranean regions. It is shown that in DJF, MAM and SON the RegCM interannual variability is primarily determined by the boundary forcing from HadAMH, while in JJA the internal model physics and resolution effects dominate over many subregions of the domain, and the RegCM has higher interannual variability than HadAMH. The precipitation trends simulated by the nested modeling system for the period 1961–1990 capture some features of the observed trends, in particular the cold season drying over the Mediterranean regions. Ensembles of simulations are, however, needed for a more robust assessment of the models capability to simulate climatic trends. Overall, this simulation is of good quality compared with previous nested RegCM experiments and will constitute the basis for the generation of climate change scenarios over the European region to be reported in future work.     

CLIMATE CHANGE DUE TO GREENHOUSE EFFECTS IN CHINA AS SIMULATED BY A REGIONAL CLIMATE MODEL-PART I:EVALUATION OF THE MODEL SIMULATIONS*

Impacts of greenhouse effects(2×CO₂) on climate change over China as simulated by a regional climate model have been investigated.The model was based on RegCM2 and is nested in one-way mode within a global coupled atmosphere-ocean model(CSIRO R₂₁L₉ AOGCM).Two multi-year simulations,the control run with normal CO₂ concentration and the sensitivity run with doubled CO₂ concentration are conducted. As Part I of the publications,results of control run of the CSIRO,i.e.its simulation of present climate in China,are analyzed briefly.It shows that the model can basically reproduce the surface air temperature and precipitation pattern over China.Therefore,its outputs can be used to drive the regional model. Analysis of control run of RegCM shows that with a high resolution,the model improves the simulations of surface air temperature and precipitation in China as compared to the CSIRO model, especially for the precipitation.The spatial correlation coefficient between simulated and observed annual temperature increased from 0.83 in the CSIRO to 0.92 in the RegCM and for annual precipitation from 0.48 in the CSIRO to 0.65 in the RegCM.A similar improvement in the RegCM compared to the CSIRO was found in all simulated months.The main improvement for surface temperature is that RegCM can simulate the fine scale structure of temperature caused by topography.RegCM greatly improved the spatial distribution of precipitation by eliminating the virtual precipitation center in central China,which was simulated by many other GCMs.The precipitation simulated by RegCM in North and Northwest China is smaller than that by CSIRO, which makes it closer to the observation.     

温室效应引起的中国区域气候变化的数值模拟Ⅰ:模式对中国气候模拟能力的检验

使用RegCM2区域气候模式单向嵌套澳大利亚CSIRO R21L9全球海-气耦合模式,进行了CO2加倍对中国区域气候变化影响的数值试验研究,分析了控制试验(1×CO2)即模式对中国当代气候的模拟情况.首先给出了全球模式控制试验在中国地区的结果,分析表明它对中国区域的地面气温和降水具有一定的模拟能力,其结果可以用来制作驱动区域气候模式的初始场和侧边界.对RegCM2 5 a时间长度控制试验积分结果的分析与检验表明,区域气候模式由于具有较高的分辨率和较完善的物理过程,它对中国区域地面气温和降水的模拟效果较全球模式有了较大提高,如它模拟的各月气温与实况的相关系数全年12个月的平均由全球模式的0.83提高到0.92,降水由0.48提高到0.65.     

VULNERABILITY OF AGRONOMIC SYSTEMS IN BULGARIA

In recent years the problem of climate and its variations under the influence of natural processes and factors of anthropogenetic origin has come to the forefront of scientific and practical problems on a world-wide scale. Climate change vulnerability assessments of agronomic systems in Bulgaria have been initiated. In this paper preliminary results of this study are presented. Different climate change scenarios were defined. Global circulation model (GCM) scenarios and incremental scenarios for Bulgaria were created and applied. The influence of climate change on potential crop growing season above a base of 5° and 10 °C in Bulgaria was investigated. Increases in temperature can be expected to lengthen the potential growing season, resulting in a shift of thermal limits of agriculture in Bulgaria. The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) Version 2.1 was used to assess the influence of climate change on grain yield of maize and winter wheat. Maize and winter wheat yields decreased with increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation.     

GCM-based regional temperature and precipitation change estimates for Europe under four SRES scenarios applying a super-ensemble pattern-scaling method

Seasonal GCM-based temperature and precipitation projections for the end of the 21st century are presented for five European regions; projections are compared with corresponding estimates given by the PRUDENCE RCMs. For most of the six global GCMs studied, only responses to the SRES A2 and B2 forcing scenarios are available. To formulate projections for the A1FI and B1 forcing scenarios, a super-ensemble pattern-scaling technique has been developed. This method uses linear regression to represent the relationship between the local GCM-simulated response and the global mean temperature change simulated by a simple climate model. The method has several advantages: e.g., the noise caused by internal variability is reduced, and the information provided by GCM runs performed with various forcing scenarios is utilized effectively. The super-ensemble method proved especially useful when only one A2 and one B2 simulation is available for an individual GCM. Next, 95% probability intervals were constructed for regional temperature and precipitation change, separately for the four forcing scenarios, by fitting a normal distribution to the set of projections calculated by the GCMs. For the high-end of the A1FI uncertainty interval, temperature increases close to 10°C could be expected in the southern European summer and northern European winter. Conversely, the low-end warming estimates for the B1 scenario are ~ 1°C. The uncertainty intervals of precipitation change are quite broad, but the mean estimate is one of a marked increase in the north in winter and a drastic reduction in the south in summer. In the RCM simulations driven by a single global model, the spread of the temperature and precipitation projections tends to be smaller than that in the GCM simulations, but it is possible to reduce this disparity by employing several driving models for all RCMs. In the present suite of simulations, the difference between the mean GCM and RCM projections is fairly small, regardless of the number or driving models applied.     

Predicted Effects of Climatic Change on Distribution of Ecologically Important Native Tree and Shrub Species in Florida

A previously developed plant species-climatic envelope model was evaluated further and used to predict effects of hypothesized climatic change on the potential distribution of 124 native woody plant species in Florida, U.S.A. Twelve scenarios were investigated. These included mean annual temperature increases of 1 °C or 2 °C, achieved either by equal 1 °C or 2 °C increases on a monthly basis throughout the year, or by disproportionately larger seasonal increases in winter and smaller ones in summer. The various temperature increases were then combined with each of several precipitation changes, ranging from +10% to –20%, to produce the final set of scenarios. More detailed analysis involving six of the scenarios and a subset of 28 representative, ecologically important species suggested that (1) large decreases in the Florida range of many temperate species would result if 1 °C warming occurs predominantly in winter or with a 20% decrease in annual precipitation, or (2) if 2 °C warming occurs, with or without decrease in annual precipitation, and regardless of whether there is a uniform monthly warming pattern or one that is higher in winter than in summer. Available information concerning other factors that might also affect climatic-change responses suggests that these large predicted impacts on temperate Florida species may be underestimates. Subtropical Florida species will tend to move north and inland with warming but extensive human assistance may be needed, if they are to realize their newly expanded, potential natural ranges.     

Regional Nested Model Simulations of Present Day and 2 × CO2 Climate over the Central Plains of the U.S.

A nested regional climate model is used to generate a scenario of climate change over the MINK region (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas) due to doubling of carbon dioxide concentration (2 × CO₂) for use in agricultural impact assessment studies. Five-year long present day (control) and 2 × CO₂ simulations are completed at a horizontal grid point spacing of 50 km. Monthly and seasonal precipitation and surface air temperature over the MINK region are reproduced well by the model in the control run, except for an underestimation of both variables during the spring months. The performance of the nested model in the control run is greatly improved compared to a similar experiment performed with a previous version of the nested modeling system by Giorgi et al. (1994). The nested model generally improves the simulation of spatial precipitation patterns compared to the driving general circulation model (GCM), especially during the summer. Seasonal surface warming of 4 to 6 K and seasonal precipitation increases of 6 to 24% are simulated in 2 × CO₂ conditions. The control run temperature biases are smaller than the simulated changes in all seasons, while the precipitation biases are of the same order of magnitude as the simulated changes. Although the large scale patterns of change in the driving GCM and nested RegCM model are similar, significant differences between the models, and substantial spatial variability, occur within the MINK region.     

Comparison of Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change Calculated from High and Low Resolution Climate Change Scenarios: Part I. The Uncertainty Due to Spatial Scale

We investigated the effect of two different spatial scales of climate change scenarios on crop yields simulated by the EPIC crop model for corn, soybean, and wheat, in the central Great Plains of the United States. The effect of climate change alone was investigated in Part I. In Part II (Easterling et al., 2001) we considered the effects ofCO₂ fertilization effects and adaptation in addition to climate change. The scenarios were formed from five years of control and 2 ×CO₂ runs of a high resolution regional climate model (RegCM) and the same from an Australian coarse resolution general circulation model (GCM), which provided the initial and lateral boundary conditions for the regional model runs. We also investigated the effect of two different spatial resolutions of soil input parameters to the crop models. We found that for corn and soybean in the eastern part of the study area, significantly different mean yield changes were calculated depending on the scenario used. Changes in simulated dryland wheat yields in the western areas were very similar, regardless of the scale of the scenario. The spatial scale of soils had a strong effect on the spatial variance and pattern of yields across the study area, but less effect on the mean aggregated yields. We investigated what aspects of the differences in the scenarios were most important for explaining the different simulated yield responses. For instance, precipitation changes in June were most important for corn and soybean in the eastern CSIRO grid boxes. We establish the spatial scale of climate changescenarios as an important uncertainty for climate change impacts analysis.     

植被退化对青藏高原冬夏季气候影响的模拟研究

利用区域气候模式RegCM3,模拟分析了青藏高原地区植被退化对自身及周边地区气候产生的影响。结果表明：植被退化后,在退化区域冬夏季地表温度明显升高,最大增值2℃,而外围则温度降低,量值为-0.5℃～-1℃。夏季气温的变化趋势与地表温度类似,但量值较小,冬季退化区气温增加范围较大。夏季退化区湿度和降水增大,增加值分别达到0.6g/kg和35mm/month;退化区外围降水减少,外围西部及北部地区湿度减小,中心值为-0.4 g/kg。在冬季,湿度稍有减小,主要分布在西藏地区和青海、四川的交界处。     

Multi-decadal scenario simulation over Korea using a one-way double-nested regional climate model system. Part 1: recent climate simulation (1971–2000)

We present an analysis of a high resolution multi-decadal simulation of recent climate (1971–2000) over the Korean Peninsula with a regional climate model (RegCM3) using a one-way double-nested system. Mean climate state as well as frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are investigated at various temporal and spatial scales, with focus on surface air temperature and precipitation. The mother intermediate resolution model domain encompasses the eastern regions of Asia at 60 km grid spacing while the high resolution nested domain covers the Korean Peninsula at 20 km grid spacing. The simulation spans the 30-year period of January 1971 through December 2000, and initial and lateral boundary conditions for the mother domain are provided from ECHO-G fields based on the IPCC SRES B2 scenario. The model shows a good performance in reproducing the climatological and regional characteristics of surface variables, although some persistent biases are present. Main results are as follows: (1) The RegCM3 successfully simulates the fine-scale structure of the temperature field due to topographic forcing but it shows a systematic cold bias mostly due to an underestimate of maximum temperature. (2) The frequency distribution of simulated daily mean temperature agrees well with the observed seasonal and spatial patterns. In the summer season, however, daily variability is underestimated. (3) The RegCM3 simulation adequately captures the seasonal evolution of precipitation associated to the East Asia monsoon. In particular, the simulated winter precipitation is remarkably good, clearly showing typical precipitation patterns that occur on the northwestern areas of Japan during the winter monsoon. Although summer precipitation is underestimated, area-averaged time series of precipitation over Korea show that the RegCM3 agrees better with observations than ECHO-G both in terms of seasonal evolution and precipitation amounts. (4) Heavy rainfall phenomena exceeding 300 mm/day are simulated only at the high resolution of the double nested domain. (5) The model shows a tendency to overestimate the number of precipitation days and to underestimate the precipitation intensities. (6) A CSEOF analysis reveals that the model captures the strength of the annual cycle and the surface warming trend throughout the simulated period.     

An inter-comparison of regional climate models for Europe: model performance in present-day climate

The analysis of possible regional climate changes over Europe as simulated by 10 regional climate models within the context of PRUDENCE requires a careful investigation of possible systematic biases in the models. The purpose of this paper is to identify how the main model systematic biases vary across the different models. Two fundamental aspects of model validation are addressed here: the ability to simulate (1) the long-term (30 or 40 years) mean climate and (2) the inter-annual variability. The analysis concentrates on near-surface air temperature and precipitation over land and focuses mainly on winter and summer. In general, there is a warm bias with respect to the CRU data set in these extreme seasons and a tendency to cold biases in the transition seasons. In winter the typical spread (standard deviation) between the models is 1 K. During summer there is generally a better agreement between observed and simulated values of inter-annual variability although there is a relatively clear signal that the modeled temperature variability is larger than suggested by observations, while precipitation variability is closer to observations. The areas with warm (cold) bias in winter generally exhibit wet (dry) biases, whereas the relationship is the reverse during summer (though much less clear, coupling warm (cold) biases with dry (wet) ones). When comparing the RCMs with their driving GCM, they generally reproduce the large-scale circulation of the GCM though in some cases there are substantial differences between regional biases in surface temperature and precipitation.     

High resolution simulations of January and July climate over the western Alpine region with a nested Regional Modeling system

Summary High resolution January and July present day climatologies over the central-western Alpine region are simulated with a Regional Climate Model (RegCM) nested within a General Circulation Model (GCM). The RegCM was developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and is run at 20 km grid point spacing. The model is driven by output from a present day climate simulation performed with the GCM ECHAM3 of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI) at T106 resolution (~ 120 km). Five January and July simulations are conducted with the nested RegCM and the results for surface air temperature and precipitation are compared with a gridded observed dataset and a dataset from 99 observing stations throughout the Swiss territory. The driving ECHAM3 simulation reproduces well the position of the northeastern Atlantic jet, but underestimates the jet intensity over the Mediterranean. Precipitation over the Alpine region in the ECHAM3 simulation is close to observed in January but lower than observed in July. Compared to the driving GCM, the nested RegCM produces more precipitation in both seasons, mostly as a result of the stronger model orographic forcing. Average RegCM temperature over the Swiss region is 2–3 degrees higher than observed, while average precipitation is within 30% of observed values. The spatial distribution of precipitation is in general agreement with available gridded observations and the model reproduces the observed elevation dependency of precipitation in the summer. In the winter the simulated elevation of maximum precipitation amounts is lower than observed. Precipitation frequencies are overestimated, while precipitation intensities show a reasonable agreement with observations, especially in the winter. Sensitivity experiments with different cumulus parameterizations, soil moisture initialization and model topography are discussed. Overall, the model performance at the high resolution used here did not deteriorate compared to previous lower resolution experiments.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.With 11 Figures     

European climate in the late twenty-first century: regional simulations with two driving global models and two forcing scenarios

A basic analysis is presented for a series of regional climate change simulations that were conducted by the Swedish Rossby Centre and contribute to the PRUDENCE (Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining EuropeaN Climate change risks and Effects) project. For each of the two driving global models HadAM3H and ECHAM4/OPYC3, a 30-year control run and two 30-year scenario runs (based on the SRES A2 and B2 emission scenarios) were made with the regional model. In this way, four realizations of climate change from 1961–1990 to 2071–2100 were obtained. The simulated changes are larger for the A2 than the B2 scenario (although with few qualitative differences) and in most cases in the ECHAM4/OPYC3-driven (RE) than in the HadAM3H-driven (RH) regional simulations. In all the scenario runs, the warming in northern Europe is largest in winter or late autumn. In central and southern Europe, the warming peaks in summer when it locally reaches 10 °C in the RE-A2 simulation and 6–7 °C in the RH-A2 and RE-B2 simulations. The four simulations agree on a general increase in precipitation in northern Europe especially in winter and on a general decrease in precipitation in southern and central Europe in summer, but the magnitude and the geographical patterns of the change differ markedly between RH and RE. This reflects very different changes in the atmospheric circulation during the winter half-year, which also lead to quite different simulated changes in windiness. All four simulations show a large increase in the lowest minimum temperatures in northern, central and eastern Europe, most likely due to reduced snow cover. Extreme daily precipitation increases even in most of those areas where the mean annual precipitation decreases.     

A Climate Change Database for Biological Assessments in the Southeastern United States: Development and Case Study

A regional database containing historical time series and climate change scenarios for the Southeastern United States was developed for the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Southern Global Change Program (SGCP). Daily historical values of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation and empirically derived estimates of vapor pressure deficit and solar radiation across a uniform 1° latitude × 1° longitude grid were obtained. Climate change scenarios of temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure deficit and solar radiation were generated using semi-empirical techniques which combined historical time series and simulation field summaries from GISS, GFDL, OSU and UKMO General Circulation Model (GCM) experiments. An internally consistent 1° latitude × 1° longitude climate change scenario database was produced in which vapor pressure deficit and solar radiation conditions were driven by the GCM temperature projections, but were not constrained to agree with GCM calculated radiation and humidity fields. Some of the unique characteristics of the database were illustrated through a case study featuring growing season and annual potential evapotranspiration (ET_p) estimates. Overall, the unconstrained scenarios produced smaller median ET_p changes from historical baseline conditions, with a smaller range of outcomes than those driven by GCM-directed scenarios. Collectively, the range of annual and growing season ET changes from baseline estimates in response to the unconstrained climate scenarios was +10% to +40%. No outlier responses were identified. ET_p changes driven by GCM-directed (constrained) UKMO radiation and humidity scenarios were on the order of +100%, resulting in the identification of some ET_p responses as statistical outliers. These response differences were attributed to differences between the constrained and unconstrained humidity scenarios.     

Annual and seasonal climate and climatic changes in the Canadian prairies simulated by the CCC GCM

Abstract

As part of a study on the effects of climatic variability and change on the sustainability of agriculture in Alberto, the modelling performance of the second‐generation Canadian Climate Centre GCM (general circulation model) is examined. For the region in general, the simulation of 1 × CO₂ mean temperature is generally better than that for mean precipitation, and summer is the season best modelled for each variable. At the scale of individual grid squares, DJF (December, January, February) (temperature) and JJA (June, July, August) (precipitation) are the seasons best modelled. The GCM‐simulated increases in mean annual temperature resulting from a doubling of CO₂ are of the order of 5 to 6°C in the Prairie region, with much of this increase resulting from substantial warming in the winter and spring. Increases in mean annual precipitation are of the order of 50 to 150 mm (changes of +5 to +15%), with the greatest changes again occurring in winter and spring. As far as the limited GCM run durations allow, temperature and precipitation variance generally show no significant changes from a 1 × CO₂ to a 2 × CO₂ climate. Increased precipitation in winter and spring does not result in greater snow accumulations owing to the magnitude of warming; and significant decreases in soil moisture content occur in summer and fall. The resulting effects on the growing season and moisture regime have the potential to affect agricultural practices in the area.     

PROJECTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The paper deals with a selection of the climatological baseline, GCM validity and construction of the climate change scenarios for an impact assessment in the Czech territory. The period of 1961–1990 has been selected as the climatological baseline. The corresponding database includes more than 50 monthly mean temperature and precipitation series, and 16 time series of daily meteorological data that contain also the solar radiation data. The 1× CO₂ outputs produced by four GCMs, provided by the CSMT (GISS, GFD30, GFD01, and CCCM), were compared with observed temperature and precipitation conditions in western and central Europe with a particular attention devoted to the Czech territory. The GCM ability to simulate annual cycles of temperature, precipitation and radiation was thoroughly examined. The GISS and CCCM were selected as a basis for constructing climate change scenarios as they simulated reasonably the observed patterns. According to the GISS variant, 2× CO₂ climate assumes a higher winter and lower summer warming, and an increase in annual precipitation amounts. A dangerous combination of the summer temperature increase and declining precipitation amounts is a specific feature of the CCCM scenario. An incremental scenario for temperature and precipitation is based on the combination of prescribed changes in both annual means and annual courses.