Multiyear simulation of the African climate using a regional climate model (RegCM3) with the high resolution ERA-interim reanalysis

This study examines the ability of the latest version of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) regional climate model (RegCM3) to reproduce seasonal mean climatologies, annual cycle and interannual variability over the entire African continent and different climate subregions. The new European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA-interim reanalysis is used to provide initial and lateral boundary conditions for the RegCM3 simulation. Seasonal mean values of zonal wind profile, temperature, precipitation and associated low level circulations are shown to be realistically simulated, although the regional model still shows some deficiencies. The West Africa monsoon flow is somewhat overestimated and the Africa Easterly Jet (AEJ) core intensity is underestimated. Despite these biases, there is a marked improvement in these simulated model variables compared to previous applications of this model over Africa. The mean annual cycle of precipitation, including single and multiple rainy seasons, is well captured over most African subregions, in some cases even improving the quality of the ERA-interim reanalysis. Similarly, the observed precipitation interannual variability is well reproduced by the regional model over most regions, mostly following, and sometimes improving, the quality of the ERA-interim reanalysis. It is assessed that the performance of this model over the entire African domain is of sufficient quality for application to the study of climate change and climate variability over the African continent.     

An evaluation of RegCM3_CERES for regional climate modeling in China

A 20-year simulation of regional climate over East Asia by the regional climate model RegCM3_CERES (Regional Climate Model version 3 coupled with the Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis) was carried out and compared with observations and the original RegCM3 model to comprehensively evaluate its performance in simulating the regional climate over continental China. The results showed that RegCM3_CERES reproduced the regional climate at a resolution of 60 km over China by using ERA40 data as the boundary conditions, albeit with some limitations. The model captured the basic characteristics of the East Asian circulation, the spatial distribution of mean precipitation and temperature, and the daily characteristics of precipitation and temperature. However, it underestimated both the intensity of the monsoon in the monsoonal area and precipitation in southern China, overestimated precipitation in northern China, and produced a systematic cold temperature bias over most of continental China. Despite these limitations, it was concluded that the RegCM3_CERES model is able to simulate the regional climate over continental China reasonably well.     

RegCM3对山东夏季气候高分辨率模拟

利用区域气候模式RegCM3及NCEP/DOE再分析资料,对山东地区1985-2000年夏季区域气候变化进行了高分辨率(20 km)的数值模拟试验.通过对模拟结果和山东地区较密集的观测资料的比较分析,检验了模式在该地区的模拟能力.结果表明:(1)区域气候模式RegCM3能够合理地模拟出山东区域中高层的主要环流特征;(2)数值模拟能够合理再现山东地区16 a夏季平均降水南高北低和地面气温西高东低的主要分布特征.同时也能够合理地模拟出1990和1998年山东地区夏季强降水的主要特征,以及1992和1999年的干旱;(3) 模式结果较好地反映了1985-2000年16 a夏季山东地区降水和地面气温变率的主要特征.     

Dynamical downscaling of ERA-40 in complex terrain using the WRF regional climate model

Results from a first-time employment of the WRF regional climate model to climatological simulations in Europe are presented. The ERA-40 reanalysis (resolution 1°) has been downscaled to a horizontal resolution of 30 and 10?km for the period of 1961?C1990. This model setup includes the whole North Atlantic in the 30?km domain and spectral nudging is used to keep the large scales consistent with the driving ERA-40 reanalysis. The model results are compared against an extensive observational network of surface variables in complex terrain in Norway. The comparison shows that the WRF model is able to add significant detail to the representation of precipitation and 2-m temperature of the ERA-40 reanalysis. Especially the geographical distribution, wet day frequency and extreme values of precipitation are highly improved due to the better representation of the orography. Refining the resolution from 30 to 10?km further increases the skill of the model, especially in case of precipitation. Our results indicate that the use of 10-km resolution is advantageous for producing regional future climate projections. Use of a large domain and spectral nudging seems to be useful in reproducing the extreme precipitation events due to the better resolved synoptic scale features over the North Atlantic, and also helps to reduce the large regional temperature biases over Norway. This study presents a high-resolution, high-quality climatological data set useful for reference climate impact studies.     

High-resolution simulations of West African climate using regional climate model (RegCM3) with different lateral boundary conditions

To downscale climate change scenarios, long-term regional climatologies employing global model forcing are needed for West Africa. As a first step, this work examines present-day integrations (1981–2000) with a regional climate model (RCM) over West Africa nested in both reanalysis data and output from a coupled atmospheric–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM). Precipitation and temperature from both simulations are compared to the Climate Research Unit observations. Their spatial distributions are shown to be realistic. Annual cycles are considerably correlated. Simulations are also evaluated with respect to the driving large-scale fields. RCM offers some improvements compared to the AOGCM driving field. Evaluation of seasonal precipitation biases reveals that RCM dry biases are highest on June–August around mountains. They are associated to cold biases in temperature which, in turn, are connected to wet biases in precipitation outside orographic zones. Biases brought through AOGCM forcing are relatively low. Despite these errors, the simulations produce encouraging results and show the ability of the AOGCM to drive the RCM for future projections.     

Customization of regional climate model (RegCM4) over Indian region

The regional climate model (RegCM4) is customized for 10-year climate simulation over Indian region through sensitivity studies on cumulus convection and land surface parameterization schemes. The model is configured over 30° E–120° E and 15° S–45° N at 30-km horizontal resolution with 23 vertical levels. Six 10-year (1991–2000) simulations are conducted with the combinations of two land surface schemes (BATS, CLM3.5) and three cumulus convection schemes (Kuo, Grell, MIT). The simulated annual and seasonal climatology of surface temperature and precipitation are compared with CRU observations. The interannual variability of these two parameters is also analyzed. The results indicate that the model simulated climatology is sensitive to the convection as well as land surface parameterization. The analysis of surface temperature (precipitation) climatology indicates that the model with CLM produces warmer (dryer) climatology, particularly over India. The warmer (dryer) climatology is due to the higher sensible heat flux (lower evapotranspiration) in CLM. The model with MIT convection scheme simulated wetter and warmer climatology (higher precipitation and temperature) with smaller Bowen ratio over southern India compared to that with the Grell and Kuo schemes. This indicates that a land surface scheme produces warmer but drier climatology with sensible heating contributing to warming where as a convection scheme warmer but wetter climatology with latent heat contributing to warming. The climatology of surface temperature over India is better simulated by the model with BATS land surface model in combination with MIT convection scheme while the precipitation climatology is better simulated with BATS land surface model in combination with Grell convection scheme. Overall, the modeling system with the combination of Grell convection and BATS land surface scheme provides better climate simulation over the Indian region.     

High resolution modeling of the regional impacts of climate change on irrigation water demand

In the Arkansas River Basin in southeastern Colorado, surface irrigation provides most of the water required for agriculture. Consequently, the region’s future could be significantly affected if climate change impacts the amount of water available for irrigation. A methodology to model the expected impacts of climate change on irrigation water demand in the region is described. The Integrated Decision Support Consumptive Use model, which accounts for spatial and temporal variability in evapotranspiration and precipitation, is used in conjunction with two climate scenarios from the Vegetation-Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project. The two scenarios were extracted and scaled down from two general circulation models (GCMs), the HAD from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research and the CCC from the Canadian Climate Centre. The results show significant changes in the water demands of crops due to climate change. The HAD and CCC climate change scenarios both predict an increase in water demand. However, the projections of the two GCMs concerning the water available for irrigation differ significantly, reflecting the large degree of uncertainty concerning what the future impacts of climate change might be in the study region. As new or updated predictions become available, the methodology described here can be used to estimate the impacts of climate change.     

Assessing future climate changes and extreme indicators in east and south Asia using the RegCM4 regional climate model

This paper assesses future climate changes over East and South Asia using a regional climate model (RegCM4) with a 50?km spatial resolution. To evaluate the model performance, RegCM4 is driven with ??perfect boundary forcing?? from the reanalysis data during 1970?C1999 to simulate the present day climate. The model performs well in reproducing not only the mean climate and seasonality but also most of the chosen indicators of climate extremes. Future climate changes are evaluated based on two experiments driven with boundary forcing from the European-Hamburg general climate model (ECHAM5), one for the present (1970?C1999) and one for the SRES A1B future scenario (2070?C2099). The model predicts an annual temperature increase of about 3°?C5° (smaller over the ocean and larger over the land), and an increase of annual precipitation over most of China north of 30°N and a decrease or little change in the rest of China, India and Indochina. For temperature-related extreme indicators in the future, the model predicts a generally longer growing season, more hot days in summer, and less frost days in winter. For precipitation-related extremes, the number of days with more than 10?mm of rainfall is predicted to increase north of 30°N and decrease in the south, and the maximum five-day rainfall amount and daily intensity will increase across the whole model domain. In addition, the maximum number of consecutive dry days is predicted to increase over most of the model domain, south of 40°N. Most of the Yangtze River Basin in China stands out as ??hotspots?? of extreme precipitation changes, with the strongest increases of daily rain intensity, maximum five-day rain amount, and the number of consecutive dry days, suggesting increased risks of both floods and droughts.     

Effect of lateral boundary scheme on the simulation of tropical cyclone track in regional climate model RegCM3

The effect of the lateral boundary scheme in regional climate model (RCM) on the track simulation of tropical cyclone (TC) was investigated using RegCM3, for the case of Winnie (1997), which formed in the Western Pacific and landed on China in August 1997. The results show that there is an inevitable simulation error in the track of Winnie, and the narrower buffer zone size (BZS) will make a great error. However, it was demonstrated that a much broader BZS does not allow a better track simulation of Winnie, and the optimal BZS does not reduce the track error substantially. Moreover, the configuration scheme of nudging parameters plays an important role in the track simulation, and different nudging parameter configuration scheme could make the root mean square errors (RMSEs) of simulated track by more than two times. Nevertheless, the optimal configuration scheme can reduce the track error effectively by maintaining the equilibrium between the two additional nudging terms in the prognostic equations in the buffer zone, whereas both the strong nudging scheme and the weak nudging scheme distort the track simulation of the Winnie. It is also found that the simulated weaker west Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), which leads to the turning of the TC ahead of time, is the reason for the track simulation error. A possible approach for reducing track simulation error of TCs is also discussed.     

Sensitivity of the regional climate model RegCM4.2 to planetary boundary layer parameterisation

This study investigates the performance of two planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterisations in the regional climate model RegCM4.2 with specific focus on the recently implemented prognostic turbulent kinetic energy parameterisation scheme: the University of Washington (UW) scheme. When compared with the default Holtslag scheme, the UW scheme, in the 10-year experiments over the European domain, shows a substantial cooling. It reduces winter warm bias over the north-eastern Europe by 2 °C and reduces summer warm bias over central Europe by 3 °C. A part of the detected cooling is ascribed to a general reduction in lower tropospheric eddy heat diffusivity with the UW scheme. While differences in temperature tendency due to PBL schemes are mostly localized to the lower troposphere, the schemes show a much higher diversity in how vertical turbulent mixing of the water vapour mixing ratio is governed. Differences in the water vapour mixing ratio tendency due to the PBL scheme are present almost throughout the troposphere. However, they alone cannot explain the overall water vapour mixing ratio profiles, suggesting strong interaction between the PBL and other model parameterisations. An additional 18-member ensemble with the UW scheme is made, where two formulations of the master turbulent length scale in unstable conditions are tested and unconstrained parameters associated with (a) the evaporative enhancement of the cloud-top entrainment and (b) the formulation of the master turbulent length scale in stable conditions are systematically perturbed. These experiments suggest that the master turbulent length scale in the UW scheme could be further refined in the current implementation in the RegCM model. It was also found that the UW scheme is less sensitive to the variations of the other two selected unconstrained parameters, supporting the choice of these parameters in the default formulation of the UW scheme.     

Assessment of regional seasonal predictability using the PRECIS regional climate modeling system over South America

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and skill of the UK Met Office Hadley Center Regional Climate Model (HadRM3P) in describing the seasonal variability of the main climatological features over South America and adjacent oceans, in long-term simulations (30 years, 1961–1990). The analysis was performed using seasonal averages from observed and simulated precipitation, temperature, and lower- and upper-level circulation. Precipitation and temperature patterns as well as the main general circulation features, including details captured by the model at finer scales than those resolved by the global model, were simulated by the model. However, in the regional model, there are still systematic errors which might be related to the physics of the model (convective schemes, topography, and land-surface processes) and the lateral boundary conditions and possible biases inherited from the global model.     

Trends in temperature and rainfall extremes in the Yellow River source region, China

Spatial and temporal changes in daily temperature and rainfall indices are analyzed for the source region of Yellow River. Three periods are examined: 1960–1990, 1960–2000 and 1960–2006. Significant warming trends have been observed for the whole study region over all the three periods, particularly over the period 1960–2006. This warming is mainly attributed to a significant increase in the minimum temperature, and characterized by pronounced changes in the low temperature events composing a significant increase in the magnitude and a significant decrease in the frequency. In contrast to the temperature indices, no significant changes have been observed in the rainfall indices at the majority of stations. However, the rainfall shows noticeable increasing trends during winter and spring from a basin-wide point of view. Conversely, the frequency and contribution of moderately heavy rainfall events to total rainfall show a significant decreasing trend in summer. To conclude, this study shows that over the past 40–45 years the source region of the Yellow River has become warmer and experienced some seasonally varying changes in rainfall, which also supports an emerging global picture of warming and the prevailing positive trends in winter rainfall extremes over the mid-latitudinal land areas of the Northern Hemisphere.     

Tropical cyclones in a regional climate change projection with RegCM4 over the CORDEX Central America domain

The characteristics of tropical cyclones (TCs) over the Central America Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domain are examined for present and future climate conditions using the regional climate model RegCM4. RegCM4 is first tested in a 22 year (1982–2003) simulation with boundary forcing from the ERA-Interim reanalysis, showing a generally good performance in reproducing the observed TC climatology and over the Atlantic in reproducing the interannual variations of TC counts. Four scenario simulations (1970-2100) are generated using two model configurations and two driving global models (MPI and HadGEM). The simulations employing the Grell convection scheme produce too few TCs, while those using the Emanuel convection scheme reproduce the observed climatology, especially when driven by the MPI global model. The simulation of TCs is thus sensitive to both the model convection scheme and the forcing GCM. Comparison of future and present day TC statistics indicates that the frequency of future TCs decreases over the tropical Atlantic and the East Pacific coastal areas while it increases over the western areas of the East Pacific and the northern areas of the Atlantic. We also find an increase in the frequency of intense TCs and long lasting TCs, along with a northward shift of TC tracks over the Atlantic. Conclusions on the changes in TC activity are not found to be sensitive to the inclusion of SST thresholds in the detection procedure. These findings     

澜沧江源区气温与降水对径流变化的影响

为研究澜沧江源区水文气候变化特征,采用线性回归拟合分析方法、M-K非参数检验法对1960—2010年间澜沧江源区的水文气候变化趋势进行分析,计算了各季节气温变化对年气温变化的贡献量,并基于Pearson相关分析法和贡献率的计算讨论了降水量和气温对径流量变化的影响。结果表明:澜沧江源区年平均气温和各季节平均气温均呈显著上升趋势,其中,冬季的增温对年平均气温增加贡献最大(38%)。澜沧江流域源区年降水量无明显增减趋势,但春季降水量显著增加。澜沧江流域源区年径流量未呈现显著变化趋势,冬季和春季径流量呈现出显著的增加趋势。年际尺度上,径流量的主控因素是降水量,降水量对径流量年内变化的影响主要发生在降水相对丰沛的6—10月份;冬季和初春季节气温上升对径流量的改变存在一定的影响,且气温的贡献率要比降水的贡献率大,原因是气温升高加剧研究区内冰雪的消融,进而导致澜沧江源区的径流增加。     

On the added value of regional climate modeling in climate change assessment

Regional climate models represent a promising tool to assess the regional dimension of future climate change and are widely used in climate impact research. While the added value of regional climate models has been highlighted with respect to a better representation of land-surface interactions and atmospheric processes, it is still unclear whether radiative heating implies predictability down to the typical scale of a regional climate model. As a quantitative assessment, we apply an optimal statistical filter to compare the coherence between observed and simulated patterns of Mediterranean climate change from a global and a regional climate model. It is found that the regional climate model has indeed an added value in the detection of regional climate change, contrary to former assumptions. The optimal filter may also serve as a weighting factor in multi-model averaging.     

Analysis of the present and future winter Pacific-North American teleconnection in the ECHAM5 global and RegCM3 regional climate models

We use the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (NCEP) and the MPI/ECHAM5 general circulation model to drive the RegCM3 regional climate model to assess the ability of the models to reproduce the spatiotemporal aspects of the Pacific-North American teleconnection (PNA) pattern. Composite anomalies of the NCEP-driven RegCM3 simulations for 1982–2000 indicate that the regional model is capable of accurately simulating the key features (500-hPa heights, surface temperature, and precipitation) of the positive and negative phases of the PNA with little loss of information in the downscaling process. The basic structure of the PNA is captured in both the ECHAM5 global and ECHAM5-driven RegCM3 simulations. The 1950–2000 ECHAM5 simulation displays similar temporal and spatial variability in the PNA index as that of NCEP; however, the magnitudes of the positive and negative phases are weaker than those of NCEP. The RegCM3 simulations clearly differentiate the climatology and associated anomalies of snow water equivalent and soil moisture of the positive and negative PNA phases. In the RegCM3 simulations of the future (2050–2100), changes in the location and extent of the Aleutian low and the continental high over North America alter the dominant flow patterns associated with positive and negative PNA modes. The future projections display a shift in the patterns of the relationship between the PNA and surface climate variables, which suggest the potential for changes in the PNA-related surface hydrology of North America.