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.     

1961—2017年云南季节变化特征分析

参照《中华人民共和国气象行业标准-气候季节划分》（QX/T 152-2012）中关于气候季节的定义标准,利用1961-2017年云南122个气象站的气温资料,分析了云南的气候季节区域的空间分布和季节开始日期及长度的变化趋势。云南共有4种气候季节区域,分别是四季分明区、无夏区、无冬区和常春区。无夏区范围最广,无冬区其次。不同年代四种季节气候区域空间分布范围不尽相同,无夏区和无冬区空间范围变化最显著。2011年以后云南出现四季分明区范围明显增大的现象,这与近年来气候变暖背景下云南气温年较差增大的观测事实相一致。云南四季分明区春季和秋季较长,夏季和冬季较短。无夏区秋季最长、春季次之、冬季最短。无冬区夏季最长、春季和秋季长度接近。不同气候季节区域间春季和夏季开始日期的变化均呈提早趋势,秋季和冬季开始日期有推迟的趋势;在季节长度变化上,夏季增长,冬季变短,但春秋季长度的变化不尽相同。     

Spatial and temporal patterns of trends and variability in diurnal temperature ranges of Turkey

Summary Spatial and temporal patterns of trends in the diurnal temperature ranges (DTRs) of the 70 stations and the role of maximum and minimum temperatures on the year-to-year variability and the long-term trends of the DTRs in Turkey have been investigated for the period 1929–1999. The principal results of the study are as follows:(i) The daytime maximum temperatures have shown weak warming and cooling in comparison with significant warming of the night-time minimum temperatures in many regions of Turkey and in most seasons. (ii) The DTRs have significantly decreased at most of the urbanised and rapidly urbanising stations throughout the seasons except partly in winter, without showing an apparent north/south (west–east) and land/sea gradient. (iii) Annual and seasonal DTRs of some stations have shown significant increasing trends. Nevertheless, the spatial distribution of significant increasing trends in the DTR series is geographically incoherent across the country in all seasons and annually, as compared with significantly decreased DTRs. (iv) Autumn and summer DTRs have decreased generally at a higher rate than in winter and spring. (v) Changes in the temperature regime of Turkey towards the more temperate and/or warmer climate conditions are most strongly related with the significant night-time warming in spring and summer. (vi) Magnitudes and signs of correlation coefficients and correlation patterns between the DTRs and the maximum and minimum temperatures have revealed that there is an opposite physical control mechanism on the year-to-year variability and the long-term variations and trends in the DTRs, particularly for the annual, spring and summer series. (vii) Significant increases of the night-time temperatures have most likely led to strong decreasing trends in the DTRs of most stations during the spring and summer seasons and annually and of some stations during winter and autumn. (viii) The asymmetric trends and the symmetric, but with different magnitude, trends in the maximum and minimum temperatures resulted in a significant decrease in the DTRs of many stations and are a considerable signal of ongoing changes in the climatic variability of Turkey.     

中国降水的季节性

本文使用一套基于中国气象局所属的2416个台站数据所得的高分辨降水资料,对1961~2013年中国降水季节性进行了研究。就全国平均而言,各季节降水占全年降水百分率最高的为夏季（56.5%）,春季（19.3%）和秋季（18.9%）次之,冬季（5.3%）最少;针对不同地区,各季节降水百分率存在很大差异,例如华南春季降水最多、东北至高原一线秋季降水大于春季降水。春、夏两季降水百分率高值（低值）区域略呈现出降水百分率减少（增多）趋势,秋季整体上略微减少,冬季则显著增加;季节降水百分率的变率整体表现为夏季大而冬季小,其西部的变率与地形为显著负相关,东部变率的大值区位置随季节变化;秋冬两季的降水百分率变率有显著增加,各季节不同地区变率的变化趋势存在明显差异。     

Seasonal predictions based on two dynamical models

Abstract

Two dynamical models are used to perform a series of seasonal predictions. One model, referred to as GCM2, was designed as a general circulation model for climate studies, while the second one, SEF, was designed for numerical weather prediction. The seasonal predictions cover the 26‐year period 1969–1994. For each of the four seasons, ensembles of six forecasts are produced with each model, the six runs starting from initial conditions six hours apart. The sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly for the month prior to the start of the forecast is persisted through the three‐month prediction period, and added to a monthly‐varying climatological SST field.

The ensemble‐mean predictions for each of the models are verified independently, and the two ensembles are blended together in two different ways: as a simple average of the two models, denoted GCMSEF, and with weights statistically determined to minimize the mean‐square error (the Best Linear Unbiased Estimate (BLUE) method).

The GCMSEF winter and spring predictions show a Pacific/North American (PNA) response to a warm tropical SST anomaly. The temporal anomaly correlation between the zero‐lead GCMSEF mean‐seasonal predictions and observations of the 500‐hPa height field (Z₅₀₀) shows statistically significant forecast skill over parts of the PNA area for all seasons, but there is a notable seasonal variability in the distribution of the skill. The GCMSEF predictions are more skilful than those of either model in winter, and about as skilful as the better of the two models in the other seasons.

The zero‐lead surface air temperature GCMSEF forecasts over Canada are found to be skilful (a) over the west coast in all seasons except fall, (b) over most of Canada in summer, and (c) over Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in the fall. In winter the skill of the BLUE forecasts is substantially better than that of the GCMSEF predictions, while for the other seasons the difference in skill is not statistically significant.

When the Z₅₀₀ forecasts are averaged over months two and three of the seasons (one‐month lead predictions), they show skill in winter over the north‐eastern Pacific, western Canada and eastern North America, a skill that comes from those years with strong SST anomalies of the El Niño/La Niña type. For the other seasons, predictions averaged over months two and three show little skill in Z₅₀₀ in the mid‐latitudes. In the tropics, predictive skill is found in Z₅₀₀ in all seasons when a strong SST anomaly of the El Niño/La Niña type is observed. In the absence of SST anomalies of this type, tropical forecast skill is still found over much of the tropics in months two and three of the northern hemisphere spring and summer, but not in winter and fall.     

气候变暖背景下我国南方旱涝灾害时空格局变化

我国南方地区各季节降水异常主要包含三种优势模态：长江及其以南地区降水呈整体偏多或偏少的一致型,长江中下游流域与华南呈反相变化的南北反相型以及东南与西南呈反相变化的东西反相型。其中一致型是南方地区各季节降水变率的第一优势模态。总体而言,在1961—2013年南方地区平均降水存在明显的年代际和长期趋势变化。其中,夏季和冬季南方区域平均降水具有相似的年代际变化特征,而秋季降水的年代际演变几乎与上述两个季节的相反。不过,在近30年南方各季降水量发生年代际转折的时间不尽相同：春季和秋季降水分别在21世纪初期和20世纪80年代中后期之后进入干位相,冬季和夏季降水则分别在80年代中期和90年代初期之后进入湿位相。自21世纪初期以来,南方夏季和冬季降水逐渐转入中性位相。此外,南方春季和秋季降水均呈减少趋势;而夏季和冬季则相反,均呈增多趋势。对于西南地区,除了春季外,其他三个季节的降水均呈减少趋势,出现了季节连旱的特征,尤其是秋旱最为严重。不过,不管是季节降水量还是旱/涝日数,在我国南方大部分地区其线性变化趋势并不十分显著,这与南方降水年代际分量对降水变率存在较大贡献相关。分析还发现,我国南方区域洪涝受灾面积具有比较明显的年代际变化,而干旱受灾面积则没有明显的年代际变化特征,近十多年来西南地区干旱和洪涝受灾出现了交替互现的特点。     

近42年日照市气候变化分析

根据日照市1961-2002年的年降水量、年平均气温以及季降水量、季平均气温资料，利用Mann-Kendall突变检验法和滑动t检验法，分析了日照市近42年的气候变化特征。结果表明：年平均气温、年降水量均存在突变，其中，冬季气温突变最为明显，秋季略有突变但不明显，春、夏季气温没有突变现象；夏季降水量突变最为明显，秋季不明显，冬、春季没有突变现象。     

Testing for trend in variability of climate data: measures and temporal aggregation with applications to Canadian data

Summary It is not clear whether different measures of dispersion of weather attributes could lead to different conclusions on the nature and direction of climatic variability. The range is commonly used as a measure of variability, while the presence of trend is typically studied on seasonal and/or annual basis. In this study, we used daily average temperature values at 15 sites spatially distributed across Canada to test for the presence of trend in variability (measured by the range, the standard deviation and the IQR) using a bootstrap method. The length of the series varied from site to site, ranging from 30 to 151 years. The analysis was undertaken for each month, each season, and the annual data. When calculating the standard deviations, estimates of the annual mean temperatures were used to make the results invariant to the presence of trend in mean. The monthly and seasonal analysis revealed the presence of either increasing or decreasing variability for some months and some seasons. The results for the annual data were not so revealing, especially at sites where some months have increasing while others have decreasing trends. The results across sites did not exhibit a clear geographic pattern. However, there were consistently increasing trends in variability at Toronto and St. Johns during non-summer months, and mostly decreasing trend in Edmonton. The significance of trend in variability using the range and the standard deviation were consistent in less than 30% of the time across sites and across the monthly, seasonal and annual aggregations. There was not much agreement between the standard deviation and the IQR either, highlighting the importance of the choice of a measure of variability.     

Changes of time mean state and variability of hydrology in response to a doubling and quadrupling of CO2

This paper examines the subject of hydrologic variability and its changes in two separate integrations of a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model developed at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA assuming a 1% per year increase to a doubling and quadrupling of CO₂, respectively. Changes in time mean state and variability of precipitation, runoff and soil moisture are evaluated using monthly and seasonal mean data derived from these integrations. Various statistical tests are then performed on the resulting time mean and variability changes. The patterns of hydrologic change for these three quantities are similar to those obtained from previous studies. In northern middle to higher latitudes for the time means, the changes include increases in monthly mean precipitation, increases in monthly mean runoff during the fall, winter and spring seasons and decreases of monthly mean soil moisture during summer. Many of these changes are found to be statistically significant at the 5% significance level for both the time mean and variability especially for the results where CO₂ is quadrupled such as monthly mean precipitation. Significant changes also include increases of runoff variability during spring, winter and spring and increases of soil moisture variability during the summer season. These results support statements made in previous IPCC reports that increasing greenhouse gases can lead to more severe and frequent floods and droughts depending upon season and latitude. This study also indicates that the approaches to equilibrium of these two integrations, and the resulting hydrologic changes, take place over time scales of hundreds of years in agreement with several previous investigations.     

南岳高山站1953—2010年风的气候特征分析

利用1953--2010年南岳高山站风观测资料,采用趋势分析、矢量分解、小波分析及M-K突变分析等方法,分析了南岳站风的气候变化特征。结果表明：（1）南岳山盛行风具有明显的季节变化,春夏盛行西南风,秋冬盛行北风。（2）年平均风速呈显著减弱趋势,减小速率为-0．25m·^-1／10年,四季中夏季变率最大,冬季变率最小,夏、冬季分别从20世纪70年代后期和80年代后期开始风速发生了明显减弱。风矢量分解后显示,经、纬向风速均呈减弱趋势,经向风速的减小速率远大于纬向,南、北风分量风速都在减弱,北风分量风速减小速率明显大于南风分量,西、南风分量仅在夏季显著减弱,而北风分量在春、秋、冬季都呈显著减弱趋势。分析还发现,南岳山风场年代际变化特征显著,年以及冬季平均风速16年周期振荡在20世纪90年代后发生了明显转折,与同时期的大气环流变化趋势基本一致。     

Long-term trend analysis for temperature in the Jinsha River Basin in China

On the basis of the mean annual and seasonal temperatures from 30 meteorological stations in the Jinsha River Basin (JRB) from 1961 to 2008, the temperature trends are analyzed by using Mann–Kendall test and linear trend analysis. There is an increasing trend in mean annual and seasonal temperatures during this period, and the increasing trends in winter seem more significant than those in the other three seasons. The mean annual temperature has increased by 0.0158°C/year during the last 48 years. There are more than 70% of stations exhibiting increasing trends for annual and seasonal temperatures. The increasing trends in the headwater and upper reaches are more dominant than those in the middle and lower reaches. The largest increase magnitude occurred in the low temperature area, while the largest decrease magnitude occurred in the high temperature area. The decreasing trends are mainly characterized for the maximum temperature time series, and summer is the only season showing a slight and insignificant increasing trend. All the time series showed a statistically significant increasing trend at the level of α?=?0.05 for the minimum temperature time series. As a whole, the increasing magnitude of the minimum temperature is significantly greater than the decreasing magnitude of the maximum temperature.     

Crop yield response to economic, site and climatic variables

This paper examines the effects of climatic and non-climatic factors on the mean and variance of corn, soybean and winter wheat yield in southwestern Ontario, Canada over a period of 26 years. Average crop yields increase at a decreasing rate with the quantity of inputs used, and decrease with the area planted to the crop. Climate variables have a major impact on mean yield with the length of the growing season being the primary determinant across all three crops. Increases in the variability of temperature and precipitation decrease mean yield and increase its variance. Yield variance is poorly explained by both seasonal and monthly climate variable models. Projections of future climate change suggest that average crop yield will increase with warmer temperatures and a longer growing season which is only partially offset by forecast increases in the variability of temperature and rainfall. The projections would also depend on future technological developments, which have generated significant increases in yield over time despite changing annual weather conditions.     

海冰—海温反馈系统的季节性动力气候模式

本文在全海洋地球的假定下,建立了一个包括太阳辐射、海面温度等季节变化的理想动力气候模式。模拟结果指出:平衡态及其对外参数敏感性的季节变化很大,而且都是夏季比其它季节大得多;四个季节敏感性的平均值也比年平均模式的敏感性大,这可能主要是太阳辐射季节变化引起的。另外,当太阳常数或二氧化碳浓度减小至一定值时,会出现分岔,若继续减小到分岔点以下,则会发生气候灾变—"深冻"。分岔点上外参数的值在夏季要比其它三个季节大得多。以上结果表明物理过程的季节变化在长期气候变化的研究中是不可忽视的。      

云南雨季的时空特征及与大气环流变化的关系

为了系统了解和认识云南雨季变化的气候特征、年际特征及其影响因子,利用云南116个气象观测站1961—2015年20时—20时的逐日降水资料,根据新定义的西南雨季单站标准,系统分析云南雨季变化的时空特征以及相应的大气环流特征。结果表明:（1）对于1981—2010年的气候平均,云南全省平均雨季的开始和结束日期分别为5月22日和10月15日,雨季变化的空间差异较大,雨季开始大致表现为从东南向西北推进,结束则从西北和东南逐渐向西南推进,由此导致云南雨季长度和雨季总降水量变化由南至北逐渐减小;（2）云南雨季变化的年际差异显著,全省平均雨季开始日期最早在5月8日,最晚在6月8日,结束日期最早在9月30日,最晚在11月2日,早晚相差近1个月;（3）云南雨季开始日期主要受西南季风和中纬度冷空气活动的共同影响,季风建立偏早和中纬度冷空气活动频繁有利于雨季开始早,反之有利于雨季开始晚;而雨季结束日期主要受热带季风环流变化的影响,夏季风向冬季风季节转换早则云南雨季结束早,反之雨季结束晚。      

A comparison of a GCM simulation of the seasonal cycle of the atmosphere with observations part II: Stationary waves and transient fluctuations

Abstract

This paper presents the seasonal dependence of the stationary and transient eddies of the GLAS/UMD GCM from a two‐year annual cycle integration.

The simulated Northern Hemisphere stationary waves are realistic in winter (below 250 mb) and in spring and fall; in winter a large anomalous ridge over the date‐line is noted above 250 mb. The model does not simulate the winter barotropic trough over eastern Canada. In summer the mid‐latitude stationary waves are poorly simulated (possibly owing to anomalous summer rainfall), but the monsoonal structure in the tropics is captured.

The stationary wave field at 500 mb in the Southern Hemisphere is not well simulated, with the range of season‐to‐season variability being much larger than observed. The zonally averaged stationary wave rms is realistic below 200 mb in winter and spring, but is less so in summer and autumn, possibly due to erroneous summertime precipitation.

The geographical distributions of 500‐mb transient and band‐pass height rms, of transient 850‐mb heat flux and of 200‐mb momentum flux in the Northern Hemisphere are well simulated except for summer. The latitude‐height dependence of height rms and low‐level transient heat flux is realistic in both summer and winter, but the transient momentum flux is not well simulated in summer. The mid‐level transient heat flux is too strong.

The overall pattern of transient activity at 500 mb in the Southern Hemisphere is reasonable in the GCM, although there is too much variability in the eastern Pacific, while the observed peak in rms in the New Zealand sector is displaced eastwards in the GCM. The latitude‐height dependence of transient height rms and transient fluxes of heat and momentum looks quite realistic, and is similar in accuracy to the Northern Hemispheric results.     

Response of the starting dates and the lengths of seasons in Mainland China to global warming

The climatic seasons in China, defined by station-specific daily temperature measures, have changed substantially during the past decades. In the majority of the country, the length of summer has extended and the length of winter has shortened since the 1950s. These changes in the lengths of seasons are linked to the changes in the starting dates of seasons. Namely, the starting date of summer has advanced and the starting date of winter has shifted back. Averaged across the whole country, the starting date of summer has been brought forward by 5.8 days and the season has extended 9 days. On the other hand, the starting date of winter has been delayed by 5.6 days and the season has shortened by 11 days. The changes for spring and fall are relatively smaller. Particularly, spring has started earlier by 5.7 days but shortened by 0.3 day, and fall has started later by 3.2 days but lengthened by 2.3 days. The changes in seasons exhibit apparent regional differences. They are more significant in the north than in the south where the trend of some local changes in seasons is opposite to that of the rest of the country.     

1951—2009年中国不同区域气温和降水量变化特征

为了研究中国不同区域气候变化特征,将全国按照气候区域划分为11个气候区,并利用1951—2009年中国194个国家基本/基准站月、年气温和降水观测资料,对全国及每个气候区平均温度及降水量的年和季节变化特征进行分析。结果表明：中国及各地区增温趋势均为极显著增加,尤其近20 a增温速度更快;而2007年成为有记录以来最暖的一年;中国冬季平均温度上升趋势最明显,春季次之,夏季几乎没有变化。中国平均年总降水量20世纪50年代最多,2000年代最少;而华北地区的年降水量减少最快;在四季降水中,中国只有夏季降水量波动略有增加,且各区域降水分布具有明显的南北差异特征。     

Climate change forecasting in a mountainous data scarce watershed using CMIP5 models under representative concentration pathways

Hydrology cycle of river basins and available water resources in arid and semi-arid regions are highly affected by climate changes. In recent years, the increment of temperature due to excessive increased emission of greenhouse gases has led to an abnormality in the climate system of the earth. The main objective of this study is to survey the future climate changes in one of the biggest mountainous watersheds in northeast of Iran (i.e., Kashafrood). In this research, by considering the precipitation and temperature as two important climatic parameters in watersheds, 14 models evolved in the general circulation models (GCMs) of the newest generation in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) were used to forecast the future climate changes in the study area. For the historical period of 1992–2005, four evaluation criteria including Nash–Sutcliffe (NS), percent of bias (PBIAS), coefficient of determination (R ²) and the ratio of the root-mean-square-error to the standard deviation of measured data (RSR) were used to compare the simulated observed data for assessing goodness-of-fit of the models. In the primary results, four climate models namely GFDL-ESM2G, IPSL-CM5A-MR, MIROC-ESM, and NorESM1-M were selected among the abovementioned 14 models due to their more prediction accuracies to the investigated evaluation criteria. Thereafter, climate changes of the future periods (near-century, 2006–2037; mid-century, 2037–2070; and late-century, 2070–2100) were investigated and compared by four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) of new emission scenarios of RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5. In order to assess the trend of annual and seasonal changes of climatic components, Mann–Kendall non-parametric test (MK) was also employed. The results of Mann–Kendall test revealed that the precipitation has significant variable trends of both positive and negative alterations. Furthermore, the mean, maximum, and minimum temperature values had significant positive trends at 90, 99, and 99.9 % confidence level. On the other hand, in all parts of the Kashafrood Watershed (KW), the average temperature of watershed will be increased up to 0.56–3.3 °C and the mean precipitation will be decreased up to 10.7 % by the end of the twenty-first century comparing to the historical baselines. Also, in seasonal scale, the maximum and minimum precipitations will occur in spring and summer, respectively, and the mean temperature is higher than the historical baseline in all seasons. The maximum and minimum values of the mean temperature will occur in summer and winter, respectively, and the amount of seasonal precipitation in these seasons will be reduced.

     

1960-2009年咸宁市气候变化特征分析

利用1960-2009年咸宁市3个地面气象站气象资料,统计分析近50 a来该区域气温、降水等主要气候要素的年变化、四季变化及年代际变化的趋势特征。结果表明：近50 a研究区气温有上升趋势,气候倾向率为0.23℃/10a,年平均气温在20世纪90年代末发生突变。春秋季平均气温分别在2002年和1999年发生突变,夏季平均气温在2006年发生突变,冬季平均气温早在1990年发生突变。春季与秋季平均气温的变化比较一致,冬季平均气温对全球变暖响应最敏感,春秋与秋季对气候变暖的响应是比较敏感,而夏季对气候变暖的响应最为迟缓。近50 a年降水量呈波动但无明显增降的趋势,其中春夏两季变化趋势较为一致并有下降的趋势,且春夏降水量的变化主导着年降水量的变化;而冬季降水量有上升的趋势。通过对气温与降水变化趋势的比较,发现冬季对气候变化的响应最显著、其余季节无明显相关性。     

1960—2009年咸宁市气候变化特征

利用1960—2009年咸宁市3个地面气象站气象资料,统计分析近50 a来该区域气温、降水等主要气候要素的年变化、四季变化及年代际变化的趋势特征。结果表明：近50 a研究区气温有上升趋势,气候倾向率为0.23℃/10 a,年平均气温在20世纪90年代末发生突变。春秋季平均气温分别在2002年和1999年发生突变,夏季平均气温在2006年发生突变,冬季平均气温在1990年发生突变。春季与秋季平均气温的变化较一致,冬季平均气温对全球变暖响应最敏感,春季与秋季对气候变暖的响应较敏感,而夏季对气候变暖的响应最为迟缓。近50 a咸宁市年降水量呈波动但无明显增降的趋势,其中春夏两季变化趋势较为一致并有下降的趋势,且春夏降水量的变化主导着年降水量的变化;而冬季降水量有上升的趋势。通过对气温与降水变化趋势的比较,发现冬季对气候变化的响应最显著,其余季节无明显相关性。