Projecting future drought in Mediterranean forests: bias correction of climate models matters!

Global and regional climate models (GCM and RCM) are generally biased and cannot be used as forcing variables in ecological impact models without some form of prior bias correction. In this study, we investigated the influence of the bias correction method on drought projections in Mediterranean forests in southern France for the end of the twenty-first century (2071–2100). We used a water balance model with two different atmospheric climate forcings built from the same RCM simulations but using two different correction methods (quantile mapping or anomaly method). Drought, defined here as periods when vegetation functioning is affected by water deficit, was described in terms of intensity, duration and timing. Our results showed that the choice of the bias correction method had little effects on temperature and global radiation projections. However, although both methods led to similar predictions of precipitation amount, they induced strong differences in their temporal distribution, especially during summer. These differences were amplified when the climatic data were used to force the water balance model. On average, the choice of bias correction leads to 45 % uncertainty in the predicted anomalies in drought intensity along with discrepancies in the spatial pattern of the predicted changes and changes in the year-to-year variability in drought characteristics. We conclude that the choice of a bias correction method might have a significant impact on the projections of forest response to climate change.     

分位数映射法在RegCM4中国气温模拟订正中的应用

将一种分位数映射法RQUANT,应用到一个区域气候模式（RegCM4）所模拟中国气温的误差订正中。从气候平均态、年际变率、极端气候及农业气候等多方面,评估了该方法对日平均气温、日最高气温和日最低气温模拟的订正效果。结果表明,该订正方法对模式模拟的日平均、日最高和最低气温气候平均态的订正效果都非常明显,中国大部分地区的订正结果与观测的偏差在±0.5℃之间。在降低极端气温指数和农业气候相关指数的模拟误差方面也有显著的效果,但对气温年际变率的订正效果有限。结合以往对降水订正的评估分析,该方法对模式模拟结果有较好的订正效果,可以应用于区域气候模式的气候变化模拟预估中,为气候变化及相关影响评估研究提供更适用和可靠的数据。     

Direct and component-wise bias correction of multi-variate climate indices: the percentile adjustment function diagnostic tool

The use and development of bias correction (BC) methods has grown fast in recent years, due to the increased demand of unbiased projections by many sectoral climate change impact applications. Case studies are frequently based on multi-variate climate indices (CIs) combining two or more essential climate variables that are frequently individually corrected prior to CI calculation. This poses the question of whether the BC method modifies the inter-variable dependencies and eventually the climate change signal. The direct bias correction of the multi-variate CI stands as a usual alternative, since it preserves the physical and temporal coherence among the primary variables as represented in the dynamical model output, at the expense of incorporating the individual biases on the CI with an effect difficult to foresee, particularly in the case of complex CIs bearing in their formulation non-linear relationships between components. Such is the case of the Fire Weather Index (FWI), a meteorological fire danger indicator frequently used in forest fire prevention and research. In the present work, we test the suitability of the direct BC approach on FWI as a representative multi-variate CI, assessing its performance in present climate conditions and its effect on the climate change signal when applied to future projections. Moreover, the results are compared with the common approach of correcting the input variables separately. To this aim, we apply the widely used empirical quantile mapping method (QM), adjusting the 99 empirical percentiles. The analysis of the percentile adjustment function (PAF) provides insight into the effect of the QM on the climate change signal. Although both approaches present similar results in the present climate, the direct correction introduces a greater modification of the original change signal. These results warn against the blind use of QM, even in the case of essential climate variables or uni-variate CIs.     

Multi-variable error correction of regional climate models

Climate change impact research needs regional climate scenarios of multiple meteorological variables. Those variables are available from regional climate models (RCMs), but affected by considerable biases. We evaluate the application of an empirical-statistical error correction method, quantile mapping (QM), for a small ensemble of RCMs and six meteorological variables. Annual and monthly biases are reduced to close to zero by QM for all variables in most cases. Exceptions are found, if non-stationarity of the model’s error characteristics occur. Even in the worst cases of non-stationarity, QM clearly improves the biases of raw RCMs. In addition, QM successfully adjusts the distributions of the analysed variables. To approach the question whether time series and inter-variable relationships are still plausible after correction, we evaluate the root-mean-square error (RMSE), autocorrelation and inter-variable correlation. We found improvement or no clear effect in RMSE and autocorrelation, and no clear effect on the correlation between meteorological variables. These results demonstrate that QM retains the quality of the temporal structure in time series and the inter-variable dependencies of RCMs. It has to be emphasised that this cannot be interpreted as an improvement and that deficiencies of the RCMs in those features are retained as well. Our results give some indication for the performance of QM applied to future scenarios, since our evaluation relies on independent calibration and evaluation periods, which are affected by climate variability and change. The effect of non-stationarity, however, can be expected to be larger in far future. We demonstrate the retainment of the RCM’s temporal structure and inter-variable dependencies, and large improvements in biases. This qualifies QM as a valuable, though not perfect, method in the interface between climate models and climate change impact research. Nonetheless, in case of no correlation between re-analysis driven RCM and observation, one should consider that QM does not correct this correlation.     

基于分位数映射法的黑河上游气候模式降水误差订正

区域气候模式降水弥补了高寒山区气象站点稀少的缺陷,是水文模拟的重要驱动变量。然而,高寒山区模式输出降水的总量和频率都存在较大不确定性。因此,改进了用于降水频率纠正的分位数映射法(Quantile Mapping,QM),对中尺度数值预报模式(Weather Research and Forecasting model,WRF)模拟的黑河上游日降水输出数据进行误差订正。选取第95分位和第98分位降水量为阈值,选择2004-2009年为建模时段,2010-2013年为验证时段,使用分段拟合的方法建立传递函数,侧重于对极端降水进行单独订正。研究结果表明:该方法不仅对降水空间分布有明显的改善,对极端降水也有很好的订正效果。订正前模式模拟日降水与台站之间的均方根误差为3.41 mm·d^-1,绝对偏差为115.67 mm·y^-1,订正后均方根误差减少为3.11 mm·d^-1,绝对偏差有明显改善,为60.3 mm·y^-1。订正后流域内年降水空间分布更加合理,年降水量也更接近于观测降水插值结果,其空间相关系数由0.74改善为0.94。春、夏季订正效果优于秋、冬季,其中夏季订正效果较为明显,订正前降水偏差百分比在-0.1~0.1以内的区域面积仅占流域总面积的28%,而订正后占比增加至66%。同时,该方法对极端降水有较好的订正效果,减小了日降水强度(SDII)和极强降水量(R99p)的模拟偏差,订正后的第95分位模拟降水与观测降水插值的相关系数由0.15提高到0.48。本研究为站点稀少的黑河上游提供了一种更有效的误差订正方案,有利于为寒区水文研究获取更精确的降水数据。     

Empirical-statistical downscaling and error correction of regional climate models and its impact on the climate change signal

Realizing the error characteristics of regional climate models (RCMs) and the consequent limitations in their direct utilization in climate change impact research, this study analyzes a quantile-based empirical-statistical error correction method (quantile mapping, QM) for RCMs in the context of climate change. In particular the success of QM in mitigating systematic RCM errors, its ability to generate “new extremes” (values outside the calibration range), and its impact on the climate change signal (CCS) are investigated. In a cross-validation framework based on a RCM control simulation over Europe, QM reduces the bias of daily mean, minimum, and maximum temperature, precipitation amount, and derived indices of extremes by about one order of magnitude and strongly improves the shapes of the related frequency distributions. In addition, a simple extrapolation of the error correction function enables QM to reproduce “new extremes” without deterioration and mostly with improvement of the original RCM quality. QM only moderately modifies the CCS of the corrected parameters. The changes are related to trends in the scenarios and magnitude-dependent error characteristics. Additionally, QM has a large impact on CCSs of non-linearly derived indices of extremes, such as threshold indices.     

Bias Correction and Ensemble Projections of Temperature Changes over Ten Subregions in CORDEX East Asia

Regional climate models (RCMs) participating in the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) have been widely used for providing detailed climate change information for specific regions under different emissions scenarios. This study assesses the effects of three common bias correction methods and two multi-model averaging methods in calibrating historical (1980?2005) temperature simulations over East Asia. Future (2006?49) temperature trends under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios are projected based on the optimal bias correction and ensemble averaging method. Results show the following: (1) The driving global climate model and RCMs can capture the spatial pattern of annual average temperature but with cold biases over most regions, especially in the Tibetan Plateau region. (2) All bias correction methods can significantly reduce the simulation biases. The quantile mapping method outperforms other bias correction methods in all RCMs, with a maximum relative decrease in root-mean-square error for five RCMs reaching 59.8% (HadGEM3-RA), 63.2% (MM5), 51.3% (RegCM), 80.7% (YSU-RCM) and 62.0% (WRF). (3) The Bayesian model averaging (BMA) method outperforms the simple multi-model averaging (SMA) method in narrowing the uncertainty of bias-corrected results. For the spatial correlation coefficient, the improvement rate of the BMA method ranges from 2% to 31% over the 10 subregions, when compared with individual RCMs. (4) For temperature projections, the warming is significant, ranging from 1.2°C to 3.5°C across the whole domain under the RCP8.5 scenario. (5) The quantile mapping method reduces the uncertainty over all subregions by between 66% and 94%.     

Compilation method for 1 km grid data of monthly mean air temperature for quantitative assessments of climate change impacts

A new method is proposed to compile 1 km grid data of monthly mean air temperature by dynamically downscaling general circulation model (GCM) data with a regional climate model (RCM). The downscaling method used is a technique referred to as the pseudoglobal warming method to reduce GCM bias. For the grid data, RCM data were corrected with data from an existing meteorological network. The correction model for the RCM bias was developed by stepwise multiple regression analysis using the difference in the monthly mean air temperatures between the observation and RCM output as a dependent variable and the geographical factors as independent variables. Our method corrected the RCM bias from 1.69°C to 0.58°C for the month of August in the 1990s (1990–1999).     

Using the quantile regression method to analyze changes in climate characteristics

Possibilities to use the non-parametric regression analysis method, named the quantile regression, for the estimation of changes in climate characteristics are considered. When analyzing the trends of climatic series, the quantile regression method enables to get the information on trends along the whole range of quantile values from 0 to 1 of dependent variable distributions, that is more informative than the use of traditional regression technique, based on the least-squares method (LSM) and enabling to obtain trend estimations for average values of the dependent variable only. Trend estimation errors for various methods are analyzed. The computation of quantile regression parameters for real climatic series is executed. Series of meteorological variables of the diurnal resolution, which characterize the surface climate (minimal, average, and maximal diurnal temperatures) and free atmosphere climate (temperature of isobaric surfaces up to 30 hPa inclusive) are considered. Seasonal peculiarities in trend manifestation at different parts of quantile range of these meteorological values are discussed. Concerning the problem of the analysis of climate trends, the quantile regression method seems to be perspective from the point of view of more detailed understanding of processes in the climate system, such as the surface and tropospheric warming, stratospheric cooling, long-period changes in characteristics of climate variability and extremity.     

Probabilistic correction of RCM precipitation in the Basque Country (Northern Spain)

A parametric quantile–quantile transformation is used to correct the systematic errors of precipitation projected by regional climate models. For this purpose, we used two new probability distributions: modified versions of the Gumbel and log-logistic distributions, which fit to the precipitation of both wet and dry days. With these tools, the daily probability distribution of seven regional climate models was corrected: Aladin-ARPEGE, CLM-HadCM3Q0, HIRHAM-HadCM3Q0, HIRHAM-BCM, RECMO-ECHAM5-rt3, REMO-ECHAM-rt3 and PROMES-HadCM3Q0. The implemented method presents an error less than 5 % in the simulation of the average precipitation and 1 % in the simulation of the number of dry days. For the study area, an intensification of daily and subdaily precipitation is expected under the A1B scenario throughout the 21st century. This intensification is interpreted as a consequence of the process of ‘mediterraneanisation’ of the most southern ocean climate.     

Statistical downscaling for daily precipitation in Korea using combined PRISM,RCM, and quantile mapping: Part 1, methodology and evaluation in historical simulation

In this study, we present the Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM)-based Dynamic downscaling Error correction (PRIDE) model, which is suitable for complex topographies, such as the Korean peninsula. The PRIDE model is constructed by combining the PRISM module, the Regional Climate Model (RCM) anomaly, and quantile mapping (QM) to produce high-resolution (1 km) grid data at a daily time scale. The results show that the systematic bias of the RCM was significantly reduced by simply substituting the climatological observational seasonal cycle at a daily timescale for each grid point obtained from the PRISM. QM was then applied to correct additional systematic bias by constructing the transfer functions under the cumulative density function framework between the model and observation using six types of transfer functions. K-fold cross-validation of the PRIDE model shows that the number of modeled precipitation days is approximately 90~121% of the number of observed precipitation days for the five daily precipitation classes, indicating that the PRIDE model reasonably estimates the observational frequency of daily precipitation under a quantile framework. The relative Mean Absolute Error (MAE) is also discussed in the framework of the intensity of daily precipitation.     

A dataset of future daily weather data for crop modelling over Europe derived from climate change scenarios

Coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (GCMs) simulate different realizations of possible future climates at global scale under contrasting scenarios of land-use and greenhouse gas emissions. Such data require several additional processing steps before it can be used to drive impact models. Spatial downscaling, typically by regional climate models (RCM), and bias-correction are two such steps that have already been addressed for Europe. Yet, the errors in resulting daily meteorological variables may be too large for specific model applications. Crop simulation models are particularly sensitive to these inconsistencies and thus require further processing of GCM-RCM outputs. Moreover, crop models are often run in a stochastic manner by using various plausible weather time series (often generated using stochastic weather generators) to represent climate time scale for a period of interest (e.g. 2000 ± 15 years), while GCM simulations typically provide a single time series for a given emission scenario. To inform agricultural policy-making, data on near- and medium-term decadal time scale is mostly requested, e.g. 2020 or 2030. Taking a sample of multiple years from these unique time series to represent time horizons in the near future is particularly problematic because selecting overlapping years may lead to spurious trends, creating artefacts in the results of the impact model simulations. This paper presents a database of consolidated and coherent future daily weather data for Europe that addresses these problems. Input data consist of daily temperature and precipitation from three dynamically downscaled and bias-corrected regional climate simulations of the IPCC A1B emission scenario created within the ENSEMBLES project. Solar radiation is estimated from temperature based on an auto-calibration procedure. Wind speed and relative air humidity are collected from historical series. From these variables, reference evapotranspiration and vapour pressure deficit are estimated ensuring consistency within daily records. The weather generator ClimGen is then used to create 30 synthetic years of all variables to characterize the time horizons of 2000, 2020 and 2030, which can readily be used for crop modelling studies.     

Performance of Regional Integrated Environment Modeling System (RIEMS) in precipitation simulations over East Asia

Regional climate models (RCMs) can provide much more precise information on surface characteristics and mesoscale circulation than general circulation models. This potential for obtaining more detailed model results has motivated to a significant focus on RCMs development in East Asia. The Regional Integrated Environment Modeling System, version 2.0 (RIEMS2.0) has been developed from an earlier RCM, RIEMS1.0, at the Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for East Asia and Nanjing University. To test the ability of RIEMS2.0 to simulate long-term climate and climate changes in East Asia and to provide a basis for further development and applications, we compare simulated precipitation from 1979 to 2008 (simulation duration from 1 January 1978 to 31 December 2008) to observed meteorological data. The results show that RIEMS2.0 reproduces the spatial distribution of precipitation in East Asia but that the simulation overestimates precipitation. The simulated 30-year precipitation average is 26 % greater than the observed precipitation. Simulated upper and root soil water correlate well with remote sensing derived soil moisture. Annual and interannual variation in the average precipitation and their anomalies are both well reproduced by the model. A further analysis of three subregions representing different latitude ranges shows that there is good correlation and consistency between the simulated results and the observed data. Annual variation, interannual variation of average precipitation, and the anomalies in the three sub-regions are also well captured by the model. The model’s performance on atmospheric circulation and moisture transport simulations is discussed to explore the bias between the simulation and observations. In summary, RIEMS2.0 shows stability and does well in both simulating long-term climate and climate changes in East Asia and in describing subregional characteristics.     

Modeling and mapping temperature and precipitation climate data in Greece using topographical and geographical parameters

This study presents a methodology for modeling and mapping the seasonal and annual air temperature and precipitation climate normals over Greece using several topographical and geographical parameters. Data series of air temperature and precipitation from 84 weather stations distributed evenly over Greece are used along with a set of topographical and geographical parameters extracted with Geographic Information System methods from a digital elevation model (DEM). Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) obtained from MODIS Aqua satellite data is also used as a geographical parameter. First, the relation of the two climate elements to the topographical and geographical parameters was investigated based on the Pearson’s correlation coefficient to identify the parameters that mostly affect the spatial variability of air temperature and precipitation over Greece. Then a backward stepwise multiple regression was applied to add topographical and geographical parameters as independent variables into a regression equation and develop linear estimation models for both climate parameters. These models are subjected to residual correction using different local interpolation methods, in an attempt to refine the estimated values. The validity of these models is checked through cross-validation error statistics against an independent test subset of station data. The topographical and geographical parameters used as independent variables in the multiple regression models are mostly those found to be strongly correlated with both climatic variables. Models perform best for annual and spring temperatures and effectively for winter and autumn temperatures. Summer temperature spatial variability is rather poorly simulated by the multiple regression model. On the contrary, best performance is obtained for summer and autumn precipitation while the multiple regression model is not able to simulate effectively the spatial distribution of spring precipitation. Results revealed also a relatively weaker model performance for precipitation than that for air temperature probably due to the highly variable nature of precipitation compared to the relatively low spatial variability of air temperature field. The correction of the developed regression models using residuals improved though not significantly the interpolation accuracy.     

Bias corrections of global models for regional climate simulations of high-impact weather

All global circulation models (GCMs) suffer from some form of bias, which when used as boundary conditions for regional climate models may impact the simulations, perhaps severely. Here we present a bias correction method that corrects the mean error in the GCM, but retains the six-hourly weather, longer-period climate-variability and climate change from the GCM. We utilize six different bias correction experiments; each correcting different bias components. The impact of the full bias correction and the individual components are examined in relation to tropical cyclones, precipitation and temperature. We show that correcting of all boundary data provides the greatest improvement.     

FY-3A微波资料偏差订正及台风路径预报应用

我国极轨气象卫星FY-3A大大增强了对地球系统的综合探测能力,而偏差订正对卫星资料的应用非常必要。试验中FY-3A卫星微波资料的偏差订正方案是在Harris等的TOVS辐射资料偏差订正经验方法的基础上结合WRF-3DVAR系统发展的,偏差订正后微波资料各通道拟合结果基本位于主对角线上,大多数卫星观测数据与观测算子利用背景场计算的亮温值分布趋于合理,偏差得到很大程度的降低。偏差订正后,利用数值模式直接同化FY-3A气象卫星微波资料,通过对2008年和2009年的4个台风进行预报评估表明:同化FY-3A气象卫星资料后路径预报能力提高明显,尤其是36 h后路径预报结果;同化FY-3A气象卫星微波资料后台风预报路径误差平均降低20%,而只同化常规资料路径误差仅仅降低了4%。     

Comparison of the performance of net radiation calculation models

Daily values of net radiation are used in many applications of crop-growth modeling and agricultural water management. Measurements of net radiation are not part of the routine measurement program at many weather stations and are commonly estimated based on other meteorological parameters. Daily values of net radiation were calculated using three net outgoing long-wave radiation models and compared to measured values. Four meteorological datasets representing two climate regimes, a sub-humid, high-latitude environment and a semi-arid mid-latitude environment, were used to test the models. The long-wave radiation models included a physically based model, an empirical model from the literature, and a new empirical model. Both empirical models used only solar radiation as required for meteorological input. The long-wave radiation models were used with model calibration coefficients from the literature and with locally calibrated ones. A measured, average albedo value of 0.25 was used at the high-latitude sites. A fixed albedo value of 0.25 resulted in less bias and scatter at the mid-latitude sites compared to other albedo values. When used with model coefficients calibrated locally or developed for specific climate regimes, the predictions of the physically based model had slightly lower bias and scatter than the empirical models. When used with their original model coefficients, the physically based model had a higher bias than the measurement error of the net radiation instruments used. The performance of the empirical models was nearly identical at all sites. Since the empirical models were easier to use and simpler to calibrate than the physically based models, the results indicate that the empirical models can be used as a good substitute for the physically based ones when available meteorological input data is limited. Model predictions were found to have a higher bias and scatter when using summed calculated hourly time steps compared to using daily input data.     

Validation of present-day regional climate simulations over Europe: LAM simulations with observed boundary conditions

 Nested limited-area modelling is one method of down-scaling general circulation model (GCM) climate change simulations. To give credibility to this method the nested limited-area model (LAM) must be shown to simulate local present-day climate conditions fairly accurately. Here seven different European limited-area models driven by observed boundary conditions (operational weather forecast analyses) are validated against observations, and inter-compared for summer and winter months. Relatively large biases are found. In summer large positive surface air temperature biases are found over southeast Europe. The main reason is deficiencies in the surface hydrological schemes causing an unrealistic drying of the soil. In at least one of the models, most likely several of them, an additional factor is an overestimation of incoming solar radiation. Apart from excessive precipitation in mountainous areas in some models they generally show a negative bias due to the drying and decreased advection from the Atlantic. In winter most models have a positive precipitation bias which seems to be caused by an enhancement of advection from the Atlantic and enhanced cyclone activity. Surface air temperature biases are negative probably due to an underestimation of the incoming longwave radiation. Received: 11 December 1996 / Accepted: 17 March 1997     

概率调整法在气候模式模拟降水量订正中的应用

应用概率调整法订正区域气候模式系统PRECIS在SRES A1B情景下模拟的各季节全国日降水量。以第95百分位降水量为阈值,利用Γ分布分段拟合1962年12月—1972年11月的模拟值,构建传递函数,得到1991年12月—2001年11月的订正值。结果表明:全国平均日降水量空间分布的模拟改善明显,偏差百分率高于100%的格点比例从23.5%降低到1.0%;对各地区平均降水月循环的模拟结果改善,冷季降水较暖季更接近观测,提高拟合优度是改进订正方法的关键;多数地区连续干日数、连续5 d最大降水量及极端降水贡献率的空间强度、概率分布与空间相关性的订正效果显著。总体来说,该方法对模拟中国区域降水的平均态与极端降水均有明显改善,有助于气候评估工作的展开。