The CLIVAR C20C project: selected twentieth century climate events

We use a simple methodology to test whether a set of atmospheric climate models with prescribed radiative forcings and ocean surface conditions can reproduce twentieth century climate variability. Globally, rapid land surface warming since the 1970s is reproduced by some models but others warm too slowly. In the tropics, air-sea coupling allows models to reproduce the Southern Oscillation but its strength varies between models. We find a strong relationship between the Southern Oscillation in global temperature and the rate of global warming, which could in principle be used to identify models with realistic climate sensitivity. This relationship and a weak response to ENSO suggests weak sensitivity to changes in sea surface temperature in some of the models used here. In the tropics, most models reproduce part of the observed Sahel drought. In the extratropics, models do not reproduce the observed increase in the North Atlantic Oscillation in response to forcings, through internal variability, or as a combination of both.     

Marine surface temperature: Observed variations and data requirements

Measurements of temperature at the ocean surface are an indispensible part of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). We describe the varying coverage of these measurements from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present era of satellite data, along with ongoing attempts to augment the available digitized data base. We next survey attempts to remove systematic biases from both sea surface temperature (SST) and marine air temperature (MAT) data and to combinein situ and satellite SSTs in a consistent manner. We also describe new or planned geographically complete climatologies of SST and night MAT for 1961-90. These are expected to be more reliable than existing climatologies in the Southern Ocean and other sparsely-observed areas. The new SST climatology has been used in the construction of an improved geographically-complete data set of sea ice and SST: the techniques used are briefly reviewed, as are other methods of analysis and assessment of worldwide SST.We present global and regional time series of anomalies (i.e. deviations from reference climatology) of SST and night MAT for 1856 to 1994 constructed using the most complete data and best-estimate bias-corrections hitherto available. These series are compared with earlier published series, and are validated by means of comparisons with anomalies of air temperature from coastal and island stations. The sensitivity of the time series to imperfect coverage is assessed by means of frozen grid experiments. The results underscore the need for ongoing development of SST and MAT data bases within GCOS for the detection of climatic change, and for improved methods of analysis to optimally isolate the signals from incomplete data.The British Crown right to retain a non-exclusive royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

The CLIVAR C20C project: skill of simulating Indian monsoon rainfall on interannual to decadal timescales. Does GHG forcing play a role?

The ability of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs), that are forced with observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs), to simulate the Indian monsoon rainfall (IMR) variability on interannual to decadal timescales is analyzed in a multimodel intercomparison. The multimodel ensemble has been performed within the CLIVAR International “Climate of the 20th Century” (C20C) Project. This paper is part of a C20C intercomparison of key climate time series. Whereas on the interannual timescale there is modest skill in reproducing the observed IMR variability, on decadal timescale the skill is much larger. It is shown that the decadal IMR variability is largely forced, most likely by tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs), but as well by extratropical and especially Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) related SSTs. In particular there has been a decrease from the late 1950s to the 1990s that corresponds to a general warming of tropical SSTs. Using a selection of control integrations from the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP’s) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3), it is shown that the increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the twentieth century has not significantly contributed to the observed decadal IMR variability.     

Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes, Asheville, NC, USA, 3–6 June 1997 Breakout Group C: Temperature Indices for Climate Extremes

The "temperature" breakout group at the 1997 Asheville Workshop on Indicators and Indices for Climate Extremes reviewed and developed the rationale for a choice of temperature indices for monitoring changes in climate extremes, and the supporting data required. A set of basic and supplementary key indices was drawn up. The key indices are meant to be easy to interpret, be relevant to the practical concerns of policy makers and others in the public sector and provide potential inputs into the Third Assessment Review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is expected to report in 2001. The indices are expressed in various ways to facilitate spatial and temporal trend detection and impact analysis. There is flexibility in the number and the form of the indices identified and the choice for any particular application is subject to further analysis and prioritization. The success of this endeavor will depend on original work being done to further develop the indices and on the cooperation of organizations globally to provide the data necessary for the development and the implementation of the indices. This paper summarizes the group's recommendations.