A study on combining global and regional climate model results for generating climate scenarios of temperature and precipitation for the Netherlands |
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Authors: | G Lenderink A van Ulden B van den Hurk F Keller |
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Institution: | (1) Climate Research Department, KNMI, PO Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Climate scenarios for the Netherlands are constructed by combining information from global and regional climate models employing
a simplified, conceptual framework of three sources (levels) of uncertainty impacting on predictions of the local climate.
In this framework, the first level of uncertainty is determined by the global radiation balance, resulting in a range of the
projected changes in the global mean temperature. On the regional (1,000–5,000 km) scale, the response of the atmospheric
circulation determines the second important level of uncertainty. The third level of uncertainty, acting mainly on a local
scale of 10 (and less) to 1,000 km, is related to the small-scale processes, like for example those acting in atmospheric
convection, clouds and atmospheric meso-scale circulations—processes that play an important role in extreme events which are
highly relevant for society. Global climate models (GCMs) are the main tools to quantify the first two levels of uncertainty,
while high resolution regional climate models (RCMs) are more suitable to quantify the third level.
Along these lines, results of an ensemble of RCMs, driven by only two GCM boundaries and therefore spanning only a rather
narrow range in future climate predictions, are rescaled to obtain a broader uncertainty range. The rescaling is done by first
disentangling the climate change response in the RCM simulations into a part related to the circulation, and a residual part
which is related to the global temperature rise. Second, these responses are rescaled using the range of the predictions of
global temperature change and circulation change from five GCMs. These GCMs have been selected on their ability to simulate
the present-day circulation, in particular over Europe. For the seasonal means, the rescaled RCM results obey the range in
the GCM ensemble using a high and low emission scenario. Thus, the rescaled RCM results are consistent with the GCM results
for the means, while adding information on the small scales and the extremes. The method can be interpreted as a combined
statistical–dynamical downscaling approach, with the statistical relations based on regional model output. |
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