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Performance of downscaled regional climate simulations using a variable-resolution regional climate model: Tasmania as a test case
Citation
Corney, S and Grose, M and Bennett, JC and White, C and Katzfey, J and McGregor, J and Holz, G and Bindoff, NL, Performance of downscaled regional climate simulations using a variable-resolution regional climate model: Tasmania as a test case, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 118, (21) pp. 11936-11950. ISSN 2169-897X (2013) [Refereed Article]
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Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Abstract
In this study we develop methods for dynamically downscaling output from six general circulation models (GCMs) for two emissions scenarios using a variable-resolution atmospheric climate model. The use of multiple GCMs and emissions scenarios gives an estimate of model range in projected changes to the mean climate across the region. By modeling the atmosphere at a very fine scale, the simulations capture processes that are important to regional weather and climate at length scales that are subgrid scale for the host GCM. We find that with a multistaged process of increased resolution and the application of bias adjustment methods, the ability of the simulation to reproduce observed conditions improves, with greater than 95% of the spatial variance explained for temperature and about 90% for rainfall. Furthermore, downscaling leads to a significant improvement for the temporal distribution of variables commonly used in applied analyses, reproducing seasonal variability in line with observations. This seasonal signal is not evident in the GCMs. This multistaged approach allows progressive improvement in the skill of the simulations in order to resolve key processes over the region with quantifiable improvements in the correlations with observations. Key Points Dynamical downscaling adds value to global climate models Dynamical downscaling increases the skill of GCMs Model output can be used as input to impacts models ©2013 The Authors. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres published by Wiley on behalf of the American Geophysical Union.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Regional climate model, Downscaling, Variable-resolution regional climate model, high resolution climate projections, Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Climate change science |
| Research Field: | Climate change processes |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
| Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
| Objective Field: | Climate change models |
| UTAS Author: | Corney, S (Dr Stuart Corney) |
| UTAS Author: | Grose, M (Dr Michael Grose) |
| UTAS Author: | Bennett, JC (Mr James Bennett) |
| UTAS Author: | White, C (Dr Chris White) |
| UTAS Author: | Holz, G (Dr Greg Holz) |
| UTAS Author: | Bindoff, NL (Professor Nathan Bindoff) |
| ID Code: | 88757 |
| Year Published: | 2013 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 37 |
| Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
| Deposited On: | 2014-02-13 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-10-30 |
| Downloads: | 389 View Download Statistics |
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