T. C. Johns

The New Hadley Centre Climate Model (HadGEM1): Evaluation of Coupled Simulations

Abstract A new coupled general circulation climate model developed at the Met Offices Hadley Centre is presented, and aspects of its performance in climate simulations run for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) documented with reference to previous models. The Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 1 (HadGEM1) is built around a new atmospheric dynamical core; uses higher resolution than the previous Hadley Centre model, HadCM3; and contains several improvements in its formulation including interactive atmospheric aerosols (sulphate, black carbon, biomass burning, and sea salt) plus their direct and indirect effects. The ocean component also has higher resolution and incorporates a sea ice component more advanced than HadCM3 in terms of both dynamics and thermodynamics. HadGEM1 thus permits experiments including some interactive processes not feasible with HadCM3. The simulation of present-day mean climate in HadGEM1 is significantly better overall ...

U.K. HiGEM: The New U.K. High-Resolution Global Environment Model—Model Description and Basic Evaluation

Abstract This article describes the development and evaluation of the U.K.’s new High-Resolution Global Environmental Model (HiGEM), which is based on the latest climate configuration of the Met Office Unified Model, known as the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model, version 1 (HadGEM1). In HiGEM, the horizontal resolution has been increased to 0.83° latitude × 1.25° longitude for the atmosphere, and 1/3° × 1/3° globally for the ocean. Multidecadal integrations of HiGEM, and the lower-resolution HadGEM, are used to explore the impact of resolution on the fidelity of climate simulations. Generally, SST errors are reduced in HiGEM. Cold SST errors associated with the path of the North Atlantic drift improve, and warm SST errors are reduced in upwelling stratocumulus regions where the simulation of low-level cloud is better at higher resolution. The ocean model in HiGEM allows ocean eddies to be partially resolved, which dramatically improves the representation of sea surface height variability. In the S...

Mechanisms Determining the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation Response to Greenhouse Gas Forcing in a Non-Flux-Adjusted Coupled Climate Model

Abstract Models of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) show a range of responses to the high-latitude warming and freshening characteristic of global warming scenarios. Most simulate a weakening of the THC, with some suggesting possible interruption of the circulation, but others exhibit little change. The mechanisms of the THC response to climate change using the HadCM3 coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model, which gives a good simulation of the present-day THC and does not require flux adjustment, were studied. In a range of climate change simulations, the strength of the THC in HadCM3 is proportional to the meridional gradient of steric height (equivalent to column-integrated density) between 30°S and 60°N. During an integration in which CO2 increases at 2% per year for 70 yr, the THC weakens by about 20%, and it stabilizes at this level if the CO2 is subsequently held constant. Changes in surface heat and water fluxes are the cause of the reduction in the steric height gradie...

Climate change scenarios for global impacts studies

We describe a set of global climate change scenarios that have been used in a series of studies investigating the global impacts of climate change on several environmental systems and resources — ecosystems, food security, water resources, malaria and coastal flooding. These scenarios derive from modelling experiments completed by the Hadley Centre over the last four years using successive versions of their coupled ocean–atmosphere global climate model. The scenarios benefit from ensemble simulations (made using HadCM2) and from an un-flux-corrected experiment (made using HadCM3), but consider only the effects of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. The effects of associated changes in sulphate aerosol concentrations are not considered. The scenarios are presented for three future time periods — 30-year means centred on the 2020s, the 2050s and the 2080s — and are expressed with respect to the mean 1961–1990 climate. A global land observed climatology at 0.5° latitude/longitude resolution is used to describe current climate. Other scenario variables — atmospheric CO2 concentrations, global-mean sea-level rise and non-climatic assumptions relating to population and economy — are also provided. We discuss the limitations of the created scenarios and in particular draw attention to sources of uncertainty that we have not fully sampled.

Evaluation of the sea ice simulation in a new coupled atmosphere‐ocean climate model (HadGEM1)

A rapid increase in the variety, quality, and quantity of observations in polar regions is leading to a significant improvement in the understanding of sea ice dynamic and thermodynamic processes and their representation in global climate models. We assess the simulation of sea ice in the new Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model (HadGEM1) against the latest available observations. The HadGEM1 sea ice component uses elastic-viscous-plastic dynamics, multiple ice thickness categories, and zero-layer thermodynamics. The model evaluation is focused on the mean state of the key variables of ice concentration, thickness, velocity, and albedo. The model shows good agreement with observational data sets. The variability of the ice forced by the North Atlantic Oscillation is also found to agree with observations.

The effect of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on global and regional climate change

The effect on climate of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 550ppm and 750ppm is investigated using a coupled ocean-atmosphere model and compared with the response to a baseline case (1% per year increase in carbon dioxide concentrations beyond 1990). Changes in other well-mixed greenhouse gases are not considered (although these are expected to increase in the future), so in practical terms the simulated changes in climate correspond to lower levels of carbon dioxide stabilisation. The global-mean warming between 1990 and 2100 is reduced by 40% and 55% respectively, in close agreement with estimates using energy balance models. Sea-level rise up to 2100 is also reduced, but in the longer stabilisation runs, unlike temperature, sea-level continues to rise throughout the simulations with little reduction of the rate of rise. The patterns of temperature and precipitation change are largely unchanged except that the southern hemisphere warms relative to the northern hemisphere. Changes over five subcontinental regions are considered in more detail. All of the regions, for all of the simulations, show a statistically significant warming by 2100. The reduction in annual-mean warming resulting from stabilisation is also significant by 2100. The seasonal changes in precipitation are significant by 2100 in the baseline simulation but the significance of differences in precipitation between the baseline and stabilisation simulations depends on location and season.

Coupled versus uncoupled hindcast simulations of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation in the Year of Tropical Convection

This study investigates the impact of a full interactive ocean on daily initialized 15 day hindcasts of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), measured against a Met Office Unified Model atmosphere control simulation (atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM)) during a 3 month period of the Year of Tropical Convection. Results indicate that the coupled configuration (coupled general circulation model (CGCM)) extends MJO predictability over that of the AGCM, by up to 3–5 days. Propagation is improved in the CGCM, which we partly attribute to a more realistic phase relationship between sea surface temperature (SST) and convection. In addition, the CGCM demonstrates skill in representing downwelling oceanic Kelvin and Rossby waves which warm SSTs along their trajectory, with the potential to feedback on the atmosphere. These results imply that an ocean model capable of simulating internal ocean waves may be required to capture the full effect of air-sea coupling for the MJO.

New Study For Climate Modeling, Analyses, and Scenarios

The European Commission is funding the ENSEMBLES project, which aims to provide policy makers with information from the latest climate modeling, analyses, and scenarios. Currently, the most comprehensive estimates of climate change are made using general circulation models (GCMs) and Earth system models, but these have been used mostly to simulate futures that do not factor in climate mitigation policy. The results of these simulations typically show global average warming greatly exceeding the European Union (EU) climate policy target of 2°C above preindustrial levels, with associated large impacts on human and natural systems. To date, simple climate models typically have been used to assess the emissions trajectories that are required for meeting this target. The ENSEMBLES project is the first international multiclimate model intercomparison using a politically relevant aggressive mitigation scenario, referred to as E1 (Figures 1a and 1b). This scenario leads to a peak in the carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent concentration in the atmosphere at around 535 parts per million (ppm) in 2045 before eventually stabilizing at around 450 ppm during the 22nd century. The climate models used are generally improved or extended versions of models contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report.

Correlations between patterns of 19th and 20th century surface temperature change and HadCM2 Climate Model ensembles

We examine the similarity between patterns of changes in decadally-averaged surface air temperature simulated by ensemble experiments with the HadCM2 coupled climate model and observed patterns over the period 1860–1999, using a spatial pattern correlation method. The analysis is conducted for two anthropogenic (greenhouse gases with/without sulphate aerosols) and two natural (solar and volcanic) modelled forcing histories. For each scenario an ensemble of at least four model runs is used. We compare transient model signal and observed patterns at corresponding times, and establish significance using a 1000 year model control run to construct sampling distributions for random noise patterns. We find evidence of an anthropogenic signal in observed surface temperature patterns emerging over recent decades, particularly in northern winter and spring seasons. Signals from greenhouse gas forcing alone or in combination with sulphate aerosols are both plausible in our analysis, but the highest significance is achieved using seasonally-defined greenhouse gas plus aerosol signals. There is little evidence of any detectable solar signal, but we do find two periods (late 19th century; 1960s–90s) during which a weak volcanic signal is detectable. Using ensemble simulations makes the conclusions quite robust, but the somewhat different interpretations from this analysis compared to optimal fingerprint analysis of the same simulations reveals some sensitivity to the choice of methodology.

Evaluation of simulations of terrestrial precipitation in UK Met. Office/Hadley Centre climate change experiments

This paper evaluates the simulation of precipitation in four successive versions of the UK Met. Office/Hadley Centre global climate model (GCM) that have been used to perform climate change experiments. The precipitation fields over land from the control integrations of these four experiments are compared with observed precipitation on a global scale and for selected regions. Globally, improvements in simulating mean monthly precipitation patterns occur with successive simulations. The poorest correlations and highest root mean square errors occur in the boreal summer months. A major improvement in the simulation of the South Asian summer monsoon by the most recent versions of the model is noted. The pattern of temporal variability in the later versions over global land areas is generally well simulated. The observed pattern of temporal correlation between the Southern Oscillation Index and precipitation anomalies has improved in the latest model version.