Trevor Q. Murdock

ClimateWNA—High-Resolution Spatial Climate Data for Western North America

This study addresses the need to provide comprehensive historical climate data and climate change projections at a scale suitable for, and readily accessible to, researchers and resource managers. This database for western North America (WNA) includes over 20 000 surfaces of monthly, seasonal, and annual climate variables from1901to2009;severalclimatenormalperiods; andmultimodelclimateprojectionsforthe2020s, 2050s, and 2080s. A software package, ClimateWNA, allows users to access the database and query point locations, obtain time series, or generate custom climate surfaces at any resolution. The software uses partial derivative functions of temperature change along elevation gradients to improve medium-resolution baseline climate estimates and calculates biologically relevant climate variables such as growing degree-days, number of frost-free days, extreme temperatures, and dryness indices. Historical and projected future climates are obtained by using monthly temperature and precipitation anomalies to adjust the interpolated baseline data for the location of interest. All algorithms used in the software package are described and evaluated against observations from weather stations across WNA. The downscaling algorithms substantially improve the accuracy of temperature variables over the medium-resolution baseline climate surfaces. Climate variables that are usually calculated from daily data are estimated from monthly climate variables with high statistical accuracy.

Bias Correction of GCM Precipitation by Quantile Mapping: How Well Do Methods Preserve Changes in Quantiles and Extremes?

AbstractQuantile mapping bias correction algorithms are commonly used to correct systematic distributional biases in precipitation outputs from climate models. Although they are effective at removing historical biases relative to observations, it has been found that quantile mapping can artificially corrupt future model-projected trends. Previous studies on the modification of precipitation trends by quantile mapping have focused on mean quantities, with less attention paid to extremes. This article investigates the extent to which quantile mapping algorithms modify global climate model (GCM) trends in mean precipitation and precipitation extremes indices. First, a bias correction algorithm, quantile delta mapping (QDM), that explicitly preserves relative changes in precipitation quantiles is presented. QDM is compared on synthetic data with detrended quantile mapping (DQM), which is designed to preserve trends in the mean, and with standard quantile mapping (QM). Next, methods are applied to phase 5 of t...

Downscaling Extremes—An Intercomparison of Multiple Statistical Methods for Present Climate

AbstractFive statistical downscaling methods [automated regression-based statistical downscaling (ASD), bias correction spatial disaggregation (BCSD), quantile regression neural networks (QRNN), TreeGen (TG), and expanded downscaling (XDS)] are compared with respect to representing climatic extremes. The tests are conducted at six stations from the coastal, mountainous, and taiga region of British Columbia, Canada, whose climatic extremes are measured using the 27 Climate Indices of Extremes (ClimDEX; http://www.climdex.org/climdex/index.action) indices. All methods are calibrated from data prior to 1991, and tested against the two decades from 1991 to 2010. A three-step testing procedure is used to establish a given method as reliable for any given index. The first step analyzes the sensitivity of a method to actual index anomalies by correlating observed and NCEP-downscaled annual index values; then, whether the distribution of an index corresponds to observations is tested. Finally, this latter test is...

A Comprehensive, High-Resolution Database of Historical and Projected Climate Surfaces for Western North America

We present a comprehensive set of interpolated climate data for western North America, including monthly data for the last century (1901–2009), future projections from atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (A2, A1B, and B1 scenarios of the WCRP CMIP3 multimodel dataset), as well as decadal averages and multiple climate normals for the last century. For each of these time periods, we provide a large set of basic and derived biologically relevant climate variables, such as growing and chilling degree days, growing season length descriptors, frost-free days, extreme minimum temperatures, etc. To balance file size versus accuracy for these approximately 20,000 climate surfaces, we provide a stand-alone software solution that adds or subtracts historical data and future projections as medium-resolution anomalies (deviations) from the high resolution 1961–90 baseline normal dataset. The program further downscales the baseline data through a combination of bilinear interpolation and elevation adjustment us...

Paleoclimatic response of the closing of the Isthmus of Panama in a coupled ocean‐atmosphere model

The paleoclimatic effects of the closure of the Isthmus of Panama ∼3 Ma are investigated using a coupled atmosphere-ocean model. Consistent with earlier ocean-only modelling studies, it is shown that prior to closure there is an absence of deep water formation in the North Atlantic. Hence there is a reduction in oceanic heat transport. This is largely compensated for by the atmosphere such that only small changes in total planetary heat transport occur. The model climate of the North Atlantic is significantly warmer after Isthmus closure. In addition, the regions surrounding the Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic are generally cooler while the Indian Ocean is generally warmer in the model present-day climate. Finally, possible relationships to glaciation and initiation of northern hemisphere glacial cycles are discussed.

Downscaling Extremes: An Intercomparison of Multiple Methods for Future Climate

AbstractThis study follows up on a previous downscaling intercomparison for present climate. Using a larger set of eight methods the authors downscale atmospheric fields representing present (1981–2000) and future (2046–65) conditions, as simulated by six global climate models following three emission scenarios. Local extremes were studied at 20 locations in British Columbia as measured by the same set of 27 indices, ClimDEX, as in the precursor study. Present and future simulations give 2 × 3 × 6 × 8 × 20 × 27 = 155 520 index climatologies whose analysis in terms of mean change and variation is the purpose of this study. The mean change generally reinforces what is to be expected in a warmer climate: that extreme cold events become less frequent and extreme warm events become more frequent, and that there are signs of more frequent precipitation extremes. There is considerable variation, however, about this tendency, caused by the influence of scenario, climate model, downscaling method, and location. Th...

High-Resolution Statistical Downscaling in Southwestern British Columbia

AbstractKnowledge from high-resolution daily climatological parameters is frequently sought after for increasingly local climate change assessments. This research investigates whether applying a simple postprocessing methodology to existing statistically downscaled temperature and precipitation fields can result in improved downscaled simulations useful at the local scale. Initial downscaled daily simulations of temperature and precipitation at 10-km resolution are produced using bias correction constructed analogs with quantile mapping (BCCAQ). Higher-resolution (800 m) values are then generated using the simpler climate imprint technique in conjunction with temperature and precipitation climatologies from the Parameter-Elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM). The potential benefit of additional downscaling to 800 m is evaluated using the “Climdex” set of 27 indices of extremes established by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). These indices are also calcula...

ClimDown: Climate Downscaling in R

PCIC’s overall downscaling algorithm is named Bias-corrected constructed analogues with quantile mapping reordering (BCCAQ) (Cannon, Sobie, and Murdock 2015; Werner and Cannon 2016). BCCAQ is a hybrid downscaling method that combines outputs from Constructed Analogues (CA) (Maurer et al. 2010) and quantile mapping at the fine-scale resolution. First, the CA and Climate Imprint (CI) (Hunter and Meentemeyer 2005) plus quantile delta mapping (QDM) (Cannon, Sobie, and Murdock 2015) algorithms are run independently. BCCAQ then combines outputs from the two by taking the daily QDM outputs at each fine-scale grid point and reordering them within a given month according to the daily CA ranks, i.e., using a form of Empirical Copula Coupling (Schefzik, Thorarinsdottir, and Gneiting 2013).