Viatcheslav V. Kharin

Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in the IPCC ensemble of global coupled model simulations

Abstract Temperature and precipitation extremes and their potential future changes are evaluated in an ensemble of global coupled climate models participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) diagnostic exercise for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Climate extremes are expressed in terms of 20-yr return values of annual extremes of near-surface temperature and 24-h precipitation amounts. The simulated changes in extremes are documented for years 2046–65 and 2081–2100 relative to 1981–2000 in experiments with the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) B1, A1B, and A2 emission scenarios. Overall, the climate models simulate present-day warm extremes reasonably well on the global scale, as compared to estimates from reanalyses. The model discrepancies in simulating cold extremes are generally larger than those for warm extremes, especially in sea ice–covered areas. Simulated present-day precipitation extremes are plausible in the extratropics, but uncertainties in extreme prec...

Changes in the Extremes in an Ensemble of Transient Climate Simulations with a Coupled Atmosphere–Ocean GCM

Abstract The extremes of surface temperature, precipitation, and wind speed and their changes under projected changes in radiative forcing are examined in an ensemble of three transient climate change simulations for the years 1900–2100 conducted with the global coupled model of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. The evolution of the greenhouse gases and aerosols in these simulations is consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1992 scenario A. The extremes are analyzed in three 21-yr time periods centered at years 1985, 2050, and 2090. The model simulates reasonably well the extremes of the contemporary near-surface climate. Changes in extremes of daily maximum and daily minimum temperature are distinctively different and are related to changes in the mean screen temperature, soil moisture, and snow and sea-ice cover. Extreme precipitation increases almost everywhere on the globe. Relative change in extreme precipitation is larger than change in total precipitatio...

Estimating Extremes in Transient Climate Change Simulations

Abstract Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes are examined in transient climate change simulations performed with the second-generation coupled global climate model of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. Three-member ensembles were produced for the time period 1990–2100 using the IS92a, A2, and B2 emission scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The return values of annual extremes are estimated from a fitted generalized extreme value distribution with time-dependent location and scale parameters by the method of maximum likelihood. The L-moment return value estimates are revisited and found to be somewhat biased in the context of transient climate change simulations. The climate response is of similar magnitude in the integrations with the IS92a and A2 emission scenarios but more modest for the B2 scenario. Changes in temperature extremes are largely associated with changes in the location of the distribution of annual extremes without substantial chan...

Changes in the Extremes of the Climate Simulated by CCC GCM2 under CO2 Doubling

Changes due to CO2 doubling in the extremes of the surface climate as simulated by the second-generation circulation model of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis are studied in two 20-yr equilibrium simulations. Extreme values of screen temperature, precipitation, and near-surface wind in the control climate are compared to those estimated from 17 yr of the NCEP‐NCAR reanalysis data and from some Canadian station data. The extremes of screen temperature are reasonably well reproduced in the control climate. Their changes under CO2 doubling can be connected with other physical changes such as surface albedo changes due to the reduction of snow and sea ice cover as well as a decrease of soil moisture in the warmer world. The signal in the extremes of daily precipitation and near-surface wind speed due to CO 2 doubling is less obvious. The precipitation extremes increase almost everywhere over the globe. The strongest change, over northwest India, is related to the intensification of the summer monsoon in this region in the warmer world. The modest reduction of wind extremes in the Tropics and middle latitudes is consistent with the reduction of the meridional temperature gradient in the 23CO2 climate. The larger wind extremes occur in the areas where sea ice has retreated.

Detectability of Anthropogenic Changes in Annual Temperature and Precipitation Extremes

This paper discusses a study of temperature and precipitation indices that may be suitable for the early detection of anthropogenic change in climatic extremes. Anthropogenic changes in daily minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation over land simulated with two different atmosphere‐ocean general circulation models are analyzed. The use of data from two models helps to assess which changes might be robust between models. Indices are calculated that scan the transition from mean to extreme climate events within a year. Projected changes in temperature extremes are significantly different from changes in seasonal means over a large fraction (39%‐66%) of model grid points. Therefore, the detection of changes in seasonal mean temperature cannot be substituted for the detection of changes in extremes. The estimated signal-to-noise ratio for changes in extreme temperature is nearly as large as for changes in mean temperature. Both models simulate extreme precipitation changes that are stronger than the corresponding changes in mean precipitation. Climate change patterns for precipitation are quite different between the models, but both models simulate stronger increases of precipitation for the wettest day of the year (4.1% and 8.8%, respectively, over land) than for annual mean precipitation (0% and 0.7%, respectively). A signal-to-noise analysis suggests that changes in moderately extreme precipitation should become more robustly detectable given model uncertainty than changes in mean precipitation.

A verification framework for interannual-to-decadal predictions experiments

Decadal predictions have a high profile in the climate science community and beyond, yet very little is known about their skill. Nor is there any agreed protocol for estimating their skill. This paper proposes a sound and coordinated framework for verification of decadal hindcast experiments. The framework is illustrated for decadal hindcasts tailored to meet the requirements and specifications of CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5). The chosen metrics address key questions about the information content in initialized decadal hindcasts. These questions are: (1) Do the initial conditions in the hindcasts lead to more accurate predictions of the climate, compared to un-initialized climate change projections? and (2) Is the prediction model’s ensemble spread an appropriate representation of forecast uncertainty on average? The first question is addressed through deterministic metrics that compare the initialized and uninitialized hindcasts. The second question is addressed through a probabilistic metric applied to the initialized hindcasts and comparing different ways to ascribe forecast uncertainty. Verification is advocated at smoothed regional scales that can illuminate broad areas of predictability, as well as at the grid scale, since many users of the decadal prediction experiments who feed the climate data into applications or decision models will use the data at grid scale, or downscale it to even higher resolution. An overall statement on skill of CMIP5 decadal hindcasts is not the aim of this paper. The results presented are only illustrative of the framework, which would enable such studies. However, broad conclusions that are beginning to emerge from the CMIP5 results include (1) Most predictability at the interannual-to-decadal scale, relative to climatological averages, comes from external forcing, particularly for temperature; (2) though moderate, additional skill is added by the initial conditions over what is imparted by external forcing alone; however, the impact of initialization may result in overall worse predictions in some regions than provided by uninitialized climate change projections; (3) limited hindcast records and the dearth of climate-quality observational data impede our ability to quantify expected skill as well as model biases; and (4) as is common to seasonal-to-interannual model predictions, the spread of the ensemble members is not necessarily a good representation of forecast uncertainty. The authors recommend that this framework be adopted to serve as a starting point to compare prediction quality across prediction systems. The framework can provide a baseline against which future improvements can be quantified. The framework also provides guidance on the use of these model predictions, which differ in fundamental ways from the climate change projections that much of the community has become familiar with, including adjustment of mean and conditional biases, and consideration of how to best approach forecast uncertainty.

Climate Predictions with Multimodel Ensembles

Abstract Several methods of combining individual forecasts from a group of climate models to produce an ensemble forecast are considered. These methods are applied to an ensemble of 500-hPa geopotential height forecasts derived from the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) integrations performed by 10 different modeling groups. Forecasts are verified against reanalyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Forecast skill is measured by means of error variance. In the Tropics, the simple ensemble mean produces the most skillful forecasts. In the extratropics, the regression-improved ensemble mean performs best. The “superensemble” forecast that is obtained by optimally weighting the individual ensemble members does not perform as well as either the simple ensemble mean or the regression-improved ensemble mean. The sample size evidently is too small to estimate reliably the relatively large number of optimal weights required for the superensemble approach.

CMIP5 Climate Model Analyses: Climate Extremes in the United States

This is the fourth in a series of four articles on historical and projected climate extremes in the United States. Here, we examine the results of historical and future climate model experiments from the phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) based on work presented at the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Workshop on CMIP5 Climate Model Analyses held in March 2012. Our analyses assess the ability of CMIP5 models to capture observed trends, and we also evaluate the projected future changes in extreme events over the contiguous Unites States. Consistent with the previous articles, here we focus on model-simulated historical trends and projections for temperature extremes, heavy precipitation, large-scale drivers of precipitation variability and drought, and extratropical storms. Comparing new CMIP5 model results with earlier CMIP3 simulations shows that in general CMIP5 simulations give similar patterns and magnitudes of future temperature and precipitation extremes in the Unite...

The Canadian Seasonal to Interannual Prediction System. Part I: Models and Initialization

AbstractThe Canadian Seasonal to Interannual Prediction System (CanSIPS) became operational at Environment Canadas Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) in December 2011, replacing CMCs previous two-tier system. CanSIPS is a two-model forecasting system that combines ensemble forecasts from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis (CCCma) Coupled Climate Model, versions 3 and 4 (CanCM3 and CanCM4, respectively). Mean climate as well as climate trends and variability in these models are evaluated in freely running historical simulations. Initial conditions for CanSIPS forecasts are obtained from an ensemble of coupled assimilation runs. These runs assimilate gridded atmospheric analyses by means of a procedure that resembles the incremental analysis update technique, but introduces only a fraction of the analysis increment in order that differences between ensemble members reflect the magnitude of observational uncertainties. The land surface is initialized through its response to the assimil...

Improved Seasonal Probability Forecasts

Abstract A simple statistical model of seasonal variability is used to explore the properties of probability forecasts and their accuracy measures. Two methods of estimating probabilistic information from an ensemble of deterministic forecasts are discussed. The estimators considered are the straightforward nonparametric estimator defined as the relative number of the ensemble members in an event category, and a parametric Gaussian estimator derived from a fitted Gaussian distribution. The parametric Gaussian estimator is superior to the standard nonparametric estimator on seasonal timescales. A statistical skill improvement technique is proposed and applied to a collection of 24-member ensemble seasonal hindcasts of northern winter 700-hPa temperature (T700) and 500-hPa height (Z500). The improvement technique is moderately successful for T700 but fails to improve Brier skill scores of the already relatively reliable raw Z500 probability forecasts.