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Downscaling and bias-correction contribute considerable uncertainty to local climate projections in CMIP6

Journal Article · · npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Abstract

Efforts to diagnose the risks of a changing climate often rely on downscaled and bias-corrected climate information, making it important to understand the uncertainties and potential biases of this approach. Here, we perform a variance decomposition to partition uncertainty in global climate projections and quantify the relative importance of downscaling and bias-correction. We analyze simple climate metrics such as annual temperature and precipitation averages, as well as several indices of climate extremes. We find that downscaling and bias-correction often contribute substantial uncertainty to local decision-relevant climate outcomes, though our results are strongly heterogeneous across space, time, and climate metrics. Our results can provide guidance to impact modelers and decision-makers regarding the uncertainties associated with downscaling and bias-correction when performing local-scale analyses, as neglecting to account for these uncertainties may risk overconfidence relative to the full range of possible climate futures.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth And Environmental Systems Science (EESS)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0022141
OSTI ID:
2007112
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2324980
Journal Information:
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Journal Name: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 6; ISSN 2397-3722
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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