Future changes in regional precipitation simulated by a half-degree coupled climate model: Sensitivity to horizontal resolution
Abstract
The global fully coupled half-degree Community Climate System Model Version 4 (CCSM4) was integrated for a suite of climate change ensemble simulations including five historical runs, five Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 [RCP8.5) runs, and a long Pre-Industrial control run. This study focuses on precipitation at regional scales and its sensitivity to horizontal resolution. The half-degree historical CCSM4 simulations are compared to observations, where relevant, and to the standard 1° CCSM4. Both the halfdegree and 1° resolutions are coupled to a nominal 1° ocean. North American and South Asian/Indian monsoon regimes are highlighted because these regimes demonstrate improvements due to higher resolution, primarily because of better-resolved topography. Agriculturally sensitive areas are analyzed and include Southwest, Central, and Southeast U.S., Southern Europe, and Australia. Both mean and extreme precipitation is discussed for convective and large-scale precipitation processes. Convective precipitation tends to decrease with increasing resolution and large-scale precipitation tends to increase. Improvements for the half-degree agricultural regions can be found for mean and extreme precipitation in the Southeast U.S., Southern Europe, and Australian regions. Climate change responses differ between the model resolutions for the U.S. Southwest/Central regions and are seasonally dependent in the Southeast and Australian regions. Both resolutions project a clearmore »
- Authors:
-
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1306153
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FC02-97ER62402
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES
Citation Formats
Shields, Christine A., Kiehl, Jeffrey T., and Meehl, Gerald A. Future changes in regional precipitation simulated by a half-degree coupled climate model: Sensitivity to horizontal resolution. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2015MS000584.
Shields, Christine A., Kiehl, Jeffrey T., & Meehl, Gerald A. Future changes in regional precipitation simulated by a half-degree coupled climate model: Sensitivity to horizontal resolution. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000584
Shields, Christine A., Kiehl, Jeffrey T., and Meehl, Gerald A. Thu .
"Future changes in regional precipitation simulated by a half-degree coupled climate model: Sensitivity to horizontal resolution". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000584. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1306153.
@article{osti_1306153,
title = {Future changes in regional precipitation simulated by a half-degree coupled climate model: Sensitivity to horizontal resolution},
author = {Shields, Christine A. and Kiehl, Jeffrey T. and Meehl, Gerald A.},
abstractNote = {The global fully coupled half-degree Community Climate System Model Version 4 (CCSM4) was integrated for a suite of climate change ensemble simulations including five historical runs, five Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 [RCP8.5) runs, and a long Pre-Industrial control run. This study focuses on precipitation at regional scales and its sensitivity to horizontal resolution. The half-degree historical CCSM4 simulations are compared to observations, where relevant, and to the standard 1° CCSM4. Both the halfdegree and 1° resolutions are coupled to a nominal 1° ocean. North American and South Asian/Indian monsoon regimes are highlighted because these regimes demonstrate improvements due to higher resolution, primarily because of better-resolved topography. Agriculturally sensitive areas are analyzed and include Southwest, Central, and Southeast U.S., Southern Europe, and Australia. Both mean and extreme precipitation is discussed for convective and large-scale precipitation processes. Convective precipitation tends to decrease with increasing resolution and large-scale precipitation tends to increase. Improvements for the half-degree agricultural regions can be found for mean and extreme precipitation in the Southeast U.S., Southern Europe, and Australian regions. Climate change responses differ between the model resolutions for the U.S. Southwest/Central regions and are seasonally dependent in the Southeast and Australian regions. Both resolutions project a clear drying signal across Southern Europe due to increased greenhouse warming. As a result, differences between resolutions tied to the representation of convective and large-scale precipitation play an important role in the character of the climate change and depend on regional influences.},
doi = {10.1002/2015MS000584},
journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
number = 2,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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