scholarly journals Surface-Based Convective Potential in the Contiguous United States in a Business-as-Usual Future Climate

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 3317-3330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara L. Van Klooster ◽  
Paul J. Roebber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Moist Convection ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Climate Model Simulations ◽  
Deep Moist Convection ◽  
Business As Usual

Abstract To date, neither observational studies nor direct climate model simulations have been able to document trends in the frequency or severity of deep moist convection associated with global climate change. The lack of such evidence is not unexpected as the observational record is insufficiently long and computational limitations prevent modeling at the scales necessary to simulate explicitly such phenomena. Nonetheless, severe deep moist convection represents an important aspect of regional climate, particularly in the central United States, where damage, injuries, and fatalities are a frequent result of such phenomena. Accordingly, any comprehensive assessment of the regional effects of climate change must account for these effects. In this work, the authors present a “perfect prog” approach to estimating the potential for surface-based convective initiation and severity based upon the large-scale variables well resolved by climate model simulations. This approach allows for the development of a stable estimation scheme that can be applied to any climate model simulation, presently and into the future. The scheme is applied for the contiguous United States using the output from the Parallel Climate Model, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change third assessment A2 (business as usual) as input. For this run, relative to interannual variability, the potential frequency of deep moist convection does not change, but the potential for severe convection is found to increase east of the Rocky Mountains and most notably in the “tornado alley” region of the U.S. Midwest. This increase in severe potential is mostly tied to increases in thermodynamic instability as a result of ongoing warm season surface warming and moistening. Finally, approaches toward improving such estimation methods are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Trends in Downward Solar Radiation at the Surface over North America from Climate Model Projections and Implications for Solar Energy

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Andres Saenz ◽  
Huei-Ping Huang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Climate Model Simulations ◽  
The Impact

The projected changes in the downward solar radiation at the surface over North America for late 21st century are deduced from global climate model simulations with greenhouse-gas (GHG) forcing. A robust trend is found in winter over the United States, which exhibits a simple pattern of a decrease of sunlight over Northern USA. and an increase of sunlight over Southern USA. This structure was identified in both the seasonal mean and the mean climatology at different times of the day. It is broadly consistent with the known poleward shift of storm tracks in winter in climate model simulations with GHG forcing. The centennial trend of the downward shortwave radiation at the surface in Northern USA. is on the order of 10% of the climatological value for the January monthly mean, and slightly over 10% at the time when it is midday in the United States. This indicates a nonnegligible influence of the GHG forcing on solar energy in the long term. Nevertheless, when dividing the 10% by a century, in the near term, the impact of the GHG forcing is relatively minor such that the estimate of solar power potential using present-day climatology will remain useful in the coming decades.

scholarly journals Predicting the effects of climate change on bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) spawning habitat in the Gulf of Mexico

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1051-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Muhling ◽  
Sang-Ki Lee ◽  
John T. Lamkin ◽  
Yanyun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Bluefin Tuna ◽  
Spawning Ground ◽  
Thunnus Thynnus ◽  
Spawning Habitat ◽  
Western Atlantic ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

Abstract Muhling, B. A., Lee, S-K., Lamkin, J. T., and Liu, Y. 2011. Predicting the effects of climate change on bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) spawning habitat in the Gulf of Mexico. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1051–1062. Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) is a highly migratory species that feeds in cold waters in the North Atlantic, but migrates to tropical seas to spawn. Global climate-model simulations forced by future greenhouse warming project that upper-ocean temperatures in the main western Atlantic spawning ground, the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), will increase substantially, potentially altering the temporal and spatial extent of BFT spawning activity. In this study, an ensemble of 20 climate model simulations used in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change fourth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR4) predicted mean temperature changes within the GOM under scenario A1B through to 2100. Associations between adult and larval BFT in the GOM and sea temperatures were defined using 20th century observations, and potential effects of warming on the suitability of the GOM as a spawning ground were quantified. Areas in the GOM with high probabilities of larval occurrence decreased in late spring by 39–61% by 2050 and 93–96% by the end of the 21st century. Conversely, early spring may become more suitable for spawning. BFT are therefore likely to be vulnerable to climate change, and there is potential for significant impacts on spawning and migration behaviours.

Hydrological Processes in Regional Climate Model Simulations of the Central United States Flood of June–July 1993

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 584-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Anderson ◽  
Raymond W. Arritt ◽  
Zaitao Pan ◽  
Eugene S. Takle ◽  
William J. Gutowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Central United States ◽  
Climate Model Simulations ◽  
June July

scholarly journals The representation of location by regional climate models in complex terrain

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 3011-3028 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Maraun ◽  
M. Widmann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Bias Correction ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Change Signal ◽  
Model Errors ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Local Grid ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

Abstract. To assess potential impacts of climate change for a specific location, one typically employs climate model simulations at the grid box corresponding to the same geographical location. But based on regional climate model simulations, we show that simulated climate might be systematically displaced compared to observations. In particular in the rain shadow of moutain ranges, a local grid box is therefore often not representative of observed climate: the simulated windward weather does not flow far enough across the mountains; local grid boxes experience the wrong airmasses and atmospheric circulation. In some cases, also the local climate change signal is deteriorated. Classical bias correction methods fail to correct these location errors. Often, however, a distant simulated time series is representative of the considered observed precipitation, such that a non-local bias correction is possible. These findings also clarify limitations of bias correcting global model errors, and of bias correction against station data.

Heat stress projections for major European cities from high-resolution regional climate model simulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Schwingshackl ◽  
Anne Sophie Daloz ◽  
Carley Iles ◽  
Nina Schuhen ◽  
Jana Sillmann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Heat Stress ◽  
Regional Climate Model ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Stress Indicators ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

<p>Cities are hotspots of human heat stress due to their large number of inhabitants and the urban heat island effect leading to amplified temperatures. Exposure to heat stress in urban areas is projected to further increase in the future, mainly due to climate change and expected increases in the number of people living in cities. The impacts of climate change in cities have been investigated in numerous studies, but rarely using climate models due to their coarse spatial resolution compared to the typical areal extent of cities. Recent advances in regional climate modelling now give access to an ensemble of high-resolution simulations for Europe, allowing for much more detailed analyses of small-scale features, such as city climate.</p><p>Focusing on Europe, we compare the evolution of several heat stress indicators for 36 major European cities, based on regional climate model simulations from EURO-CORDEX. The applied EURO-CORDEX ensemble (Vautard et al., 2020) has a spatial resolution of 0.11° (~11 km; comparable to the extent of large cities) and contains over 60 ensemble members, allowing thus for robust multi-model analyses of climate change on city levels. We analyze changes in heat stress both relative to the climatological heat stress variability in each city during 1981-2010 using the Heat Wave Magnitude Index daily (HWMId, Russo et al., 2015) and in absolute terms by counting the yearly number of exceedances of impact-relevant thresholds. Relative and absolute heat stress increase throughout Europe but with distinct patterns. Absolute heat stress increases predominantly in Southern Europe, primarily due to the hotter climate in the South. Relative changes are also highest in Southern Europe but exhibit a secondary maximum in Northern Europe, while being lowest in Central Europe. The main reason for this pattern is that day-to-day variability in heat stress indicators during present climate conditions is highest in Central Europe but lower in Southern and Northern Europe. Large Northern European cities, which are all located at the shore, are further influenced by different heat stress evolutions over land and sea surfaces.</p><p>As human vulnerability does not only depend on the absolute heat stress but also on what people are adapted to (i.e., the climatological range), the results of this study highlight that cities in all parts of Europe – including in Northern Europe – must prepare for higher heat stress in the future.</p><p> </p><p>References:</p><p>Russo, S., et al. (2015). Top ten European heatwaves since 1950 and their occurrence in the coming decades. Environmental Research Letters, 10(12). doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124003</p><p>Vautard, R., et al. (2020). Evaluation of the large EURO‐CORDEX regional climate model ensemble. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. doi:10.1029/2019jd032344</p>

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