An official website of the United States government
Abstract Ocean‐atmosphere dynamics in the north Pacific play an important role in the global climate system and influence hydroclimate in western North America. However, changes to this region's mean climate under increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are not well understood. Here we present new alkenone‐based records of sea surface temperature (SST) from the northeast Pacific from the mid‐Piacenzian warm period (approximately 3.3–3.0 Ma), an interval considered to be an analog for near‐future climate under middle‐of‐the‐road anthropogenic emissions. We compare these and other alkenone‐based SST records from the north Pacific to fully‐coupled climate model simulations to examine the impact of mid‐Pliocene CO2and other boundary conditions on regional climate dynamics and to explore factors governing model disagreement about regional temperature patterns. Model performance varies regionally, with Community Earth System Model 1.2 (CESM 1.2) and CESM2 performing best in regions with greater warming like the California Margin, though these models underestimate the warming evidenced in our new proxy record and others from the region. Single forcing simulations reveal a strong influence for prescribed land surface changes and higher CO2levels on coastal warming patterns along the California Margin in CESM2. Furthermore, differences in shortwave and longwave radiation and circulation between the models, likely related to changes in the atmospheric component of the model, may play a key role in the ability of models to capture regionally‐varying patterns of Pliocene warmth. Regional patterns of temperature change inferred from geochemical records could therefore help to understand the impacts of different model parameterization schemes on regional climate patterns.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on December 28, 2025
An Evaluation of Dynamical Downscaling Methods Used to Project Regional Climate Change
In the past decade, dynamical downscaling using “pseudo‐global‐warming” (PGW) techniques has been applied frequently to project regional climate change. Such techniques generate signals by adding mean global climate model (GCM)‐simulated climate change signals in temperature, moisture, and circulation to lateral and surface boundary conditions derived from reanalysis. An alternative to PGW is to downscale GCM data directly. This technique should be advantageous, especially for simulation of extremes, since it incorporates the GCM's full spectrum of changing synoptic‐scale dynamics in the regional solution. Here, we test this assumption, by comparing simulations in Europe and Western North America. We find that for warming and changes in temperature extremes, PGW often produces similar results to direct downscaling in both regions. For mean and extreme precipitation changes, PGW generally also performs surprisingly well in many cases. Moisture budget analysis in the Western North America domain reveals why. Large fractions of the downscaled hydroclimate changes arise from mean changes in large‐scale thermodynamics and circulation, that is, increases in temperature, moisture, and winds, included in PGW by design. The one component PGW may have difficulty with is the contribution from changes in synoptic‐scale variability. When this component is large, PGW performance could be degraded. Global analysis of GCM data shows there are regions where it is large or dominant. Hence, our results provide a road map to identify, through GCM analyses, the circumstances when PGW would not be expected to accurately regionalize GCM climate signals.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2024212
- PAR ID:
- 10632540
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Geophysical Union
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Volume:
- 129
- Issue:
- 24
- ISSN:
- 2169-897X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract This paper describes the downscaling of an ensemble of 12 general circulation models (GCMs) using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model at 12-km grid spacing over the period 1970–2099, examining the mesoscale impacts of global warming as well as the uncertainties in its mesoscale expression. The RCP8.5 emissions scenario was used to drive both global and regional climate models. The regional climate modeling system reduced bias and improved realism for a historical period, in contrast to substantial errors for the GCM simulations driven by lack of resolution. The regional climate ensemble indicated several mesoscale responses to global warming that were not apparent in the global model simulations, such as enhanced continental interior warming during both winter and summer as well as increasing winter precipitation trends over the windward slopes of regional terrain, with declining trends to the lee of major barriers. During summer there is general drying, except to the east of the Cascades. The 1 April snowpack declines are large over the lower-to-middle slopes of regional terrain, with small snowpack increases over the lower elevations of the interior. Snow-albedo feedbacks are very different between GCM and RCM projections, with the GCMs producing large, unphysical areas of snowpack loss and enhanced warming. Daily average winds change little under global warming, but maximum easterly winds decline modestly, driven by a preferential sea level pressure decline over the continental interior. Although temperatures warm continuously over the domain after approximately 2010, with slight acceleration over time, occurrences of temperature extremes increase rapidly during the second half of the twenty-first century. Significance Statement This paper provides a unique high-resolution view of projected climate change over the Pacific Northwest and does so using an ensemble of regional climate models, affording a look at the uncertainties in local impacts of global warming. The paper examines regional meteorological processes influenced by global warming and provides guidance for adaptation and preparation.more » « less
-
Abstract Dynamical downscaling with a 20 km horizontal resolution was undertaken over East Asia for the period May–August in 1991–2015 using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with Grell-3D ensemble cumulus parameterization as a product of the Impact of Initialized Land Temperature and Snowpack on Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Prediction (LS4P) program. Simulated climatological precipitation biases were investigated over land during June when heavy precipitation occurred. Simulations underestimated precipitation along the Meiyu/Baiu rainband, while overestimating it farther north. Dry and wet biases expanded to south and north of the Yangtze River in China, respectively, marking years with poor precipitation simulations. Model biases in synoptic-scale circulation patterns indicate a weakened clockwise circulation over the western North Pacific in the model due to active convection there, and suppressed northward moisture transport to the Meiyu/Baiu rainband. Moisture convergence was slightly enhanced over central China due to an apparent anticyclonic circulation bias over northern China. In years with large biases, positive feedback between reduced moisture inflow and inactive convection occurred over southern China, while moisture transport to central China intensified on regional scales, with amplification of dry and wet biases over China. The Kain–Fritch scheme was used to test the influence of cumulus parameterization, improving the dry bias over southern China due to the modification of synoptic-scale circulation patterns in the lower troposphere. However, precipitation was further overestimated over central China, with the accuracy of precipitation distribution deteriorating.more » « less
-
Abstract South America, especially the Amazon region, is considered a hotspot of biosphere–atmosphere interactions and presents a unique challenge for regional climate modeling. Here, we evaluate the performance of a regional model in simulating the climate–vegetation system in South America and use the model to investigate the potential role of large‐scale warming in the recently observed trend of hydroclimate and vegetation. Compared with prescribing vegetation based on observational data, adding the predictive vegetation capacity to the regional climate model enabled the model to simulate the vegetation response to climate while sustaining the model performance in reproducing the mean, variability and extremes of the regional climate. The coupled vegetation–climate model captures the recent trends in hydroclimate and vegetation productivity and their spatial contrasts, including a trend toward warmer, drier, and less productive conditions in the Amazon and Nordeste regions and a trend toward cooler, wetter, and more productive condition in the La Plata region. Results from sensitivity experiment driven by detrended boundary forcing for the regional climate suggest that much of the trends in the Amazon and Nordeste regions can be attributed to the effects of large‐scale warming, but contribution from decadal variability also plays a role especially for the most recent decade. However, the trend in the La Plata region cannot be attenuated by the removal of the boundary forcing trend, indicating the role of large‐scale circulation pattern changes. The recent trends in vegetation productivity may be early manifestation of future changes in the Amazon and surrounding regions.more » « less
-
Abstract The response of zonal-mean precipitation minus evaporation ( P − E ) to global warming is investigated using a moist energy balance model (MEBM) with a simple Hadley cell parameterization. The MEBM accurately emulates zonal-mean P − E change simulated by a suite of global climate models (GCMs) under greenhouse gas forcing. The MEBM also accounts for most of the intermodel differences in GCM P − E change and better emulates GCM P − E change when compared to the “wet-gets-wetter, dry-gets-drier” thermodynamic mechanism. The intermodel spread in P − E change is attributed to intermodel differences in radiative feedbacks, which account for 60%–70% of the intermodel variance, with smaller contributions from radiative forcing and ocean heat uptake. Isolating the intermodel spread of feedbacks to specific regions shows that tropical feedbacks are the primary source of intermodel spread in zonal-mean P − E change. The ability of the MEBM to emulate GCM P − E change is further investigated using idealized feedback patterns. A less negative and narrowly peaked feedback pattern near the equator results in more atmospheric heating, which strengthens the Hadley cell circulation in the deep tropics through an enhanced poleward heat flux. This pattern also increases gross moist stability, which weakens the subtropical Hadley cell circulation. These two processes in unison increase P − E in the deep tropics, decrease P − E in the subtropics, and narrow the intertropical convergence zone. Additionally, a feedback pattern that produces polar-amplified warming partially reduces the poleward moisture flux by weakening the meridional temperature gradient. It is shown that changes to the Hadley cell circulation and the poleward moisture flux are crucial for understanding the pattern of GCM P − E change under warming. Significance Statement Changes to the hydrological cycle over the twenty-first century are predicted to impact ecosystems and socioeconomic activities throughout the world. While it is broadly expected that dry regions will get drier and wet regions will get wetter, the magnitude and spatial structure of these changes remains uncertain. In this study, we use an idealized climate model, which assumes how energy is transported in the atmosphere, to understand the processes setting the pattern of precipitation and evaporation under global warming. We first use the idealized climate model to explain why comprehensive climate models predict different changes to precipitation and evaporation across a range of latitudes. We show this arises primarily from climate feedbacks, which act to amplify or dampen the amount of warming. Ocean heat uptake and radiative forcing play secondary roles but can account for a significant amount of the uncertainty in regions where ocean circulation influences the rate of warming. We further show that uncertainty in tropical feedbacks (mainly from clouds) affects changes to the hydrological cycle across a range of latitudes. We then show how the pattern of climate feedbacks affects how the patterns of precipitation and evaporation respond to climate change through a set of idealized experiments. These results show how the pattern of climate feedbacks impacts tropical hydrological changes by affecting the strength of the Hadley circulation and polar hydrological changes by affecting the transport of moisture to the high latitudes.more » « less
