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Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Downscaling: An Introduction
(Regionalisation)
Why do we need to downscale?
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
300k
m
50km
10km
1m
Poin
tGlobal Climate Models supply...
Impact models require ...
Because there is a mismatch of scales between what climate models can supply and what environmental
impact models require.
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Downscaling Using GCMs
GCM output is generally the starting point of any regionalisation technique, so:
• GCMs should perform well in simulating circulation and climatic features affecting regional climates, e.g., jet streams, storm tracks
• it is better to use variables where sub-grid scale variations are weak, e.g., mean sea level pressure
Main advantage of using GCMs is that:
• internal physical consistency is maintained
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
A variety of methods and techniques have been developed to address this scale problem:
1. High resolution and variable resolution AGCM time-slice experiments - numerical modelling
2. Regional Climate Models (RCMs) - dynamic downscaling
3. Empirical/statistical and statistical/dynamical models - statistical downscaling
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
• Overcomes problems of discontinuities in change between adjacent sites in different grid boxes
But• introduces a false geographical precision
to the estimates
But the very simplest approach is the interpolation
of grid box outputs
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Interpolation
CGCM1 GHG only, Winter, Maximum temperature change (°C), 2020s
Interpolated to 0.5° lat/long resolution
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Main downscaling approaches:
• higher resolution experiments
or
• empirical/statistical or statistical/dynamical downscaling processes
A
D
D
I
N
G
V
A
L
U
E
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
High Resolution Models
Numerical models at high resolution over region of interest
• GCM time-slice experiments
• variable resolution GCMs
• high resolution limited area models (regional climate models - RCMs)
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
REGIONAL CLIMATE MODELS
1. Driven by initial conditions, time-dependent lateral meteorological conditions and surface boundary conditions which are derived from GCMs (or analyses of observations)
2. Account for sub-grid scale forcings (e.g. complex topographical features and land cover inhomogeneity) in a physically-based way
3. Enhance the simulation of atmospheric circulations and climatic variables at finer spatial scales
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
CRCMCGCM1
[Source: G. Flato, in Climate Change Digest: Projections for Canada’s Climate Future, H.G. Hengeveld.]
Comparison of detail in precipitation patterns over western Canada as simulated by CGCM1 and CRCM.
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
The Canadian RCM - CRCM
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Screen Temperature (ºC) 5-year mean: WinterCRCM/NCEP
CRU2
CRCM-CRU2
Validation = work in progressRuns are underway
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Precipitation rate (mm/day)5-year mean: WinterCRCM/NCEP
CRU2
CRCM-CRU2
Validation = work in progressRuns are underway
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
High Resolution Models
DISADVANTAGES
• dependent on a GCM to drive models
• computationally demanding
• few experiments
• may be ‘locked’ into a single scenario, therefore difficult to explore scenario uncertainty, risk analyses
ADVANTAGES• are able to account for important local forcing
factors, e.g., surface type & elevation
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Effect of scenario resolution on impact outcome
Spatial Scale of Scenarios
[Source: IPCC, WGI, Chapter 13]
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Empirical/Statistical, Statistical/Dynamical
MethodsPREDICTAND PREDICTORSSub-grid scale climate = f(larger-scale climate)
• Transfer functions - calculated between large-area and/or large-scale upper air data and local surface climates
• Weather typing - relationships calculated between atmospheric circulation types and local weather
• Weather generator parameters can be conditioned upon the large-scale state
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Main Assumptions
• Predictors are variables of relevance to the local climate variable being derived (the predictand) and are realistically modelled by the GCM
• The transfer function is valid under altered climatic conditions
• The predictors fully represent the climate change signal
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Transfer FunctionsGrid Box
Transfer functione.g., Multiple linear regression, principal components analysis, canonical correlation analysis, artificial neural networks
Site variables for future, e.g., 2050
Predictor variables e.g., MSLP, 500, 700 hPa geopotential heights, zonal/meridional components of flow, areal T&P
Area
Select predictor variables
Calibrate and verify model
Extract predictor variables from GCM output
Drive model
Observed station data for predictand
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Transfer Functions
Fundamental Assumption the observed statistical relationships will continue to
be valid under future radiative forcing
ADVANTAGES• much less computationally demanding than physical
downscaling using numerical models• ensembles of high resolution climate scenarios may be
produced relatively easily
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Transfer FunctionsDISADVANTAGES
• large amounts of observational data may be required to establish statistical relationships for the current climate
• specialist knowledge required to apply the techniques correctly
• relationships only valid within the range of the data used for calibration - projections for some variables may lie outside this range
• may not be possible to derive significant relationships for some variables
• a predictor which may not appear as the most significant when developing the transfer functions under present climate may be critical for determining climate change
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather TypingStatistically relate observed station or area-average meteorological data to a weather classification scheme.
Weather classes may be defined objectively (e.g. by PCA, neural networks) or subjectively derived (e.g., Lamb weather types [UK], European Grosswetterlagen)
Select classification scheme
Relationships between weather type and local weather variables
Pressure fields from GCM
Calculate weather types
Identify weather types
Derive Drive model
Local weather variables for, say, 2050
Observed weather variables
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
ADVANTAGES• founded on sensible physical linkages between
climate on the large scale and weather on the local scale
Weather TypingFundamental Assumption
the relationships between weather type and local climate variables will continue to be valid under
future radiative forcing
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather TypingDISADVANTAGES
• the fundamental assumption may not hold - differences in relationships between weather type and local climate have occurred at some sites during the observed record
• scenarios produced are relatively insensitive to future climate forcing - using GCM pressure fields alone to derive types, and thence local climate, does not account for the GCM projected changes in, e.g., temperature and precipitation, so necessary to include additional variables such as large-scale temperature and atmospheric humidity
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Downscaled vs. original GCM
[Source Hay et al. (1999)]
Ex. Animas River Basin (US) with Hydrologic Model Delta Change = HadCM2 results (raw data)
Grey area = 20 ensembles with downscaled climate scenarioSimulated = with observed data
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather Generators
Precipitation ProcessOccurrence Amount
Non-precipitation variables
Maximum temperatureMinimum temperature
Solar radiation
Model calibration
Synthetic data generation
Climate scenarios
LARS-WG: wet and dry spell length
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather Generators
Area
Grid Box
Calibrate weather generator using area-average weather
Calibrate weather generator for each individual station within area
Station parameter set
Calculate changes in parameters from grid box data
Area parameter set Apply changes in parameters derived from difference between area and grid box parameter sets to individual station parameter files; generate synthetic data for scenario
Spatial DownscalingSpatial Downscaling
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather GeneratorsTemporal Downscaling
Parameter file containing statistical characteristics of observed station data
Observed station data
WG
Monthly scenario information
Generate daily weather data corresponding to
scenario
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather Generators
ADVANTAGES• the ability to generate time series of unlimited
length• opportunity to obtain representative weather time
series in regions of data sparsity, by interpolating observed data
• ability to alter the WG’s parameters in accordance with scenarios of future climate change - changes in variability as well mean changes
Fundamental AssumptionThe statistical correlations between climatic variables derived from observed data are assumed to be valid
under a changed climate.
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Weather Generators
DISADVANTAGES
• seldom able to describe all aspects of climate accurately, especially persistent events, rare events and decadal- or century-scale variations
• designed for use, independently, at individual locations and few account for the spatial correlation of climate
Prepared by Elaine Barrow, CCIS Project
The Canadian Climate Impacts Scenarios (CCIS) Project is funded by the
Climate Change Action Fund and provides climate change scenarios and related information to the VIA community in Canada
Further Reading
• IPCC TAR(2001) - Chapter 10 & 13 (www.ipcc.ch)• Wilby & Wigley (1997): Downscaling general
circulation model output: a comparison of methods. Progress in Physical Geography 21, 530-548
• Hewitson & Crane (1996): Climate downscaling: techniques and application. Climate Research 7, 85-95
• Goodess et al. (2003) : The identification & evaulation of suitable scenario development methods for the estimation of future probabilities of extreme events,Tyndall Centre, Rep. 4. report