A simulation study on the extreme temperature events of the 20th century by using the BCC_AGCM

Abstract

Extreme temperature events are simulated by using the Beijing Climate Center Atmospheric General Circulation Model (BCC_AGCM) in this paper. The model has been run for 136 yr with the observed external forcing data including solar insolation, greenhouse gases, and monthly sea surface temperature (SST). The daily maximum and minimum temperatures are simulated by the model, and 16 indices representing various extreme temperature events are calculated based on these two variables. The results show that the maximum of daily maximum temperature (TXX), maximum of daily minimum (TNX), minimum of daily maximum (TXN), minimum of daily minimum (TNN), warm days (TX90p), warm nights (TN90p), summer days (SU25), tropical nights (TR20), and warm spell duration index (WSDI) have increasing trends during the 20th century in most regions of the world, while the cold days (TX10p), cold nights (TN10p), and cold spell duration index (CSDI) have decreasing trends.