Abstract
The Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) is a stochastic weather generator used for the simulation of weather data at a single site under both current and future climate conditions using General Circulation Models (GCM). It was calibrated using the baseline (1981-2010) and evaluated to determine its suitability in generating synthetic weather data for 2020 and 2055 according to the projections of HadCM3 and BCCR-BCM2 GCMs under SRB1 and SRA1B scenarios at Mount Makulu (Latitude: 15.550°S, Longitude: 28.250°E, Elevation: 1213 meter), Zambia. Three weather parameters—precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature were simulated using LARS-WG v5.5 for observed station and AgMERRA reanalysis data for Mount Makulu. Monthly means and variances of observed and generated daily precipitation, maximum temperature and minimum temperature were used to evaluate the suitability of LARS-WG. Other climatic conditions such as wet and dry spells, seasonal frost and heat spells distributions were also used to assess the performance of the model. The results showed that these variables were modeled with good accuracy and LARS-WG could be used with high confidence to reproduce the current and future climate scenarios. Mount Makulu did not experience any seasonal frost. The average temperatures for the baseline (Observed station data: 1981-2010 and AgMERRA reanalysis: 1981-2010) were 21.33°C and 22.21°C, respectively. Using the observed station data, the average temperature under SRB1 (2020), SRA1B (2020), SRB1 (2055), SRA1B (2055) would be 21.90°C, 21.94°C, 22.83°C and 23.18°C, respectively. Under the AgMERRA reanalysis, the average temperatures would be 22.75°C (SRB1: 2020), 22.80°C (SRA1B: 2020), 23.69°C (SRB1: 2055) and 24.05°C (SRA1B: 2055). The HadCM3 and BCM2 GCMs ensemble mean showed that the number of days with precipitation would increase while the mean precipitation amount in 2020s and 2050s under SRA1B would reduce by 6.19% to 6.65%. Precipitation would increase under SRB1 (Observed), SRA1B, and SRB1 (AgMERRA) from 0.31% to 5.2% in 2020s and 2055s, respectively.
Highlights
Global Climate Models (GCMs) from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third and Fifth Coupled Model Inter-comparison Projects (CMIP3 and CMIP5) are tools used to simulate the current and future climate change of the earth under different climate change scenarios [1] [2] [3] [4] due to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs)
The Calibration and validation was carried out using the “Site Analysis” and “Qtest” function in Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) model using two data sets, Observed station and AgMERRA reanalysis data, respectively
Evaluating the suitability of LARS-WG performance in simulating precipitation for Mount Makulu is presented in Table 2 and Table 3
Summary
Global Climate Models (GCMs) from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third and Fifth Coupled Model Inter-comparison Projects (CMIP3 and CMIP5) are tools used to simulate the current and future climate change (maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, surface pressure, wind, relative, and specific humidity, geopotential height, etc.) of the earth under different climate change scenarios [1] [2] [3] [4] due to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs). The GHG emissions scenarios reflect the uncertainty of the future climate and GCMs’ striving to represent complex natural systems [5]. Due to the coarse spatial resolution of GCMs, they cannot be used at local or regional scale for impact studies, there is need to bridge the gap between the large scale variables (predictors) and local scale variables (predictands)
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