Regional Climate Models Model Research Articles

Performance evaluation of varies climate models using observed and regional climate models for the Katar Watershed, Ethiopia

Climate models are fundamental tools to estimates the reliable future climate change and its effects on the water resources and agriculture in basins. However, all climate models are not equally performed for all areas. Therefore, determining the most appropriate climate models for a specific study area is essential. The focus of this study was to evaluate the performance of the regional climate models with regard to simulating precipitation, and temperatures at Katar watershed. This study examines the performance of fourteen CORDEX-AFRICA-220 Regional Climate Models (RCMs) for the period of 1984–2005 using statistical metrics such as Pearson correlation coefficient (R), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE), and bias. The findings indicated that GERICS-MPI was better performed in representing Areta, and Bokoji station, GERICS-IPSL was better representing in Assela, Ketergenet, and Sagure station, CCCma-CanESM2-AFR22, and RCA4-ICHEC performed relatively better in representing the mean annual observed rainfall at the Kulumsa, and Ogolcho station respectively. However, RCA4-CSIRO performed weakly in estimation of annual rainfall at all stations. RCM model such as GERICS-MPI was relatively better than the others in replicating the annual pattern of the maximum temperature at Areta, Bokoji, and Ketergenet stations. Similarly, GERICS-IPSL were relatively better in replicating the annual maximum temperature at Assela, and Sagure stations, CCCma-CanESM2-AFR22 at Kulumsa station, and RCA4-ICHEC at Ogolcho station performed well in capturing the observed and simulated annual maximum temperature. Better performance was observed on minimum temperature at CCCma-CanESM2-AFR22 at Areta, Assela, and Ketergenet stations, GERICS-MOHE-AFR-22 at Bokoji station, GERICS-MPI at Kulumsa, and Ogolcho stations, RAC4-NOAA-2G at Sagure stations. However, weak performance was observed RCA4-CSIRO at all stations. RCM models of GERICS-MPI, and CCLM4-NCC-AFR-22 performed better than the other RCM models for correction of annual rainfall in Katar watershed. However, poor performance was observed at RCA4-ICHEC model on Katar watershed. The GERICS-MPI model performed well. However, poor performance was observed at RCA4-ICHEC on maximum temperature, and GERICS-NOAA-2M on minimum temperature in Katar watershed.

Regional climate models and bias correction methods for rainfall-runoff modeling in Katar watershed, Ethiopia

Systematic errors in regional climate models (RCMs) hinder their implementation and lead to uncertainties in regional hydrological climate change studies. As a result, checking the accuracy of climate model simulations and applying bias correction are preliminary methods for achieving consistent findings. Therefore, identifying suitable RCM models for bias correction is important for providing reliable inputs for evaluating climate change impacts. The impacts of bias correction methods on streamflow were assessed on the Katar catchment within the Lake Ziway subbasin using coordinated regional climate downscaling experiments with a spatial resolution of 50 km (CORDEX-44) RCMs through the Integrated Hydrological Modelling System (IHMS) version 6.3. This study evaluated fourteen RCM models under five precipitation and three temperature bias correction methods for the Katar catchment. Statistical approaches, such as bias (PBIAS), the root mean square error (RMSE), the mean absolute error (MAE), the coefficient of variation (CV), the coefficient of determination (R2), and the relative volume error (RVE), are used for performance analysis. GERICS-MPI, RAC4-NOAA-2G, and CCLM4-NCCR-AFR-22 have better performances for both rainfall and temprature. The empirical cumulative distribution function (ECDF) method performed best in removing bias from the frequency-based statistics of rainfall and streamflow, followed by the power transformation (PT), distribution mapping (DM), local intensity scaling (LOCI), and linear scaling (LS) methods. Specifically, for temperature, the VARI and DM methods perform better in frequency-based statistics than the LS method. The performance of hydrological modeling is strongly affected by the selection of rainfall bias correction methods. In addition, the effect of the temperature bias correction method was not significant. The adequacy of the BCM depends on the RCM models and regional context. Therefore, the BCM implementation procedure can be adapted from region to region. This study revealed that the performance of the RCM models differed and that the errors in the RCM model outputs were reduced by the use of bias correction methods.

Evaluating 3 decades of precipitation in the Upper Colorado River basin from a high-resolution regional climate model

Abstract. Convection-permitting regional climate models (RCMs) have recently become tractable for applications at multi-decadal timescales. These types of models have tremendous utility for water resource studies, but better characterization of precipitation biases is needed, particularly for water-resource-critical mountain regions, where precipitation is highly variable in space, observations are sparse, and the societal water need is great. This study examines 34 years (1987–2020) of RCM precipitation from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF; v3.8.1), using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFS; CFSv2) initial and lateral boundary conditions and a 1 km × 1 km innermost grid spacing. The RCM is centered over the Upper Colorado River basin, with a focus on the high-elevation, 750 km2 East River watershed (ERW), where a variety of high-impact scientific activities are currently ongoing. Precipitation is compared against point observations (Natural Resources Conservation Service Snow Telemetry or SNOTEL), gridded climate datasets (Newman, Livneh, and PRISM), and Bayesian reconstructions of watershed mean precipitation conditioned on streamflow and high-resolution snow remote-sensing products. We find that the cool-season precipitation percent error between WRF and 23 SNOTEL gauges has a low overall bias (x^ = 0.25 %, s = 13.63 %) and that WRF has a higher percent error during the warm season (x^ = 10.37 %, s = 12.79 %). Warm-season bias manifests as a high number of low-precipitation days, though the low-resolution or SNOTEL gauges limit some of the conclusions that can be drawn. Regional comparisons between WRF precipitation accumulation and three different gridded datasets show differences on the order of ± 20 %, particularly at the highest elevations and in keeping with findings from other studies. We find that WRF agrees slightly better with the Bayesian reconstruction of precipitation in the ERW compared to the gridded precipitation datasets, particularly when changing SNOTEL densities are taken into account. The conclusions are that the RCM reasonably captures orographic precipitation in this region and demonstrates that leveraging additional hydrologic information (streamflow and snow remote-sensing data) improves the ability to characterize biases in RCM precipitation fields. Error characteristics reported in this study are essential for leveraging the RCM model outputs for studies of past and future climates and water resource applications. The methods developed in this study can be applied to other watersheds and model configurations. Hourly 1 km × 1 km precipitation and other meteorological outputs from this dataset are publicly available and suitable for a wide variety of applications.

Comparison of the performances of the gene expression programming model and the RegCM model in predicting monthly runoff

Abstract Prediction of rainfall and runoff is one of the most important issues in managing catchment water resources and sustainable use of water resources. In this study, the accuracy and efficiency of the Gene Expression Programming (GEP) model and the Regional Climate Model (RegCM) to predict runoff values from monthly precipitation were investigated. For this purpose, monthly precipitation data of 48 synoptic stations, monthly temperature data of 21 synoptic stations, and also monthly runoff data of 40 hydrometric stations located in the Karkheh basin during 45 years (1972–2017) were used. Out of this statistical period, 40 years was used for calibration, and five years (1995–1999) for the validation of the model results. The results showed that the GEP model with an average R2 value of 0.948, average RMSE value of 19.4 m3/s, average NSE value of 0.91, and average SE value of 0.3, had a much more accurate performance than the RegCM model, which had an average R2 value of 0.04, average RMSE value of 298.2 m3/s, average NSE value of −0.64, and average SE value of 4.6 in predicting monthly runoff.

Application of a regional climate model on autumn dust events over the Urmia Basin

Dust events have occurred over the Urmia Lake Basin in northwestern Iran for many years. In this study, we identified the mechanism and source of dust events in the region and assessed the ability of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM) to simulate these events. The observation data includes horizontal visibility and present weather phenomena achieved in Tabriz, Urmia, and Saqez stations. The ERA5, MERRA-2, and CAMS data were prepared for this research. The long-term dusty day analysis was conducted from 2000 to 2019. The synoptic-dynamic analysis and RegCM simulations were done during dust events on 28–31 October 2017—the HYSPLIT model and MODIS image usage to consider more detail. The results show that the Urmia Basin experiences two peaks, dusty days in the May and autumn months, including September and October. The persistent and widespread dust event in Urmia resulted from the approaching trough at 500 hPa to the north of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, trigged low pressure and increasing wind speed over the area. Based on the synoptic-dynamic analysis, MODIS satellite images, and the outputs of HYSPLIT, Iraq deserts were the primary source of dust on 28–31 October 2017. The dust distribution in the RegCM model, MERRA-2 data, and MODIS image agree. The RegCM aerosol optical depth (AOD) output time series agreed with MERRA-2 data, with a correlation coefficient of 0.84 and an index of agreement (IOA) of 0.56 in Urmia stations. The local dust source detected by the surface emission flux in the eastern Lake Urmia close to Tabriz can be a reason for the dustiest day in Tabriz. The AOD diurnal variation obtained from RegCM, MERRA-2, and CAM are similar in Tabriz and Urmia. The AOD of RegCM is underestimated compared to MERRA-2 and CAM in three selected stations.

Performance evaluation of multiple regional climate models to simulate rainfall in the Central Rift Valley Lakes Basin of Ethiopia and their selection criteria for the best climate model.

The historical datasets of five regional climate models (RCMs) available in the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX)-Africa database are evaluated against ground-based observed rainfall in the Central Rift Valley Lakes Basin of Ethiopia. The evaluation is aimed at determining how well the RCMs reproduce monthly, seasonal, and annual cycles of rainfall and quantify the uncertainty between the RCMs in downscaling the same global climate model outputs. Root mean square, bias, and correlation coefficient are used to evaluate the ability of the RCM output. The multicriteria decision method of compromise programming was used to choose the best climate models for the climate condition of the Central Rift Valley Lakes subbasin. The Rossby Center Regional Atmospheric Model (RCA4) has downscaled ten global climate models (GCMs) and reproduces the monthly rainfall with a complex spatial distribution of bias and root mean square errors. The monthly bias varies in the range of - 35.8 to 189%. The summer (wet), spring, winter (dry), and annual rainfall varied within the range of 1.44 to 23.66%, - 7.08 to 20.04%, - 7.35 to 57%, and - 3.11 to 16.5%, respectively. To find the source of uncertainty, the same GCMs but downscaled by different RCMs were analyzed. The test results showed that each RCM differently downscaled the same GCM, and there was no single RCM model that consistently simulated the climate conditions over the stations in the study regions. However, the evaluation finds reasonable model skill in representing the temporal cycles of rainfall and suggests the use of RCMs where climate data is scarce after bias correction.

Applying an isotope-enabled regional climate model over the Greenland ice sheet: effect of spatial resolution on model bias

Abstract. In order to investigate the impact of spatial resolution on the discrepancy between simulated δ18O and observed δ18O in Greenland ice cores, regional climate simulations are performed with the isotope-enabled regional climate model (RCM) COSMO_iso. For this purpose, isotope-enabled general circulation model (GCM) simulations with the ECHAM5-wiso general circulation model (GCM) under present-day conditions and the MPI-ESM-wiso GCM under mid-Holocene conditions are dynamically downscaled with COSMO_iso for the Arctic region. The capability of COSMO_iso to reproduce observed isotopic ratios in Greenland ice cores for these two periods is investigated by comparing the simulation results to measured δ18O ratios from snow pit samples, Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) stations and ice cores. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a mid-Holocene isotope-enabled RCM simulation is performed for the Arctic region. Under present-day conditions, a dynamical downscaling of ECHAM5-wiso (1.1∘×1.1∘) with COSMO_iso to a spatial resolution of 50 km improves the agreement with the measured δ18O ratios for 14 of 19 observational data sets. A further increase in the spatial resolution to 7 km does not yield substantial improvements except for the coastal areas with its complex terrain. For the mid-Holocene, a fully coupled MPI-ESM-wiso time slice simulation is downscaled with COSMO_iso to a spatial resolution of 50 km. In the mid-Holocene, MPI-ESM-wiso already agrees well with observations in Greenland and a downscaling with COSMO_iso does not further improve the model–data agreement. Despite this lack of improvement in model biases, the study shows that in both periods, observed δ18O values at measurement sites constitute isotope ratios which are mainly within the subgrid-scale variability of the global ECHAM5-wiso and MPI-ESM-wiso simulation results. The correct δ18O ratios are consequently not resolved in the GCM simulation results and need to be extracted by a refinement with an RCM. In this context, the RCM simulations provide a spatial δ18O distribution by which the effects of local uncertainties can be taken into account in the comparison between point measurements and model outputs. Thus, an isotope-enabled GCM–RCM model chain with realistically implemented fractionating processes constitutes a useful supplement to reconstruct regional paleo-climate conditions during the mid-Holocene in Greenland. Such model chains might also be applied to reveal the full potential of GCMs in other regions and climate periods, in which large deviations relative to observed isotope ratios are simulated.

Pengaruh koreksi bias dan metode ensemble pada data curah hujan dari empat model luaran Regional Climate Model (RCM) CORDEX-SEA di Sumatera

Drought is a natural disaster that occurs slowly and lasts longer until the wet season occurred. Drought occurred in expected time, so that preparations and preparedness can be made in dealing with drought disasters. Therefore, we need an overview of future drought events (or projections).In this study, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used as drought index. The occurrence of drought is closely related to weather factors and occurs repeatedly. Time-series weather data is needed to know the time-series weather conditions. Problems with data that often occur can be overcome by using numerical climate modeling which is currently widely used. Regional Climate Model (RCM) is a climate model that can be used to build long-term climate data, both time-series and projection data. The results showed RCM model data required bias correction in order to reduce bias in the CORDEX RCM model data. RCM rainfall models before correction were still biased. Thus, bias correction is needed to reduce bias in models data. Time series obtained from SPI baseline data for 2000-2005 in Lampung and West Sumatra provinces showed SPI value which smaller than the projection SPI value in 2021-2030. While SPI time series with RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios showed different results. SPI with RCP 8.5 scenario have more negative value so that drought occurred more often than RCP 4.5. The negative SPI index that often occured in RCP 8.5 scenario appeared to be in RCM IPSL and MPI models year 2025-2030.

Evaluating watershed hydrological responses to climate changes at Hangar Watershed, Ethiopia

AbstractThe aim of this study is to model the responses of Hangar Watershed hydrology to future climate changes under two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios. Future changes in precipitation and temperature were produced using the output of dynamically downscaled data of a regional climate model (RCM) 0.44° resolution under RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios for 2025–2055 and 2056–2086. The future projection of the RCM model of precipitation and temperatures showed an increasing trend relative to the base period (1987–2017). At 2025–2055 average annual precipitation increments of +15.7 and +19.8% were expected for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, respectively. For 2056–2086 of RCP 4.5 and 8.5, a similar trend was also shown as average annual precipitation may increase by +20.1 and +23.4%, respectively. The changes of climate parameters were used as input into the SWAT hydrological model to simulate the future runoff at Hangar Watershed. The increment in precipitation projection resulted in a positive magnitude impact on average runoff flow. The average annual change in runoff at 2025–2055 of both RCP 4.5 and 8.5 may increase by +24.5 and +23.6%, respectively. In 2056–2086, a change in average annual runoff of +73.2 and +73.2% for RCP 4.5 and 8.5 may be expected, respectively.

Exploring the parameter space of the COSMO-CLM v5.0 regional climate model for the Central Asia CORDEX domain

Abstract. The parameter uncertainty of a climate model represents the spectrum of the results obtained by perturbing its empirical and unconfined parameters used to represent subgrid-scale processes. In order to assess a model's reliability and to better understand its limitations and sensitivity to different physical processes, the spread of model parameters needs to be carefully investigated. This is particularly true for regional climate models (RCMs), whose performance is domain dependent. In this study, the parameter space of the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling CLimate Mode (COSMO-CLM) RCM is investigated for the Central Asia Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domain, using a perturbed physics ensemble (PPE) obtained by performing 1-year simulations with different parameter values. The main goal is to characterize the parameter uncertainty of the model and to determine the most sensitive parameters for the region. Moreover, the presented experiments are used to study the effect of several parameters on the simulation of selected variables for subregions characterized by different climate conditions, assessing by which degree it is possible to improve model performance by properly selecting parameter inputs in each case. Finally, the paper explores the model parameter sensitivity over different domains, tackling the question of transferability of an RCM model setup to different regions of study. Results show that only a subset of model parameters present relevant changes in model performance for different parameter values. Importantly, for almost all parameter inputs, the model shows an opposite behaviour among different clusters and regions. This indicates that conducting a calibration of the model against observations to determine optimal parameter values for the Central Asia domain is particularly challenging: in this case, the use of objective calibration methods is highly necessary. Finally, the sensitivity of the model to parameter perturbation for Central Asia is different than the one observed for Europe, suggesting that an RCM should be retuned, and its parameter uncertainty properly investigated, when setting up model experiments for different domains of study.

A study on the Sensitivity of Parameterizations for Regional Climate models in the Simulation of Tropical Cyclones over Western Pacific Ocean and East Sea

This study investigates the sensitivity of physical parameterization schemes in two regional dynamic models clWRF (the climate Weather Research and Forecasting) and RegCM (the Regional Climate Model) in the simulation of tropical cyclones (TCs) over Western Pacific Ocean and East Sea. The experiments include 12-cases for clWRF model and 6-cases for RegCM model were conducted to run the simulation, with the same domain parameters, resolution 25 km. Results show that the clWRF can simulate TCs well with the Betts-Miller-Janjic convection scheme and WSM6 microphysics, in which convection schemes are more influential, and the RegCM is with the Kain-Fritsch convection scheme and Zeng oceanic flux. Regarding the number of TCs simulation, most of them are higher than observed and CFSnl (Climate Forecast System analysis) data, therein the RegCM is higher than the clWRF.

Meteorological trends over Satluj River Basin in Indian Himalaya under climate change scenarios

Temperature and precipitation distributions depend on variable topography and heterogeneous landuse/landcover in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). It imparts a major concern for hydrological, glaciological modelling, dam structure assessment, etc. Thus, there is an inherent requirement of robust information for climate impact studies over the topographical variable and landuse heterogenous region in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). In particular, the importance of bias corrections become critically important over Himalayan river basins, in which model outputs with the corresponding in-situ observations are used for improving the model distribution. These improved details in present and future, as well, are important to carry out the climate change impact studies at basin scale for hydrological, glaciological, climatological studies, etc. Thus, in the present study firstly, model fields are bias corrected with the corresponding in-situ observations. And then trends in these bias corrected data is compared with the corresponding in-situ observations. These assessment of present and future changes in temperature and precipitation over Satluj River Basin (SRB) located in the western Himalayas is illustrated. Model fields are considered from a Regional climate model (REMO) from Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment-South Asia (CORDEX-SA) in three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), i.e., 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5 W/m2. These projections are bias corrected using distributed quantile mapping. The precipitation (temperature) bias correction is performed using the distributed quantile mapping on the gamma (normal) distribution. The standard trend statistics is applied for quantitative assessment. A good capture of bias correction in temperature and precipitation is illustrated. Efficient bias removal is depicted in cumulative distribution curve (CDF) at individual station. Trend analysis shows that highest rate of precipitation decrement at low altitude station (Kasol) with the rate of −6.362 mm/year in RCP 8.5. Over the SRB highest rate of temperature increment is seen at highest altitude station (Kaza) with the rate of 0.084°C/year in RCP 8.5. On an average, fall in precipitation and increase in temperature with >99% confidence level in RCP 8.5 is seen. In addition, intensity lowers in other lower RCPs. The study sums up with the efficacy of CORDEX-SA REMO model in capturing present and future change in temperature and precipitation over the SRB in western Himalayas using the bias correction.

The impacts of climate change based on regional and global climate models (RCMs and GCMs) projections (case study: Ilam province)

The climate change is one of the most important challenges facing the environment. In this study, climate change by air temperature and precipitation parameters is evaluated and compared for observational and future data. For the baseline period (1981–2016) and for future (2020–2080) detemined. To estimate future data, utilized the CNRM-CM5 and HadGEM2-ES models output the global climate models (GCMs) from the MarksimGCM database and the CNRM-CERFACS and MIROC-ESM models as regional climate models (RCMs) from the CORDEX project for the domain of south Asia is based on the representation concentration pathway RCP8.5 and RCP4.5 scenarios were considered. The results showed that is an increasing and decreasing trend for air temperature and precipitation in the baseline period, respectively. The validation of the models showed that the CNRM-CM5 model as a GCM model and the CNRM-CERFACS model as an RCM model have a higher performance in simulating climate change for study area. In fact, output of these models have close relation to the observed data. Evaluation of the temperature components (minimum and maximum temperatures) showed these components had an increasing trend in the baseline period and would have an upward deviation in the future. With respect to the changes in air temperature, precipitation and reference evapotranspiration (Eto) for the future, the status of water resources in the study area will decline significantly. Therefore, the effects of climate change are significant for the study area, which need to consider adaptive strategies such as; optimal water management, cropping pattern and resource management.

Assessing Future Impacts of Climate Change on Water Supply System Performance: Application to the Pozzillo Reservoir in Sicily, Italy

Climate change induced by greenhouse gas emissions is expected to alter the natural availability of water, affecting domestic, agricultural and industrial uses. This work aims at assessing the possible future impacts of climate change on precipitation, temperature and runoff, and to simulate the effects on reservoir demand–performance curves. To this aim, a modeling chain is set up, based on the combined use of regional climate models (RCMs) and water supply system simulation models. The methodology is applied to the Pozzillo reservoir, located in Sicily (Italy), which has experienced several droughts in the past. We use an RCM model that, based on a previous study, has proved to be the most reliable in the area, among those of the EURO-CORDEX initiative. RCM precipitation and temperature monthly time series are used to generate future reservoir inflow data, according to two representative concentration pathways, RCP4.5 (intermediate emissions scenario) and RCP8.5 (high emissions scenario) and a two-step bias correction procedure. Simulation of the reservoir indicated that, due to reservoir inflow reduction induced by climate change, performances of the Pozzillo reservoir are predicted to decrease significantly in the future, with impacts of RCP8.5 generally higher than RCP4.5.

Comparison of statistical and dynamical downscaling methods for seasonal‐scale winter precipitation predictions over north India

The main aim of the present study is to analyse the capabilities of two downscaling approaches (statistical and dynamical) in predicting wintertime seasonal precipitation over north India. For this purpose, a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) based statistical downscaling approach and dynamical downscaling approach (at 30 km) with an optimized configuration of the regional climate model (RegCM) nested in coarse resolution global spectral model have been used for a period of 28 years (1982–2009). For CCA, nine predictors (precipitation, zonal and meridional winds at 850 and 200 hPa, temperature at 200 hPa and sea surface temperatures) over three different domains were selected. The predictors were chosen based on the statistically significant teleconnection maps and physically based relationships between precipitation over the study region and meteorological variables. The validation revealed that both the downscaling approaches provided improved precipitation forecasts compared to the global model. Reasons for improved prediction by downscaling techniques have been examined. The improvement mainly comes due to better representation of orography, westerly moisture transport and vertical pressure velocity in the regional climate model. Furthermore, two bias correction methods namely quantile mapping (QM) and mean bias‐remove (MBR) have been applied on downscaled RegCM, statistically downscaled CCA as well as the global model products. It was found that when the QM‐based bias correction is applied on dynamically downscaled RegCM products, it has better skill in predicting wintertime precipitation over the study region compared to the CCA‐based statistical downscaling. Overall, the results indicate that the QM‐based bias‐corrected downscaled RegCM model is a useful tool for wintertime seasonal‐scale precipitation prediction over north India.

Comparing Bias Correction Methods Used in Downscaling Precipitation and Temperature from Regional Climate Models: A Case Study from the Kaidu River Basin in Western China

The systemic biases of Regional Climate Models (RCMs) impede their application in regional hydrological climate-change effects analysis and lead to errors. As a consequence, bias correction has become a necessary prerequisite for the study of climate change. This paper compares the performance of available bias correction methods that focus on the performance of precipitation and temperature projections. The hydrological effects of these correction methods are evaluated by the modelled discharges of the Kaidu River Basin. The results show that all used methods improve the performance of the original RCM precipitation and temperature simulations across a number of levels. The corrected results obtained by precipitation correction methods demonstrate larger diversities than those produced by the temperature correction methods. The performance of hydrological modelling is highly influenced by the choice of precipitation correction methods. Furthermore, no substantial differences can be identified from the results of the temperature-corrected methods. The biases from input data are often greater from the works of hydrological modelling. The suitability of these approaches depends upon the regional context and the RCM model, while their application procedure and a number of results can be adapted from region to region.

On the dynamical downscaling and bias correction of seasonal‐scale winter precipitation predictions over North India

This study presents the results of high‐resolution (30 km) climate simulations over North India using an optimized configuration of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM), driven by a global spectral model (T80 model with horizontal resolution of ∼1.4°) for a period of 28 years (1982–2009). The main aim of this work is to analyze the capabilities of the RegCM to simulate the wintertime precipitation over North India in the recent past. The RegCM validation revealed a good improvement in reproducing the precipitation compared to results obtained from the T80 model. This improvement comes due to better representation of vertical pressure velocity, moisture transport, convective heating rate and temperature gradient at two different latitudinal zones. Moreover, orography in the high‐resolution RegCM improves the precipitation simulation in the region where sharp orography gradient plays an important role in wintertime precipitation processes. Two bias correction (BC) methods namely mean bias‐remove (MBR) and quantile mapping (QM) have been applied on the T80 driven RegCM model simulations. It was found that the QM method is more skillful than the MBR in simulating the wintertime precipitation over North India. A comparison of model‐simulated and bias corrected precipitation with observed precipitation at 17 station locations has also been carried out. Overall, the results suggest that when the BC is applied on dynamically downscaled model, it has better skill in simulating the precipitation over North India and this model is a useful tool for further regional downscaling studies.

Evaluating Surface Variables Simulated by the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program over the Great Lakes Region

The Great Lakes Region as important resources for water usages plays an important role in the U.S. economy. As the area might be susceptible to global warming, well-informed decisions in response to the possible global warming effects depend on accurate regional assessments by climate models such as Regional Climate Models (RCMs). Four historical RCM runs from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) were chosen to study the reliability of simulated land surface variables such as latent heat, sensible heat, surface air temperature, soil moisture, and runoff. The Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) was used as a truth dataset to evaluate the biases of the RCM results. The comparisons of the monthly climatology of the energy components and water budget components simulated by the RCMs and GLDAS showed that, latent heat and skin air temperature by RCMs were close to the truth data, large biases were identified for sensible heat and runoff values. Specifically, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRFG) model, which used the same Noah land scheme as in GLDAS, showed positive biases of down-welling radiation, sensible heat, and surface air temperature. The Canadian Regional Climate Model version 4 (CRCM) model was found to have lower soil water content, larger snow amount, and more snow melt than the truth data. The results from this study provide a certain degree of confidence for other studies concerning the Great Lakes region to interpret the future predictions of latent heat and air temperatures by the NARCCAP project. Meanwhile, caution should be taken to review and utilize the simulated results related to soil moisture or runoff. This study also provides insights and direction for RCM model developers to further refine related modeling parameterizations.

Statistical downscaling of regional climate model output to achieve projections of precipitation extremes

Abstract In this work we perform a statistical downscaling by applying a CDF transformation function to local-level daily precipitation extremes (from NCDC station data) and corresponding NARCCAP regional climate model (RCM) output to derive local-scale projections. These high-resolution projections are essential in assessing the impacts of projected climate change. The downscaling method is performed on 58 locations throughout New England, and from the projected distribution of extreme precipitation local-level 25-year return levels are calculated. To obtain uncertainty estimates for return levels, three procedures are employed: a parametric bootstrapping with mean corrected confidence intervals, a non-parametric bootstrapping with BCa (bias corrected and acceleration) intervals, and a Bayesian model. In all cases, results are presented via distributions of differences in return levels between predicted and historical periods. Results from the three procedures show very few New England locations with significant increases in 25-year return levels from the historical to projected periods. This may indicate that projected trends in New England precipitation tend to be statistically less significant than suggested by many studies. For all three procedures, downscaled results are highly dependent on RCM and GCM model choice.

Comparing bias correction methods in downscaling meteorological variables for a hydrologic impact study in an arid area in China

Abstract. Water resources are essential to the ecosystem and social economy in the desert and oasis of the arid Tarim River basin, northwestern China, and expected to be vulnerable to climate change. It has been demonstrated that regional climate models (RCMs) provide more reliable results for a regional impact study of climate change (e.g., on water resources) than general circulation models (GCMs). However, due to their considerable bias it is still necessary to apply bias correction before they are used for water resources research. In this paper, after a sensitivity analysis on input meteorological variables based on the Sobol' method, we compared five precipitation correction methods and three temperature correction methods in downscaling RCM simulations applied over the Kaidu River basin, one of the headwaters of the Tarim River basin. Precipitation correction methods applied include linear scaling (LS), local intensity scaling (LOCI), power transformation (PT), distribution mapping (DM) and quantile mapping (QM), while temperature correction methods are LS, variance scaling (VARI) and DM. The corrected precipitation and temperature were compared to the observed meteorological data, prior to being used as meteorological inputs of a distributed hydrologic model to study their impacts on streamflow. The results show (1) streamflows are sensitive to precipitation, temperature and solar radiation but not to relative humidity and wind speed; (2) raw RCM simulations are heavily biased from observed meteorological data, and its use for streamflow simulations results in large biases from observed streamflow, and all bias correction methods effectively improved these simulations; (3) for precipitation, PT and QM methods performed equally best in correcting the frequency-based indices (e.g., standard deviation, percentile values) while the LOCI method performed best in terms of the time-series-based indices (e.g., Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient, R2); (4) for temperature, all correction methods performed equally well in correcting raw temperature; and (5) for simulated streamflow, precipitation correction methods have more significant influence than temperature correction methods and the performances of streamflow simulations are consistent with those of corrected precipitation; i.e., the PT and QM methods performed equally best in correcting flow duration curve and peak flow while the LOCI method performed best in terms of the time-series-based indices. The case study is for an arid area in China based on a specific RCM and hydrologic model, but the methodology and some results can be applied to other areas and models.