Low (web) Quality - BALTEX
Low (web) Quality - BALTEX
Low (web) Quality - BALTEX
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
75<br />
What details can the regional climate models add to the global projections<br />
in the Carpathian Basin?<br />
Gabriella Szépszó, Gabriella Csima and András Horányi<br />
Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest, Hungary (szepszo.g@met.hu)<br />
1. Motivation<br />
Recently the continuously improving global climate models<br />
are providing solid basis and realistic projections for the<br />
synoptic scale characteristics of the climate, however they<br />
are at the moment largely insufficient for detailed regional<br />
scale estimations. The use of regional climate models<br />
ensures a dynamics-based opportunity to interpret and<br />
enhance the global results for regional scale. A couple of<br />
years ago two regional climate models were adapted at the<br />
Hungarian Meteorological Service (HMS): the ALADIN-<br />
Climate model developed by Météo France on the basis of<br />
the internationally developed ALADIN modelling system<br />
and the REMO model developed by the Max Planck<br />
Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. It is anticipated in<br />
Hungary that these models are able to give realistic regional<br />
climate estimations not only for the next few decades but<br />
also for the end of 21st century, particularly for the area of<br />
the Carpathian Basin. This area of interest is especially<br />
important considering the fact that one of the largest<br />
uncertainties in climate projections can be found over the<br />
Carpathian Basin as it had already been identified by former<br />
large international projects.<br />
2. Model experiments<br />
Firstly, the models were integrated for a past period (1961–<br />
1990) with the use of ERA-40 re-analyses as lateral<br />
boundary conditions in order to explore the main<br />
characteristics of the models’ behaviour in case of “quasiperfect”<br />
forcing. The model domains include continental<br />
Europe with approximately 25 km horizontal resolution. The<br />
models were also integrated with lateral boundary conditions<br />
provided by global atmosphere-ocean general circulation<br />
models: by ARPEGE/OPA in the case of ALADIN-Climate<br />
and ECHAM5/MPI-OM in the case of REMO. With the<br />
latter regional climate model a hundred-year transient run<br />
was accomplished for the period of 1951–2050, while the<br />
ALADIN-Climate simulations covered three thirty-year time<br />
slices in 1961–1990, 2021–2050, 2071–2100 over a smaller<br />
domain in its focus with Hungary on 10 km horizontal<br />
resolution. The regional models were forced with the A1B<br />
SRES emission scenario, which is considered as a “realistic”<br />
estimate for the evolution of the greenhouse gas<br />
concentrations until the end of the 21st century.<br />
3. Results<br />
Naturally, the validation of regional climate models for the<br />
past climate is an indispensable ingredient in understanding<br />
the behaviour of RCMs. This is originating from the<br />
considerations that on the one hand successful climate<br />
projections can be only expected if the models are already<br />
capable to reasonably simulate the past climate and on the<br />
other hand the biases of the model for the past might<br />
indicate and anticipate biases for the future. The model<br />
experiments for the past were validated against the CRUdataset<br />
focusing on two main variables: the mean<br />
temperature and precipitation. Regarding the future<br />
projections the change of the same parameters was<br />
investigated for the 2021–2050 period with respect to the<br />
reference 1961–1990 one. The analysis was concentrating<br />
not only on the regional results but also taking into<br />
account the driving global models’ results, in order to<br />
carefully scrutinize the possible added value of the<br />
regional climate models with respect to the global ones<br />
and to draw reliable and robust conclusions in terms of<br />
quantitative uncertainties in the projections.<br />
Figure 1 shows the change of the annual and winter<br />
precipitation over Hungary for 2021–2050 with respect to<br />
the model means in 1961–1990 on the basis of the<br />
ALADIN-Climate and REMO results. It can be concluded,<br />
that the annual change is a non-significant decrease<br />
projected quite similarly by both RCMs, however in the<br />
case of seasonal changes large differences can be<br />
experienced, which is pointing towards large uncertainties.<br />
Figure 1. The annual (top) and the winter (bottom:<br />
DJF) precipitation change over Hungary for 2021–<br />
2050 with respect to the model means in 1961–1990<br />
based on two RCMs (left: ALADIN-Climate; right:<br />
REMO).<br />
This workshop contribution will give an overview about<br />
the results of regional climate models applied at the HMS<br />
with special emphasis on their inter-comparison and<br />
evaluation with respect to the global models.<br />
References<br />
Csima, G. and Horányi, A.: Validation of the ALADIN-<br />
Climate regional climate model at the Hungarian<br />
Meteorological Service, Időjárás, 112., 3-4, pp. 155-<br />
177, 2008<br />
Szépszó, G. and Horányi, A.: Transient simulation of the<br />
REMO regional climate model and its evaluation over<br />
Hungary, Időjárás, 112., 3-4, pp. 203-231, 2008