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The Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Earth System Model version 3 (NESM v3) has been developed, aiming to provide a numerical modeling platform for cross-disciplinary Earth system studies, project future Earth climate and environment changes, and conduct subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction. While the previous model version NESM v1 simulates the internal modes of climate variability well, it has no vegetation dynamics and suffers considerable radiative energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere and surface, resulting in large biases in the global mean surface air temperature, which limits its utility to simulate past and project future climate changes. The NESM v3 has upgraded atmospheric and land surface model components and improved physical parameterization and conservation of coupling variables. Here we describe the new version's basic features and how the major improvements were made. We demonstrate the v3 model's fidelity and suitability to address global climate variability and change issues. The 500-year preindustrial (PI) experiment shows negligible trends in the net heat flux at the top of atmosphere and the Earth surface. Consistently, the simulated global mean surface air temperature, land surface temperature, and sea surface temperature (SST) are all in a quasi-equilibrium state. The conservation of global water is demonstrated by the stable evolution of the global mean precipitation, sea surface salinity (SSS), and sea water salinity. The sea ice extents (SIEs), as a major indication of highlatitude climate, also maintain a balanced state. The simulated spatial patterns of the energy states, SST, precipitation, and SSS fields are realistic, but the model suffers from a cold bias in the North Atlantic, a warm bias in the Southern Ocean, and associated deficient Antarctic sea ice area, as well as a delicate sign of the double ITCZ syndrome. The estimated radiative forcing of quadrupling carbon dioxide is about 7.24Wm-2, yielding a climate sensitivity feedback parameter of -0:98Wm-2 K-1, and the equilibrium climate sensitivity is 3.69 K. The transient climate response from the 1%yr-1 CO2 (1pctCO2) increase experiment is 2.16 K. The model's performance on internal modes and responses to external forcing during the historical period will be documented in an accompanying paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global circulation models (GCMs) are the best tool to understand climate change, as they attempt to represent all the important Earth system processes, including anthropogenic perturbation through fossil fuel burning. However, GCMs are computationally very expensive, which limits the number of simulations that can be made. Pattern scaling is an emulation technique that takes advantage of the fact that local and seasonal changes in surface climate are often approximately linear in the rate of warming over land and across the globe. This allows interpolation away from a limited number of available GCM simulations, to assess alternative future emissions scenarios. In this paper, we present a climate pattern-scaling set consisting of spatial climate change patterns along with parameters for an energybalance model that calculates the amount of global warming. The set, available for download, is derived from 22 GCMs of the WCRP CMIP3 database, setting the basis for similar eventual pattern development for the CMIP5 and forthcoming CMIP6 ensemble. Critically, it extends the use of the IMOGEN (Integrated Model Of Global Effects of climatic aNomalies) framework to enable scanning across full uncertainty in GCMs for impact studies. Across models, the presented climate patterns represent consistent global mean trends, with a maximum of 4 (out of 22) GCMs exhibiting the opposite sign to the global trend per variable (relative humidity). The described new climate regimes are generally warmer, wetter (but with less snowfall), cloudier and windier, and have decreased relative humidity. Overall, when averaging individual performance across all variables, and without considering co-variance, the patterns explain one-third of regional change in decadal averages (mean percentage variance explained, PVE, 34:25±5:21), but the signal in some models exhibits much more linearity (e.g. MIROC3.2(hires): 41.53) than in others (GISS_ER: 22.67). The two most often considered variables, near-surface temperature and precipitation, have a PVE of 85:44±4:37 and 14:98±4:61, respectively. We also provide an example assessment of a terrestrial impact (changes in mean runoff) and compare projections by the IMOGEN system, which has one land surface model, against direct GCM outputs, which all have alternative representations of land functioning. The latter is noted as an additional source of uncertainty. Finally, current and potential future applications of the IMOGEN version 2.0 modelling system in the areas of ecosystem modelling and climate change impact assessment are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pattern scaling is a well-established method for approximating modeled spatial distributions of changes in temperature by assuming a time-invariant pattern that scales with changes in global mean temperature. We compare two methods of pattern scaling for annual mean precipitation (regression and epoch difference) and evaluate which method is "better" in particular circumstances by quantifying their robustness to interpolation/extrapolation in time, inter-model variations, and inter-scenario variations. Both the regression and epoch-difference methods (the two most commonly used methods of pattern scaling) have good absolute performance in reconstructing the climate model output, measured as an area-weighted root mean square error. We decompose the precipitation response in the RCP8.5 scenario into a CO2 portion and a non-CO2 portion. Extrapolating RCP8.5 patterns to reconstruct precipitation change in the RCP2.6 scenario results in large errors due to violations of pattern scaling assumptions when this CO2-/non-CO2-forcing decomposition is applied. The methodologies discussed in this paper can help provide precipitation fields to be utilized in other models (including integrated assessment models or impacts assessment models) for a wide variety of scenarios of future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the attribution of individual events is to estimate whether and to what extent the probability of an extreme climate event evolves when external conditions (e.g., due to anthropogenic forcings) change. Many types of climate extremes are linked to the variability of the large-scale atmospheric circulation. It is hence essential to decipher the roles of atmospheric variability and increasing mean temperature in the change of probabilities of extremes. It is also crucial to define a background state (or counterfactual) to which recent observations are compared. In this paper we present a statistical framework to determine the dynamical (linked to the atmospheric circulation) and thermodynamical (linked to slow forcings) contributions to the probability of extreme climate events. We illustrate this methodology on a record precipitation event that hit southern United Kingdom in January 2014. We compare possibilities for the creation of two states (or "worlds") in which probability change is determined. These two worlds are defined in a large ensemble of atmospheric model simulations (Weather@Home factual and counterfactual simulations) and separate periods (new: 1951-2014, and old: 1900- 1950) in reanalyses and observations. We discuss how the atmospheric circulation conditioning can affect the interpretation of extreme event attribution. We eventually show the qualitative coherence of results between the choice of worlds (factual/counterfactual vs. new/old). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pattern scaling is a well established method for approximating modeled spatial distributions of changes in temperature by assuming a time-invariant pattern that scales with changes in global mean temperature. We compare three methods of pattern scaling for precipitation (regression, epoch difference, and a physically-based method) and evaluate which methods are "better" in particular circumstances by quantifying their robustness to interpolation/extrapolation, inter-model variations, and inter-scenario variations. Although the regression and epoch difference methods (the two most commonly used methods of pattern scaling) have better absolute performance in reconstructing the climate model output by two orders of magnitude (measured as an area-weighted root mean square error), the physically-based method shows a greater degree of robustness (less relative root-mean-square variation than the other two methods) and could be a particularly advantageous method if outstanding biases could be reduced. We decompose the precipitation response in the RCP8.5 scenario into a CO2 portion and a non-CO2 portion; these two patterns oppose each other in sign. Due to low signal-to-noise ratios, extrapolating RCP8.5 patterns to re-construct precipitation change in the RCP2.6 scenario results in double the error of reconstructing the RCP8.5 scenario for the regression and epoch difference methods. The methodologies discussed in this paper can help provide precipitation fields for other models (including integrated assessment models or impacts assessment models) for a wide variety of scenarios of future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Circulation Models (GCMs) are the best tool to understand climate change, as they attempt to represent all the important Earth system processes, and including anthropogenic perturbation through fossil fuel burning. However, GCMs are computationally very expensive, which limits the number of simulations that can be made. Pattern-scaling is an emulation technique that takes advantage of the fact that local and seasonal changes in surface climate are often approximately linear in amount of warming over land and globe. This allows interpolation away from a limited number of available GCM simulations, to assess alternative future emissions scenarios. In this paper we present a pattern-scaling set consisting of spatial climate change patterns along with parameters for an energy balance model that calculates the amount of global warming. The set is derived from 22 GCMs of the WCRP CMIP3 database, setting the basis for similar eventual pattern development for CMIP5 ensemble. Critically it extends the use of the IMOGEN (Integrated Model Of Global Effects of climatic aNomalies) framework to enable scanning across full uncertainty in GCMs for impacts studies. Across models, the presented climate patterns represent consistent global mean trends, with maximum four GCMs exhibiting opposite sign of the trend per variable (relative humidity). The described new climate regimes are generally warmer, wetter (but with less snowfall), cloudier and windier, and with decreased relative humidity. Overall, the patterns of the analysed variables explain one-third of regional change in decadal averages (mean Percentage Variance Explained, PVE, 34.25 ± 5.21), but signal in some models exhibits much more linearity (e.g. MIROC3.2(hires):41.53) than in others (GISS_ER: 22.67). The two most often considered variables: near-surface temperature and precipitation, have PVE of 85.44 ± 4.37 and 14.98 ± 4.61, respectively. The dataset is available for download and researchers in the areas of ecosystem modelling and climate change impact assessment are already starting to use it. Besides allowing time-efficient assessment for non-standard future scenarios of changed greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, it enables understanding of new representations of land surface processes, and including climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Current and potential future applications of such modelling system are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the High Definition Clouds and Precipitation for advancing Climate Prediction Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE), a high spatial density network of 99 silicon photodiode pyranometers was set up around Jülich (10km×12km area) from April to July 2013, to capture the variability in the radiation field at the surface induced by small-scale cloud inhomogeneity. Each of these autonomously operated pyranometer stations was equipped with weather sensors for simultaneous measurements of ambient air temperature and relative humidity. In this paper, we provide the details of this unique setup of the pyranometer network and the data analysis with initial quality screening procedure we adopted. We also present some exemplary cases consisting of the days with clear, broken cloudy and overcast skies to assess our spatio-temporal observations from the network, and validate their consistency with other collocated radiation measurements available during the HOPE period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tarim River basin, located in Xinjiang, NW China, is the largest endorheic river basin in China and one of the largest in all of Central Asia. Due to the extremely arid climate, with an annual precipitation of less than 100 mm, the water supply along the Aksu and Tarim rivers solely depends on river water. This is linked to anthropogenic activities (e.g., agriculture) and natural and semi-natural ecosystems as both compete for water. The ongoing increase in water consumption by agriculture and other human activities in this region has been enhancing the competition for water between human needs and nature. Against this background, 11 German and 6 Chinese universities and research institutes have formed the consortium SuMaRiO (Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River; http://www.sumario.de), which aims to create a holistic picture of the availability of water resources in the Tarim River basin and the impacts on anthropogenic activities and natural ecosystems caused by the water distribution within the Tarim River basin. On the basis of the results from field studies and modeling approaches as well as from suggestions by the relevant regional stakeholders, a decision support tool (DST) will be implemented that will then assist stakeholders in balancing the competition for water, acknowledging the major external effects of water allocation to agriculture and to natural ecosystems. This consortium was formed in 2011 and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. As the data collection phase was finished this year, the paper presented here brings together the results from the fields from the disciplines of climate modeling, cryology, hydrology, agricultural sciences, ecology, geoinformatics, and social sciences in order to present a comprehensive picture of the effects of different water availability schemes on anthropogenic activities and natural ecosystems along the Tarim River. The second objective is to present the project structure of the whole consortium, the current status of work (i.e., major new results and findings), explain the foundation of the decision support tool as a key product of this project, and conclude with application recommendations for the region. The discharge of the Aksu River, which is the major tributary of the Tarim, has been increasing over the past 6 decades. From 1989 to 2011, agricultural area more than doubled: cotton became the major crop and there was a shift from small-scale to large-scale intensive farming. The ongoing increase in irrigated agricultural land leads to the increased threat of salinization and soil degradation caused by increased evapotranspiration. Aside from agricultural land, the major natural and semi-natural ecosystems are riparian (Tugai) forests, shrub vegetation, reed beds, and other grassland, as well as urban and peri-urban vegetation. Within the SuMaRiO cluster, focus has been set on the Tugai forests, with Populus euphratica as the dominant tree species, because these forests belong to the most productive and species-rich natural ecosystems of the Tarim River basin. At sites close to the groundwater, the annual stem diameter increments of Populus euphratica correlated with the river runoffs of the previous year. However, the natural river dynamics cease along the downstream course and thus hamper the recruitment of Populus euphratica. A study on the willingness to pay for the conservation of the natural ecosystems was conducted to estimate the concern of the people in the region and in China's capital. These household surveys revealed that there is a considerable willingness to pay for conservation of the natural ecosystems, with mitigation of dust and sandstorms considered the most important ecosystem service. Stakeholder dialogues contributed to creating a scientific basis for a sustainable management in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change has numerous implications for members of mountain communities who feel the impacts in both physical and social dimensions. In the Western Himalayas of India, a majority of residents maintain a livelihood strategy that includes a combination of subsistence or small-scale agriculture, seasonal pastoral migration, male out-migration, and localized natural resource extraction. Particularly under conditions of heavy male outmigration, but throughout the region, mountain women play a key role in providing labor and knowledge related to the management of local natural resources, yet often lack authority in related political and economic decision-making processes. This gap has important implications for addressing the impacts of climate change: while warming temperatures, irregular patterns of precipitation and snowmelt, and changing biological systems present challenges to the viability of these traditional livelihood portfolios throughout the region, mountain women increasingly face new challenges in their roles as household managers that have not adequately been emphasized in larger scale planning for climate change adaptation and mitigation. These challenges are complex in nature, and are shaped not only by gender issues but also interacting factors such as class, caste, ethnicity, and age (among others). In this paper, we review the main arguments behind the discursive gender/climate change nexus, discuss the implications for gendered vulnerabilities and transformation of adaptive capacities in the region, and suggest ways that researchers and policymakers seeking to promote "climate justice" can benefit from the incorporation of gender-based perspectives and frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]