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The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on earth, covering approximately 4×105 km2 and sharing its coast with five countries (Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan). Because it has no outlet to the ocean the Caspian Sea level (CSL) has undergone rapid shifts in response to climatic forcings, and these have been devastating for the surrounding countries. In this paper we present the initial results of a modeling effort aimed at building a regional climate model for the Caspian Sea basin suitable to study the response of the CSL to interdecadal climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. Simulations are performed using the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) regional climate model RegCM at a 50 km grid spacing for the period 1948–1990. During this period an abrupt shift occurred in the sea level after 1977, when the CSL rose about two meters until the early 1990s. Using a simple equation of hydrologic balance for the Caspian Sea basin to predict the CSL, we show that the model is able to reproduce the observed CSL changes at interannual to multidecadal scales. The correlation coefficient between the simulated and observed annual CSL changes is 0.91 and the model is able to reproduce the abrupt shift in CSL which occurred after 1977. Analysis of the climatologies before and after 1977 indicate that the CSL rise was mostly due to an increase in precipitation over the northern basin and a decrease in evaporation over the sea, primarily during the warm season. We plan to apply our model to the investigation of the response of the CSL to anthropogenic climate forcings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influence of North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies on tropical Pacific SST anomalies is examined. Both summer and winter North Atlantic SST anomalies are negatively related to central-eastern tropical Pacific SST anomalies in the subsequent months varying from 5 to 13 months. In particular, when the North Atlantic is colder than normal in the summer, an El Niño event is likely to be initiated in the subsequent spring in the tropical Pacific. Associated with summer cold North Atlantic SST anomalies is an anomalous cyclonic circulation at low-level over the North Atlantic from subsequent October to April. Corresponded to this local response, an SST-induced heating over the North Atlantic produces a teleconnected pattern, similar to the East Atlantic/West Russia teleconnection. The pattern features two anticyclonic circulations near England and Lake Baikal, and two cyclonic circulations over the North Atlantic and near the Caspian Sea. The anticyclonic circulation near Lake Baikal enhances the continent northerlies, and strengthens the East-Asian winter monsoon. These are also associated with an off-equatorial cyclonic circulation in the western Pacific during the subsequent winter and spring, which produces equatorial westerly wind anomalies in the western Pacific. The equatorial westerly wind anomalies in the winter and spring can help initiate a Pacific El Niño event following a cold North Atlantic in the summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a validation analysis of a regional climate model coupled to a distributed one dimensional (1D) lake model for the Caspian Sea Basin. Two model grid spacings are tested, 50 and 20 km, the simulation period is 1989-2008 and the lateral boundary conditions are from the ERA-Interim reanalysis of observations. The model is validated against atmospheric as well as lake variables. The model performance in reproducing precipitation and temperature mean seasonal climatology, seasonal cycles and interannual variability is generally good, with the model results being mostly within the observational uncertainty range. The model appears to overestimate cloudiness and underestimate surface radiation, although a large observational uncertainty is found in these variables. The 1D distributed lake model (run at each grid point of the lake area) reproduces the observed lake-average sea surface temperature (SST), although differences compared to observations are found in the spatial structure of the SST, most likely as a result of the absence of 3 dimensional lake water circulations. The evolution of lake ice cover and near surface wind over the lake area is also reproduced by the model reasonably well. Improvements resulting from the increase of resolution from 50 to 20 km are most significant in the lake model. Overall the performance of the coupled regional climate-1D lake model system appears to be of sufficient quality for application to climate change scenario simulations over the Caspian Sea Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]