A Southeastern South American Daily Gridded Dataset of Observed Surface Minimum and Maximum Temperature for 1961–2000

2011 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. 1339-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Tencer ◽  
Matilde Rusticucci ◽  
Phil Jones ◽  
David Lister

This study presents a southeastern South American gridded dataset of daily minimum and maximum surface temperatures for 1961–2000. The data used for the gridding are observed daily data from meteorological stations in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay from the database of the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme A Europe–South America Network for Climate Change Assessment and Impact Studies in La Plata Basin (EU FP6 CLARIS LPB), with some additional data series. This gridded dataset is new for the region, not only for its spatial and temporal extension, but also for its temporal resolution. The region for which the gridded dataset has been developed is 20°–40°S, 45°–70°W, with a resolution of 0.5° latitude × 0.5° longitude. Since the methodology used produces an estimation of gridbox averages, the developed dataset is very useful for the validation of regional climate models. The comparison of gridded and observed data provides an evaluation of the usefulness of the interpolated data. According to monthly-mean values and daily variability, the methodology of interpolation developed during the EU FP6 ENSEMBLE-based predictions of climate changes and their impacts (ENSEMBLES) project for its application in Europe is also suitable for southeastern South America. Root-mean-square errors for the whole region are 1.77°C for minimum temperature and 1.13°C for maximum temperature. These errors are comparable to values obtained for Europe with the same methodology.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina A. Solman

This review summarizes the progress achieved on regional climate modeling activities over South America since the early efforts at the beginning of the 2000s until now. During the last 10 years, simulations with regional climate models (RCMs) have been performed for several purposes over the region. Early efforts were mainly focused on sensitivity studies to both physical mechanisms and technical aspects of RCMs. The last developments were focused mainly on providing high-resolution information on regional climate change. This paper describes the most outstanding contributions from the isolated efforts to the ongoing coordinated RCM activities in the framework of the CORDEX initiative, which represents a major endeavor to produce ensemble climate change projections at regional scales and allows exploring the associated range of uncertainties. The remaining challenges in modeling South American climate features are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Sierra ◽  
Jhan Carlo Espinoza ◽  
Clementine Junquas ◽  
Jan Polcher ◽  
Miguel Saavedra ◽  
...  

<p>The Amazon rainforest is a key component of the climate system and one of the main planetary evapotranspiration sources. Over the entire Amazon basin, strong land-atmosphere feedbacks cause almost one third of the regional rainfall to be transpired by the local rainforest. Maximum precipitation recycling ratio takes place on the southwestern edge of the Amazon basin (a.k.a. Amazon-Andes transition region), an area recognized as the rainiest and biologically richest of the whole watershed. Here, high precipitation rates lead to large values of runoff per unit area providing most of the sediment load to Amazon rivers. As a consequence, the transition region can potentially be very sensitive to Amazonian forest loss. In fact, recent acceleration in deforestation rates has been reported over tropical South America. These sustained land-cover changes can alter the regional water and energy balances, as well as the regional circulation and rainfall patterns. In this sense, the use of regional climate models can help to understand the possible impacts of deforestation on the Amazon-Andes zone.</p><p>This work aims to assess the projected Amazonian deforestation effects on the moisture transport and rainfall behavior over tropical South America and the Amazon-Andes transition region. We perform 10-year austral summer simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) using 3 one-way nested domains. Our finest domain is located over the south-western part of the basin, comprising two instrumented Andean Valleys (Zongo and Coroico river Valleys). Convective permitting high horizontal resolution (1km) is used over this domain. The outcomes presented here enhance the understanding of biosphere-atmosphere coupling and its deforestation induced disturbances.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 932-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. L. O'Neil ◽  
T. D. Prowse ◽  
B. R. Bonsal ◽  
Y. B. Dibike

Much of the freshwater in western Canada originates in the Rocky Mountains as snowpack. Temperature and precipitation patterns throughout the region control the amount of snow accumulated and stored throughout the winter, and the intensity and timing of melt during the spring freshet. Therefore, changes in temperature, precipitation, snow depth, and snowmelt over western Canada are examined through comparison of output from the current and future periods of a series of regional climate models for the time periods 1971–2000 and 2041–2070. Temporal and spatial analyses of these hydroclimatic variables indicate that minimum temperature is likely to increase more than maximum temperature, particularly during the cold season, possibly contributing to earlier spring melt. Precipitation is projected to increase, particularly in the north. In the coldest months of the year snow depth is expected to increase in northern areas and decrease across the rest of study area. Snowmelt results indicate increases in mid-winter melt events and an earlier onset of the spring freshet. This study provides a summary of potential future climate using key hydroclimatic variables across western Canada with regard to the effects these changes may have on streamflow and the spring freshet, and thus water resources, throughout the study area.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3275-3291 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ruiz-Ramos ◽  
E. Sánchez ◽  
C. Gallardo ◽  
M. I. Mínguez

Abstract. Crops growing in the Iberian Peninsula may be subjected to damagingly high temperatures during the sensitive development periods of flowering and grain filling. Such episodes are considered important hazards and farmers may take insurance to offset their impact. Increases in value and frequency of maximum temperature have been observed in the Iberian Peninsula during the 20th century, and studies on climate change indicate the possibility of further increase by the end of the 21st century. Here, impacts of current and future high temperatures on cereal cropping systems of the Iberian Peninsula are evaluated, focusing on vulnerable development periods of winter and summer crops. Climate change scenarios obtained from an ensemble of ten Regional Climate Models (multimodel ensemble) combined with crop simulation models were used for this purpose and related uncertainty was estimated. Results reveal that higher extremes of maximum temperature represent a threat to summer-grown but not to winter-grown crops in the Iberian Peninsula. The study highlights the different vulnerability of crops in the two growing seasons and the need to account for changes in extreme temperatures in developing adaptations in cereal cropping systems. Finally, this work contributes to clarifying the causes of high-uncertainty impact projections from previous studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1267-1293
Author(s):  
Sara Top ◽  
Lola Kotova ◽  
Lesley De Cruz ◽  
Svetlana Aniskevich ◽  
Leonid Bobylev ◽  
...  

Abstract. To allow for climate impact studies on human and natural systems, high-resolution climate information is needed. Over some parts of the world plenty of regional climate simulations have been carried out, while in other regions hardly any high-resolution climate information is available. The CORDEX Central Asia domain is one of these regions, and this article describes the evaluation for two regional climate models (RCMs), REMO and ALARO-0, that were run for the first time at a horizontal resolution of 0.22∘ (25 km) over this region. The output of the ERA-Interim-driven RCMs is compared with different observational datasets over the 1980–2017 period. REMO scores better for temperature, whereas the ALARO-0 model prevails for precipitation. Studying specific subregions provides deeper insight into the strengths and weaknesses of both RCMs over the CAS-CORDEX domain. For example, ALARO-0 has difficulties in simulating the temperature over the northern part of the domain, particularly when snow cover is present, while REMO poorly simulates the annual cycle of precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau. The evaluation of minimum and maximum temperature demonstrates that both models underestimate the daily temperature range. This study aims to evaluate whether REMO and ALARO-0 provide reliable climate information over the CAS-CORDEX domain for impact modeling and environmental assessment applications. Depending on the evaluated season and variable, it is demonstrated that the produced climate data can be used in several subregions, e.g., temperature and precipitation over western Central Asia in autumn. At the same time, a bias adjustment is required for regions where significant biases have been identified.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2705-2714 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Tolika ◽  
I. Pytharoulis ◽  
P. Maheras

Abstract. This paper presents an analysis of the exceptionally high maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperatures which occurred during November 2010 and affected the entire Greek region. This severe "warm cold-season spell" was unusual because of its prolonged duration and intensity for the entire month and particularly the maximum temperature anomalies, which in comparison with the 1958–2000 climatological average, exceeded 5 °C at several stations. Comparing the observed record with future projections from three regional climate models revealed that Tmax and Tmin, on several days in November 2010, exceeded the 90th percentile of the simulated data. An examination of the atmospheric – synoptic conditions during this period showed that the anomalous high temperatures could probably be related to the negative phase of the Eastern Mediterranean Pattern (EMP), with an intense pole of negative anomalies located over the British Isles, and to the east, a second pole of positive anomalies, centred over the Caspian Sea. Finally, an attempt is made to further investigate the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon, for example, the thermal forcing in the tropics (Niño 3 or Niño 3.4).


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (14) ◽  
pp. 5151-5165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Else J. M. van den Besselaar ◽  
Gerard van der Schrier ◽  
Richard C. Cornes ◽  
Aris Suwondo Iqbal ◽  
Albert M. G. Klein Tank

This study introduces a new daily high-resolution land-only observational gridded dataset, called SA-OBS, for precipitation and minimum, mean, and maximum temperature covering Southeast Asia. This dataset improves upon existing observational products in terms of the number of contributing stations, in the use of an interpolation technique appropriate for daily climate observations, and in making estimates of the uncertainty of the gridded data. The dataset is delivered on a 0.25° × 0.25° and a 0.5° × 0.5° regular latitude–longitude grid for the period 1981–2014. The dataset aims to provide best estimates of grid square averages rather than point values to enable direct comparisons with regional climate models. Next to the best estimates, daily uncertainties are quantified. The underlying daily station time series are collected in cooperation between meteorological services in the region: the Southeast Asian Climate Assessment and Dataset (SACA&D). Comparisons are made with station observations and other gridded station or satellite-based datasets (APHRODITE, CMORPH, TRMM). The comparisons show that vast differences exist in the average daily precipitation, the number of rainy days, and the average precipitation on a wet day between these datasets. SA-OBS closely resembles the station observations in terms of dry/wet frequency, the timing of precipitation events, and the reproduction of extreme precipitation. New versions of SA-OBS will be released when the station network in SACA&D has grown further.


2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1073-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose A. Marengo ◽  
Tercio Ambrizzi ◽  
Rosmeri P. da Rocha ◽  
Lincoln M. Alves ◽  
Santiago V. Cuadra ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Top ◽  
Lola Kotova ◽  
Lesley De Cruz ◽  
Svetlana Aniskevich ◽  
Leonid Bobylev ◽  
...  

Abstract. To allow for climate impact studies on human and natural systems high-resolution climate information is needed. Over some parts of the world plenty of regional climate simulations have been carried out, while in other regions hardly any high-resolution climate information is available. This publication aims at addressing one of these regional gaps by presenting an evaluation study for two regional climate models (RCMs) (REMO and ALARO-0) at a horizontal resolution of 0.22° (25 km) over Central Asia. The output of the ERA-Interim driven RCMs is compared with different observational datasets over the 1980–2017 period. The choice of the observational dataset has an impact on the scores but in general one can conclude that both models reproduce reasonably well the spatial patterns for temperature and precipitation. The evaluation of minimum and maximum temperature demonstrates that both models underestimate the daily temperature range. More detailed studies of the annual cycle over subregions should be carried out to reveal whether this is due to an incorrect simulation in cloud cover, atmospheric circulation or heat and moisture fluxes. In general, the REMO model scores better for temperature whereas the ALARO-0 model prevails for precipitation. This publication demonstrates that the REMO and ALARO-0 RCMs can be used to perform climate projections over Central Asia and that the produced climate data can be applied in impact modelling.


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