scholarly journals Effect of nitrogen limitation and soil processes on mid–Holocene greening of the Sahara

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jooyeop Lee ◽  
Martin Claussen ◽  
Jeongwon Kim ◽  
Je-Woo Hong ◽  
In-Sun Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Soil Nitrogen ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
System Model ◽  
Climate Simulation ◽  
Biophysical Properties ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The so–called Green Sahara (GS), wet and vegetative Sahara region in the mid–Holocene, provides useful information on our climate simulation because it is consequence of complex interaction between biophysical and climatic processes. It is still a challenge to simulate the GS in terms of vegetative extent and precipitation using the current climate models. This study attempts to simulate the Green Sahara by using the state–of–the–art earth system model CESM that incorporates the nitrogen cycle and the soil–albedo–precipitation feedback. Our study focuses on the impact of soil biophysical properties and soil nitrogen on the simulation of the GS. With changes in the Earth’s orbit and dust in the mid–Holocene, the model simulates increased precipitation in North Africa, but does not capture the extent of the GS. Further analysis shows that the mid–Holocene greening is simulated better if the amount of soil nitrogen and soil texture are properly modified during the GS period through their influence on photosynthesis and surface albedo and their consequent enhanced albedo– and evapotranspiration–precipitation feedbacks. Our findings suggest that future climate simulation needs to consider consequent changes in soil nitrogen and texture with changes in vegetation cover and density for proper climate simulations.

scholarly journals Influence of parallel computational uncertainty on simulations of the Coupled General Climate Model

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Song ◽  
F. Qiao ◽  
X. Lei ◽  
C. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Quality Standard ◽  
Ensemble Member ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Climate System Model ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
Computational Uncertainty ◽  
The Impact ◽  
General Climate

Abstract. This paper investigates the impact of the parallel computational uncertainty due to the round-off error on climate simulations using the Community Climate System Model Version 3 (CCSM3). A series of sensitivity experiments have been conducted and the analyses are focused on the Global and Nino3.4 average sea surface temperatures (SST). For the monthly time series, it is shown that the amplitude of the deviation induced by the parallel computational uncertainty is the same order as that of the climate system change. However, the ensemble mean method can reduce the influence and the ensemble member number of 15 is enough to ignore the uncertainty. For climatology, the influence can be ignored when the climatological mean is calculated by using more than 30-yr simulations. It is also found that the parallel computational uncertainty has no distinguishable effect on power spectrum analysis of climate variability such as ENSO. Finally, it is suggested that the influence of the parallel computational uncertainty on Coupled General Climate Models (CGCMs) can be a quality standard or a metric for developing CGCMs.

scholarly journals One-Way Nested Regional Climate Simulations and Domain Size

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Vannitsem ◽  
F. Chomé
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Domain Size ◽  
Regional Model ◽  
Dynamical Behaviors ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
Intermediate Size ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of domain size on regional climate simulations is explored in the context of a state-of-the-art regional model centered over western Europe. It is found that the quality of the climate simulations is highly dependent on the domain size. Moreover, the choice of an optimal version is more complex than usually thought, the less appropriate domain having an intermediate size (about 3000 km × 3000 km), and the best versions nearly cover a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere. The use of periodically reinitialized trajectories does improve the climate of suboptimal models but leads to unrealistic dynamical behaviors. The implications for regional climate simulations are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the impacts of climate variability on rainfed maize production over the Wami-Ruvu basin of Tanzania

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philbert Luhunga
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Historical Climate ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
Maize Yields ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this study, the impact of inter-seasonal climate variability on rainfed maize (Zea mays) production over the Wami-Ruvu basin of Tanzania is evaluated. Daily high-resolution climate simulations from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment_Regional Climate Models (CORDEX_RCMs) are used to drive the Decision Support System for Agro-technological Transfer (DSSAT) to simulate maize yields. Climate simulations for the base period of 35 years (1971–2005) are used to drive DSSAT to simulate maize yields during the historical climate. On the other hand, climate projections for the period 2010–2039 (current), 2040–2069 (mid), and 2070–2099 centuries for two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP45 and 85) emission scenarios are used to drive DSSAT to simulate maize yields in respective centuries. Statistical approaches based on Pearson correlation coefficient and the coefficients of determination are used in the analysis. Results show that rainfall, maximum temperature, and solar radiation are the most important climate variables that determine variation in rainfed maize yields over the Wami-Ruvu basin of Tanzania. They explain the variability in maize yields in historical climate condition (1971–2005), present century under RCP 4.5, and mid and end centuries under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5.

scholarly journals Coupling of a sediment diagenesis model (MEDUSA) and an Earth system model (CESM1.2): a contribution toward enhanced marine biogeochemical modelling and long-term climate simulations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takasumi Kurahashi-Nakamura ◽  
André Paul ◽  
Guy Munhoven ◽  
Ute Merkel ◽  
Michael Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
System Model ◽  
Future Application ◽  
Coupling Scheme ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Climate Simulations

Abstract. We developed a coupling scheme for the Community Earth System Model version 1.2 (CESM1.2) and the Model of Early Diagenesis in the Upper Sediment of Adjustable complexity (MEDUSA), and explored the effects of the coupling on solid components in the upper sediment and on bottom seawater chemistry by comparing the coupled model's behaviour with that of the uncoupled CESM having a simplified treatment of sediment processes. CESM is a fully-coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-land model and its ocean component (the Parallel Ocean Program version 2, POP2) includes a biogeochemical component (BEC). MEDUSA was coupled to POP2 in an off-line manner so that each of the models ran separately and sequentially with regular exchanges of necessary boundary condition fields. This development was done with the ambitious aim of a future application for long-term (spanning a full glacial cycle; i.e., ~ 105 years) climate simulations with a state-of-the-art comprehensive climate model including the carbon cycle, and was motivated by the fact that until now such simulations have been done only with less-complex climate models. We found that the sediment-model coupling already had non-negligible immediate advantages for ocean biogeochemistry in millennial-time-scale simulations. First, the MEDUSA-coupled CESM outperformed the uncoupled CESM in reproducing an observation-based global distribution of sediment properties, especially for organic carbon and opal. Thus, the coupled model is expected to act as a better bridge between climate dynamics and sedimentary data, which will provide another measure of model performance. Second, in our experiments, the MEDUSA-coupled model and the uncoupled model had a difference of 0.2‰ or larger in terms of δ13C of bottom water over large areas, which implied potential significant model biases for bottom seawater chemical composition due to a different way of sediment treatment. Such a model bias would be a fundamental issue for paleo model–data comparison often relying on data derived from benthic foraminifera.

scholarly journals Contributions of Climate Feedbacks to Changes in Atmospheric Circulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (22) ◽  
pp. 9097-9118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Ceppi ◽  
Theodore G. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
Climate Feedbacks ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Radiative Feedbacks ◽  
Opposing Effects ◽  
The Impact

The projected response of the atmospheric circulation to the radiative changes induced by CO2 forcing and climate feedbacks is currently uncertain. In this modeling study, the impact of CO2-induced climate feedbacks on changes in jet latitude and speed is assessed by imposing surface albedo, cloud, and water vapor feedbacks as if they were forcings in two climate models, CAM4 and ECHAM6. The jet response to radiative feedbacks can be broadly interpreted through changes in midlatitude baroclinicity. Clouds enhance baroclinicity, favoring a strengthened, poleward-shifted jet; this is mitigated by surface albedo changes, which have the opposite effect on baroclinicity and the jet, while water vapor has opposing effects on upper- and lower-level baroclinicity with little net impact on the jet. Large differences between the CAM4 and ECHAM6 responses illustrate how model uncertainty in radiative feedbacks causes a large spread in the baroclinicity response to CO2 forcing. Across the CMIP5 models, differences in shortwave feedbacks by clouds and albedo are a dominant contribution to this spread. Forcing CAM4 with shortwave cloud and albedo feedbacks from a representative set of CMIP5 models yields a wide range of jet responses that strongly correlate with the meridional gradient of the anomalous shortwave heating and the associated baroclinicity response. Differences in shortwave feedbacks statistically explain about 50% of the intermodel spread in CMIP5 jet shifts for the set of models used, demonstrating the importance of constraining radiative feedbacks for accurate projections of circulation changes.

scholarly journals The impact of differences in large-scale circulation output from climate models on the regional modeling of ozone and PM

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 9441-9458 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. M. Manders ◽  
E. van Meijgaard ◽  
A. C. Mues ◽  
R. Kranenburg ◽  
L. H. van Ulft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Climate change may have an impact on air quality (ozone, particulate matter) due to the strong dependency of air quality on meteorology. The effect is often studied using a global climate model (GCM) to produce meteorological fields that are subsequently used by chemical transport models. However, climate models themselves are subject to large uncertainties and fail to reproduce the present-day climate adequately. The present study illustrates the impact of these uncertainties on air quality. To this end, output from the SRES-A1B constraint transient runs with two GCMs, i.e. ECHAM5 and MIROC-hires, has been dynamically downscaled with the regional climate model RACMO2 and used to force a constant emission run with the chemistry transport model LOTOS-EUROS in a one-way coupled run covering the period 1970–2060. Results from the two climate simulations have been compared with a RACMO2-LOTOS-EUROS (RLE) simulation forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis for the period 1989–2009. Both RLE_ECHAM and RLE_MIROC showed considerable deviations from RLE_ERA for daily maximum temperature, precipitation and wind speed. Moreover, sign and magnitude of these deviations depended on the region. The differences in average present-day concentrations between the simulations were equal to (RLE_MIROC) or even larger than (RLE_ECHAM) the differences in concentrations between present-day and future climate (2041–2060). The climate simulations agreed on a future increase in average summer ozone daily maximum concentrations of 5–10 μg m−3 in parts of Southern Europe and a smaller increase in Western and Central Europe. Annual average PM10 concentrations increased 0.5–1.0 μg m−3 in North-West Europe and the Po Valley, but these numbers are rather uncertain: overall, changes for PM10 were small, both positive and negative changes were found, and for many locations the two climate runs did not agree on the sign of the change. This illustrates that results from individual climate runs can at best indicate tendencies and should therefore be interpreted with great care.

scholarly journals Climate Simulations with an Isentropic Finite-Volume Dynamical Core

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 2843-2861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Chieh Chen ◽  
Philip J. Rasch
Keyword(s):  
Finite Volume ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Climate Simulation ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Dynamical Core ◽  
Vertical Coordinate ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Isentropic Model ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This paper discusses the impact of changing the vertical coordinate from a hybrid pressure to a hybrid-isentropic coordinate within the finite-volume (FV) dynamical core of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). Results from a 20-yr climate simulation using the new model coordinate configuration are compared to control simulations produced by the Eulerian spectral and FV dynamical cores of CAM, which both use a pressure-based (σ − P) coordinate. The same physical parameterization package is employed in all three dynamical cores. The isentropic modeling framework significantly alters the simulated climatology and has several desirable features. The revised model produces a better representation of heat transport processes in the atmosphere leading to much improved atmospheric temperatures. The authors show that the isentropic model is very effective in reducing the long-standing cold temperature bias in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, a deficiency shared among most climate models. The warmer upper troposphere and stratosphere seen in the isentropic model reduces the global coverage of high clouds, which is in better agreement with observations. The isentropic model also shows improvements in the simulated wintertime mean sea level pressure field in the Northern Hemisphere.

scholarly journals Modelling spatial and temporal vegetation variability with the Climate Constrained Vegetation Index: evidence of CO<sub>2</sub> fertilisation and of water stress in continental interiors

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 4781-4821 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. O. Los
Keyword(s):  
Great Plains ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
Simple Ratio ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 Concentrations ◽  
Response To Temperature ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Seasonal And Interannual Variations

Abstract. A model was developed to simulate spatial, seasonal and interannual variations in vegetation in response to temperature, precipitation and atmospheric CO2 concentrations; the model addresses shortcomings in current implementations. The model uses the minimum of 12 temperature and precipitation constraint functions to simulate NDVI. Functions vary based on the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification to take adaptations of vegetation to climate into account. The simulated NDVI, referred to as the climate constrained vegetation index (CCVI), captured the spatial variability (0.82 < r <0.87), seasonal variability (median r = 0.83) and interannual variability (median global r = 0.24) in NDVI. The CCVI simulated the effects of adverse climate on vegetation during the 1984 drought in the Sahel and during dust bowls of the 1930s and 1950s in the Great Plains in North America. A global CO2 fertilisation effect was found in NDVI data, similar in magnitude to that of earlier estimates (8 % for the 20th century). This effect increased linearly with simple ratio, a transformation of the NDVI. Three CCVI scenarios, based on climate simulations using the representative concentration pathway RCP4.5, showed a greater sensitivity of vegetation towards precipitation in Northern Hemisphere mid latitudes than is currently implemented in climate models. This higher sensitivity is of importance to assess the impact of climate variability on vegetation, in particular on agricultural productivity.

scholarly journals The impact of differences in large-scale circulation output from climate models on the regional modeling of ozone and PM

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 12245-12285 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. M. Manders ◽  
E. van Meijgaard ◽  
A. C. Mues ◽  
R. Kranenburg ◽  
L. H. van Ulft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Climate change may have an impact on air quality (ozone, particulate matter) due to the strong dependency of air quality on meteorology. The effect is often studied using a global climate model (GCM) to produce meteorological fields that are subsequently used by chemical transport models. However, climate models themselves are subject to large uncertainties and fail to adequately reproduce the present-day climate. The present study illustrates the impact of this uncertainty on air quality. To this end, output from the SRES-A1B constraint transient runs with two GCMs, i.e. ECHAM5 and MIROC-hires, has been dynamically downscaled with the regional climate model RACMO2 and used to force a constant emission run with the chemistry transport model LOTOS-EUROS in a one-way coupled run covering the period 1970–2060. Results from the two climate simulations have been compared with a RACMO2-LOTOS-EUROS (RLE) simulation forced by the ERA-Interim reanalysis for the period 1989–2009. Both RLE_ECHAM and RLE_MIROC showed considerable deviations from RLE_ERA in daily maximum temperature, precipitation and wind speed. Moreover, sign and magnitude of these deviations depended on the region. Differences in average concentrations for the present-day simulations were found of equal to (RLE_MIROC) or even larger than (RLE_ECHAM) the differences in concentration between present-day and future climate (2041–2060). The climate simulations agreed on a future increase in average summer ozone daily maximum concentrations (5–10 μg m−3) in parts of Southern Europe and a smaller increase in Western and Central Europe. Annual average PM10 concentrations increased (0.5–1.0 μg m−3) in North-West Europe and the Po Valley, but these numbers are rather uncertain. Overall, changes for PM10 were small, both positive and negative changes were found, and for many locations the two runs did not agree on the sign of the change. The approach taken here illustrates that results from individual climate runs can at best indicate tendencies and should therefore be interpreted with great care.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document