scholarly journals Machine dependence and reproducibility for coupled climate simulations: the HadGEM3-GC3.1 CMIP Preindustrial simulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Vittoria Guarino ◽  
Louise C. Sime ◽  
David Schroeder ◽  
Grenville M. S. Lister ◽  
Rosalyn Hatcher

Abstract. When the same weather or climate simulation is run on different high-performance computing (HPC) platforms, model outputs may not be identical for a given initial condition. While the role of HPC platforms in delivering better climate projections is to some extent discussed in the literature, attention is mainly focused on scalability and performance rather than on the impact of machine-dependent processes on the numerical solution. Here we investigate the behaviour of the Preindustrial (PI) simulation prepared by the UK Met Office for the forthcoming CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) under different computing environments. Discrepancies between the means of key climate variables were analysed at different timescales, from decadal to centennial. We found that for the two simulations to be statistically indistinguishable, a 200-year averaging period must be used for the analysis of the results. Thus, constant-forcing climate simulations using the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model are reproducible on different HPC platforms provided that a sufficiently long duration of simulation is used. In regions where El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection patterns were detected, we found large sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration differences on centennial timescales. This indicates that a 100-year constant-forcing climate simulation may not be long enough to adequately capture the internal variability of the HadGEM3-GC3.1 model, despite this being the minimum simulation length recommended by CMIP6 protocols for many MIP (Model Intercomparison Project) experiments. On the basis of our findings, we recommend a minimum simulation length of 200 years whenever possible.

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (20) ◽  
pp. 7083-7099 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Hardiman ◽  
N. Butchart ◽  
T. J. Hinton ◽  
S. M. Osprey ◽  
L. J. Gray

Abstract The importance of using a general circulation model that includes a well-resolved stratosphere for climate simulations, and particularly the influence this has on surface climate, is investigated. High top model simulations are run with the Met Office Unified Model for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). These simulations are compared to equivalent simulations run using a low top model differing only in vertical extent and vertical resolution above 15 km. The period 1960–2002 is analyzed and compared to observations and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis dataset. Long-term climatology, variability, and trends in surface temperature and sea ice, along with the variability of the annular mode index, are found to be insensitive to the addition of a well-resolved stratosphere. The inclusion of a well-resolved stratosphere, however, does improve the impact of atmospheric teleconnections on surface climate, in particular the response to El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the quasi-biennial oscillation, and midwinter stratospheric sudden warmings (i.e., zonal mean wind reversals in the middle stratosphere). Thus, including a well-represented stratosphere could improve climate simulation on intraseasonal to interannual time scales.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vimal Mishra ◽  
Udit Bhatia ◽  
Amar Deep Tiwari

Abstract Climate change is likely to pose enormous challenges for agriculture, water resources, infrastructure, and livelihood of millions of people living in South Asia. Here, we develop daily bias-corrected data of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperatures at 0.25° spatial resolution for South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka) and 18 river basins located in the Indian sub-continent. The bias-corrected dataset is developed using Empirical Quantile Mapping (EQM) for the historic (1951–2014) and projected (2015–2100) climate for the four scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, SSP585) using output from 13 General Circulation Models (GCMs) from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-6 (CMIP6). The bias-corrected dataset was evaluated against the observations for both mean and extremes of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperatures. Bias corrected projections from 13 CMIP6-GCMs project a warmer (3–5°C) and wetter (13–30%) climate in South Asia in the 21st century. The bias-corrected projections from CMIP6-GCMs can be used for climate change impact assessment in South Asia and hydrologic impact assessment in the sub-continental river basins.


2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (9) ◽  
pp. 3653-3680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Fiedler ◽  
Traute Crueger ◽  
Roberta D’Agostino ◽  
Karsten Peters ◽  
Tobias Becker ◽  
...  

Abstract The representation of tropical precipitation is evaluated across three generations of models participating in phases 3, 5, and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Compared to state-of-the-art observations, improvements in tropical precipitation in the CMIP6 models are identified for some metrics, but we find no general improvement in tropical precipitation on different temporal and spatial scales. Our results indicate overall little changes across the CMIP phases for the summer monsoons, the double-ITCZ bias, and the diurnal cycle of tropical precipitation. We find a reduced amount of drizzle events in CMIP6, but tropical precipitation occurs still too frequently. Continuous improvements across the CMIP phases are identified for the number of consecutive dry days, for the representation of modes of variability, namely, the Madden–Julian oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and for the trends in dry months in the twentieth century. The observed positive trend in extreme wet months is, however, not captured by any of the CMIP phases, which simulate negative trends for extremely wet months in the twentieth century. The regional biases are larger than a climate change signal one hopes to use the models to identify. Given the pace of climate change as compared to the pace of model improvements to simulate tropical precipitation, we question the past strategy of the development of the present class of global climate models as the mainstay of the scientific response to climate change. We suggest the exploration of alternative approaches such as high-resolution storm-resolving models that can offer better prospects to inform us about how tropical precipitation might change with anthropogenic warming.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Alvarez-Castro ◽  
Davide Faranda ◽  
Thomas Noël ◽  
Pascal Yiou

We analyse and quantify the recurrences of European temperature extremes using 32 historical simulations (1900–1999) of the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and 8 historical simulations (1971–2005) from the EUROCORDEX experiment. We compare the former simulations to the 20th Century Reanalysis (20CRv2c) dataset to compute recurrence spectra of temperature in Europe. We find that, (1) the spectra obtained by the model ensemble mean are generally consistent with those of 20CR; (2) spectra biases have a strong regional dependence; (3) the resolution does not change the order of magnitude of spectral biases between models and reanalysis, (4) the spread in recurrence biases is larger for cold extremes. Our analysis of biases provides a new way of selecting a subset of the CMIP5 ensemble to obtain an optimal estimate of temperature recurrences for a range of time-scales.


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1688-1704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenju Cai ◽  
Arnold Sullivan ◽  
Tim Cowan

Abstract Simulations of individual global climate drivers using models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3(CMIP3) have been examined; however, the relationship among them has not been assessed. This is carried out to address several important issues, including the likelihood of the southern annular mode (SAM) forcing Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) events and the possible impact of the IOD on El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Several conclusions emerge from statistics based on multimodel outputs. First, ENSO signals project strongly onto the SAM, although ENSO-forced signals tend to peak before ENSO. This feature is similar to the situation associated with the IOD. The IOD-induced signal over southern Australia, through stationary equivalent Rossby barotropic wave trains, peak before the IOD itself. Second, there is no control by the SAM on the IOD, in contrast to what has been suggested previously. Indeed, no model produces a SAM–IOD relationship that supports a positive (negative) SAM driving a positive (negative) IOD event. This is the case even in models that do not simulate a statistically significant relationship between ENSO and the IOD. Third, the IOD does have an impact on ENSO. The relationship between ENSO and the IOD in the majority of models is far weaker than the observed. However, the ENSO’s influence on the IOD is boosted by a spurious oceanic teleconnection, whereby ENSO discharge–recharge signals transmit to the Sumatra–Java coast, generating thermocline anomalies and changing IOD properties. Without the spurious oceanic teleconnection, the influence of the IOD on ENSO is comparable to the impact of ENSO on the IOD. Other model deficiencies are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 3413-3425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin P. Gerber ◽  
Elisa Manzini

Abstract. Diagnostics of atmospheric momentum and energy transport are needed to investigate the origin of circulation biases in climate models and to understand the atmospheric response to natural and anthropogenic forcing. Model biases in atmospheric dynamics are one of the factors that increase uncertainty in projections of regional climate, precipitation and extreme events. Here we define requirements for diagnosing the atmospheric circulation and variability across temporal scales and for evaluating the transport of mass, momentum and energy by dynamical processes in the context of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). These diagnostics target the assessments of both resolved and parameterized dynamical processes in climate models, a novelty for CMIP, and are particularly vital for assessing the impact of the stratosphere on surface climate change.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Zanchettin ◽  
Claudia Timmreck ◽  
Myriam Khodri ◽  
Anja Schmidt ◽  
Matthew Toohey ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper provides initial results from a multi-model ensemble analysis based on the volc-pinatubo-full experiment performed within the Model Intercomparison Project on the climatic response to volcanic forcing (VolMIP) as part of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). The volc-pinatubo-full experiment is based on ensemble of volcanic forcing-only climate simulations with the same volcanic aerosol dataset across the participating models (the 1991–1993 Pinatubo period from the CMIP6-GloSSAC dataset). The simulations are conducted within an idealized experimental design where initial states are sampled consistently across models from the CMIP6-piControl simulation providing unperturbed pre-industrial background conditions. The multi-model ensemble includes output from an initial set of six participating Earth system models (CanESM5, GISS-E2.1-G, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MIROC-E2SL, MPI-ESM1.2-LR and UKESM1). The results show overall good agreement between the different models on the global and hemispheric scale concerning the surface climate responses, thus demonstrating the overall effectiveness of VolMIP’s experimental design. However, small yet significant inter-model discrepancies are found in radiative fluxes especially in the tropics, that preliminary analyses link with minor differences in forcing implementation, model physics, notably aerosol-radiation interactions, the simulation and sampling of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and, possibly, the simulation of climate feedbacks operating in the tropics. We discuss the volc-pinatubo-full protocol and highlight the advantages of volcanic forcing experiments defined within a carefully designed protocol with respect to emerging modeling approaches based on large ensemble transient simulations. We identify how the VolMIP strategy could be improved in future phases of the initiative to ensure a cleaner sampling protocol with greater focus on the evolving state of ENSO in the pre-eruption period.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chihiro Kodama ◽  
Yohei Yamada ◽  
Tomoki Ohno ◽  
Tatsuya Seiki ◽  
Hisashi Yashiro ◽  
...  

<p>The Non-hydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), a global model with an icosahedral grid system, has been under development for nearly two decades. Here, we present its recent updates for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP) and their impact on the simulated mean states using 56-14km mesh model. Major updates include updates of the cloud microphysics scheme and land surface model, introduction of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and a subgrid-scale orographic gravity wave drag scheme, and improvement of the coupling between the cloud microphysics and the radiation schemes. A short-term sensitivity experiments demonstrate improvements in the ice water content, high cloud amount, surface air temperature over the Arctic region, location and strength of zonal mean subtropical jet, and shortwave radiation over Africa and South Asia. The decadal climate simulations further reveal an improvement in the genesis and structure of the tropical cyclones compared with those with the previous model. Finally, we will address outlook toward the cloud-resolving climate simulation based on a fresh benchmark result on supercomputer Fugaku, a flagship supercomputer in Japan.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4999-5028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm J. Roberts ◽  
Alex Baker ◽  
Ed W. Blockley ◽  
Daley Calvert ◽  
Andrew Coward ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) HighResMIP is a new experimental design for global climate model simulations that aims to assess the impact of model horizontal resolution on climate simulation fidelity. We describe a hierarchy of global coupled model resolutions based on the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model 3 – Global Coupled vn 3.1 (HadGEM3-GC3.1) model that ranges from an atmosphere–ocean resolution of 130 km–1∘ to 25 km–1∕12∘, all using the same forcings and initial conditions. In order to make such high-resolution simulations possible, the experiments have a short 30-year spinup, followed by at least century-long simulations with constant forcing to assess drift. We assess the change in model biases as a function of both atmosphere and ocean resolution, together with the effectiveness and robustness of this new experimental design. We find reductions in the biases in top-of-atmosphere radiation components and cloud forcing. There are significant reductions in some common surface climate model biases as resolution is increased, particularly in the Atlantic for sea surface temperature and precipitation, primarily driven by increased ocean resolution. There is also a reduction in drift from the initial conditions both at the surface and in the deeper ocean at higher resolution. Using an eddy-present and eddy-rich ocean resolution enhances the strength of the North Atlantic ocean circulation (boundary currents, overturning circulation and heat transport), while an eddy-present ocean resolution has a considerably reduced Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength. All models have a reasonable representation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation. In general, the biases present after 30 years of simulations do not change character markedly over longer timescales, justifying the experimental design.


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