scholarly journals Multivariate bias adjustment of high-dimensional climate simulations: the Rank Resampling for Distributions and Dependences (R<sup>2</sup>D<sup>2</sup>) bias correction

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 3175-3196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Vrac

Abstract. Climate simulations often suffer from statistical biases with respect to observations or reanalyses. It is therefore common to correct (or adjust) those simulations before using them as inputs into impact models. However, most bias correction (BC) methods are univariate and so do not account for the statistical dependences linking the different locations and/or physical variables of interest. In addition, they are often deterministic, and stochasticity is frequently needed to investigate climate uncertainty and to add constrained randomness to climate simulations that do not possess a realistic variability. This study presents a multivariate method of rank resampling for distributions and dependences (R2D2) bias correction allowing one to adjust not only the univariate distributions but also their inter-variable and inter-site dependence structures. Moreover, the proposed R2D2 method provides some stochasticity since it can generate as many multivariate corrected outputs as the number of statistical dimensions (i.e., number of grid cell  ×  number of climate variables) of the simulations to be corrected. It is based on an assumption of stability in time of the dependence structure – making it possible to deal with a high number of statistical dimensions – that lets the climate model drive the temporal properties and their changes in time. R2D2 is applied on temperature and precipitation reanalysis time series with respect to high-resolution reference data over the southeast of France (1506 grid cell). Bivariate, 1506-dimensional and 3012-dimensional versions of R2D2 are tested over a historical period and compared to a univariate BC. How the different BC methods behave in a climate change context is also illustrated with an application to regional climate simulations over the 2071–2100 period. The results indicate that the 1d-BC basically reproduces the climate model multivariate properties, 2d-R2D2 is only satisfying in the inter-variable context, 1506d-R2D2 strongly improves inter-site properties and 3012d-R2D2 is able to account for both. Applications of the proposed R2D2 method to various climate datasets are relevant for many impact studies. The perspectives of improvements are numerous, such as introducing stochasticity in the dependence itself, questioning its stability assumption, and accounting for temporal properties adjustment while including more physics in the adjustment procedures.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Vrac

Abstract. Climate simulations often suffer from statistical biases with respect to observations or reanalyses. It is therefore common to correct (or adjust) those simulations before using them as inputs into impact models. However, most bias correction (BC) methods are univariate and so do not account for the statistical dependences linking the different locations and/or physical variables of interest. In addition, they are often deterministic, while stochasticity is frequently needed to investigate climate uncertainty and to add constrained randomness to climate simulations that do not possess a realistic variability. This study presents a multivariate method of rank resampling for distributions and dependences (R2D2) bias correction allowing to adjust not only the univariate distributions, but also their inter-variable and inter-site dependence structures. Moreover, the proposed R2D2 method provides some stochasticity since it can generate as many multivariate corrected outputs as the number of statistical dimensions (i.e., number of grid-cells × number of climate variables) of the simulations to be corrected. It is based on an assumption of stability in time of the dependence structure – allowing to deal with a high number of statistical dimensions –, that lets the climate model drive the temporal properties and their changes in time. R2D2 is applied on temperature and precipitation reanalyses time series with respect to high-resolution reference data over South-East of France (1506 grid-cells). Bivariate, 1506-dimensional and 3012-dimensional versions of R2D2 are tested over a historical period and compared to a univariate BC. How the different BC methods behave in a climate change context is also illustrated with an application to regional climate simulations over the 2071–2100 period. The results indicate that the 1d-BC basically reproduces the climate model multivariate properties, 2d-R2D2 is only satisfying in the inter-variable context, 1506d-R2D2 strongly improves inter-site properties and 3012d-R2D2 is able to account for both. Applications of the proposed R2D2 method to various climate datasets are relevant for many impact studies. The perspectives of improvements are numerous, such as introducing stochasticity in the dependence itself, questioning its stability assumption, and accounting for temporal properties adjustment while including more physics in the adjustment procedures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien François ◽  
Soulivanh Thao ◽  
Mathieu Vrac

AbstractClimate model outputs are commonly corrected using statistical univariate bias correction methods. Most of the time, those 1d-corrections do not modify the ranks of the time series to be corrected. This implies that biases in the spatial or inter-variable dependences of the simulated variables are not adjusted. Hence, over the last few years, some multivariate bias correction (MBC) methods have been developed to account for inter-variable structures, inter-site ones, or both. As proof-of-concept, we propose to adapt a computer vision technique used for Image-to-Image translation tasks (CycleGAN) for the adjustment of spatial dependence structures of climate model projections. The proposed algorithm, named MBC-CycleGAN, aims to transfer simulated maps (seen as images) with inappropriate spatial dependence structure from climate model outputs to more realistic images with spatial properties similar to the observed ones. For evaluation purposes, the method is applied to adjust maps of temperature and precipitation from climate simulations through two cross-validation approaches. The first one is designed to assess two different post-processing schemes (Perfect Prognosis and Model Output Statistics). The second one assesses the influence of nonstationary properties of climate simulations on the performance of MBC-CycleGAN to adjust spatial dependences. Results are compared against a popular univariate bias correction method, a “quantile-mapping” method, which ignores inter-site dependencies in the correction procedure, and two state-of-the-art multivariate bias correction algorithms aiming to adjust spatial correlation structure. In comparison with these alternatives, the MBC-CycleGAN algorithm reasonably corrects spatial correlations of climate simulations for both temperature and precipitation, encouraging further research on the improvement of this approach for multivariate bias correction of climate model projections.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien François ◽  
Soulivanh Thao ◽  
Mathieu Vrac

Abstract Climate model outputs are commonly corrected using statistical univariate bias correction methods. Most of the time, those 1d-corrections do not modify the ranks of the time series to be corrected. This implies that biases in the spatial or inter-variable dependences of the simulated variables are not adjusted. Hence, over the last few years, some multivariate bias correction (MBC) methods have been developed to account for inter-variable structures, inter-site ones, or both. As proof-of-concept, we propose to adapt a computer vision technique used for Image-to-Image translation tasks (CycleGAN) for the adjustment of spatial dependence structures of climate model projections. The proposed algorithm, named MBC-CycleGAN, aims to transfer simulated maps (seen as images) with inappropriate spatial dependence structure from climate model outputs to more realistic images with spatial properties similar to the observed ones. For evaluation purposes, the method is applied to adjust maps of temperature and precipitation from climate simulations through two cross-validation approaches. The first one is designed to assess two different post-processing schemes (Perfect Prognosis and Model Output Statistics). The second one assesses the influence of nonstationary properties of climate simulations on the performance of MBC-CycleGAN to adjust spatial dependences. Results are compared against a popular univariate bias correction method, a ``quantile-mapping'' method, which ignores inter-site dependencies in the correction procedure, and two state-of-the-art multivariate bias correction algorithms aiming to adjust spatial correlation structure. In comparison with these alternatives, the MBC-CycleGAN algorithm reasonably corrects spatial correlations of climate simulations for both temperature and precipitation, encouraging further research on the improvement of this approach for multivariate bias correction of climate model projections.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien François ◽  
Soulivanh Thao ◽  
Mathieu Vrac

&lt;p&gt;Climate model outputs are commonly corrected using statistical univariate bias correction methods. Most of the time, those 1d-corrections do not modify the ranks of the time series to be corrected. This implies that biases in the spatial or inter-variable dependences of the simulated variables are not adjusted. Hence, over the last few years, some multivariate bias correction (MBC) methods have been developed to account for inter-variable structures, inter-site ones, or both. As proof-of-concept, we propose to adapt&amp;#160; a computer vision technique used for Image-to-Image translation tasks (CycleGAN) for the adjustment of spatial dependence structures of climate model projections. The proposed algorithm, named MBC-CycleGAN, aims to transfer simulated maps (seen as images) with inappropriate spatial dependence structure from climate model outputs to more realistic images with spatial properties similar to the observed ones. For evaluation purposes, the method is applied to adjust maps of temperature and precipitation from climate simulations through two cross-validation approaches. The first one is designed to assess two different post-processing schemes (Perfect Prognosis and Model Output Statistics). The second one assesses the influence of non-stationary properties of climate simulations on the performance of MBC-CycleGAN to adjust spatial dependences. Results are compared against a popular univariate bias correction method, a &quot;quantile-mapping&quot; method, which ignores inter-site dependencies in the correction procedure, and two state-of-the-art multivariate bias correction algorithms aiming to adjust spatial correlation structure. In comparison with these alternatives, the MBC-CycleGAN algorithm reasonably corrects spatial correlations of climate simulations for both temperature and precipitation, encouraging further research on the improvement of this approach for multivariate bias correction of climate model projections.&lt;/p&gt;


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-336
Author(s):  
Mohammad Madani ◽  
Vinod Chilkoti ◽  
Tirupati Bolisetti ◽  
Rajesh Seth

In most of the climate change impact assessment studies, climate model bias is considered to be stationary between the control and scenario periods. Few methods are found in the literature that addresses the issue of nonstationarity in correcting the bias. To overcome the shortcomings reported in these approaches, three new methods of bias correction (NBC_μ, NBC_σ, and NBC_bs) are presented. The methods are improvised versions of previous techniques relying on distribution mapping. The methods are tested using split sample approach over 50-year historical period for nine climate stations in Ontario, using six regional climate models. The average bias reduction improvement by new methods, in mean daily and monthly precipitation, was found to be 73.9%, 74.3%, and 77.4%, respectively, higher than that obtained by the previous methods (eQM 67.7% and CNCDFm_NP 64.1%). Thus, the methods are found to be more effective in accounting for nonstationarity in the model bias.


Author(s):  
Emanuela Pichelli ◽  
Erika Coppola ◽  
Nikolina Ban ◽  
Filippo Giorgi ◽  
Paolo Stocchi ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;We present a multi-model ensemble of regional climate model scenario simulations run at scales allowing for explicit treatment of convective processes (2-3km) over historical and end of century time slices, providing an overview of future precipitation changes over the Alpine domain within the convection-permitting CORDEX-FPS initiative. The 12 simulations of the ensemble have been performed by different research groups around Europe. The simulations are compared with high resolution observations to assess the performance over the historical period and the ensemble of 12 to 25 km resolution driving models is used as a benchmark.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An improvement of the representation of fine scale details of the analyzed fields on a seasonal scale is found, as well as of the onset and peak of the summer diurnal convection. An enhancement of the projected patterns of change and modifications of its sign for the daily precipitation intensity and heavy precipitation over some regions are found with respect to coarse resolution ensemble. A change of the amplitude of the diurnal cycle for precipitation intensity and frequency is also shown, as well also a larger positive change for high to extreme events for daily and hourly precipitation distributions. The results&amp;#160; are challenging and promising for further assessment of the local impacts of climate change.&lt;/p&gt;


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Marke ◽  
W. Mauser ◽  
A. Pfeiffer ◽  
G. Zängl

Abstract. The present study investigates a statistical approach for the downscaling of climate simulations focusing on those meteorological parameters most commonly required as input for climate change impact models (temperature, precipitation, air humidity and wind speed), including the option to correct biases in the climate model simulations. The approach is evaluated by the utilization of a hydrometeorological model chain consisting of (i) the regional climate model MM5 (driven by reanalysis data at the boundaries of the model domain), (ii) the downscaling and model interface SCALMET, and (iii) the hydrological model PROMET. The results of four hydrological model runs are compared to discharge recordings at the gauge of the Upper Danube Watershed (Central Europe) for the historical period of 1972–2000 on a daily time basis. The comparison reveals that the presented approaches allow for a more accurate simulation of discharge for the catchment of the Upper Danube Watershed and the considered gauge at the outlet in Achleiten. The correction for subgrid-scale variability is shown to reduce biases in simulated discharge compared to the utilization of bilinear interpolation. Further enhancements in model performance could be achieved by a correction of biases in the RCM data within the downscaling process. Although the presented downscaling approach strongly improves the performance of the hydrological model, deviations from the observed discharge conditions persist that are not found when driving the hydrological model with spatially distributed meteorological observations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Maria Emanuele Pons ◽  
Davide Faranda

Abstract. The description and analysis of compound extremes affecting mid and high latitudes in the winter requires an accurate estimation of snowfall. Such variable is often missing for in-situ observations, and biased in climate model outputs, both in magnitude and number of events. While climate models can be adjusted using bias correction (BC), snowfall presents additional challenges compared to other variables, preventing from applying traditional univariate BC methods. We extend the existing literature on the estimation of the snowfall fraction from near-surface temperature, which usually involves binary thresholds or fitting parametric nonlinear functions. We show that, combining breakpoint search algorithms to define threshold temperatures and segmented regression models, it is possible to obtain accurate out-of-sample estimates of snowfall over Europe in ERA5 reanalysis, and to perform effective BC on the IPSL-WRF high resolution EURO-CORDEX climate model only relying on bias adjusted temperature and precipitation. This method offers a feasible way to reconstruct or adjust snowfall observations without requiring multivariate or conditional bias correction and stochastic generation of unobserved events.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1253-1273
Author(s):  
Yoann Robin ◽  
Mathieu Vrac

Abstract. Bias correction and statistical downscaling are now regularly applied to climate simulations to make then more usable for impact models and studies. Over the last few years, various methods were developed to account for multivariate – inter-site or inter-variable – properties in addition to more usual univariate ones. Among such methods, temporal properties are either neglected or specifically accounted for, i.e. differently from the other properties. In this study, we propose a new multivariate approach called “time-shifted multivariate bias correction” (TSMBC), which aims to correct the temporal dependency in addition to the other marginal and multivariate aspects. TSMBC relies on considering the initial variables at various times (i.e. lags) as additional variables to be corrected. Hence, temporal dependencies (e.g. auto-correlations) to be corrected are viewed as inter-variable dependencies to be adjusted and an existing multivariate bias correction (MBC) method can then be used to answer this need. This approach is first applied and evaluated on synthetic data from a vector auto-regressive (VAR) process. In a second evaluation, we work in a “perfect model” context where a regional climate model (RCM) plays the role of the (pseudo-)observations, and where its forcing global climate model (GCM) is the model to be downscaled or bias corrected. For both evaluations, the results show a large reduction of the biases in the temporal properties, while inter-variable and spatial dependence structures are still correctly adjusted. However, increasing the number of lags too much does not necessarily improve the temporal properties, and an overly strong increase in the number of dimensions of the dataset to be corrected can even imply some potential instability in the adjusted and/or downscaled results, calling for a reasoned use of this approach for large datasets.


Author(s):  
Yao Tong ◽  
Xuejie Gao ◽  
Zhenyu Han ◽  
Yaqi Xu ◽  
Ying Xu ◽  
...  

Abstract Two different bias correction methods, the quantile mapping (QM) and quantile delta mapping (QDM), are applied to simulated daily temperature and precipitation over China from a set of 21st century regional climate model (the ICTP RegCM4) projections. The RegCM4 is driven by five different general circulation models (GCMs) under the representative concentration pathway RCP4.5 at a grid spacing of 25 km using the CORDEX East Asia domain. The focus is on mean temperature and precipitation in December–January–February (DJF) and June–July–August (JJA). The impacts of the two methods on the present day biases and future change signals are investigated. Results show that both the QM and QDM methods are effective in removing the systematic model biases during the validation period. For the future changes, the QDM preserves the temperature change signals well, in both magnitude and spatial distribution, while the QM artificially modifies the change signal by decreasing the warming and modifying the patterns of change. For precipitation, both methods preserve the change signals well but they produce greater magnitude of the projected increase, especially the QDM. We also show that the effects of bias correction are variable- and season-dependent. Our results show that different bias correction methods can affect in different way the simulated change signals, and therefore care has to be taken in carrying out the bias correction process.


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