Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability

In earlier work, it was proposed that the reliability of climate change projections, particularly of regional rainfall, could be improved if such projections were calibrated using quantitative measures of reliability obtained by running the same model in seasonal forecast mode. This proposal is test...

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Main Authors: Matsueda, M, Weisheimer, A, Palmer, T
Format: Journal article
Published: American Meteorological Society 2016
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author Matsueda, M
Weisheimer, A
Palmer, T
author_facet Matsueda, M
Weisheimer, A
Palmer, T
author_sort Matsueda, M
collection OXFORD
description In earlier work, it was proposed that the reliability of climate change projections, particularly of regional rainfall, could be improved if such projections were calibrated using quantitative measures of reliability obtained by running the same model in seasonal forecast mode. This proposal is tested for fast atmospheric processes (such as clouds and convection) by considering output from versions of the same atmospheric general circulation model run at two different resolutions and forced with prescribed sea surface temperatures and sea ice. Here output from the high-resolution version of the model is treated as a proxy for truth. The reason for using this approach is simply that the twenty-first-century climate change signal is not yet known and, hence, no climate change projections can be verified using observations. Quantitative assessments of reliability of the low-resolution model, run in seasonal hindcast mode, are used to calibrate climate change time-slice projections made with the same low-resolution model. Results show that the calibrated climate change probabilities are closer to the proxy truth than the uncalibrated probabilities. Given that seasonal forecasts are performed operationally already at several centers around the world, in a seamless forecast system they provide a resource that can be used without cost to help calibrate climate change projections and make them more reliable for users.
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spelling oxford-uuid:7ad101f9-5b8c-4cb9-b2be-02a6eaba11102022-03-26T20:46:31ZCalibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliabilityJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7ad101f9-5b8c-4cb9-b2be-02a6eaba1110Symplectic Elements at OxfordAmerican Meteorological Society2016Matsueda, MWeisheimer, APalmer, TIn earlier work, it was proposed that the reliability of climate change projections, particularly of regional rainfall, could be improved if such projections were calibrated using quantitative measures of reliability obtained by running the same model in seasonal forecast mode. This proposal is tested for fast atmospheric processes (such as clouds and convection) by considering output from versions of the same atmospheric general circulation model run at two different resolutions and forced with prescribed sea surface temperatures and sea ice. Here output from the high-resolution version of the model is treated as a proxy for truth. The reason for using this approach is simply that the twenty-first-century climate change signal is not yet known and, hence, no climate change projections can be verified using observations. Quantitative assessments of reliability of the low-resolution model, run in seasonal hindcast mode, are used to calibrate climate change time-slice projections made with the same low-resolution model. Results show that the calibrated climate change probabilities are closer to the proxy truth than the uncalibrated probabilities. Given that seasonal forecasts are performed operationally already at several centers around the world, in a seamless forecast system they provide a resource that can be used without cost to help calibrate climate change projections and make them more reliable for users.
spellingShingle Matsueda, M
Weisheimer, A
Palmer, T
Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title_full Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title_fullStr Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title_full_unstemmed Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title_short Calibrating climate change time-slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
title_sort calibrating climate change time slice projections with estimates of seasonal forecast reliability
work_keys_str_mv AT matsuedam calibratingclimatechangetimesliceprojectionswithestimatesofseasonalforecastreliability
AT weisheimera calibratingclimatechangetimesliceprojectionswithestimatesofseasonalforecastreliability
AT palmert calibratingclimatechangetimesliceprojectionswithestimatesofseasonalforecastreliability