Constrained CMIP6 projections indicate less warming and a slower increase in water availability across Asia

<p>Climate projections are essential for decision-making but contain non-negligible uncertainty. To reduce projection uncertainty over Asia, where half the world&rsquo;s population resides, we develop emergent constraint relationships between simulated temperature (1970&ndash;2014) and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chai, Y, Yue, Y, Slater, LJ, Yin, J, Borthwick, A, Chen, T, Wang, G
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2022
Description
Summary:<p>Climate projections are essential for decision-making but contain non-negligible uncertainty. To reduce projection uncertainty over Asia, where half the world&rsquo;s population resides, we develop emergent constraint relationships between simulated temperature (1970&ndash;2014) and precipitation (2015&ndash;2100) growth rates using 27 CMIP6 models under four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Here we show that, with uncertainty successfully narrowed by 12.1&ndash;31.0%, constrained future precipitation growth rates are 0.39&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;0.18&thinsp;mm year<sup>&minus;1</sup>&nbsp;(29.36&thinsp;mm &deg;C<sup>&minus;1</sup>, SSP126), 0.70&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;0.22&thinsp;mm year<sup>&minus;1</sup>&nbsp;(20.03&thinsp;mm &deg;C<sup>&minus;1</sup>, SSP245), 1.10&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;0.33&thinsp;mm year<sup>&minus;1</sup>&nbsp;(17.96&thinsp;mm &deg;C<sup>&minus;1</sup>, SSP370) and 1.42&thinsp;&plusmn;&thinsp;0.35&thinsp;mm year<sup>&minus;1</sup>&nbsp;(17.28&thinsp;mm &deg;C<sup>&minus;1</sup>, SSP585), indicating overestimates of 6.0&ndash;14.0% by the raw CMIP6 models. Accordingly, future temperature and total evaporation growth rates are also overestimated by 3.4&ndash;11.6% and &minus;2.1&ndash;13.0%, respectively. The slower warming implies a lower snow cover loss rate by 10.5&ndash;40.2%. Overall, we find the projected increase in future water availability is overestimated by CMIP6 over Asia.</p>