Article (Scientific journals)
Current and future atmospheric circulation at 500 hPa over Greenland simulated by the CMIP3 and CMIP5 global models
Belleflamme, Alexandre; Fettweis, Xavier; Lang, Charlotte et al.
2013In Climate Dynamics, 41 (7-8)
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Keywords :
General circulation models; 500 hPa geopotential height; Greenland; Circulation type classification
Abstract :
[en] The Greenland ice sheet is projected to be strongly affected by global warming. These projections are either issued from downscaling methods (such as Regional Climate Models) or they come directly from General Circulation Models (GCMs). In this context, it is necessary to evaluate the accuracy of the daily atmospheric circulation simulated by the GCMs, since it is used as forcing for downscaling methods. Thus, we use an automatic circulation type classification based on two indices (Euclidean distance and Spearman rank correlation using the daily 500 hPa geopotential height) to evaluate the ability of the GCMs from both CMIP3 and CMIP5 databases to simulate the main circulation types over Greenland during summer. For each circulation type, the GCMs are compared to three reanalysis datasets on the basis of their frequency and persistence differences. For the current climate (1961–1990), we show that most of the GCMs do not reproduce the expected frequency and the persistence of the circulation types and that they simulate poorly the observed daily variability of the general circulation. Only a few GCMs can be used as reliable forcings for downscaling methods over Greenland. Finally, when applying the same approach to the future projections of the GCMs, no significant change in the atmospheric circulation over Greenland is detected, besides a generalised increase of the geopotential height due to a uniform warming of the atmosphere.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Belleflamme, Alexandre ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Topoclimatologie
Fettweis, Xavier  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Topoclimatologie
Lang, Charlotte ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Topoclimatologie
Erpicum, Michel ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Topoclimatologie
Language :
English
Title :
Current and future atmospheric circulation at 500 hPa over Greenland simulated by the CMIP3 and CMIP5 global models
Publication date :
2013
Journal title :
Climate Dynamics
ISSN :
0930-7575
eISSN :
1432-0894
Publisher :
Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, Germany
Volume :
41
Issue :
7-8
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Commentary :
The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1538-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Available on ORBi :
since 07 October 2012

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