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Regional Climate Models: Linking Global Climate Change to Local Impacts

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

Definition of the Subject

A variety of observations demonstrates that during the last decades the climate has changed. As reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001, 2007), a mean increase of temperature by 0.09 K per decade wasobserved globally from 1951 to 1989. Up to now, 2007, this trend has continued. Europe experienced an extraordinary heat wave in summer 2003, withdaily mean temperatures being about 10° warmer locally than the long term mean. The increase of temperature varies depending on the region andseason.

The temperature change seems to be accompanied by changes in several meteorological and hydrological quantities, like number and duration of heatwaves, frost periods, storminess or monthly mean precipitation . In Germany, for example, winter precipitation has increased in parts by more than 30%within the last four decades. In addition, very intense...

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Abbreviations

Climate models:

They are mathematical representations of the Earth system, in which physical and biogeochemical processes are described numerically. Climate models can be of a global scale or focus on a sub-region (regional climate model).

Downscaling:

Dynamical and statistical techniques to interpret global climatic changes in specific regions.

IPCC emission scenario:

Description of possible developments of the socio-economic system expressed in terms of emissions into the atmosphere.

Projection:

Simulation of possible climatic changes in the future, dependent on emission scenarios, land-use changes and natural variability in the climate system.

Validation:

Comparison of observed data against model result for quality assessment of the model.

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Acknowledgments

I like to thankthe REMO-grooup at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology for theirenthusiastic support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany

    Daniela Jacob

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  1. Daniela Jacob
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, 122 Escalle Lane, Larkspur, CA, 94939, USA

    Robert A. Meyers Ph. D. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag

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Jacob, D. (2009). Regional Climate Models: Linking Global Climate Change to Local Impacts. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_449

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