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The diurnal temperature range in the CMIP5 models

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the diurnal temperature range (DTR) over land in simulations of the recent past and in future projections by 20 models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5). The annually averaged DTR is evaluated for the present-day climate using two gridded datasets (HadGHCND and CRU). The DTR varies substantially between different CMIP5 models, particularly in the subtropics, and is generally underestimated. In future projections of the high emission scenario RCP8.5, the models disagree on both the sign and the magnitude of the change in DTR. Still, a majority of the models project a globally averaged reduction in the DTR, with an increase over Europe, a decrease over the Sahara desert and a substantial decrease in DTR at high latitudes in winter. The general DTR reduction is partly linked to the enhancement of the downwelling clear sky longwave radiation due to greenhouse gases. At high latitudes in winter, the decrease in DTR seems to be enforced by an increase in cloudiness, but in most other regions counteracted by decreases in cloud fraction. Changes in the hydrological cycle and in the clear sky shortwave radiation also impact the DTR. The DTR integrates many processes and neither the model differences in the DTR nor in the change in DTR can be attributed to a single parameter. Which variables that impact the model discrepancies vary both regionally and seasonally. However, clouds seem to matter in most regions and seasons and the evaporative fraction is important in summer.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups (listed in Table 1 of this paper) for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the U.S. Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions.

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  1. Department of Meteorology, The Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jenny Lindvall & Gunilla Svensson

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Lindvall, J., Svensson, G. The diurnal temperature range in the CMIP5 models. Clim Dyn 44, 405–421 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2144-2

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