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On regional dynamical downscaling for the assessment and projection of temperature and precipitation extremes across Tasmania, Australia

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Abstract

The ability of an ensemble of six GCMs, downscaled to a 0.1° lat/lon grid using the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model over Tasmania, Australia, to simulate observed extreme temperature and precipitation climatologies and statewide trends is assessed for 1961–2009 using a suite of extreme indices. The downscaled simulations have high skill in reproducing extreme temperatures, with the majority of models reproducing the statewide averaged sign and magnitude of recent observed trends of increasing warm days and warm nights and decreasing frost days. The warm spell duration index is however underestimated, while variance is generally overrepresented in the extreme temperature range across most regions. The simulations show a lower level of skill in modelling the amplitude of the extreme precipitation indices such as very wet days, but simulate the observed spatial patterns and variability. In general, simulations of dry extreme precipitation indices are underestimated in dryer areas and wet extremes indices are underestimated in wetter areas. Using two SRES emissions scenarios, the simulations indicate a significant increase in warm nights compared to a slightly more moderate increase in warm days, and an increase in maximum 1- and 5-day precipitation intensities interspersed with longer consecutive dry spells across Tasmania during the twenty-first century.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge JL McGregor (CAWCR, CSIRO) for providing the CCAM model and assisting in the running of the regional simulations, and WF Budd (University of Tasmania) for advice in the development of the scientific approach. Many thanks to JC Bennett (CSIRO) and MJ Pook (CAWCR, CSIRO) for comments and suggestions during the drafting of this manuscript, SE Perkins (University of New South Wales) for advice with the PDF skill scores and S Foster (CSIRO) for help with the trend calculations. Thanks also to LV Alexander (University of New South Wales), JM Arblaster (CAWCR, Bureau of Meteorology), and P Fox-Hughes and I Barnes-Keoghan (both Bureau of Meteorology) for their advice during the Climate Futures for Tasmania project, and to two anonymous reviewers for their highly constructive and insightful comments. This work was supported by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program through the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC). Climate Futures for Tasmania was possible with support through funding and research of a consortium of state and national partners. We acknowledge the following modelling groups, the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) and the WCRP’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) for their roles in making available the CMIP3 multi-model dataset.

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White, C.J., McInnes, K.L., Cechet, R.P. et al. On regional dynamical downscaling for the assessment and projection of temperature and precipitation extremes across Tasmania, Australia. Clim Dyn 41, 3145–3165 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1718-8

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