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Climate change projections over three metropolitan regions in Southeast Brazil using the non-hydrostatic Eta regional climate model at 5-km resolution

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Abstract

The objective of this work is to assess changes in three metropolitan regions of Southeast Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Santos) based on the projections produced by the Eta Regional Climate Model (RCM) at very high spatial resolution, 5 km. The region, which is densely populated and extremely active economically, is frequently affected by intense rainfall events that trigger floods and landslides during the austral summer. The analyses are carried out for the period between 1961 and 2100. The 5-km simulations are results from a second downscaling nesting in the HadGEM2-ES RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 simulations. Prior to the assessment of the projections, the higher resolution simulations were evaluated for the historical period (1961–1990). The comparison between the 5-km and the coarser driver model simulations shows that the spatial patterns of precipitation and temperature of the 5-km Eta simulations are in good agreement with the observations. The simulated frequency distribution of the precipitation and temperature extremes from the 5-km Eta RCM is consistent with the observed structure and extreme values. Projections of future climate change using the 5-km Eta runs show stronger warming in the region, primarily during the summer season, while precipitation is strongly reduced. Projected temperature extremes show widespread heating with maximum temperatures increasing by approximately 9 °C in the three metropolitan regions by the end of the century in the RCP8.5 scenario. A trend of drier climate is also projected using indices based on daily precipitation, which reaches annual rainfall reductions of more than 50  % in the state of Rio de Janeiro and between 40 and 45  % in São Paulo and Santos. The magnitude of these changes has negative implications to the population health conditions, energy security, and economy.

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  • 03 April 2017

    An erratum to this article has been published.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially funded by MCTI/UNDP [BRA/10/G32], FAPESP [2014/00192-0], Belmont Forum 2012/51876-0], and CNPq [457874/2014-7, Universal 400792/2012-5, and scholarships 168933/2014-4 and 308035/2013-5].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Rod Pres Dutra km 39, Cachoeira Paulista, SP, Brazil

    Andre Lyra, Priscila Tavares, Sin Chan Chou, Gustavo Sueiro, Adan Silva & Angélica Giarolla

  2. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Av Athos da Silveira Ramos 274, Ilha do Fundão, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Claudine Dereczynski & Marcely Sondermann

  3. National Centre for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), Rod Pres Dutra km 39, Cachoeira Paulista, SP, Brazil

    José Marengo

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  1. Andre Lyra
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  2. Priscila Tavares
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Correspondence to Andre Lyra.

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An erratum to this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2110-0.

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Lyra, A., Tavares, P., Chou, S.C. et al. Climate change projections over three metropolitan regions in Southeast Brazil using the non-hydrostatic Eta regional climate model at 5-km resolution. Theor Appl Climatol 132, 663–682 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2067-z

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