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Chinese contribution to CMIP5: An overview of five Chinese models’ performances

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Abstract

An overview of Chinese contribution to Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-Phase 5 (CMIP5) is presented. The performances of five Chinese Climate/Earth System Models that participated in the CMIP5 project are assessed in the context of climate mean states, seasonal cycle, intraseasonal oscillation, interannual variability, interdecadal variability, global monsoon, Asian-Australian monsoon, 20th-century historical climate simulation, climate change projection, and climate sensitivity. Both the strengths and weaknesses of the models are evaluated. The models generally show reasonable performances in simulating sea surface temperature (SST) mean state, seasonal cycle, spatial patterns of Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) amplitude and tropical cyclone Genesis Potential Index (GPI), global monsoon precipitation pattern, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) related SST anomalies. However, the performances of the models in simulating the time periods, amplitude, and phase locking of ENSO, PDO time periods, GPI magnitude, MJO propagation, magnitude of SST seasonal cycle, northwestern Pacific monsoon and North American monsoon domains, as well as the skill of large-scale Asian monsoon precipitation need to be improved. The model performances in simulating the time evolution and spatial pattern of the 20th-century global warming and the future change under representative concentration pathways projection are compared to the multimodel ensemble of CMIP5 models. The model discrepancies in terms of climate sensitivity are also discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Tianjun Zhou  (周天军), Xiaolong Chen  (陈晓龙), Lu Dong  (董 璐), Bo Wu  (吴 波), Wenmin Man  (满文敏), Lixia Zhang  (张丽霞), Renping Lin  (林壬萍), Junchen Yao  (姚隽琛) & Fengfei Song  (宋丰飞)

  2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Xiaolong Chen  (陈晓龙), Lu Dong  (董 璐), Renping Lin  (林壬萍), Junchen Yao  (姚隽琛) & Fengfei Song  (宋丰飞)

  3. Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Tianjun Zhou  (周天军)

  4. Laboratory for Climate Studies, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Chongbo Zhao  (赵崇博)

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  1. Tianjun Zhou  (周天军)
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  2. Xiaolong Chen  (陈晓龙)
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  3. Lu Dong  (董 璐)
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  4. Bo Wu  (吴 波)
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  5. Wenmin Man  (满文敏)
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  6. Lixia Zhang  (张丽霞)
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  7. Renping Lin  (林壬萍)
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  8. Junchen Yao  (姚隽琛)
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  9. Fengfei Song  (宋丰飞)
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  10. Chongbo Zhao  (赵崇博)
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Correspondence to Tianjun Zhou  (周天军).

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Supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41125017 and 41330423), National (Key) Basic Research and Development (973) Program of China (2010CB951904), and Public Science and Technology Research Project Funds of Ocean (201105019-3).

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Zhou, T., Chen, X., Dong, L. et al. Chinese contribution to CMIP5: An overview of five Chinese models’ performances. J Meteorol Res 28, 481–509 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-014-4001-y

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