Climate simulations performed with general circulation models (GCMs) are widely viewed as the principal scientific basis for developing policies to address potential future global change scenarios (e.g. global warming, ozone depletion, changes in land use, etc.). Hence, there is a compelling need to systematically improve the performance of GCMs in simulating the present climate, and thereby to...

We present the Representative Temperature and Precipitation (T&P) GCM Subsetting Approach developed within the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) to select a practical subset of global climate models (GCMs) for regional integrated assessment of climate impacts when resource limitations do not permit the full ensemble of GCMs to be evaluated given the need to also...

Ranking the performance of global climate models (GCMs) is a notoriously difficult exercise. Multi-model comparison studies nearly always show that each model has strengths and weaknesses relative to others, and for many purposes the multi-model ensemble mean delivers better estimates than any individual model. Nevertheless, in regions like East Africa, where there is little consensus between m...

Global Circulation Models (GCMs) contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and are widely used in global change research. This paper assesses the performance of the AR4 GCMs in simulating precipitation and temperature in China from 1960 to 1999 by comparison with observed data, using system bias (B), root-mean-square error (RMSE), Pearson...

An efficient and novel technique is developed for detecting and localizing corners of planar curves. This paper discusses the gradient feature distribution of planar curves and constructs gradient correlation matrices (GCMs) over the region of support (ROS) of these planar curves. It is shown that the eigenstructure and determinant of the GCMs encode the geometric features of these curves, such...

We propose here that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) plays an important role in setting the effective heat capacity of the World Ocean and thus impacts the pace of transient climate change. The depth and strength of AMOC are shown to be strongly correlated with the depth of heat storage across a suite of state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCMs). In those models ...

Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) are increasingly used by ecologists to project species potential future distribution. However, the application of such models may be challenging, and some caveats have already been identified. While studies have generally shown that projections may be sensitive to the ENM applied or the emission scenario, to name just a few, the sensitivity of ENM-based scenarios ...

[1] We compare new observationally-based data sets of Antarctic near-surface air temperature and snowfall accumulation with 20th century simulations from global climate models (GCMs) that support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. Annual Antarctic snowfall accumulation trends in the GCMs agree with observations during 1960–1999, and the sensitivity of snowfa...

The advantages of mass spectrometry (MS) in combination with gas chromatography (GC) – in terms of providing both qualitative and quantitative information are well known. However, confident identification and accurate measurement of trace toxic and odorous species at the lowest levels of interest may be compromised by chromatographic anomalies such as; column bleed, extended solvent tails, air ...

In the threshold of the appearance of global warming from theory to reality, extensive research has focused on predicting the impact of potential climate change on water resources using results from Global Circulation Models (GCMs). This research carries this further by statistical analyses of long term meteorological and hydrological data. Seventy years of historical trends in precipitation, t...