Impact of increased resolution on long-standing biases in HighResMIP-PRIMAVERA climate models

Moreno-Chamarro, Eduardo; Caron, Louis-Philippe; Loosveldt Tomas, Saskia; Vegas-Regidor, Javier; Gutjahr, Oliver; Moine, Marie-Pierre; Putrasahan, Dian; Roberts, Christopher D.; Roberts, Malcolm J.; Senan, Retish; Terray, Laurent; Tourigny, Etienne; Vidale, Pier Luigi

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-269-2022

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-269-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-269-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

Model evaluation paper

| Highlight paper

|

13 Jan 2022

Model evaluation paper | Highlight paper |

| 13 Jan 2022

Impact of increased resolution on long-standing biases in HighResMIP-PRIMAVERA climate models

Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro, Louis-Philippe Caron, Saskia Loosveldt Tomas, Javier Vegas-Regidor, Oliver Gutjahr, Marie-Pierre Moine, Dian Putrasahan, Christopher D. Roberts, Malcolm J. Roberts, Retish Senan, Laurent Terray, Etienne Tourigny, and Pier Luigi Vidale

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-269-2022-supplement

Data sets

Impact of increased resolution on long-standing biases in HighResMIP-PRIMAVERA climate models E. Moreno-Chamarro https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5006136

The ERA5 global reanalysis (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/ecmwf-reanalysis-v5) H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, S. Hirahara, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz-Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, S. Abdalla, X. Abellan, G. Balsamo, P. Bechtold, G. Biavati, J. Bidlot, M. Bonavita, G. D. Chiara, P. Dahlgren, D. Dee, M. Diamantakis, R. Dragani, J. Flemming, R. Forbes, M. Fuentes, A. Geer, L. Haimberger, S. Healy, R. J. Hogan, E. Hólm, M. Janisková, S. Keeley, P. Laloyaux, P. Lopez, C. Lupu, G. Radnoti, P. de Rosnay, I. Rozum, F. Vamborg, S. Villaume, and J. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803

The version-2 global precipitation climatology project (GPCP) monthly precipitation analysis (1979-present) (https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.gpcp.html) R. F. Adler, G. J. Huffman, A. Chang, R. Ferraro, P. P. Xie, J. Janowiak, B. Rudolf, U. Schneider, S. Curtis, D. Bolvin, and A. Gruber https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004<1147:TVGPCP>2.0.CO;2

Cloud_cci Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer post meridiem (AVHRR-PM) dataset version 3: 35-year climatology of global cloud and radiation properties (https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/cloud/data/) M. Stengel, S. Stapelberg, O. Sus, S. Finkensieper, B. Würzler, D. Philipp, R. Hollmann, C. Poulsen, M. Christensen, and G. McGarragh https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020

Surface irradiances of edition 4.0 clouds and the earth's radiant energy system (CERES) energy balanced and filled (EBAF) data product (https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/data/) S. Kato, F. G. Rose, D. A. Rutan, T. J. Thorsen, N. G. Loeb, D. R. Doelling, X. Huang, W. L. Smith, W. Su, and S. H. Ham https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0523.1

CNRM-CERFACS CNRM-CM6-1 model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 A. Voldoire https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4039

CNRM-CERFACS CNRM-CM6-1-HR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 A. Voldoire https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4040

EC-Earth-Consortium EC-Earth3P-HR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 EC-Earth Consortium (EC-Earth) https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4683

EC-Earth-Consortium EC-Earth3P model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 EC-Earth Consortium (EC-Earth) https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4682

ECMWF ECMWF-IFS-HR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 C. D. Roberts, R. Senan, F. Molteni, S. Boussetta, and S. Keeley https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4981

ECMWF ECMWF-IFS-LR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 C. D. Roberts, R. Senan, F. Molteni, S. Boussetta, and S. Keeley https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.4982

MOHC HadGEM3-GC31-LL model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 M. J. Roberts https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.6042

NERC HadGEM3-GC31-HH model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 A. Coward and M. Roberts https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.6039

NERC HadGEM3-GC31-HM model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 R. Schiemann, P. L. Vidale, R. Hatcher, and M. Roberts https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.446

MPI-M MPI-ESM1.2-HR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 J.-S. von Storch, D. Putrasahan, K. Lohmann, O. Gutjahr, J. Jungclaus, M. Bittner, H. Haak, K.-H. Wieners, M. Giorgetta, C. Reick, M. Esch, V. Gayler, P. de Vrese, T. Raddatz, T. Mauritsen, J. Behrens, V. Brovkin, M. Claussen, T. Crueger, I. Fast, S. Fiedler, S. Hagemann, C. Hohenegger, T. Jahns, S. Kloster, S. Kinne, G. Lasslop, L. Kornblueh, J. Marotzke, D. Matei, K. Meraner, U. Mikolajewicz, K. Modali, W. Mülller, J. Nabel, D. Notz, K. Peters, R. Pincus, H. Pohlmann, J. Pongratz, S. Rast, H. Schmidt, R. Schnur, U. Schulzweida, K. Six, B. Stevens, A. Voigt, and E. Roeckner https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.6586

MPI-M MPI-ESM1.2-XR model output prepared for CMIP6 HighResMIP hist-1950 J.-S. von Storch, D. Putrasahan, K. Lohmann, O. Gutjahr, J. Jungclaus, M. Bittner, H. Haak, K.-H. Wieners, M. Giorgetta, C. Reick, M. Esch, V. Gayler, P. de Vrese, T. Raddatz, T. Mauritsen, J. Behrens, V. Brovkin, M. Claussen, T. Crueger, I. Fast, S. Fiedler, S. Hagemann, C. Hohenegger, T. Jahns, S. Kloster, S. Kinne, G. Lasslop, L. Kornblueh, J. Marotzke, D. Matei, K. Meraner, U. Mikolajewicz, K. Modali, W. Mülller, J. Nabel, D. Notz, K. Peters, R. Pincus, H. Pohlmann, J. Pongratz, S. Rast, H. Schmidt, R. Schnur, U. Schulzweida, K. Six, B. Stevens, A. Voigt, and E. Roeckner https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.10307

ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1979 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D. Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.6860a573

Short summary

Climate models do not fully reproduce observations: they show differences (biases) in regional temperature, precipitation, or cloud cover. Reducing model biases is important to increase our confidence in their ability to reproduce present and future climate changes. Model realism is set by its resolution: the finer it is, the more physical processes and interactions it can resolve. We here show that increasing resolution of up to ~ 25 km can help reduce model biases but not remove them entirely.