Downscaling precipitation using regional climate models and circulation patterns toward hydrology

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to define a method for determining reasonable estimates of rainfall modeled by global circulation models (GCMs) coupled with regional climate models (RCMs). The paper describes and uses two new procedures designed to give confidence in the interpretation of such rainfall estimates. The first of these procedures is the use of circulation patterns (CPs) to define quantile-quantile (Q-Q) transforms between observed and RCM-estimated rainfall (the CPs were derived from sea level pressure (SLP) fields obtained from reanalysis of historical daily weather in a previous study). The Q-Q transforms are derived using two downscaling techniques during a 20 year calibration period and were validated during a 10 year period of observations. The second novel procedure is the use of a double Q-Q transform to estimate the rainfall patterns and amounts from GCM-RCM predictions of SLP and rainfall fields during a future period. This procedure is essential because we find that the CP-dependent rainfall frequency distributions on each block are unexpectedly different from the corresponding historical distributions. The daily rainfall fields compared are recorded on a 25 km grid over the Rhine basin in Germany; the observed daily data are averaged over the grid blocks, and the RCM values have been estimated over the same grid. Annual extremes, recorded on each block during the validation period, of (1) maximum daily rainfall and (2) the lowest 5% of filtered rainfall were calculated to determine the ability of RCMs to capture rainfall characteristics which are important for hydrological applications. The conclusions are that (1) RCM outputs used here are good at capturing the patterns and rankings of CP-dependent rainfall; (2) CP-dependent downscaling, coupled with the double Q-Q transform, gives good estimates of the rainfall during the validation period; (3) because the RCMs offer future CP-dependent rainfall distributions that are different from the observed distributions, it is judged that these predictions, once modified by the double Q-Q transforms, are hydrologically reasonable; and (4) the climate in the Rhine basin in the future, as modeled by the RCMs, is likely to be wetter than in the past. The results suggest that such future projections may be used with cautious confidence. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.