Campus Units
Geological and Atmospheric Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
9-8-2009
Journal or Book Title
Eos
Volume
90
Issue
36
First Page
311
DOI
10.1029/2009EO360002
Abstract
There are two main uncertainties in determining future climate: the trajectories of future emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and the response of the global climate system to any given set of future emissions [Meehl et al., 2007]. These uncertainties normally are elucidated via application of global climate models, which provide information at relatively coarse spatial resolutions. Greater interest in, and concern about, the details of climate change at regional scales has provided the motivation for the application of regional climate models, which introduces additional uncertainty [Christensen et al., 2007a].
These uncertainties in fine-scale regional climate responses, in contrast to uncertainties of coarser spatial resolution global models in which regional models are nested, now have been documented in numerous contexts [Christensen et al., 2007a] and have been found to extend to uncertainties in climate impacts [Wood et al., 2004; Oleson et al., 2007]. While European research in future climate projections has moved forward systematically to examine combined uncertainties from global and regional models [Christensen et al., 2007b], North American climate programs have lagged behind.
Copyright Owner
American Geophysical Union
Copyright Date
2009
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Mearns, Linda O.; Gutowski, William; Jones, Richard; Leung, Ruby; McGinnis, Seth; Nunes, Ana; and Qian, Yun, "A Regional Climate Change Assessment Program for North America" (2009). Geological and Atmospheric Sciences Publications. 78.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ge_at_pubs/78
Comments
This article is from Eos 90 (2009): 311, doi:10.1029/2009EO360002. Posted with permission.