EGU2020-8911
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8911
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Large-scale features and evaluation of the PMIP4-CMIP6 midHolocene simulations

Chris Brierley1, Anni Zhao1, Sandy Harrison2, Pascale Braconnot3, and the PMIP4 Community*
Chris Brierley et al.
  • 1University College London, Geography, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c.brierley@ucl.ac.uk)
  • 2Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK
  • 3Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement-IPSL, Unité Mixte CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

The mid-Holocene (6,000 years ago) is a standard experiment for the evaluation of the simulated response of global climate models using paleoclimate reconstructions. The latest mid-Holocene simulations are a contribution by the Palaeoclimate Model Intercomparison Project (PMIP4) to the current phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Here we provide an initial analysis and evaluation of the results of the experiment for the mid-Holocene. We show that state-of-the-art models produce climate changes that are broadly consistent with theory and observations, including increased summer warming of the northern hemisphere and associated shifts in tropical rainfall.  Many features of the PMIP4-CMIP6 simulations were present in the previous generation (PMIP3-CMIP5) of simulations. The PMIP4-CMIP6 ensemble for the mid-Holocene has a global mean temperature change of -0.3 K, which is -0.2 K cooler that the PMIP3-CMIP5 simulations predominantly as a result of the prescription of realistic greenhouse gas concentrations in PMIP4-CMIP6. Neither this difference nor the improvement in model complexity and resolution seems to improve the realism of the simulations. Biases in the magnitude and the sign of regional responses identified in PMIP3-CMIP5, such as the amplification of the northern African monsoon, precipitation changes over Europe and simulated aridity in mid-Eurasia, are still present in the PMIP4-CMIP6 simulations. Despite these issues, PMIP4-CMIP6 and the mid-Holocene provide an opportunity both for quantitative evaluation and derivation of emergent constraints on climate sensitivity and feedback strength.

PMIP4 Community:

Charles J. R. Williams, David J. R. Thornalley, Xiaoxu Shi, Jean-Yves Peterschmitt, Rumi Ohgaito, Darrell S. Kaufman, Masa Kageyama, Julia C. Hargreaves, Michael P. Erb, Julien Emile-Geay, Roberta D’Agostino, Deepak Chandan, Matthieu Carré, Partrick Bartlein, Weipeng Zheng, Zhongshi Zhang, Qiong Zhang, Hu Yang, Evgeny M. Volodin, Robert A. Tomas, Cody Routson, W. Richard Peltier, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Polina A. Morozova, Nicholas P. McKay, Gerrit Lohmann, Allegra N. Legrande, Chuncheng Guo, Jian Cao, Esther Brady, James D. Annan, and Ayako Abe-Ouchi

How to cite: Brierley, C., Zhao, A., Harrison, S., and Braconnot, P. and the PMIP4 Community: Large-scale features and evaluation of the PMIP4-CMIP6 midHolocene simulations, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-8911, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8911, 2020.

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