A novel bias correction methodology for climate impact simulations

Sippel, S; Otto, F; Forkel, M; Allen, M; Guillod, B; Heimann, M; Reichstein, M; Seneviratne, S; Thonicke, K; Mahecha, M

Journal article

A novel bias correction methodology for climate impact simulations

Abstract:: Understanding, quantifying and attributing the impacts of extreme weather and climate events in the terrestrial biosphere is crucial for societal adaptation in a changing climate. However, climate model simulations generated for this purpose typically exhibit biases in their output that hinders any straightforward assessment of impacts. To overcome this issue, various bias correction strategies are routinely used to alleviate climate model deficiencies most of which have been criticized for physical inconsistency and the non-preservation of the multivariate correlation structure. In this study, we introduce a novel, resampling-based bias correction scheme that fully preserves the physical consistency and multivariate correlation structure of the model output. This procedure strongly improves the representation of climatic extremes and variability in a large regional climate model ensemble (HadRM3P, climateprediction.net/weatherathome), which is illustrated for summer extremes in temperature and rainfall over Central Europe. Moreover, we simulate biosphere–atmosphere fluxes of carbon and water using a terrestrial ecosystem model (LPJmL) driven by the bias corrected climate forcing. The resampling-based bias correction yields strongly improved statistical distributions of carbon and water fluxes, including the extremes. Our results thus highlight the importance to carefully consider statistical moments beyond the mean for climate impact simulations. In conclusion, the present study introduces an approach to alleviate climate model biases in a physically consistent way and demonstrates that this yields strongly improved simulations of climate extremes and associated impacts in the terrestrial biosphere. A wider uptake of our methodology by the climate and impact modelling community therefore seems desirable for accurately quantifying past, current and future extremes.

Publication status:: Published

Peer review status:: Not peer reviewed

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APA Style

Sippel, S., Otto, F., Forkel, M., Allen, M., Guillod, B., Heimann, M., Reichstein, M., Seneviratne, S., Thonicke, K., & Mahecha, M. (2015). A novel bias correction methodology for climate impact simulations. Earth System Dynamics Discussions, 6(2), 1999–2042.

MLA Style

Sippel, S., et al. “A Novel Bias Correction Methodology for Climate Impact Simulations.” Earth System Dynamics Discussions, vol. 6, no. 2, European Geosciences Union, 2015, pp. 1999–2042.

Chicago Style

Sippel, S, F Otto, M Forkel, M Allen, B Guillod, M Heimann, M Reichstein, S Seneviratne, K Thonicke, and M Mahecha. 2015. “A Novel Bias Correction Methodology for Climate Impact Simulations.” Earth System Dynamics Discussions 6 (2): 1999–2042.
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