The North American Regional Climate Assessment Program (NARCCAP): Overview and Early Results

• Activity Number: 459
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 7, 2008 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Linda O. Mearns*+
• Companies: National Center for Atmospheric Research
• Keywords: Design of Modelling Experiments ; Global Climate Modals ; Regional Climate Models ; Uncertainty of Climate Model Results

Abstract

NARCCAP is an international program that is serving the climate scenario needs of the United States, Canada, and northern Mexico. We are systematically investigating the uncertainties in regional scale projections of future climate and producing high resolution climate change scenarios using multiple regional climate models (RCMs) and multiple global model responses to a future emission scenario, by nesting the RCMs within atmosphere ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) forced with the A2 SRES scenario, over a domain covering the conterminous US, northern Mexico, and most of Canada. The project also includes a validation component through nesting the participating RCMs within NCEP reanalyses.In this overview talk, results from Phase I of the project, the RCM simulations using boundary conditions from NCEP reanalyzes, will be presented. In addition, outcomes of a combined modeler and user group meeting for NARCCAP will be discussed.