Predictive anisotropy is a phenomenon referring to unequal predictability of surface wind components in different directions. This study addresses the question of whether predictive anisotropy resulting from statistical prediction is influenced by physical factors or by types of regression methods (linear vs nonlinear) used to construct the statistical prediction. A systematic study of statistical predictability of surface wind components at 2109 land stations across the globe is carried out. The results show that predictive anisotropy is a common characteristic for both linear and nonlinear statistical prediction, which suggests that the type of regression method is not a major influential factor. Both strong predictive anisotropy and poor predictability are more likely to be associated with wind components characterized by relatively weak and non-Gaussian variability and in areas characterized by surface heterogeneity. An idealized mathematical model is developed separating predictive signal and noise between large-scale (predictable) and local (unpredictable) contributions to the variability of surface wind, such that small signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) corresponds to low and anisotropic predictability associated with non-Gaussian local variability. The comparison of observed and simulated statistical predictability by Regional Climate models (RCM) and reanalysis in the Northern Hemisphere indicates that small-scale processes that cannot be captured well by RCMs contribute to poor predictability and strong predictive anisotropy in observations. A second idealized mathematical model shows that spatial variability in specifically the minimum directional predictability, resulting from local processes, is the major contributor to predictive anisotropy. / Graduate

An analysis of the air temperature and precipitation for historical and future experiments of regional climate models from Euro-CORDEX activity is presented. A validation of models was performed for the time period 1989 - 2005 using the comparison of model results with E-OBS dataset which represents real values. For this period results show good agreement for temperature, much worse agreement appears for precipitation where their overestimation is more typical. The future evaluation based on the scenarios of greenhouse gases RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 was investigated for periods 2021 - 2050 and 2071 - 2100 in comparison with the period 1971 - 2000 as reference. For the simulations of the future climate we can notice an approximately linear increase of temperatures which is most significant in the northeast Europe. For precipitation models predict their increase in the north Europe and decrease in the south Europe.

Title: Assessment of regional climate models performance in simulating present-day climate over the area of the Czech Republic Author: Lenka Crhová Department: Department of Meteorology and Environment Protection Supervisor:doc. RNDr. Jaroslava Kalvová, CSc. Supervisor's e-mail address: Jaroslava.Kalvova@mff.cuni.cz Abstract: Today a great attention is turned to climate changes and their impacts. Since eighties the Regional Climate Models (RCMs) are developed for assessment of future climate at regional scales. But their outputs suffer from many uncertain- ties. Therefore, it is necessary to assess models ability to simulate observed climate characteristics and uncertainties in their outputs before they are applied in consecu- tive studies. In the first chapters of this thesis the sources of uncertainties in climate model outputs and selected methods of climate models performance evaluation are reviewed. Several methods of model performance assessment are then applied to si- mulations of the Czech regional climate model ALADIN-Climate/CZ and selected RCMs from the ENSEMBLES project for the reference period 1961-1990 in the area of the Czech Republic. The attention is paid especially to comparison of simulated and observed spatial and temporal variability of several climatic elements. Within this thesis the...

In this project, we analyse the ability of two regional climate models to simulate meteorological conditions on Nordenskiöldbreen, a glacier in Svalbard. To do so, regional climate model output is compared with in situ measurements from an automatic weather station. Detailed information about the weather conditions on Nordenskiöldbreen is important for simulating the glacial mass balance in a changing climate. The parameters analysed were the following: temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed and wind direction. The weather station did not measure all parameters, cloud cover was instead estimated through the incoming longwave radiation and temperature, while precipitation was calculated from snow depth. The results show that the models represent certain parameters better than others. Temperature, air pressure and wind speed and direction are found to be simulated with high precision. Poorest agreement is found for precipitation, which appears to be both difficult to simulate and observe. Relative humidity and cloud cover show average agreement with the station. The conclusion of the project is that the estimation of some of the parameters is satisfactory, while others are lacking. None of the models can be determined to have performed significantly better than the other. / I det här projektet analyserades två regionala klimatmodellers förmåga att simulera meteorologiska förhållanden på Nordenskiöldbreen, en glaciär på Svalbard. Detta gjordes genom jämförelser av data från regionala klimatmodeller mot lokala mätningar från en automatisk väderstation. Detaljerad information om väderförhållandena på Nordenskiöldbreen är viktigt för att kunna simulera glaciärens massbalans i ett föränderligt klimat. Parametrarna som jämfördes var temperatur, lufttryck, relativ luftfuktighet, nederbörd, molntäcke samt vindhastighet och vindriktning. Stationen mätte inte alla parametrar, molntäcket uppskattades istället genom inkommande långvågig strålning och temperatur, medan nederbörd beräknades via snödjup. Resultatet visar att modellerna representerar vissa parametrar bättre än andra. Temperatur, lufttryck, vindhastighet och vindriktning simuleras med hög precision. Parametern med lägst samband är nederbörd, somverkar vara svår både att simulera och observera. Relativ luftfuktighet och molntäcke har ett medelmåttigt samband till stationen. Slutsatsen av projektet är att modellernas uppskattning av några parametrar är tillräckligt bra, medan andra är bristfälliga. Ingen av modellerna kan bedömas ha presterat signifikant bättre än den andra.

abstract: Ten regional climate models (RCMs) and atmosphere-ocean generalized model parings from the North America Regional Climate Change Assessment Program were used to estimate the shift of extreme precipitation due to climate change using present-day and future-day climate scenarios. RCMs emulate winter storms and one-day duration events at the sub-regional level. Annual maximum series were derived for each model pairing, each modeling period; and for annual and winter seasons. The reliability ensemble average (REA) method was used to qualify each RCM annual maximum series to reproduce historical records and approximate average predictions, because there are no future records. These series determined (a) shifts in extreme precipitation frequencies and magnitudes, and (b) shifts in parameters during modeling periods. The REA method demonstrated that the winter season had lower REA factors than the annual season. For the winter season the RCM pairing of the Hadley regional Model 3 and the Geophysical Fluid-Dynamics Laboratory atmospheric-land generalized model had the lowest REA factors. However, in replicating present-day climate, the pairing of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics' Regional Climate Model Version 3 with the Geophysical Fluid-Dynamics Laboratory atmospheric-land generalized model was superior. Shifts of extreme precipitation in the 24-hour event were measured using precipitation magnitude for each frequency in the annual maximum series, and the difference frequency curve in the generalized extreme-value-function parameters. The average trend of all RCM pairings implied no significant shift in the winter annual maximum series, however the REA-selected models showed an increase in annual-season precipitation extremes: 0.37 inches for the 100-year return period and for the winter season suggested approximately 0.57 inches for the same return period. Shifts of extreme precipitation were estimated using predictions 70 years into the future based on RCMs. Although these models do not provide climate information for the intervening 70 year period, the models provide an assertion on the behavior of future climate. The shift in extreme precipitation may be significant in the frequency distribution function, and will vary depending on each model-pairing condition. The proposed methodology addresses the many uncertainties associated with the current methodologies dealing with extreme precipitation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2013

Title: Frequency analysis of precipitation amounts Author: Mgr. Zuzana Rulfová Department: Department of Atmospheric Physics Supervisor: RNDr. Jan Kyselý, Ph.D., Institute of Atmospheric Physics CAS Abstract: This thesis deals with analysing characteristics of mean and extreme precipitation in observations and regional climate models (RCMs) with respect to their convective and stratiform origin. An algorithm for subdivision of precipitation amounts into predominantly convective and stratiform using station weather data is proposed and evaluated. The time series of convective and stratiform precipitation from the Czech Republic over 1982-2010 are used for analysing basic climatological characteristics of precipitation, including extremes, and evaluating RCMs from the ENSEMBLES project. Projected changes of convective and stratiform precipitation in Central Europe (the Czech Republic) are analysed using data from RCM simulations from the EURO-CORDEX project. The last part of the thesis introduces a new statistical model for analysing precipitation extremes. This model takes advantage from knowledge of origin of precipitation extremes. In future climate we could expect more convective and stratiform precipitation amounts in all seasons except summer, when climate models project decline in amounts of stratiform...

Dans le contexte du changement climatique, il est nécessaire d'affiner les informations relatives à l'évolution du climat dans un pays, susceptible d'être négativement impacté par le réchauffement global, comme le Maroc. En effet, les différentes études de projections futures, dont celles du GIEC, sont basées majoritairement sur les sorties de modèles climatiques à faible résolution qui ne permettent pas d'aborder les échelles régionales et locales. La première partie de ce travail concerne l'étude des tendances et évolutions observées au niveau du climat du Maroc à travers un certain nombre d'indices climatiques. Outre la forte variabilité interannuelle des précipitations et l'augmentation de la fréquence des sécheresses depuis le début des années 1980, la distribution des précipitations du Maroc a bien connu un changement au cours de la période 1961-2008. Ce changement, consistant en une évolution vers des conditions plus sèches, a coïncidé avec une augmentation de la température moyenne en toutes saisons. L'évaluation des changements futurs est réalisée tout d'abord à l'aide d'une descente d'échelle dynamique effectuée avec le modèle ARPEGE-Climat dans sa version à résolution variable. L'examen des capacités du modèle, dont la résolution est de l'ordre de 50km sur le Maroc, a montré son aptitude à simuler correctement la circulation de grande échelle ainsi que la variabilité interannuelle des précipitations marocaines en dépit d'une sous-estimation de leur quantité. A l'horizon 2021-2050, une baisse des cumuls généralisée à tout le pays concernerait la saison d'hiver (DJF). Si on se limite à la zone située à l'ouest des montagnes de l'Atlas, la baisse concernerait la partie la plus pluvieuse de l'année (ONDJFM). Cette baisse serait accompagnée d'une diminution du nombre de jours humides et du nombre d'événements de fortes précipitations ainsi que d'une augmentation de la persistance temporelle de la sécheresse. Ce changement de la distribution des précipitations coïnciderait avec un réchauffement qui se manifesterait à la fois aux échelles saisonnière et annuelle. Les sorties d'une dizaine de modèles régionaux de climat (MRC) du projet FP6-ENSEMBLES, sont utilisées pour balayer une partie de la marge des incertitudes relatives aux changements climatiques et notamment celles inhérentes à la modélisation. Les changements futurs issus de ces MRC, compatibles dans l'ensemble avec ceux issus d'ARPEGE-Climat, optent dans la plupart des cas pour une réduction des cumuls pluviométriques de l'hiver accompagnée généralement d'une baisse du nombre d'événements de fortes précipitations et d'une augmentation du nombre maximal de jours consécutifs secs. L'examen, réalisé à la fois à l'aide du modèle ARPEGE-Climat et des MRC d'ENSEMBLES, de la possibilité d'utilisation d'une méthode de réduction d'échelle statistique basée sur les régimes de temps de l'Atlantique nord pour la déduction des changements futurs des précipitations locales, montre la déficience de ce type d'approche dans le cas de la pluviométrie hivernale marocaine. La méthode de correction par quantiles étendues aux régimes de temps de l'Atlantique nord et appliquée aux sorties d'ARPEGE-Climat confirme le signe des changements issus de ce modèles, malgré un effet légèrement modérateur de leurs amplitudes. L'évaluation des impacts potentiels sur l'hydrologie à l'aide du modèle hydrologique GR2M et des scénarios climatiques d'ARPEGE-Climat, montre une future réduction des débits mensuels au niveau du bassin versant de la Moulouya du fait de la concomitance de précipitations moins abondantes et d'une évapotranspiration potentielle accrue par l'augmentation de température. Enfin, une descente d'échelle dynamique réalisée à l'aide du modèle à aire limitée ALADIN-Climat à très haute résolution (12km) sur la moitié nord du pays permet de confirmer dans l'ensemble les projections issues d'ARPEGE-Climat à la fois en termes de moyennes et d'extrêmes. / In the context of climate change, it is important to improve climate information concerning countries that may be negatively impacted by global warming such as Morocco. Indeed, various studies of future projections, including IPCC ones, are mainly based on the outputs of low resolution climate models that do not allow accessing the regional and local scales. The first part of this work focuses on the study and analysis of observed climate evolution and trends in Morocco through a set of climate indices. Moroccan rainfall is characterized by a high interannual variability and more frequent droughts have occurred since the early 1980s. Furthermore, a clear change is shown in the distribution of precipitation during the period 1961-2008. It consists in a shift towards warmer and drier conditions. The assessment of future climate changes is done, firstly, using a variable resolution version of the global GCM ARPEGE-Climat with high resolution over Morocco (50km). The examination of this version capability shows the ability of the model to well reproduce the large scale circulation as well as the interannual variability of Moroccan rainfall despite an underestimation of its amount. A reduction of winter rainfall over the whole country is projected by the model for 2021-2050. In the region located west of the Atlas Mountains, the reduction could concern the wettest part of the year (ONDJFM). The changes in rainfall characteristics may also occur through a decrease in the number of wet days and the number of heavy precipitation events and by more persistent droughts. Furthermore, an increase of mean temperature is projected at annual and seasonal scales. The outputs of ten RCMs of the FP6-ENSEMBLES (ENSEMBLES) project are used to assess the uncertainties associated to future climate change. The changes issued from ARPEGE-Climat are in the range covered by the ten RCMs. Most of the models agreed on a reduction of winter precipitation associated with a decrease in the number of heavy precipitation events and an increase in the number of maximum consecutive dry days. The evaluation of a statistical downscaling approach that uses large scale fields such as North Atlantic weather regimes to construct local scenarios of future climate change shows the deficiency of this approach in the case of Moroccan winter precipitation. This result is obtained by both ARPEGE-Climat and the ENSEMBLES RCMs. The quantile-quantile correction method extended to weather regimes and applied to the outputs of ARPEGE-Climat confirms the sign of the changes despite a slight reduction of their amplitudes. The assessment of potential impacts on hydrology done using the hydrological model GR2M and the climate scenarios issued from ARPEGE-Climat shows a future reduction of the Moulouya watershed discharges. This is due to the combination of a rainfall decrease and an enhanced potential evapotranspiration induced by increasing temperature. Finally, a dynamical downscaling achieved using the limited area model ALADINClimat with very high resolution (12km) on the northern half of the country allows a further assessment of future climate changes and related uncertainties. The projections issued from ARPEGE-Climat are generally confirmed both in terms of average and of extremes

Title: Changes of lengths of periods with characteristic air temperatures Author: Eva Černochová Department: Department of Meteorology and Environment Protection Supervisor: doc. RNDr. Jaroslava Kalvová, CSc. Supervisor's e-mail address: jaroslava.kalvova@mff.cuni.cz Abstract: Lengths of periods with characteristic air temperatures were derived using two different methods (linear interpolation, robust locally weighted regression) for 10 stations in the Czech Republic and for output data of regional climate models HIRHAM and RCAO in 4 grid points. Averages for a forty-year period (1961-2000) and for a thirty-year period (1961-1990) were computed as well as averages for every decade. Considerable attention was also paid to the analysis of methods used in the research. Most stations showed lengthening of growing season and summer during the twentieth century. Decennary average length of growing season and summer shortened in the years 1971-1980. The comparison of output data of regional climate models HIRHAM and RCAO and measured station data showed that the thirty-year average lengths of growing season and summer estimated by the two models were reasonably accurate approximately half of all cases. The models' estimates were not accurate at all concerning decennary averages. Keywords: robust locally...

Climate change is altering hydrological processes with varying degrees in various regions of the world. This research work investigates the possible impacts of climate change on water resource and Hydropower production potential in central and southern Africa. The Congo, Zambezi and Kwanza, Shire, Kafue and Kabompo basins that lie in central and southern Africa are used as case studies. The review of climate change impact studies shows that there are few studies on impacts of climate change on hydropower production. Most of these studies were carried out in Europe and north America and very few in Asia, south America and Africa. The few studies indicate that southern Africa would experience reduction in precipitation and runoff, consequently reductions in hydropower production. There are no standard methods of assessing the resulting impacts. Two approaches were used to assess the impacts of climate change on water resources and hydropower. One approach is lumping changes on country or regional level and use the mean climate changes on mean annual flows as the basis for regional changes in hydropower production. This is done to get an overall picture of the changes on global and regional level. The second approach is a detailed assessment process in which downscaling, hydrological modelling and hydropower simulations are carried out. The possible future climate scenarios for the region of central and southern Africa depicted that some areas where precipitation are likely to have increases while other, precipitation will reduce. The region northern Zambia and southern Congo showed increases while the northern Congo basin showed reductions. Further south in southern African region, there is a tendency of decreases in precipitation. To the west, in Angola, inland showed increases while towards the coast highlighted some decreases in precipitation. On a global scale, hydropower is likely to experience slight changes (0.08%) due to climate change by 2050. Africa is projected for a slight decrease (0.05%), Asia with an increase of 0.27%, Europe a reduction up to 0.16% while America is projected to have an increase of 0.05%. In the eastern African region, it was shown that hydropower production is likely to increase by 0.59%, the central with 0.22% and the western with a 0.03%. The southern, and northern African regions were projected to have reductions of 0.83% and 0.48% respectively. The basins with increases in flow projections have a slight increase on hydropower production but not proportional to the increase in precipitation. The basins with decreases had even high change as the reduction was further increased by evaporation losses. The hydropower production potential of most of southern African basins is likely to decrease in the future due to the impact of climate change while the central African region shows an increasing trend. The hydropower system in these regions will be affected consequently. The hydropower production changes will vary from basin to basin in these regions. The Zambezi, Kafue and Shire river basins have negative changes while the Congo, Kwanza and Kabompo river basins have positive changes. The hydropower production potential in the Zambezi basin decreases by 9 - 34%. The hydropower production potential in the Kafue basin decreases by 8 - 34% and the Shire basin decreases by 7 - 14 %. The southern region will become drier with shorter rainy seasons. The central region will become wetter with increased runoff. The hydropower production potential in the Congo basin reduces slightly and then increases by 4% by the end of the century. The hydropower production potential in the Kwanza basin decreases by 3% and then increases by 10% towards the end of the century and the Kabompo basin production increases by 6 - 18%. It can be concluded that in the central African region hydropower production will, in general, increase while the southern African region, hydropower production will decrease. In summary, the analysis has shown that the southern African region is expected to experience decreases in rainfall and increases in temperature. This will result in reduced runoff. However the northern part of southern Africa is expected to remain relatively the same with slight increase, moving northwards towards the central African region where mainly increases have been registered. The southern African region is likely to experience reductions up to 5 - 20% while the central African region is likely to experience an increase in runoff in the range of 1 - 5%. Lack of data was observed as a critical limiting factor in modelling in the central and southern Africa region. The designs, plans and operations based on poor hydrological data severely compromise performance and decrease efficiency of systems. Climate change is expected to change these risks. The normal extrapolations of historical data will be less reliable as the past will become an increasingly poor predictor of the future. Better (observed) data is recommended in future assessments and if not better tools and methods for data collection/ should be used. Future designs, plans and operations should include and aspect of climate change, if the region is to benefit from the climate change impacts.

Title: Analysis of Climate Model Outputs Author: RNDr. Zuzana Chládová E-mail: zuzana.chladova@gmail.com Department: Department of Meteorology and Environment Protection, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague Supervisor: RNDr. Aleš Raidl, Ph.D. Supervisor's e-mail address: ales.raidl@mff.cuni.cz Consultant: doc. RNDr. Jaroslava Kalvová, CSc. Regional climate models are currently the most important tools regularly used for downscaling outputs of global climate models. This analysis compares control and future runs of the global climate models HadCM3, ECHAM5/OPYC3 and ARPÉGE/OPA and the regional climate models RCAO, RCA3, HIRHAM4, HIRHAM5 and ALADIN- CLIMATE/CZ with observed data and CRU data for the Czech Republic. In the period 1961-1990, the global climate models underestimated the air temperature in comparison with corresponding virtual time series representing real data; mean annual courses and variance of the temperature, on the other hand, were simulated satisfactorily. The results of the regional climate models showed overestimation of the model temperature in winter season, while in other seasons the model temperatures corresponded better with real values and the results of simulation were generally more accurate in comparison with global climate models. Concerning...