California Applications Program / California Climate Change Center

California Climate Scenario Model Page
Information for researchers working on the January 2006 Secretary report to the Governor and State Legislature

Last update: 19 October 2005

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For preliminary discussions on this work please go to: http://meteora.ucsd.edu/cap/cccc_model_prelim.html

Please find the following information below:

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20C3M is a historical simulation
SRESA2 and SRESB1 are climate change simulations
Model simulations to be used and years monthly/daily data are available:

GFDL CM2.1 20C3M run2 -- monthly: 1861 to 2000; daily: 1961 to 2000
GFDL CM2.1 SRESA2 run1 -- monthly: 2001 to 2100; daily: 2046 to 2065 and 2081 to 2100
GFDL CM2.1 SRESB1 run1 -- monthly: 2001 to 2100; daily: 2046 to 2065 and 2081 to 2100
Note GFDL has kindly offered to provide daily data for all years, but this will not be available until after they have processed the history files -- mid to end of August, 2005

NCAR PCM1 20C3M run 2 -- monthly and daily: 1890 to 1999

1 Jan 1890, 30 Sep 1907 and 1 Oct 1907 are missing

NCAR PCM1 SRESA2 run1 -- monthly and daily: 2000 to 2099
February 2-14, 2067, are missing from daily data

NCAR PCM1 SRESB1 run2 -- monthly and daily: 2000 to 2099

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Missing value is -99.99
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The California region is roughly from 130W to 100W (230 to 260) and from 30N to 50N.

For the GFDL CM2.1 model, this region is defined by
14 longitudes from 228.75000 to 261.25000 (of 144 longitudes, number 92 to 105)
12 latitudes from 29.325842N to 51.573032N (of 90 latitudes, number 60 to 71)
For the NCAR PCM1 model, this region is defined by:
12 longitudes from 230.62500 to 261.56250 (of 128 longitudes, number 83 to 94)
9 latitudes from 29.301359N to 51.625732N (of 64 latitudes, number 43 to 51)

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Climate model data is available for the following variables:

From Ed Maurer at Santa Clara University, monthly downscaled (1/8th degree grid) temperature and precipitation will be available after August 1, 2005. This data will be available over the California domain (land areas in latitudes 30-44N, longitudes 125-113W). Ed will also make monthly wind speed interpolated from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis available, randomly resampled (by month) for projections.

Also from Ed Maurer, hydrologic model output on a 1/8th degree grid for the California domain will be available after August 8, 2005, for the variables:

Streamflows routed to approximately 20 locations, including the 6 required for indexing for the CALVIN model will be provided by Ed after August 8, 2005.

At the anonymous ftp site (tenaya.ucsd.edu), you will find global monthly files and California region daily files. All files start with a variable abbreviation (as noted above). Files were gzipped to allow room for additional data.

Each model subdirectory also contains an ascii file for:

If you have any questions about the data files and/or their format, please contact Mary Tyree (mtyree@ucsd.edu; 858-822-1625).

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VIC model data requests will be handled individually. Please contact Mary Tyree: mtyree@ucsd.edu, 858-822-1625

Climate model data can be obtained from tenaya.ucsd.edu (anonymous ftp) using the ftp command or using ftp://tenaya.ucsd.edu in a web browser. Using the ftp command:

ftp tenaya.ucsd.edu
login: anonymous (ftp)
password: (enter your e-mail address)
cd pub/meyer/cccc
cd gfdlcm21 or cd pcm1
cd daily or cd monthly
cd 20c3m or cd sresa2 or cd sresb1
bin set the transfer type to binary
mget *
bye
Using a web browser (like Explorer):
Enter ftp://tenaya.ucsd.edu in the location bar of your browser (where you would enter an http address)
Click on pub
Click on meyer
Click on cccc
Choose the gfdlcm21 or pcm folder
Select model information files (i.e. land_fraction.dat) or click on monthly or daily data
From data folders (monthly or daily), select the scenario: 20c3m (historical), sresa2 or sresb1
Click on file to download

Any questions or problems connecting should be addressed to Mary Tyree:
mtyree@ucsd.edu or 858-822-1625

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From Ed's e-mail on 28 July:
I am using essentially the same bias correction/spatial downscaling technique as I used for the PNAS study over CA. This will produce initially monthly, then daily fields at 1/8 degree spatial resolution of precip, tmax, and tmin (and resampled reanalysis wind). The approach interpolates the bias-corrected GCM-projected anomalies (temp shift or precip scale factor) onto the 1/8 degree grid, and these interpolated anomalies are applied to the observationally-based gridded data. This is described in more detail in the first two references listed on my web site.

After running VIC I'll have relative humidity (%) as well, and it is derived in a way that is consistent with the daily Tmax and Tmin, using the standard approach employed in the VIC model (I'll give you more details later if you'd like).

Ed's references:

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VIC grid
GCM grid

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