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Projections of high resolution climate changes for South Korea using multiple-regional climate models based on four RCP scenarios. Part 1: surface air temperature

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Abstract

We projected surface air temperature changes over South Korea during the mid (2026-2050) and late (2076-2100) 21st century against the current climate (1981-2005) using the simulation results from five regional climate models (RCMs) driven by Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model, version 2, coupled with the Atmosphere- Ocean (HadGEM2-AO), and two ensemble methods (equal weighted averaging, weighted averaging based on Taylor’s skill score) under four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios. In general, the five RCM ensembles captured the spatial and seasonal variations, and probability distribution of temperature over South Korea reasonably compared to observation. They particularly showed a good performance in simulating annual temperature range compared to HadGEM2-AO. In future simulation, the temperature over South Korea will increase significantly for all scenarios and seasons. Stronger warming trends are projected in the late 21st century than in the mid-21st century, in particular under RCP8.5. The five RCM ensembles projected that temperature changes for the mid/late 21st century relative to the current climate are +1.54°C/+1.92°C for RCP2.6, +1.68°C/+2.91°C for RCP4.5, +1.17°C/+3.11°C for RCP6.0, and +1.75°C/+4.73°C for RCP8.5. Compared to the temperature projection of HadGEM2-AO, the five RCM ensembles projected smaller increases in temperature for all RCP scenarios and seasons. The inter-RCM spread is proportional to the simulation period (i.e., larger in the late-21st than mid-21st century) and significantly greater (about four times) in winter than summer for all RCP scenarios. Therefore, the modeled predictions of temperature increases during the late 21st century, particularly for winter temperatures, should be used with caution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Kongju National University, Kongju, Korea

    Myoung-Seok Suh, Seok-Geun Oh & Young-Suk Lee

  2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea

    Joong-Bae Ahn

  3. School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Korea

    Dong-Hyun Cha

  4. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    Dong-Kyou Lee

  5. Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems, Seoul, Korea

    Song-You Hong

  6. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea

    Seung-Ki Min

  7. Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul, Korea

    Seong-Chan Park

  8. National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Jeju, Korea

    Hyun-Suk Kang

  9. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Kongju National University, Gongju, 32588, Korea

    Seok-Geun Oh

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  1. Myoung-Seok Suh
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Suh, MS., Oh, SG., Lee, YS. et al. Projections of high resolution climate changes for South Korea using multiple-regional climate models based on four RCP scenarios. Part 1: surface air temperature. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 52, 151–169 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-016-0017-9

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