Impacts of Increased Atmospheric CO2on the Hydroclimate of theWestern United States

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Abstract
Regional-scale projections of climate change signals due to increases in atmospheric CO2 are generated for the western United States using a regional climate model (RCM) nested within two global scenarios from a GCM. The downscaled control climate improved the local accuracy of the GCM results substantially. The downscaled control climate is reasonably close to the results of an 8-yr regional climate hindcast using the same RCM nested within the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, despite wet biases in high-elevation regions along the Pacific coast. The downscaled near-surface temperature signal ranges from 3 to 5 K in the western United States. The projected warming signals generally increase with increasing elevation, consistent with earlier studies for the Swiss Alps and the northwestern United States. In addition to the snow–albedo feedback, seasonal variations of the low-level flow and soil moisture appear to play important roles in the spatial pattern of warming signals. Projected changes in precipitatio... Abstract Regional-scale projections of climate change signals due to increases in atmospheric CO2 are generated for the western United States using a regional climate model (RCM) nested within two global scenarios from a GCM. The downscaled control climate improved the local accuracy of the GCM results substantially. The downscaled control climate is reasonably close to the results of an 8-yr regional climate hindcast using the same RCM nested within the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, despite wet biases in high-elevation regions along the Pacific coast. The downscaled near-surface temperature signal ranges from 3 to 5 K in the western United States. The projected warming signals generally increase with increasing elevation, consistent with earlier studies for the Swiss Alps and the northwestern United States. In addition to the snow–albedo feedback, seasonal variations of the low-level flow and soil moisture appear to play important roles in the spatial pattern of warming signals. Projected changes in precipitatio...