Region by region projections of how climate is likely to change over the coming decades help to make the prospect of global warming more tangible and relevant.
Picturing the climate we are likely to have with unabated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in, say, Melbourne, Sydney, or the Murray Darling, lets us weigh up the costs and benefits of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Regional projections also let us plan how to adapt to any unavoidable changes in our climate. Planning changes to farming practices, water supply or natural ecosystem management, for example, requires some idea of what our future regional climate is likely to be.
Here in Australia we have had a long history of national climate change projections. Since 1990, CSIRO has released five updates of projected changes in temperature, rainfall, extreme events and many other key aspects of our climate system.
CSIRO’s last release was done with the Bureau of Meteorology in 2007. It provided the most detailed product available up to that time.
This release included the innovation (a world first amongst national projections at the time) of providing probabilities for the projected changes.
Why modelling?
The complexity of the climate system means that we cannot simply extrapolate past trends to forecast future conditions. Instead, we use climate models developed and utilised extensively over recent decades.
These are mathematical representations of the climate systems based on the laws of physics.
Results from all of the climate modelling centres around the world are considered in preparing Australian projections. We place greatest weight on the models that are best in representing our historical climate.
Global climate modelling has continued to develop over recent years. Most of the modelling centres are now running improved versions of their models compared to what was available in 2007.
As part of an international coordinated effort, a new database of the latest climate model output is being assembled for researchers to use ahead of the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is many times richer than any previously available.
Analysing this massive resource will be a focus of research of a large number of scientists in CSIRO, BoM and the universities over the next few years.
Putting the models to good use
While the science has been developing, so have the demands of users of this projection information. Policymakers at all levels of government, natural resource planners, industry, non-government organisations and individuals all are placing demands on climate projection science. These are growing in volume and complexity.
For example, researchers want regionally specific scenarios for changes in the frequency of hot days, extreme rainfall, fire, drought, cyclones, hail, evaporation, sunshine, coral bleaching temperatures, ocean acidification and sea level rise.
This type of information is particularly useful for risk assessments that can inform policy development and implementation.
For example, assessing future climate risks to infrastructure can place quite different demands on climate projection science compared to, say, assessing risks to agricultural enterprises.
Given these developments, the time is coming for the Australian climate research community to update and expand their projections. Planning has begun for a release in 2014. This will be just after the completion of the next IPCC assessment.
At that time, Australians will have the latest climate projections for the 21st century for a range of factors, including sea levels, seasonal-average temperatures and rainfall, as well as extreme weather events.
Resources permitting, these new projections will also include online services which will enable users to generate climate scenarios to suit the specific needs of many risk assessments.
Finding out more about summer rainfall
As climate scientists start to analyse these new model data, a major focus of attention will be simulated changes to summer rainfall over Australia.
Models have consistently indicated a drying trend for the winter rainfall regions in southern Australia and this is a result which also aligns with other evidence such as observed trends.
On the other hand, models give inconsistent projections for summer rainfall change, ranging from large increase to large decrease. Researchers will be hoping to reduce this key uncertainty as they begin to analyse the results.
However, when it comes to projecting our future climate, there will always be some uncertainty to deal with.
Dealing with uncertainty
Climate projection scientists have to clearly convey the uncertainties while not letting these overwhelm the robust findings about regional climate change that the science provides.
Climate projection uncertainties can be presented in many different ways, such as through ranges of plausible change, as probabilistic estimates, or as alternative scenarios.
We shouldn’t necessarily be most interested in the most likely future. In some cases, it may be more prudent to plan for less likely, but higher risk, future climates.
It can be difficult to make a complex message as relevant as possible to a wide range of decision-makers. CSIRO climate scientists are tackling this by working with social scientists to help develop new and more effective communication methods. These should be ready in time for the next projections release.