The Met Office Hadley Centre Regional Model Perturbed Physics Ensemble simulations for the 21st Century for the UK domain (HadRM3-PPE-UK)

Introduction

This dataset contains output from an ensemble of eleven variants of the MOHC Regional Climate Model (HadRM3), run from 1950-2099 and used to dynamically downscale global climate model (GCM) results as part of the climate change experiments carried out by the Met Office Hadley Centre for the latest UK Climate Projections report.

For these Regional Climate Model (RCM) experiments, transient projections from 11 Medium emissions (SRESA1B) scenario GCM experiments for 1950-2099 were used as boundary conditions.

The RCM used contains the same representations of atmospheric dynamical and physical processes as in a global model. It is run at a higher horizontal resolution (25km) but over a sub-global domain (typically 5000km square), and is driven at the boundary of the domain by time series of variables (such as temperature and winds) saved from a GCM projection. Sea surface temperatures and sea-ice extents are also prescribed from the GCM, since HadRM3 (like most RCMs) does not include an interactive ocean component. The purpose of RCMs is to provide a high resolution climate projection consistent with its driving GCM projection at spatial scales skilfully resolved by the latter, but adding realistic detail at finer scales. This is the "downscaling" process referred to above.

For the purposes of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP) project, the data corresponding to the UK domain have been extracted from the original (larger) domain, and it is these data which are made available here. The data is provided at daily resolution.

More information is available on the ensemble members, variables, grids, CSV format and archive structure relating to the HadRM3-PPE-UK dataset.

These data have been made available via the Climate Impacts LINK Project, a Defra-funded activity operated by the British Atmospheric Data Centre, which allows access for research to a range of data from model experiments undertaken at MOHC. It should be noted that data accessed via LINK is provided "as-is", and users seeking more detailed guidance should refer to the relevant UK Climate Projections report.

UM Model naming convention.

The Met Office have standardised the way their Unified Model should be referred to:

The Met Office Unified Model is a registered trademark. The Met Office must be acknowledged in any reproduction of data, publication of papers, reports, literature to customers or presentations arising out of the use of the software using: "Met Office Unified ModelTM (UK)".

Full details are given in UM Naming Convention document.

Restricted data

Access to HadRM3-PPE-UK data at the BADC is open to all. To gain access you must first register as a BADC user. After registering, the only requirement is to electronically accept the associated conditions of use agreement.

To apply online for access, please follow this link.

Access to data

The original data is stored in PP format, along with CF-compliant NetCDF and CSV versions that have been produced by the BADC. These netCDF files have been processed to make the data as easy to use as possible, and these data are recommended for users not familiar with the Met Office PP format. An example listing of the headers from one of the NetCDF files is available here . The model data can be accessed via FTP or HTTP (at: http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/browse/badc/hadrm3/data/hadrm3-ppe-uk (registered users only).

Please Note:

It is possible to extract a subset of each PP or NetCDF file (if this is all that is required) if you have an account on login.badc.rl.ac.uk, using the convsh utilility. It is straightforward to set up a simple convsh script to process your files and store the output in your home directory. These data may then be ftp'd back to your local machine for analysis. Documentation for convsh is available, as well as some example scripts to illustrate how it can be used.

Citation

Date of citation

References

"A methodology for probabilistic predictions of regional climate change from perturbed physics ensembles", J.M.Murphy et al, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (2007) 365, 1993-2028 doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2077

"The Met Office Hadley Centre climate modelling capability: the competing requirements for improved resolution, complexity and dealing with uncertainty", V. Pope et al,Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (2007) 365, 2635-2657 doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2087

"Ensembles and probabilities: a new era in the prediction of climate change", M. Collins, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A (2007) 365, 1957-1970 doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2068

Who to Contact

General queries about these pages and access to the data should be directed to the BADC support line. Your query should be answered within one working day. When follow-up work is required, the BADC support will carry out the work as quickly and efficiently as possible, and in any case, the user will be kept informed of progress.

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