Revisiting the potential to narrow model uncertainty in the projections
of Arctic runoff
Abstract
Despite multiple advances in the understanding of the water cycle
intensification in a warmer climate, climate models still diverge in
their hydrological projections. Here we constrain annual runoff
projections over individual and aggregated Arctic river basins. For this
purpose, we use two ensembles of global climate models and two
statistical methods: a regression scheme assuming similar runoff
sensitivities at interannual versus climate change timescales, and a
Bayesian method where models are used to derive a posterior runoff
response conditional to historical observations. While both techniques
are shown to narrow model uncertainties, more or less substantially
depending on rivers, the Bayesian method is less sensitive to the choice
of the model ensemble and is more skilful when tested with synthetic
observations. It has also been applied over the whole Arctic watershed,
showing so far a limited narrowing of the inter-model spread, but its
skill will further improve with increasing climate change.