CLIMATE MODELS FOR PRECIPITATION

All of the figures in this section present absolute (rather than relative) precipitation measurements for the period 1900 to 1998; this period was chosen as it had available observed precipitation data. The choice of models was based on those listed on table 6 of the IPCC "General Guidelines on the Use of Scenario Data for Climate Impact and Adaptation Assessment", Version 2, June 2007.

The models we used and the reasons for our choice are given in the following table. In general we went for the latest version of a model from the same centre but also took account of the number of scenarios and the length of the simulation period.
Modelling Centre Country Model(s) in IPPC Table 6 Models Used Notes
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Australia CSIRO-Mk2 CSIRO Mk3.0
Max Planck Institut fur Meteorologie. (MPI) Germany ECHAM4/OPYC
ECHAM3/LSG		 ECHAM5/ MPI-OM
Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research. (UKMO) UK HadCM2 and HadCM3 UKMO HadCM3 In one set of files a missing value was replaced by previous year.
Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCMA) Canada CGCM1 And CGCM2 CGCM3.1 (T47) Has 5 scenarios
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) USA GFDL-R15 and GFDL-R30 GFDL CM2.1
National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) USA NCAR DOE-PCM PCM
National Institute for Environmental Studies (MIROC) Japan CCSR-NIES MIROC3.2 (medres) Covers longer period than ‘hires’ model.