Natural Decadal Climate Variability

Natural decadal climate variability (DCV) and its interactions with anthropogenic climate change (ACC) are vitally important to understand to predict the future of the Earth’s climate. This book, after familiarizing readers with the importance of understanding and predicting DCV phenomena and its distinction from ACC phenomena, comprehensively explains the physics of DCV, integrating paleoclimate proxy and modern instrument-based data and simulations with climate models. Features of this book: Uniquely focuses on natural DCV, its physics, and its predictability Presents an integrated view of DCV phenomena based on approximately 700 peer-reviewed publications cited in the book Includes research on influences of decadal variability in solar emissions on the Earth’s climate, with a historical perspective going back several centuries Describes progress in decadal climate predictability and prediction research, with a historical perspective on weather and climate predictability research This book is an excellent resource for graduate students, faculty members and other teachers and researchers, and anyone who is interested in learning about a very important component of the puzzle of the changing climate. "This book provides a comprehensive review.... Highlighted throughout the book are potential links between DCV and solar variability, a fascinating topic that has engaged our minds for centuries. Written by an expert with more than 30 years’ experience, this book should be an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in how our climate will evolve over the coming decades." Doug Smith, Decadal Climate Prediction Leader, Meteorological Office Hadley Centre, UK "This book is a tour de force by the author who has spent his career studying decadal climate variability. He brings new insights to the vast scope of this topic, providing clearly understandable descriptions of the various aspects." Gerald Meehl, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, USA

Many factors contribute to variability in Earth's climate on a range of timescales, from seasons to decades. Natural climate variability arises from two different sources: (1) internal variability from interactions among components of the climate system, for example, between the ocean and the atmosphere, and (2) natural external forcings, such as variations in the amount of radiation from the Sun. External forcings on the climate system also arise from some human activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols. The climate that we experience is a combination of all of these factors. Understanding climate variability on the decadal timescale is important to decision-making. Planners and policy makers want information about decadal variability in order to make decisions in a range of sectors, including for infrastructure, water resources, agriculture, and energy. In September 2015, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to examine variability in Earth's climate on decadal timescales, defined as 10 to 30 years. During the workshop, ocean and climate scientists reviewed the state of the science of decadal climate variability and its relationship to rates of human-caused global warming, and they explored opportunities for improvement in modeling and observations and assessing knowledge gaps. Frontiers in Decadal Climate Variability summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Natural Decadal Climate Variability: Societal Impacts is an important work for understanding the natural decadal climate variability (DCV), a phenomenon which has made long lasting impacts on civilizations, especially on water availability and agriculture. This book comprehensively covers multiyear to decadal variations in instrument measured precipitation and temperature, water availability and river flows, crop production, agricultural irrigation, inland water-borne transportation, hydroelectricity generation, and fish and crustacean captures since the 1960s. A longer term perspective is provided with the use of multi-century data on dry and wet epochs based on tree ring information, and corroborating evidence from other literature. This valuable work will benefit climate scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, agronomists, water transportation planners, resource economists, policymakers, professors, and graduate students and anyone else who has an interest in learning how natural climate phenomena has influenced societies for at least the past 1000 years.

On decadal time scales, climate change may result not only from man-made causes, but also from natural processes. This book brings together theoretical conceptions of the physical mechanisms of climate change with observational evidence of these changes. The following key topics are included: Observed Climatic Variability, Predictability of the Atmosphere and Oceans from Days to Decades, and Mechanisms for Decadal to Centennial Climate Variability. Further, there are specialised contributions on the role of the oceanic circulation in climate change. The authors are renowned for their pedagogical skills, and the book is primarily designed for beginners in the field, who have a background in physical science. In addition, it is an invaluable source of information for scientists seeking an overview on climate dynamics.

It is becoming increasingly important to understand and predict decadal climate variability, both because of its direct societal impacts and because shorter time scale weather and climate phenomena, such as heavy rainfall events and tropical cyclones, vary at decadal time scale. With chapters on the North Pacific Oscillation, the Modulation of Tropical cyclones, and the Chaotic Dynamics of the Tropical Coupled Ocean-atmosphere System, this book is the first to study the topic in-depth, providing a comprehensive review of the field to graduate students, and post-doctoral and other scientists.

This volume reflects the current state of scientific knowledge about natural climate variability on decade-to-century time scales. It covers a wide range of relevant subjects, including the characteristics of the atmosphere and ocean environments as well as the methods used to describe and analyze them, such as proxy data and numerical models. They clearly demonstrate the range, persistence, and magnitude of climate variability as represented by many different indicators. Not only do natural climate variations have important socioeconomic effects, but they must be better understood before possible anthropogenic effects (from greenhouse gas emissions, for instance) can be evaluated. A topical essay introduces each of the disciplines represented, providing the nonscientist with a perspective on the field and linking the papers to the larger issues in climate research. In its conclusions section, the book evaluates progress in the different areas and makes recommendations for the direction and conduct of future climate research. This book, while consisting of technical papers, is also accessible to the interested layperson.

This book focuses on two major challenges in the climate sciences: 1) to describe the decadal-to-centennial variations in instrumental and proxy records; and 2) to distinguish between anthropogenic variations and natural variability. The National Taiwan University invited some of the world's leading experts across the areas of observational analysis, mathematical theory, and modeling to discuss these two issues. The outcome of the meeting is the 23 chapters in this book that review the state of the art in theoretical, observational and modeling research on internal, unforced and externally forced climate variability. The main conclusion of this research is that internal climate variability on decadal and longer time scales is so large that sidestepping it may lead to false estimates of the climate's sensitivity to anthropogenic forcing. Contents:Attribution of Climate Change in the Presence of Internal Variability (John M Wallace, Clara Deser, Brian V Smoliak, and Adam S Phillips)A Mathematical Theory of Climate Sensitivity or, How to Deal With Both Anthropogenic Forcing and Natural Variability? (Michael Ghil)Fluctuation-dissipation Theorem with Application to Climate Change Studies with Seasonal Impact (Xiaoming Wang)Parametrization of Cross-scale Interaction in Multiscale Systems (Jeroen Wouters and Valerio Lucarini)Dynamics of Nonlinear Error Growth and the "Spring Predictability Barrier" for El Niño Predictions (Wansuo Duan and Mu Mu)An Adaptive Approach for Nonlinear and Nonstationary Data Analysis (Norden E Huang)Internal Southern Ocean Centennial Variability: Dynamics, Impacts and Implications for Global Warming (Mojib Latif, Torge Martin, Wonsun Park, and Mohammad H Bordbar)Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and Climate (Rong Zhang)North Atlantic Multi-Decadal Variability — Mechanisms and Predictability (Noel S Keenlyside, Jin Ba, Jennifer Mecking, Nour-Eddine Omrani, Mojib Latif, Rong Zhang, and Rym Msadek)A Review of the Dynamics of Pacific Interdecadal Climate Variability (Zhengyu Liu)Global-Scale Decadal Hyper Modes (Dietmar Dommenget)Evidence for a Recurrent Multi-Decadal Oscillation in Global Temperature and Possible Impacts on 21st Century Climate Projections (Ka-Kit Tung and Jiansong Zhou)Variability of Sea Ice Extent Over Decadal and Longer Timescales (John E Walsh and William L Chapman)Multi-year Prediction and Predictability (Timothy DelSole, Michael K Tippett, and Liwei Jia)Decadal Hydroclimate Variability Across the Americas (Richard Seager)The Interhemispheric Pattern and Long-Term Variations in the Tropical Climate over the 20th and 21st Centuries (John C H Chiang)Climate of China in the Holocene (Wang Shaowu, Wen Xinyu, and Huang Jianbin)North Atlantic Hurricane Activity: Past, Present and Future (Rym Msadek, Gabriel A Vecchi, and Thomas R Knutson)Observed Variations of Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity on Decadal Time Scales and Longer (Johnny C L Chan)Record-Breaking Increase of Tropical Cyclone Heavy Rainfall in Taiwan in the First Decade of 21st Century (Chih-Pei Chang, Hung-Chi Kuo, and Chung-Hsiung Sui)Multi-Decadal Variability in Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall Using Proxy Data (Bhupendra N Goswami, Ramesh H Kripalani, Hemant P Borgaonkar, and Bhaskar Preethi)The South-Flood North-Drought Pattern Over Eastern China and the Drying of the Gangetic Plain (Sumant Nigam, Yongjing Zhao, Alfredo Ruiz-Barradas, and Tianjun Zhou)Impacts of Aerosols on the Asian Monsoon — An Interim Assessment (William K M Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim) Readership: Graduate students, academics and researchers in atmospheric sciences, oceanography, mathematics, and climate change. Keywords:Climate Change;Multidecadal Variability;Climate Variability Asia-Pacific Weather