Updated 2000-06-16
It has become clear in recent years that a changing composition of the atmosphere due to human activities may influence the climate system. The production of greenhouse gases and their accumulation in the atmosphere can result in a global warming and changes in the climate system. On regional scales, this may result in even much more pronounced changes. This is particularly true for the high northern latitudes. Climate changes will impact the society and nature in many ways. The anticipated effects are large and will matter both globally (mainly negative consequences) and regionally (both negative and positive consequences). SWECLIM provides users with detailed regional climate study results. SWECLIM develops regional (limited area) climate system modeling, studies climate processes and feedback special for the Nordic region and creates regional climate (change) scenarios on a time scale of 50-100 years. SWECLIM also performs impact studies on water resources. Climate scenarios are also made available for other impact studies, such as in forestry, done by external groups. Information activities on climate change and the regional consequences are an important component in the program. The regional climate model system is built around a regional atmospheric model, regional ocean models with sea ice for the Baltic Sea and land surface modeling plus hydrology. The model system is forced at the by large-scale results from global climate models. Multi-year to multi-decade length integrations are performed with the regional model targeting a domain roughly centered on the Nordic countries and using horizontal resolutions ranging from 20-80 km.
This is not a National Implementation Plan (NIP) project
Time frame
- Status
- Completed
- Project time span
- 1997 - 2003
- Data collection
- not specified
- Data processing
- not specified
- Data reporting
- 1998 - 2003
Data availability
- Are data archived or planned to be archived at an AMAP Thematic Data Centre?
- no
- If no (or only part of data are reported to a TDC), where and how are (other) data stored?
- The regional climate model data can be accessed by writing to the program.
- References to key publications (or planned publications) and data reports
- Bergström, S., Carlsson, B., Gardelin, M. Lindström, G., Pettersson, A. and Rummukainen, M. 2000. Climate change impacts on runoff in Sweden - assessments by global climate models, dynamical downscaling and hydrological modelling. Climate Research, accepted.
Chen, D. and Hellström, C. 1999. The influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the regional temperature variability in Sweden: spatial and temporal variations, Tellus 51A, 505-516.
Graham, L. P., 2000. Simulating climate change impacts on the water resources of the Baltic
Basin. Submitted to Nordic Hydrology.
Graham, L. P. and Bergström, S. 2000. Land surface modeling in hydrology and meteorology - lessons learned from the Baltic Basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, in press.
Meier, H. E. M., Döscher, R., Coward, A. C., Nycander, J. and Döös, K. 1999. RCO - Rossby Centre regional Ocean climate model: model description (version 1.0) and first results from the hindcast period 1992/93. SMHI, Reports Oceanography No. 26, 102 pp. [Available from SWECLIM/SMHI, SE-60176 Norrköping, SWEDEN.]
Meier, H. E. M. 1999. First results of multi-year simulations using a 3D Baltic Sea model. SMHI, Reports Oceanography No. 27, 48 pp. [Available from SWECLIM/SMHI, SE-60176 Norrköping, SWEDEN.]
Omstedt, A., Gustafsson, B., Rodhe, J., Walin, G. 2000. Use of Baltic Sea modelling to
investigate the water cycle and the heat balance in GCM and regional climate models. Climate Research, in press.
Rummukainen, M., Räisänen, J., Ullerstig, A. and Bringfelt, B. 1999. A regional climate
simulation stressing the significance of the Baltic Sea ice and lake ice in the Nordic climate
(change). In: Ritchie, H. (ed.) Research activities in atmospheric and oceanic modelling,
CAS/JSC working group on numerical experimentation, Report No. 28, WMO/TD-No. 942, p. 7.60-7.61.
Rummukainen, M., Räisänen, J., Bringfelt, B., Ullerstig, A. Omstedt, A., Willén, U., Hansson, U. and Jones, C. 2000. A regional climate model for northern Europe - model description and results from the downscaling of two GCM control simulations. Submitted to Climate Dynamics.
Räisänen, J., Rummukainen, M., Ullerstig, A., Bringfelt, B., Hansson, U. and Willén, U. 1999. The First Rossby Centre Regional Climate Scenario - Dynamical Downscaling of CO2-induced Climate Change in the HadCM2 GCM. SMHI, Reports Meteorology and Climatology No. 85, 56 pp. [Available from SWECLIM/SMHI, SE-60176 Norrköping, SWEDEN.]
Räisänen, J. 2000. CO2-induced climate change in northern Europe: comparison of 12 CMIP2 experiments. SMHI, Reports Meteorology and Climatology No. 87, 59 pp. [Available from SWECLIM/SMHI, SE-60176 Norrköping, SWEDEN.]
SWECLIM 2000. Klimatet angår oss alla. Årsrapport 1999. SMHI, 27 pp. [Available from
SWECLIM/SMHI, SE-60176 Norrköping, SWEDEN.]
- Samples/specimens archived in specimen banks?
- No
Methods & Procedures
Not specified
Additional Information
- Is this a bi- AND multi-lateral project (i.e. a project involving cooperation between different countries)?
- No
- Other institutes involved in the project
In addition to the Rossby Centre and the Research unit at the Swedish Meteorological and
Hydrological Institute (SMHI), other institutes involved are the Department of Meteorology and Stockholm Marine Research Centre at the Stockholm University and the Department of Earth Sciences at the Göteborg University.
- Is this project reporting to other organizations/programmes?
No
- Other related projects
No