Journal article
Performance of climate field reconstruction methods over multiple seasons and climate variables
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol.118(17), pp.9595-9610
09/16/2013
DOI: 10.1002/jgrd.50765
Abstract
Studies of climate variability require long time series of data but are limited by the absence of preindustrial instrumental records. For such studies, proxy‐based climate reconstructions, such as those produced from tree‐ring widths, provide the opportunity to extend climatic records into preindustrial periods. Climate field reconstruction (CFR) methods are capable of producing spatially‐resolved reconstructions of climate fields. We assessed the performance of three commonly used CFR methods (canonical correlation analysis, point‐by‐point regression, and regularized expectation maximization) over spatially‐resolved fields using multiple seasons and climate variables. Warm‐ and cool‐season geopotential height, precipitable water, and surface temperature were tested for each method using tree‐ring chronologies. Spatial patterns of reconstructive skill were found to be generally consistent across each of the methods, but the robustness of the validation metrics varied by CFR method, season, and climate variable. The most robust validation metrics were achieved with geopotential height, the October through March temporal composite, and the Regularized Expectation Maximization method. While our study is limited to assessment of skill over multidecadal (rather than multi‐centennial) time scales, our findings suggest that the climate variable of interest, seasonality, and spatial domain of the target field should be considered when assessing potential CFR methods for real‐world applications. Key Points CCA, PPR, and RegEM climate field reconstruction (CFR) methods were compared Tree‐ring widths calibrated against seasonal GPH, temp, and precipitable water Most robust method depends on season, climate variable, and location of interest
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Performance of climate field reconstruction methods over multiple seasons and climate variables
- Creators
- Matthew P Dannenberg - University of North Carolina at Chapel HillErika K Wise - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol.118(17), pp.9595-9610
- DOI
- 10.1002/jgrd.50765
- ISSN
- 2169-897X
- eISSN
- 2169-8996
- Number of pages
- 16
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/16/2013
- Academic Unit
- Geographical and Sustainability Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9983983646702771
Metrics
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