Climate of Russia in the 21st Century. Part 1. New Evidence of Anthropogenic Climate Change and the State of the Art of its Simulation

V. P. Meleshko, V. M. Kattsov, V. M. Mirvis, V. A. Govorkova, and T. V. Pavlova

This is the first of three papers devoted to the study of climate change in Russia in the 20th and 21st centuries using ensembles of CMIP3 Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Models. Current studies of observed global and regional climate changes are briefly reviewed based on the analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The anthropogenic nature of climate change is emphasized. It is also noted that the observed warming in Russia is significantly larger than global warming. Alternative hypotheses on causes of global climate changes discussed in some Russian publications are reviewed and their groundlessness is shown. The paper discusses some characteristics of ensembles of CMIP3 models that participated in the preparation of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. A model quality index is introduced. The dependence of simulated climate change in Russia on the choice of model ensembles and emission scenarios is considered. It is shown that the climate change in Russia does not depend significantly on the emission scenario choice until the middle of the 21st century.