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Article
Hydrological cycle in the upper Mississippi River basin: 20th century simulations by multiple GCMs
Geophysical Research Letters
  • Eugene S. Takle, Iowa State University
  • Manoj Jha, Iowa State University
  • Christopher J. Anderson, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
9-28-2005
DOI
10.1029/2005GL023630
Abstract

We used 20th century simulations by nine global climate models (GCMs) to provide input for a streamflow model to simulate baseline hydrologic conditions in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Statistical tests revealed that streamflow data produced by members of the GCM multi-model ensemble were serially uncorrelated at all lags and formed unimodal distributions and that GCM multi-model results may be used to assess annual streamflow in the UMRB. Although all low-resolution GCMs produced large differences from observations of streamflow and hydrological components simulated by the streamflow model, the nine-member ensemble performed quite well. Results of statistical tests indicate that, of all models used, the high-resolution GCM – the only high-resolution model tested – gives simulated streamflows much closer to observed values, despite the fact that its low-resolution sister model has no advantage over the other seven low-resolution models.

Comments

This article is published as Takle, Eugene S., Manoj Jha, and Christopher J. Anderson. "Hydrological cycle in the upper Mississippi River basin: 20th century simulations by multiple GCMs." Geophysical research letters 32, no. 18 (2005). DOI:10.1029/2005GL023630. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
American Geophysical Union
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Eugene S. Takle, Manoj Jha and Christopher J. Anderson. "Hydrological cycle in the upper Mississippi River basin: 20th century simulations by multiple GCMs" Geophysical Research Letters Vol. 32 Iss. 18 (2005) p. L18407
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/eugene-takle/56/