The new research differs from other so - called extreme
event attribution studies, not just in its broad - brush approach, but also in how the term «extreme» is defined.
A new report released Friday by the National Academy of Sciences has found that such extreme
event attribution studies can be done reliably for certain types of weather extremes, including heavy precipitation.
Event attribution studies like the one described in the paper can help lead to improved understanding.
Not exact matches
With hurricanes, wildfires and drought, 2017 is chock - full of extreme
event candidates for next year's crop of BAMS
attribution studies.
Overall, the chances of seeing a rainfall
event as intense as Harvey have roughly tripled - somewhere between 1.5 and five times more likely - since the 1900s and the intensity of such an
event has increased between 8 percent and 19 percent, according to the new
study by researchers with World Weather
Attribution, an international coalition of scientists that objectively and quantitatively assesses the possible role of climate change in individual extreme weather
events.
Storms also a question mark The
attribution studies also looked into storms and rainfall extremes, but the complexity of atmospheric processes during such
events made it difficult for scientists to decipher the role of climate change.
Attribution studies are meant to help policymakers understand whether an extreme weather
event is likely to repeat in the future.
Trenberth says, and some scientists agree, that
attribution studies that use climate models do not work well for weather
events that are local and dynamic — a flash in the pan.
Smith said his
study is not meant to tease out
event attribution, and that for many of last year's weather
events, it will take months for scientists to determine which variables are linked to certain parts of climate change.
Atmospheric heatwaves can have significant impacts on human health31 and
attribution studies have shown that these
events, and atmospheric heatwaves in general, have become much more likely as a result of anthropogenic warming32.
Ultimately, however, no one has performed a specific climate
attribution study on this
event, so we can not say with high confidence if and to what extent climate change has altered Hurricane Harvey.»
The first
study tying a weather
event to climate change didn't come out until 2004, making the field of weather
event attribution less than 15 years old.
As has been the case since the first
attribution studies, the firmest conclusions about the role of warming came from high temperature
events.
As for whether a warming climate played a part in this historic storm, Henson described the
event as an «excellent candidate for an
attribution and detection
study.»
This included an
event - specific
attribution study on the 2013 New Zealand drought, as well as highlighting differences in the emergence of heat extremes for the global population when aggregated by income grouping.
Such analysis requires an «
attribution study,» which often uses myriad runs of high - powered computer models to determine the odds of an
event occurring with, and without, human - caused changes to the atmosphere.
«The methodological frameworks were very much in their infancy at the time of Katrina in 2005,» said Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford climate researcher who performs climate change «
attribution»
studies, seeking to determine how the probability of various weather
events has changed as a result of the warming of the climate.
is the latest in what are known as «single
event attribution»
studies.
The
study is the first to take so - called
event attribution a step further to investigate how warming has increased the risks of flooding impacts, finding that it has likely put more properties at risk and raised the costs of such an
event.
I don't see a similar «point of contact» between models and reality as far as
attribution studies of extreme
events are concerned, given that what we need to compare are modeled statistics (which we can always have by making many model runs) and meaningful real statistics, (which are hard to get)?
I'm not a close follower of the literature in this area, but has someone done an
attribution study showing that the 97 - 98
event — or general ENSO variation in the past 30 years — would be unchanged in the absence of increasing anthropogenic GHG forcing?
It's hard enough to attribute increased flooding or hurricanes in the past to GW, since these are not everyday
events as temperature is (there have been some
studies that have attempted such
attribution re hurricanes and floods, & I'll see if I can dig them up).
As long as we're talking about extreme weather
events and
attribution... although Kerry Emanuel is usually the go - to guy for the
study of increasing tropical cyclone intensity, his 2005 and 2011 (linked to above by Stefan) papers being the most cited, there is a limitation of scope in that only the North Atlantic basin is covered by these papers, AFAIK.
«Chief among these,» wrote Mann, «is the notion that just because somebody hasn't done a formal
attribution study of a particular
event, that
event somehow must not have been influenced by climate change.»
These
events would thus be good candidates for
attribution studies — as Bob Henson of UCAR remarked in connection with the colorado
event:
The paper considers the necessary components of a prospective
event attribution system, reviews some specific case
studies made to date (Autumn 2000 UK floods, summer 2003 European heatwave, annual 2008 cool US temperatures, July 2010 Western Russia heatwave) and discusses the challenges involved in developing systems to provide regularly updated and reliable
attribution assessments of unusual or extreme weather and climate - related
events.
«Since the AR4, there is some new limited direct evidence for an anthropogenic influence on extreme precipitation, including a formal detection and
attribution study and indirect evidence that extreme precipitation would be expected to have increased given the evidence of anthropogenic influence on various aspects of the global hydrological cycle and high confidence that the intensity of extreme precipitation
events will increase with warming, at a rate well exceeding that of the mean precipitation..
For example, after an extreme weather
event, scientists often carry out single
attribution studies to determine how the likelihood of such an
event could have been influenced by climate change and short - term climate variability.
The extreme
event attribution technique used for these
studies was pioneered well over a decade ago.
A recent analysis [1] by Dr Luke Harrington and Dr Friederike Otto of climateprediction.net introduces a new framework, adapted from
studies of probabilistic
event attribution, to disentangle the relative importance of regional climate emergence and changing population dynamics in the exposure to future heat extremes across multiple densely populated regions in Southern Asia and Eastern Africa (SAEA).
The main objective of this
study is an
event attribution analysis for extreme minimum
events in Arctic SIE.
The Met Office carries out
attribution studies to assess how human influence has altered the chances of a particular
event.
The latest in so - called
attribution studies is to
study each individual
event by itself, looking for how climate change may have made it stronger or more likely.
According to a
study published in the latest Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) special issue on
attribution, climate change did not contribute to the extreme five - day rainfall
event that caused the floods.
We are pleased to announce that we are starting a new collaborative project with Climate Central that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of near real - time
attribution studies for extreme weather
events around the world.
Although the demand for
attribution assessments is higher shortly after an
event occurs, most scientific
studies become available several months later.
Attribution studies typically focus on specific extreme
events.
says, and some scientists agree, that
attribution studies that use climate models do not work well for weather
events that are local and dynamic — ...
For example, the National Academies recently published a
study on the
attribution of extreme
events in the context of climate change, noting that «advances have come about for two main reasons: one, the understanding of the climate and weather mechanisms that produce extreme
events is improving, and two, rapid progress is being made in the methods that are used for
event attribution.
Her main research interest is the quantification of uncertainty and validation of climate models, in particular with respect to extreme
events, in order to undertake
attribution studies of extreme weather
events to external climate drivers.
This included an
event - specific
attribution study on the 2013 New Zealand drought, as well as highlighting differences in the emergence of heat extremes for the global population when aggregated by income grouping.
Chief among these is the notion that just because somebody hasn't done a formal
attribution study of a particular
event, that
event somehow must not have been influenced by climate change.
EUCLEIA, the «EUropean CLimate and weather
Events: Interpretation and
Attribution» project, is an EU - funded project studying the attribution of weather and climate risks
Attribution» project, is an EU - funded project
studying the
attribution of weather and climate risks
attribution of weather and climate risks for Europe.
Probably the best - known
attribution study for a specific extreme
event is this one: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUFMGC31A0723H
That said, it is going to be discussed as if it were an
attribution study — that global warming raised the odds of this extreme
event.
Trenberth also focused on climate
attribution studies which claim the lack of a human component, and suggested that the assumptions distort results in the direction of finding no human influence, resulting in misleading statements about the causes of climate change that can serve to grossly underestimate the role of humans in climate
events.
We won't know for sure until (and unless) the question is formally
studied; «
attribution» of particular
events is notoriously tricky.
A November 2016
attribution study looks at the Zika outbreak in 2015 in South America and finds that the combination of a strong El Niño
event and human - caused climate change created optimal conditions for the outbreak.
The results of this
study indicate peer victimization does not lead to aggression, but the interpretation of
events such as hostility
attribution and cognitive, psychologic variable such as their personal peer rejection sensitivity have greater effect on aggression.