EVALUATION OF SIMULATIONS OF TERRESTRIAL PRECIPITATION IN UK MET OFFICE HADLEY CENTER CLIMATE-CHANGE EXPERIMENTS/

This paper evaluates the simulation of precipitation in four successiv e versions of the UK Met. Office/Hadley Centre global climate model (G CM) that have: been used to perform climate change experiments. The pr ecipitation fields over land from the control integrations of these fo ur experiments are compared with observed precipitation on a global sc ale and for selected regions. Globally, improvements in simulating mea n monthly precipitation patterns occur with successive simulations. Th e poorest correlations and highest root mean square errors occur in th e boreal summer months. A major improvement in the simulation of the S outh Asian summer monsoon by the most recent versions of the model is noted. The pattern of temporal variability in the later versions over global land areas is generally well simulated. The observed pattern of temporal correlation between the Southern Oscillation Index and preci pitation anomalies has improved in the latest model version.