Future climate change scenarios for Asia as inferred from selected coupledatmosphere-ocean global climate models

The response of the Asian continent to transient increases in future anthro pogenic radiative forcings using the data generated in a set of numerical e xperiments performed with four coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate mode ls (A-O GCMs) is examined here. These A-O GCMs have demonstrated reasonable skill as regards their ability to simulate the broad features of present-d ay observed climatological features over the Asian region. A plausible scen ario of climate change over Asia and its six sub-regions as inferred from t hese A-O GCMs due to the future emissions of greenhouse gases and/or sulfat e aerosols is presented. In general, the projected warming over Asia is higher during NH winter than during summer for both the decades 2050s (2040-2069) and 2080s (2070-2099) . The rise in surface air temperature is likely to be most pronounced over the North Asia region in all. the seasons. Each of the four A-O GCMs consid ered here simulates an enhanced hydrological cycle and an increase in annua l precipitation over most of Asia. The inter-model differences in projectio ns of precipitation are quite large even when averaged for the entire Asian continent suggesting rather limited confidence in the future projections o f regional scale precipitation in currently available A-O GCM simulations.