Hi Eniola,

Regarding your first question, it is hard to say if there is any best GCM which is best for any study region. The only way to perform research studies while using GCMs is by using ensembles of several GCMs. The first thing I will suggest to you is to identify some literature which has worked on African sub-continent while using different GCMs and take them as a reference point and start using for your own study. Regarding your second question, I do not know specifically if any pre-downscaled dataset is available. However, you can try to retrieve data from Sim-Clim which is 0.5 by 0.5 degree data (http://www.climsystems.com/simclim/). Good luck!

Cheers

Hi Eniola,

Regarding your first question, I agree with Proloy Deb that some literature search on GCMs analysed for Africa or parts of Africa will be very useful. Alternatively, you can download GCM data and compare relevant climate statistics obtained from GCM data with observed statistics. Regarding your second question, besides Sim-Clim you might have a look at the CORDEX website (http://www.cordex.org), specifically at the availability of RCM data for Region 4: Africa.

Good luck,

Martijn

I also agree with both the earlier answers, but based on my experience for an Indian region, I found ensembles model is found to be good

Similar is the experience with the historical data too for the period of 1980 to 2010 period with the observed data.

With respect to second part , if it is available with me, I will send the same. Kindly send me the location details like lat and long for the area of your interest.

Hello Eniola, I too work on the same theme, but this time in a semi-arid zone. You can do a downscaling (SDSM) then you work on the model GR2M. Greetings

Hello Eniola,

Regarding your first question, try using LARS as a free software for generating future climate variables, also you can use SDSM 5.2. I agree with both Proloy and Surendran by using ensembles of several GCMs.

Regards.

Eniola,

Using several GCMs for studying future climate is much better than using only one GCM. Also, if you want to do your research for some specific points, then SDSM or LARS-WG can be useful for you.

Eniola

It is better to use several GCMs and choose the best performing one for your case study area. Selection of GCMs has a wide range and several publications are available.

Thanks

Eniola Damilola Ashaolu ,

You should use several GCMs with the ensemble, that would give you the right judgement about your choice of GCM. For downscaling, you could use ClimDown R package.