This final report is for the Pacific Islands CSC funded project "Very Fine Resolution Dynamical Downscaling of Past and Future Climates for Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Islands of O`ahu and Kaua`i".
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Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016EF000478/full): The highest mountain peaks on Hawaii Island are snow covered for part of almost every year. This snow has aesthetic and recreational value as well as cultural significance for residents and visitors. Thus far there have been almost no systematic observations of snowfall, snow cover, or snow depth in Hawaii. Here we use satellite observations to construct a daily index of Hawaii Island snow cover starting from 2000. The seasonal mean of our index displays large interannual variations that are correlated with the seasonal mean freezing level and frequency of trade wind inversions as determined from nearby balloon soundings. Our snow cover...
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Clouds often come in contact with vegetation (often named fogs) within a certain elevation range on Hawaii’s mountains. Propelled by strong winds, cloud droplets are driven onto the stems and leaves of plants where they are deposited. Some of the water that accumulates on the plants in this way drips to the ground, adding additional water over and above the water supplied by rainfall. Prior observations show that the amount of cloud water intercepted by vegetation is substantial, but also quite variable from place to place. It is, therefore, important to create a map for the complex spatial patterns of cloud water interception (CWI) in Hawaii. In this project, we created the CWI map at 0.8-km resolution based on...
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This final report is for the Pacific Islands-funded project "21st Century High-Resolution Climate Projections for Guam and American Samoa". We provide the projected fine-resolution future climate changes over Guam and American Samoa by the late 21st century (2080-2099) with both a high emissions scenario (RCP8.5) and a medium emission scenario (RCP4.5). We show that the surface air temperature (SAT) over Guam is likely to increase by 1.5 – 2.0 °C for RCP4.5 and by 3.0 – 3.5 °C for RCP8.5, while the projected SAT increases over American Samoa are slightly smaller. The projected annual mean future rainfall changes for Guam are not statistically significant in any location in either the RCP4.5 or RCP8.5 scenarios....
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This project snapshot provides a brief overview of the project "Very Fine Resolution Dynamical Downscaling of Past and Future Climates for Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Islands of O`ahu and Kaua`i".
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