The regional climate change index(RCCI)is employed to investigate hot-spots under 21st century global warming over East Asia.The RCCI is calculated on a 1-degree resolution grid from the ensemble of CMIP3 simulations for the B1,A1B,and A2 IPCC emission scenarios.The RCCI over East Asia exhibits marked sub-regional variability.Five sub-regional hot-spots are identified over the area of investigation:three in the northern regions(Northeast China,Mongolia,and Northwest China),one in eastern China,and one over the Tibetan Plateau.Contributions from different factors to the RCCI are discussed for the sub-regions. Analysis of the temporal evolution of the hot-spots throughout the 21st century shows different speeds of response time to global warming for the different sub-regions.Hot-spots firstly emerge in Northwest China and Mongolia.The Northeast China hot-spot becomes evident by the mid of the 21st century and it is the most prominent by the end of the century.While hot-spots are generally evident in all the 5 sub-regions for the A1B and A2 scenarios,only the Tibetan Plateau and Northwest China hot-spots emerge in the B1 scenario,which has the lowest greenhouse gas(GHG)concentrations.Our analysis indicates that sub- regional hot-spots show a rather complex spatial and temporal dependency on the GHG concentration and on the different factors contributing to the RCCI.
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