Intensification characteristics of hydroclimatic extremes in the Asian monsoon region under 1.5 and 2.0&thinsp;°C of global warming

Kim, Jeong-Bae; Bae, Deg-Hyo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5799-2020

Articles | Volume 24, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5799-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5799-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 12

Research article

|

07 Dec 2020

Research article |

| 07 Dec 2020

Intensification characteristics of hydroclimatic extremes in the Asian monsoon region under 1.5 and 2.0 °C of global warming

Jeong-Bae Kim and Deg-Hyo Bae

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Dec 2020)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Feb 2020)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review: Intensification characteristics of hydroclimatic extremes in the Asia monsoon region under 1.5 and 2.0 °C of global warming by HLS', Harsh Shah, 22 Feb 2020
- AC1: 'Response to Reviewer 1', Deg-Hyo Bae, 03 May 2020
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Apr 2020
- AC2: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Deg-Hyo Bae, 03 May 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (31 May 2020) by Rohini Kumar

AR by Deg-Hyo Bae on behalf of the Authors (12 Jul 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Jul 2020) by Rohini Kumar

RR by Harsh Shah (13 Aug 2020)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (02 Oct 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The revised manuscript has improved considerably in its presentation as well as description of methods and results. The authors have adequately addressed the main issues raised by the reviewers. The manuscript presents an interesting analysis of likely changes in hydro-climatic extremes considering different climate regions in the Asia monsoon region. The addition of flowchart is useful to understand the methodology. The paper can be considered for publication after minor improvements in presentation, a few are suggested below.

1. The abstract still reads quite poorly and needs to be improved. The abstract focuses on generalized insights while missing out on highlighting the regional differences, which is the main contribution of this paper. While the last line says that the sensitivities are different, this difference is merely mentioned in the 2nd last line in reference to the cold and polar climates. In addition, the abstract has some unclear text. Some editorial suggestions:
a. Consider rephrasing the first sentence in the abstract. Suggestion: ‘Understanding the influence of global warming on regional hydro-climatic extremes is challenging.’
b. Line 2: ‘change of extreme’ should be ‘change in extreme’
c. Line 3: ‘due to various …. ‘ can be ‘due to spatial variability of climate and its seasonal variability’.
d. Line 14: 'significant' is a statistical term, is a statistical significance implied here? I suggest to review the use of ‘significant’ and ‘robustness’ throughout to present a mathematically consistent meaning.
e. Lines 14-15: ‘fewer than 45 days…. Fewer than 32 days’ how are these related to warm and cold extremes, which should be captured on a temperature scale.
f. Lines 15-16: ‘changes in precipitation ….. show’ can be ‘mean annual precipitation, mean annual runoff and low runoff extremes show’

2. Line 74: remove ‘the impact of’ from ‘the impact of global temperature. ..’
3. Line 74: replace ‘separately’ with ‘differently’
4. Lines 75-76: ‘hence, global …’ this line is redundant and repeats information from prior sentence. Please restructure this part of the text.
5. Lines 81-82: Remove ‘since climate extremes ….component’
6. Line 235: ‘gridded runoff’
7. Line 254-255: ‘Overall, the validation …’ this claim is conflicting with the explanation prior that there is underestimation of observed maximum runoff values, though the inter-quartile range are captured. Perhaps this line is not needed and the readers can themselves decide how adequate are the simulations based on the observations reported earlier in this paragraph.
8. Line 328: what is ‘not suggested’
9. Line 385: ‘)’ without an opening round bracket
10. Figures 5, 7, 9, 11: can all be consolidated into a single table. Right now the number of figures for the manuscript is on the higher side.
11. Section 3.2 and 3.3 mainly present several quantitative results. They are tedious to read with the numbers interspersed throughout (see for example, lines 400-405). Perhaps the text in these sections can be rewritten to focus on the important insights related to regional differences and differences between 1.5 and 2.0 degree warmings. A table can be used to consolidated the numbers being discussed.
12. Line 426: remove ‘changes in the’, also please consider introducing all shorthands (MDF, RANN etc.) in the methods section. It is also difficult to follow the shorthands for climate zones, consider using the full form itself instead of the shorthand whenever possible.
13. Line 446-447: seems to be contradictory to the main claim in the abstract that there are considerable regional differences in climate sensitivities. Please correct the abstract to reflect the specific results. Use generalization only when supported by the analysis. Instead use specific results such as those mentioned on line 466.
14. The text uses a confusing writing style. For example line 449-450 ‘changes in temperature ….. change patterns’. What is a ‘change pattern’ and avoid using change twice in the same sentence. Please check the entire text to correct for this issue.
15. Figure 1: Perhaps it will be more interesting to visualize boundaries of large river basins that cover the region (as opposed to political boundaries). The major rivers in this region serve one of the largest populations in the world.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (03 Oct 2020) by Rohini Kumar

AR by Deg-Hyo Bae on behalf of the Authors (19 Oct 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (29 Oct 2020) by Rohini Kumar

AR by Deg-Hyo Bae on behalf of the Authors (30 Oct 2020) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

We examine changes in hydroclimatic extremes for different climate zones in Asia in response to 1.5 and 2.0 °C global warming. Our results indicate consistent changes in temperature extremes and high precipitation (and maximum runoff) extremes across Asia. Extra 0.5 °C warming will lead to enhanced regional hydroclimatic extremes, especially in cold (and polar) climate zones. However, hydroclimatic sensitivities can differ based on regional climate characteristics and types of extreme variables.