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What is it?
Transferability can be considered a new method for doing climate research. Controlled numerical simulations of climate are conducted over locations having different climate regimes (e.g., tropical vs. arctic) with ensembles of models, each individual model having identical settings for all regimes. Transferability experiments also could be conducted on different regions having a common climate regime (e.g., monsoons, low-level jets, mesoscale convective systems) with ensembles of models. The water cycle introduces challenges to climate predictability because it includes exponential, binary, and other non-linear processes that occur on a wide range of interacting scales. Furthermore, the water cycle creates spatial inhomogeneities that feed back strongly to the energy budget and circulation systems. Improvements in climate prediction hinge strongly on improving our ability to numerically simulate processes of the water cycle.
Therefore transferability experiments seeking to improve climate predictability
focus on the water cycle and its feedbacks to the energy budget and circulation
system.
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