Replication data for: Simulations of the Holocene Climate in Europe Using Dynamical Downscaling within the iLOVECLIM model (version 1.1)

AbstractThis study presents the application of dynamical downscaling in Europe using iLOVECLIM (a model of intermediate complexity), increasing its resolution from 5.56° to 0.25° latitude-longitude. A transient simulation using the appropriate climate forcings for the entire Holocene (11.5–0 kyr BP) was done for both the standard version of the model and with dynamical downscaling applied. Our results show that, simulations from dynamical downscaling present spatial variability which agrees better with proxy-based reconstruction and other climate models as compared to the standard model. The downscaling scheme simulates much higher (by at least a factor of two) precipitation maxima and provides detailed information in mountainous regions. We focus on examples from the Scandes Mountains, the Alps, the Scottish Highlands and the Mediterranean. The higher spatial resolution of the dynamical downscaling provides a more realistic overview of the topography, gives local climate information such as precipitation and temperature gradient that is important for paleoclimate studies. The results from the downscaling show in some cases similar magnitude of the precipitation changes reconstructed by other proxy studies (for example in the Alps). There is also a good agreement for the overall trend and spatial pattern than the standard version. Our downscaling tool is numerically cheap which can perform kilometric-multi-millennial simulations and suitable for future studies.Description of datasetsThis dataset is the Holocene climate for Europe simulated with the standard version of the iLOVECLIM model and with dynamical downscaling applied. iLOVECLIM is a three-dimensional Earth system model of intermediate complexity (EMIC). The climatic variables simulated includes annual temperature and precipitation. This dataset has been validated against previously published independent climate models from a variety of relevant database and it looks good. This simulated climate data is available for download in netCDF (.nc) format, which is a standard format for most climate data. The datasets 11.5K_Down.nc is when dynamical downscaling has been applied whiles 11.5K_Standard.nc is the low resolution version of the iLOVECLIM simulations.