Comparison of CMIP6 and CMIP5 models performance in simulating temperature in Northeast China

Based on the observational data of CN05. 1, this article evaluated and compared the performance of 39 CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5) models and 34 CMIP6 (CMIP phase 6) models in simulating surface air temperature of the three provinces in Northeast China (the Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning Province) by Taylor diagram, skill scores (S value) and the composite rating indicators (M-r). Results showed that: 1) The CMIP6 models possess a relatively higher capability in simulating the temperature from the interannual variations of regionally averaged surface air temperature, spatial distributions of annual mean surface air temperature and its trend than CMIP5 models but shows a negative bias; 2) CMIP5 and CMIP6 preferred ensemble mean (MMES and MME6) generally performs better than the individual models. Compared with the MME5, MME6 shows a significant improvement in simulating the climatological spatial distribution of temperature and its trend, whilst is slightly inferior in simulating the interannual variations of regionally averaged temperature. Generally speaking, CMIP6 models exhibit a significant improvement compared to the CMIP5 models and MME6 has been proven effective at simulating the temperature in Northeast China.