Regularized Fingerprinting with Linearly Optimal Weight Matrix in Detection and Attribution of Climate Change

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Hauptverfasser: Li, Haoran, Li, Yan
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Li, Haoran
Li, Yan
author_facet Li, Haoran
Li, Yan
contents Climate change detection and attribution play a central role in establishing the causal influence of human activities on global warming. The dominant framework, optimal fingerprinting, is a linear errors-in-variables model in which each covariate is subject to measurement error with covariance proportional to that of the regression error. The reliability of such analyses depends critically on accurate inference of the regression coefficients. The optimal weight matrix for estimating these coefficients is the precision matrix of the regression error, which is typically unknown and must be estimated from climate model simulations. However, existing regularized optimal fingerprinting approaches often yield underestimated uncertainties and overly narrow confidence intervals that fail to attain nominal coverage, thereby compromising the reliability of analysis. In this paper, we first propose consistent variance estimators for the regression coefficients within the class of linear shrinkage weight matrices, addressing undercoverage in conventional methods. Building on this, we derive a linearly optimal weight matrix that directly minimizes the asymptotic variances of the estimated scaling factors. Numerical studies confirm improved empirical coverage and shorter interval lengths. When applied to annual mean temperature data, the proposed method produces narrower, more reliable intervals and provides new insights into detection and attribution across different regions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_04070
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Regularized Fingerprinting with Linearly Optimal Weight Matrix in Detection and Attribution of Climate Change
Li, Haoran
Li, Yan
Methodology
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Climate change detection and attribution play a central role in establishing the causal influence of human activities on global warming. The dominant framework, optimal fingerprinting, is a linear errors-in-variables model in which each covariate is subject to measurement error with covariance proportional to that of the regression error. The reliability of such analyses depends critically on accurate inference of the regression coefficients. The optimal weight matrix for estimating these coefficients is the precision matrix of the regression error, which is typically unknown and must be estimated from climate model simulations. However, existing regularized optimal fingerprinting approaches often yield underestimated uncertainties and overly narrow confidence intervals that fail to attain nominal coverage, thereby compromising the reliability of analysis. In this paper, we first propose consistent variance estimators for the regression coefficients within the class of linear shrinkage weight matrices, addressing undercoverage in conventional methods. Building on this, we derive a linearly optimal weight matrix that directly minimizes the asymptotic variances of the estimated scaling factors. Numerical studies confirm improved empirical coverage and shorter interval lengths. When applied to annual mean temperature data, the proposed method produces narrower, more reliable intervals and provides new insights into detection and attribution across different regions.
title Regularized Fingerprinting with Linearly Optimal Weight Matrix in Detection and Attribution of Climate Change
topic Methodology
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04070