scholarly journals A High Resolution Coupled Ocean-atmosphere Simulation of the Regional Climate Over Central America

Author(s):  
Vasubandhu Misra ◽  
C. B. Jayasankar

Abstract This study analyzes a relatively high resolution (15km grid spacing), regional coupled ocean-atmosphere simulation configured over Central America. The simulation is forced with global atmospheric and oceanic reanalysis for a period of 25 years (1986-2010). The spatial resolution and the time period of the Regional Climate Model (RCM) simulation are both unprecedented for the region. The highlights of the RCM simulation include the verifiable seasonal cycle of mesoscale features like the low level jets, the mid-summer drought and the seasonal tropical cyclone activity both in the Pacific and in the Atlantic Oceans. Similarly, the seasonal cycle of the robust surface ocean currents in the eastern Pacific and the Costa Rica Dome is also well captured in the RCM simulation. The RCM simulation also resolves the seasonal cycle of the Panama-Colombia Gyre, the Gulf of Papagayo and the Gulf of Tehuantepec Gyre. In many instances we find the RCM improves upon the global reanalysis forcing the simulation, indicating the potential value of dynamic downscaling. Furthermore, the co-evolving components of the atmosphere and ocean in the RCM is an added benefit to the atmosphere only and ocean only global reanalysis forcing the simulation. However, the model displays significant biases that manifest in precipitation, precipitable water, SST and winds which could potentially be improved.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ménégoz ◽  
Evgenia Valla ◽  
Nicolas C. Jourdain ◽  
Juliette Blanchet ◽  
Julien Beaumet ◽  
...  

Abstract. Changes of precipitation over the European Alps are investigated with the regional climate model MAR applied with a 7-km resolution over the period 1903–2010 using the reanalysis ERA-20C as forcing. A comparison with several observational datasets demonstrates that the model is able to reproduce the climatology as well as both the inter-annual variability and the seasonal cycle of precipitation over the European Alps. The relatively high resolution allows to estimate precipitation at high elevations. The vertical gradient of precipitation simulated by MAR over the European Alps reaches 33 % km−1 (1.21 mm.day−1.km−1) in summer and 38 % km−1 (1.15 mm.day−1.km−1) in winter, on average over 1971–2008 and shows a large spatial variability. A significant (p-value 


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1857-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre B. Pieri ◽  
Jost von Hardenberg ◽  
Antonio Parodi ◽  
Antonello Provenzale

Abstract We explore the impact of different resolutions, convective closures, and microphysical parameterizations on the representation of precipitation statistics (climatology, seasonal cycle, and intense events) in 20-yr-long simulations over Europe with the regional climate Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The simulations are forced in the period 1979–98, using as boundary conditions the ERA-Interim fields over the European region. Special attention is paid to the representation of precipitation in the Alpine area. We consider spatial resolutions ranging from 0.11° to 0.037°, allowing for an explicit representation of convection at the highest resolution. Our results show that while there is a good overall agreement between observed and modeled precipitation patterns, the model outputs display a positive precipitation bias, particularly in winter. The choice of the microphysics scheme is shown to significantly affect the statistics of intense events. High resolution and explicitly resolved convection help to considerably reduce precipitation biases in summer and the reproduction of precipitation statistics.


Science ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 264 (5155) ◽  
pp. 72-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Tziperman ◽  
L. Stone ◽  
M. A. Cane ◽  
H. Jarosh

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon C. Scherrer ◽  
Christoph Spirig ◽  
Martin Hirschi ◽  
Felix Maurer ◽  
Sven Kotlarski

<p>The Alpine region has recently experienced several dry summers with negative impacts on the economy, society and ecology. Here, soil water, evapotranspiration and meteorological data from several observational and model-based data sources is used to assess events, trends and drivers of summer drought in Switzerland in the period 1981‒2020. 2003 and 2018 are identified as the driest summers followed by somewhat weaker drought conditions in 2020, 2015 and 2011. We find clear evidence for an increasing summer drying in Switzerland. The observed climatic water balance (-39.2 mm/decade) and 0-1 m soil water from reanalysis (ERA5-Land: -4.7 mm/decade; ERA5: -7.2 mm/decade) show a clear tendency towards summer drying with decreasing trends in most months. Increasing evapotranspiration (potential evapotranspiration: +21.0 mm/decade; ERA5-Land actual evapotranspiration: +15.1 mm/decade) is identified as important driver which scales excellently (+4 to +7%/K) with the observed strong warming of about 2°C. An insignificant decrease in precipitation further enhanced the tendency towards drier conditions. Most simulations of the EURO-CORDEX regional climate model ensemble underestimate the changes in summer drying. They underestimate both, the observed recent summer warming and the small decrease in precipitation. The changes in temperature and precipitation are negatively correlated, i.e. simulations with stronger warming tend to show (weak) decreases in precipitation. However, most simulations and the reanalysis overestimate the correlation between temperature and precipitation and the precipitation-temperature scaling on the interannual time scale. Our results emphasize that the analysis of the regional summer drought evolution and its drivers remains challenging especially with regional climate model data but considerable uncertainties also exist in reanalysis data sets.</p>


SOLA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (0) ◽  
pp. 132-139
Author(s):  
Sheau Tieh Ngai ◽  
Hidetaka Sasaki ◽  
Akihiko Murata ◽  
Masaya Nosaka ◽  
Jing Xiang Chung ◽  
...  

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