scholarly journals Medicanes in an ocean–atmosphere coupled regional climate model

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2189-2201 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Akhtar ◽  
J. Brauch ◽  
A. Dobler ◽  
K. Béranger ◽  
B. Ahrens

Abstract. So-called medicanes (Mediterranean hurricanes) are meso-scale, marine, and warm-core Mediterranean cyclones that exhibit some similarities to tropical cyclones. The strong cyclonic winds associated with medicanes threaten the highly populated coastal areas around the Mediterranean basin. To reduce the risk of casualties and overall negative impacts, it is important to improve the understanding of medicanes with the use of numerical models. In this study, we employ an atmospheric limited-area model (COSMO-CLM) coupled with a one-dimensional ocean model (1-D NEMO-MED12) to simulate medicanes. The aim of this study is to assess the robustness of the coupled model in simulating these extreme events. For this purpose, 11 historical medicane events are simulated using the atmosphere-only model, COSMO-CLM, and coupled model, with different setups (horizontal atmospheric grid spacings of 0.44, 0.22, and 0.08°; with/without spectral nudging, and an ocean grid spacing of 1/12°). The results show that at high resolution, the coupled model is able to not only simulate most of medicane events but also improve the track length, core temperature, and wind speed of simulated medicanes compared to the atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the coupled model is more proficient for systemic and detailed studies of historical medicane events, and that this model can be an effective tool for future projections.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 2117-2149 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Akhtar ◽  
J. Brauch ◽  
A. Dobler ◽  
K. Béranger ◽  
B. Ahrens

Abstract. So-called medicanes (Mediterranean hurricanes) are meso-scale, marine, and warm-core Mediterranean cyclones that exhibit some similarities to tropical cyclones. The strong cyclonic winds associated with medicanes threaten the highly populated coastal areas around the Mediterranean basin. To reduce the risk of casualties and overall negative impacts, it is important to improve the understanding of medicanes with the use of numerical models. In this study, we employ an atmospheric limited-area model (COSMO-CLM) coupled with a one-dimensional ocean model (1-D NEMO-MED12) to simulate medicanes. The aim of this study is to assess the robustness of the coupled model in simulating these extreme events. For this purpose, 11 historical medicane events are simulated using the atmosphere-only model, COSMO-CLM, and coupled model, with different setups (horizontal atmospheric grid-spacings of 0.44°, 0.22°, and 0.08°; with/without spectral nudging, and an ocean grid-spacing of 1/12°). The results show that at high-resolution, the coupled model is able to not only simulate most of medicane events but also improve the track length, core temperature, and wind speed of simulated medicanes compared to the atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the coupled model is more proficient for systemic and detailed studies of historical medicane events, and that this model can be an effective tool for future projections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4305-4321
Author(s):  
Lars Nerger ◽  
Qi Tang ◽  
Longjiang Mu

Abstract. Data assimilation integrates information from observational measurements with numerical models. When used with coupled models of Earth system compartments, e.g., the atmosphere and the ocean, consistent joint states can be estimated. A common approach for data assimilation is ensemble-based methods which utilize an ensemble of state realizations to estimate the state and its uncertainty. These methods are far more costly to compute than a single coupled model because of the required integration of the ensemble. However, with uncoupled models, the ensemble methods also have been shown to exhibit a particularly good scaling behavior. This study discusses an approach to augment a coupled model with data assimilation functionality provided by the Parallel Data Assimilation Framework (PDAF). Using only minimal changes in the codes of the different compartment models, a particularly efficient data assimilation system is generated that utilizes parallelization and in-memory data transfers between the models and the data assimilation functions and hence avoids most of the file reading and writing, as well as model restarts during the data assimilation process. This study explains the required modifications to the programs with the example of the coupled atmosphere–sea-ice–ocean model AWI-CM (AWI Climate Model). Using the case of the assimilation of oceanic observations shows that the data assimilation leads only to small overheads in computing time of about 15 % compared to the model without data assimilation and a very good parallel scalability. The model-agnostic structure of the assimilation software ensures a separation of concerns in which the development of data assimilation methods can be separated from the model application.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhili Wang ◽  
Lei Lin ◽  
Yangyang Xu ◽  
Huizheng Che ◽  
Xiaoye Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractAnthropogenic aerosol (AA) forcing has been shown as a critical driver of climate change over Asia since the mid-20th century. Here we show that almost all Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models fail to capture the observed dipole pattern of aerosol optical depth (AOD) trends over Asia during 2006–2014, last decade of CMIP6 historical simulation, due to an opposite trend over eastern China compared with observations. The incorrect AOD trend over China is attributed to problematic AA emissions adopted by CMIP6. There are obvious differences in simulated regional aerosol radiative forcing and temperature responses over Asia when using two different emissions inventories (one adopted by CMIP6; the other from Peking university, a more trustworthy inventory) to driving a global aerosol-climate model separately. We further show that some widely adopted CMIP6 pathways (after 2015) also significantly underestimate the more recent decline in AA emissions over China. These flaws may bring about errors to the CMIP6-based regional climate attribution over Asia for the last two decades and projection for the next few decades, previously anticipated to inform a wide range of impact analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 145 (7) ◽  
pp. 2575-2595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edoardo Mazza ◽  
Uwe Ulbrich ◽  
Rupert Klein

The processes leading to the tropical transition of the October 1996 medicane in the western Mediterranean are investigated on the basis of a 50-member ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) simulations. By comparing the composites of transitioning and nontransitioning cyclones it is shown that standard extratropical dynamics are responsible for the cyclogenesis and that the transition results from a warm seclusion process. As the initial thermal asymmetries and vertical tilt of the cyclones are reduced, a warm core forms in the lower troposphere. It is demonstrated that in the transitioning cyclones, the upper-tropospheric warm core is also a result of the seclusion process. Conversely, the warm core remains confined below 600 hPa in the nontransitioning systems. In the baroclinic stage, the transitioning cyclones are characterized by larger vertical wind shear and intensification rates. The resulting stronger low-level circulation in turn is responsible for significantly larger latent and sensible heat fluxes throughout the seclusion process.


2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 2296-2311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Trusilova ◽  
Barbara Früh ◽  
Susanne Brienen ◽  
Andreas Walter ◽  
Valéry Masson ◽  
...  

AbstractAs the nonhydrostatic regional model of the Consortium for Small-Scale Modelling in Climate Mode (COSMO-CLM) is increasingly employed for studying the effects of urbanization on the environment, the authors extend its surface-layer parameterization by the Town Energy Budget (TEB) parameterization using the “tile approach” for a single urban class. The new implementation COSMO-CLM+TEB is used for a 1-yr reanalysis-driven simulation over Europe at a spatial resolution of 0.11° (~12 km) and over the area of Berlin at a spatial resolution of 0.025° (~2.8 km) for evaluating the new coupled model. The results on the coarse spatial resolution of 0.11° show that the standard and the new models provide 2-m temperature and daily precipitation fields that differ only slightly by from −0.1 to +0.2 K per season and ±0.1 mm day−1, respectively, with very similar statistical distributions. This indicates only a negligibly small effect of the urban parameterization on the model's climatology. Therefore, it is suggested that an urban parameterization may be omitted in model simulations on this scale. On the spatial resolution of 0.025° the model COSMO-CLM+TEB is able to better represent the magnitude of the urban heat island in Berlin than the standard model COSMO-CLM. This finding shows the importance of using the parameterization for urban land in the model simulations on fine spatial scales. It is also suggested that models could benefit from resolving multiple urban land use classes to better simulate the spatial variability of urban temperatures for large metropolitan areas on spatial scales below ~3 km.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Jeworrek ◽  
Lichuan Wu ◽  
Christian Dieterich ◽  
Anna Rutgersson

Abstract. Convective snow bands develop in response to a cold air outbreak from the continent or the frozen sea over the open water surface of lakes or seas. The comparatively warm water body triggers shallow convection due to increased heat and moisture fluxes. Strong winds can align with this convection into wind-parallel cloud bands, which appear stationary as the wind direction remains consistent for the time period of the snow band event, delivering enduring snow precipitation at the approaching coast. The statistical analysis of a dataset from an 11-year high-resolution atmospheric regional climate model (RCA4) indicated 4 to 7 days a year of moderate to highly favourable conditions for the development of convective snow bands in the Baltic Sea region. The heaviest and most frequent lake effect snow was affecting the regions of Gävle and Västervik (along the Swedish east coast) as well as Gdansk (along the Polish coast). However, the hourly precipitation rate is often higher in Gävle than in the Västervik region. Two case studies comparing five different RCA4 model setups have shown that the Rossby Centre atmospheric regional climate model RCA4 provides a superior representation of the sea surface with more accurate sea surface temperature (SST) values when coupled to the ice–ocean model NEMO as opposed to the forcing by the ERA-40 reanalysis data. The refinement of the resolution of the atmospheric model component leads, especially in the horizontal direction, to significant improvement in the representation of the mesoscale circulation process as well as the local precipitation rate and area by the model.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Winton ◽  
Alistair Adcroft ◽  
Stephen M. Griffies ◽  
Robert W. Hallberg ◽  
Larry W. Horowitz ◽  
...  

Abstract The influence of alternative ocean and atmosphere subcomponents on climate model simulation of transient sensitivities is examined by comparing three GFDL climate models used for phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). The base model ESM2M is closely related to GFDL’s CMIP3 climate model version 2.1 (CM2.1), and makes use of a depth coordinate ocean component. The second model, ESM2G, is identical to ESM2M but makes use of an isopycnal coordinate ocean model. The authors compare the impact of this “ocean swap” with an “atmosphere swap” that produces the GFDL Climate Model version 3 (CM3) by replacing the AM2 atmospheric component with AM3 while retaining a depth coordinate ocean model. The atmosphere swap is found to have much larger influence on sensitivities of global surface temperature and Northern Hemisphere sea ice cover. The atmosphere swap also introduces a multidecadal response time scale through its indirect influence on heat uptake. Despite significant differences in their interior ocean mean states, the ESM2M and ESM2G simulations of these metrics of climate change are very similar, except for an enhanced high-latitude salinity response accompanied by temporarily advancing sea ice in ESM2G. In the ESM2G historical simulation this behavior results in the establishment of a strong halocline in the subpolar North Atlantic during the early twentieth century and an associated cooling, which are counter to observations in that region. The Atlantic meridional overturning declines comparably in all three models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 527-540
Author(s):  
Jing Zou ◽  
Zhenghui Xie ◽  
Chesheng Zhan ◽  
Feng Chen ◽  
Peihua Qin ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 779-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Geyer

Abstract. The coastDat data sets were produced to give a consistent and homogeneous database mainly for assessing weather statistics and long-term changes for Europe, especially in data sparse regions. A sequence of numerical models was employed to reconstruct all aspects of marine climate (such as storms, waves, surges etc.) over many decades. Here, we describe the atmospheric part of coastDat2 (Geyer and Rockel, 2013, doi:10.1594/WDCC/coastDat-2_COSMO-CLM). It consists of a regional climate reconstruction for entire Europe, including Baltic and North Sea and parts of the Atlantic. The simulation was done for 1948 to 2012 with a regional climate model and a horizontal grid size of 0.22° in rotated coordinates. Global reanalysis data were used as forcing and spectral nudging was applied. To meet the demands on the coastDat data set about 70 variables are stored hourly.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Almazroui

This paper investigates the temperature and precipitation extremes over the Arabian Peninsula using data from the regional climate model RegCM4 forced by three Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models and ERA–Interim reanalysis data. Indices of extremes are calculated using daily temperature and precipitation data at 27 meteorological stations located across Saudi Arabia in line with the suggested procedure from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) for the present climate (1986–2005) using 1981–2000 as the reference period. The results show that RegCM4 accurately captures the main features of temperature extremes found in surface observations. The results also show that RegCM4 with the CLM land–surface scheme performs better in the simulation of precipitation and minimum temperature, while the BATS scheme is better than CLM in simulating maximum temperature. Among the three CMIP5 models, the two best performing models are found to accurately reproduce the observations in calculating the extreme indices, while the other is not so successful. The reason for the good performance by these two models is that they successfully capture the circulation patterns and the humidity fields, which in turn influence the temperature and precipitation patterns that determine the extremes over the study region.


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