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Sensitivity of the weather research and forecasting model to parameterization schemes for regional climate of Nile River Basin

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Abstract

Regional climate models (RCMs) have been used to simulate rainfall at relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions useful for sustainable water resources planning, design and management. In this study, the sensitivity of the RCM, weather research and forecasting (WRF), in modeling the regional climate of the Nile River Basin (NRB) was investigated using 31 combinations of different physical parameterization schemes which include cumulus (Cu), microphysics (MP), planetary boundary layer (PBL), land-surface model (LSM) and radiation (Ra) schemes. Using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis data as initial and lateral boundary conditions, WRF was configured to model the climate of NRB at a resolution of 36 km with 30 vertical levels. The 1999–2001 simulations using WRF were compared with satellite data combined with ground observation and the NCEP reanalysis data for 2 m surface air temperature (T2), rainfall, short- and longwave downward radiation at the surface (SWRAD, LWRAD). Overall, WRF simulated more accurate T2 and LWRAD (with correlation coefficients >0.8 and low root-mean-square error) than SWRAD and rainfall for the NRB. Further, the simulation of rainfall is more sensitive to PBL, Cu and MP schemes than other schemes of WRF. For example, WRF simulated less biased rainfall with Kain-Fritsch combined with MYJ than with YSU as the PBL scheme. The simulation of T2 is more sensitive to LSM and Ra than to Cu, PBL and MP schemes selected, SWRAD is more sensitive to MP and Ra than to Cu, LSM and PBL schemes, and LWRAD is more sensitive to LSM, Ra and PBL than Cu, and MP schemes. In summary, the following combination of schemes simulated the most representative regional climate of NRB: WSM3 microphysics, KF cumulus, MYJ PBL, RRTM longwave radiation and Dudhia shortwave radiation schemes, and Noah LSM. The above configuration of WRF coupled to the Noah LSM has also been shown to simulate representative regional climate of NRB over 1980–2001 which include a combination of wet and dry years of the NRB.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Chun Chao Kuo for his valuable advice and support throughout this study. We are also grateful to Compute Canada’s WestGrid support staff for their assistance with technical issues of its supercomputers. This research partly was supported by Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and University of Alberta. ERA-Interim data used in this study was taken from http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/ of ECMWF, and the TRMM dataset was taken from the data provider GES DISC of NASA, http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov.

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  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 1H9, Canada

    Tebikachew Betru Tariku & Thian Yew Gan

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Tariku, T.B., Gan, T.Y. Sensitivity of the weather research and forecasting model to parameterization schemes for regional climate of Nile River Basin. Clim Dyn 50, 4231–4247 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3870-z

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