Modeling Earth Systems and Environment

, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp 1055–1064 | Cite as

Diurnal cycle of rainfall over Central Africa simulated by RegCM

  • Derbetini A. Vondou
  • Zephirin D. Yepdo
  • Tanessong Romeo Steve
  • Tchakoutio Sandjon Alain
  • Lucie Djiotang Tchotchou
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
  • 114 Downloads

Abstract

This study evaluates the performance of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM4) at 25 km horizontal resolution in capturing the diurnal cycle of precipitation over Central Africa. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 0.25° × 0.25° rain-rates are used to evaluate RegCM4 simulation between 1998 and 2009. It is found a good agreement between the spatial distribution of the simulated and observed diurnal cycle of rainfall over the continent. Results indicate that the regional model exhibits a dry bias over the ocean. The minimum of the simulated diurnal cycle of precipitation is too early over land and the amplitude is too weak over ocean. The major similarities in the phase are found over the continental regions, however, substantial differences are seen over the ocean. The propagating diurnal cycle of precipitation, evident in TRMM, is well captured by the model.

Keywords

Central Africa RegCM4 Diurnal cycle Rainfall 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

RegCM4 simulations were carried out on a workstation provided by Dr. Serge Janicot of LOCEAN (Paris) within the framework of the PICREVAT project, which was funded by the French government. The TRMM dataset used in this study was acquired online from NASA. We wish to thank ICTP for providing regional climate model RegCM4. Figures were made using NCL and GMT free softwares.

References

  1. Adeniyi MO (2014) Sensitivity of different convection schemes in RegCM4.0 for simulation of precipitation during the Septembers of 1989 and 1998 over West Africa. Theor Appl Climatol 115:305–322. doi: 10.1007/s00,704-013-0881-5 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Almazroui M (2015) RegCM4 in climate simulation over CORDEX-MENA/Arab domain: selection of suitable domain, convection and land-surface schemes. Int J Climatol. doi: 10.1002/joc.4340
  3. Bechtold P, Semane N, Lopez P, Chaboureau JP, Beljaars A, Bormann N (2014) Representing equilibrium and nonequilibrium convection in large-scale models. J Atmos Sci 71:734–753. doi: 10.1175/JAS-D-13-0163.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Bell JP, Tompkins AM, Bouka-Biona C, Sanda IS (2015) A process-based investigation into the impact of the Congo basin deforestation on surface climate. J Geophys Res Atmos 120:5721–5739. doi: 10.1002/2014JD022,586 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Birch CE, Roberts M, Garcia-Carreras L, Ackerley D, Reeder M, Lock A, Schiemann R (2015) Sea-breeze dynamics and convection initiation: the influence of convective parameterization in weather and climate model biases. J Clim 28:8093–8108. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00,850.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Dee D, Uppala SM, Simmons AJ, Berrisford P, Poli P, Kobayashi S, Andrae U, Balmaseda M, Balsamo G, Bauer P, Bechtold P, Beljaars A, van de Berg L, Bidlot J, Bormann N, Delsol C, Dragani RMF, Geer A, Haimberger L, Healy S, Hersbach H, Ho’lm EV, Isaksen L, Kallberg P, Köhler M, Matricardi M, McNally AP, Monge-Sanz BM, Morcrette JJ, Park BK, Peubey C, de Rosnay P, Tavolato C, Thépaut JN, Vitart F (2011) The ERA-interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q J R Meteorol Soc 137:553–597. doi: 10.1002/qj.828
  7. Diro GT, Rauscher SA, Giorgi F, Tompkins AM (2012) Sensitivity of seasonal climate and diurnal precipitation over Central America to land and sea surface schemes in RegCM4. Clim Res 52:31–48. doi: 10.3354/cr01,049 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Emanuel K (1991) A scheme for representing cumulus convection in large scale models. J Atmos Sci 48:2313–2335. doi: 10.1175/1520-0469(1991)048<2313:ASFRCC>2.0.CO;2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Giorgi F, Coppola E, Solmon F, Mariotti L et al (2012) RegCM4: model description and preliminary tests over multiple CORDEX domains. Clim Res 52:7–29. doi: 10.3354/cr01,018 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Grell GA (1993) Prognostic evaluation of assumptions used by cumulus parameterizations. Mon Weather Rev 121:764–787. doi: 10.1175/1520-0493(1993)121<0764:PEOAUB>2.0.CO;2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Houze RA Jr (2012) Orographic effects on precipitating clouds. Rev Geophys 50:RG1001. doi: 10.1029/2011RG000,365 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Huffman GJ, Adler RF, Bolvin DT, Nelkin EJ (2010) The TRMM multi-satellite precipitation analysis (TMPA). In: Gebremichael M, Hossain F (eds) Satellite rainfall applications for surface hydrology, chap 1. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 3–22. ISBN: 978-90-481-2914-0Google Scholar
  13. Jackson B, Nicholson SE, Klotter D (2009) Mesoscale convective systems over Western Equatorial Africa and their relationship to large-scale circulation. Mon Weather Rev 137:1272–1294. doi: 10.1175/2008MWR2525.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Laing AG, Carbone R, Levizzani V (2011) Cycles and propagation of deep convection over Equatorial Africa. Mon Weather Rev 139:2832–2853. doi: 10.1175/2011MWR3500.1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Lee MI, Schubert SD, Suarez MJ, Held IM, Lau NC, Ploshay JJ, Kumar A, Kim HK, Schemm JKE (2007) An analysis of the warm-season diurnal cycle over the continental United States and Northern Mexico in general circulation models. J Clim 8:344–366. doi: 10.1175/JHM581.1
  16. Liang XZ, Li L, Dai A, Kunkel KE (2004) Regional climate model simulation of summer precipitation diurnal cycle over the United States. Geophys Res Lett 31:L24,208. doi: 10.1029/2004GL021,054
  17. Nesbitt SW, Zipser EJ (2003) The diurnal cycle of rainfall and convective intensity according to three years of TRMM measurements. J Clim 16:1456–1475. doi: 10.1175/1520-0442-16.10.1456 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Nikulin G, Jones C, Giorgi F, Asrar G, Büchner M, Cerezo-Mota R, Christensen OB, Déqué M, Fernandez J, Andreas H, Van Meijgaard E, Samuelsson P, Sylla MB, Sushama L (2012) Precipitation climatology in an ensemble of CORDEX-Africa regional climate simulations. J Clim 25:6057–6078. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00,375.1
  19. Ogwang BA, Chen H, Li X, Gao C (2014) The influence of topography on East African October to December climate: sensitivity experiments with RegCM4. Adv Meteorol. doi: 10.1155/2014/143917
  20. Tchotchou Djiotang LA, Mkankam KF (2010) Sensitivity of the simulated African monsoon of summers 1993 and 1999 to convective parameterization schemes in RegCM3. Theor Appl Climatol 100:207–220CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Vondou DA, Nzeukou A, Lenouo A, Mkankam Kamga F (2010) Seasonal variations in the diurnal patterns of convection in Cameroon–Nigeria and their neighboring areas. Atmos Sci Lett 11:290–300. doi: 10.1002/asl.29
  22. Warner TT, Mapes BE, Xu M (2003) Diurnal patterns of rainfall in northwestern South America. Part II: model simulations. Mon Weather Rev 131:813–829. doi: 10.1175/1520-0493(2003)131<0813:DPORIN>2.0.CO;2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Yang S, Smith EA (2006) Mechanisms for diurnal variability of global tropical rainfall observed from TRMM. J Clim 19:5190–5226. doi: 10.1175/JCLI3883.1
  24. Yousef AE, Ehsan A, Almazroui M, Assiri ME, Al-Khalaf AK (2015) An improvement in mass flux convective parameterizations and its impact on seasonal simulations using a coupled model. Theor Appl Climatol. doi: 10.1007/s00,704-015-1668-7

Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Laboratory for Environmental Modelling and Atmospheric Physics, Department of PhysicsUniversity of Yaounde 1YaoundeCameroon
  2. 2.National Institute of CartographyYaoundeCameroon
  3. 3.Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, School of Wood, Water and Natural ResourcesUniversity of DschangDschangCameroon
  4. 4.Department of Computer Science, Higher Technical Teachers Training College (HTTTC)University of BueaKumbaCameroon

Personalised recommendations