Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Simulating the impact of the large-scale circulation on the 2-m temperature and precipitation climatology

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The impact of the simulated large-scale atmospheric circulation on the regional climate is examined using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as a regional climate model. The purpose is to understand the potential need for interior grid nudging for dynamical downscaling of global climate model (GCM) output for air quality applications under a changing climate. In this study we downscale the NCEP-Department of Energy Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP-II) Reanalysis using three continuous 20-year WRF simulations: one simulation without interior grid nudging and two using different interior grid nudging methods. The biases in 2-m temperature and precipitation for the simulation without interior grid nudging are unreasonably large with respect to the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) over the eastern half of the contiguous United States (CONUS) during the summer when air quality concerns are most relevant. This study examines how these differences arise from errors in predicting the large-scale atmospheric circulation. It is demonstrated that the Bermuda high, which strongly influences the regional climate for much of the eastern half of the CONUS during the summer, is poorly simulated without interior grid nudging. In particular, two summers when the Bermuda high was west (1993) and east (2003) of its climatological position are chosen to illustrate problems in the large-scale atmospheric circulation anomalies. For both summers, WRF without interior grid nudging fails to simulate the placement of the upper-level anticyclonic (1993) and cyclonic (2003) circulation anomalies. The displacement of the large-scale circulation impacts the lower atmosphere moisture transport and precipitable water, affecting the convective environment and precipitation. Using interior grid nudging improves the large-scale circulation aloft and moisture transport/precipitable water anomalies, thereby improving the simulated 2-m temperature and precipitation. The results demonstrate that constraining the RCM to the large-scale features in the driving fields improves the overall accuracy of the simulated regional climate, and suggest that in the absence of such a constraint, the RCM will likely misrepresent important large-scale shifts in the atmospheric circulation under a future climate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexandru A, de Elia R, Laprise R (2007) Internal variability in regional climate downscaling at the seasonal scale. Mon Wea Rev 135(9):3221–3238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson CJ, Arritt RW, Pan Z, Takle ES, Gutowski WJ, Otieno FO, da Silva R, Caya D, Christensen JH, Lüthi D, Gaertner MA, Gallardo C, Giorgi F, Laprise R, Hong SY, Jones C, Juang HM, Katzfey JJ, McGregor JL, Lapenta WM, Larson JW, Taylor JA, Liston GE, Pielke RA, Roads JO (2003) Hydrological processes in regional climate model simulations of the Central United States flood of June–July 1993. J Hydrometeor 4(3):584–598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowden JH, Otte TL, Nolte CG, Otte MJ (2012) Examining interior grid nudging techniques using two-way nesting in the WRF model for regional climate modeling. J Clim 25:2805–2823

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bukovsky MS, Karoly DJ (2009) Precipitation simulations using WRF as a nested regional climate model. J Appl Meteor Climatol 48(10):2152–2159. doi:10.1175/2009JAMC2186.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castro CL, Pielke RA, Leoncini G (2005) Dynamical downscaling: assessment of value retained and added using the regional atmospheric modeling system (RAMS). J Geophys Res 110:D05,108+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen F, Dudhia J (2001) Coupling an advanced land surface hydrology model with the Penn State NCAR MM5 modeling system. Part I: model implementation and sensitivity. Mon Wea Rev 129(4):569–585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen J, Carter T, Rummukainen M, Amanatidis G (2007) Evaluating the performance and utility of regional climate models: the PRUDENCE project. Climatic Change 81(0):1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen JH, Machenhauer B, Jones RG, Schär C, Ruti PM, Castro M, Visconti G (1997) Validation of present-day regional climate simulations over Europe: LAM simulations with observed boundary conditions. Clim Dyn 13:489–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins WD, Rasch PJ, Boville BA, Hack JJ, McCaa JR, Williamson DL, Kiehl JT, Briegleb B, Bitz C, Lin SJ, Zhang M, Dai Y (2004) Description of the NCAR community atmosphere model (CAM 3.0). Tech. rep., NCAR Technical Note

  • Davies HC (1976) A lateral boundary formulation for multi-level prediction models. QJ Roy Meteor Soc 102:405–418

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F (2006) Regional climate modeling: status and perspectives. J de Physique IV 139:101–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grell GA, Dévényi D (2002) A generalized approach to parameterizing convection combining ensemble and data assimilation techniques. Geophys Res Lett 29(14):1693+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grotch SL, MacCracken MC (1991) The use of general circulation models to predict regional climatic change. J Clim 4:286–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong SY, Lim JOJ (2006) The WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme (WSM6). J Korean Meteor Soc 42(2):129–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong SY, Noh Y, Dudhia J (2006) A new vertical diffusion package with an explicit treatment of entrainment processes. Mon Wea Rev 134(9):2318–2341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inatsu M, Kimoto M (2009) A scale interaction study on East Asian cyclogenesis using a general circulation model coupled with an interactively nested regional model. Mon Wea Rev 137(9):2851–2868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones RG, Murphy JM, Noguer M (1995) Simulation of Climatic Change over Europe using a nested regional-climate model. I: assessment of control climate, including sensitivity to location of lateral boundaries. Q J R Meteorol Soc 121(526):1413–1449

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanamitsu M, Ebisuzaki W, Woollen J, Yang SK, Hnilo JJ, Fiorino M, Potter GL (2002) NCEP-DOE AMIP-II reanalysis (R-2). Bull Am Meteorol Soc 83:1631–1643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz RW, Parlange MB, Tebaldi C (2003) Stochastic modeling of the effects of large-scale circulation on daily weather in the Southeastern US. Climatic Change 60(1):189–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kida H, Koide T, Sasaki H, Chiba M (1991) A new approach to coupling a limited area model with a GCM for regional climate simulation. J Meteor Soc Japan 69:723–728

    Google Scholar 

  • Koster RD, Dirmeyer PA, Guo Z, Bonan G, Chan E, Cox P, Gordon CT, Kanae S, Kowalczyk E, Lawrence D, Liu P, Lu CH, Malyshev S, McAvaney B, Mitchell K, Mocko D, Oki T, Oleson K, Pitman A, Sud YC, Taylor CM, Verseghy D, Vasic R, Xue Y, Yamada T (2004) Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation. Science 305(5687):1138–1140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laprise R, de-Elia R, Caya D, Biner S, Lucas-Picher P, Diaconescu E, Leduc M, Alexandru A, Separovic L (2007) Challenging some tenets of regional climate modelling. Meteor Atmos Phys 100:3–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung LR, Qian Y (2009) Atmospheric rivers induced heavy precipitation and flooding in the western US simulated by the WRF regional climate model. Geophys Res Lett 36(3):L03,820+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li W, Li L, Fu R, Deng Y, Wang H (2010) Changes to the North Atlantic subtropical high and its role in the intensification of summer rainfall variability in the Southeastern United States. J Climate 24(5):1499–1506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Kb, Fearn ML (2000) Reconstruction of prehistoric landfall frequencies of catastrophic Hurricanes in Northwestern Florida from Lake Sediment records. Quatern Res 54(2):238–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo JC, Yang Z, Pielke RA (2008) Assessment of three dynamical climate downscaling methods using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. J Geophys Res 113(D9):D09,112+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz P, Jacob D (2005) Influence of regional scale information on the global circulation: a two-way nesting climate simulation. Geophys Res Lett 32(18):L18,706+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas-Picher P, Caya D, de Elia R, Laprise R (2008) Investigation of regional climate models’ internal variability with a ten-member ensemble of ten years over a large domain. Clim Dyn 31:927–940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mesinger F, DiMego G, Kalnay E, Mitchell K, Shafran PC, Ebisuzaki W, Jović D, Woollen J, Rogers E, Berbery EH, Ek MB, Fan Y, Grumbine R, Higgins W, Li H, Lin Y, Manikin G, Parrish D, Shi W (2006) North American regional reanalysis. Bull Am Meteor Soc 87(3):343–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miguez-Macho G, Stenchikov GL, Robock A (2004) Spectral nudging to eliminate the effects of domain position and geometry in regional climate model simulations. J Geophys Res 109:D13,104+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miguez-Macho G, Stenchikov GL, Robock A (2005) Regional climate simulations over North America: interaction of local processes with improved large-scale flow. J Clim 18(8):1227–1246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nigam S, Ruiz-Barradas A (2006) Seasonal hydroclimate variability over North America in global and regional reanalyses and AMIP simulations: varied representation. J Climate 19(5):815–837

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otte TL, Nolte CG, Otte MJ, Bowden JH (2012) Does nudging squelch the extremes in regional climate modeling? J Climate (in press), doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00048.1

  • Pal JS, Eltahir EAB (2002) Teleconnections of soil moisture and rainfall during the 1993 midwest summer flood. Geophys Res Lett 29(18):1865+

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pielke RA, Wilby D, Niyogi F, Hossain F, Daruku K, Adegoke J, Kallos G, Seastedt T, Sudig K (2011) Dealing with complexity and extreme events using a bottom-up, resource based vulnerability perspective. AGU Monograph. doi:10.1029/2011GM001086

  • Robertson AW, Ghil M (1999) Large-scale weather regimes and local climate over the Western United States. J Climate 12(6):1796–1813

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez-Gomez E, Somot S, Déqué M (2009) Ability of an ensemble of regional climate models to reproduce weather regimes over Europe-Atlantic during the period 1961–2000. Clim Dyn 33(5):723–736

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seager R, Murtugudde R, Naik N, Clement A, Gordon N, Miller J (2003) Air-sea interaction and the seasonal cycle of the subtropical anticyclones. J Clim 16:1948–1966

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skamarock WC, Klemp JB, Dudhia J, Gill DO, Barker M, Duda KG, Huang XY, Wang W, Powers JG (2008) A description of the advanced research WRF version 3. Tech. rep. National Center for Atmospheric Research

  • Stauffer DR, Seaman NL (1994) Multiscale four-dimensional data assimilation. J App Meteor 33:416–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Storch H, Langenberg H, Feser F (2000) A spectral nudging technique for dynamical downscaling purposes. Mon Weather Rev 128:3664–3673

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trenberth KE, Guillemot CJ (1996) Physical processes involved in the 1988 drought and 1993 floods in North America. J Climate 9:1288–1298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veljovic K, Rajkovic B, Fennessy MJ, Altshuler EL, Mesinger F (2010) Regional climate modeling: Should one attempt improving on the large scales. Lateral boundary condition scheme: any impact. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 19(3):237–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldron K, Peagle J, Horel J (1996) Sensitivity of a spectrally filtered and nudged limited area model to outer model options. Mon Wea Rev 124:529–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang C, Enfield DB (2001) The Tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool. Geophys Res Lett 28(8)

  • Wang Y, Leung R, Mcgregor J, Lee DK, Wang WC, Kimura F (2004) Regional climate modeling: progress, challenges, and prospects. J Meteor Soc Jap 82(6):1599–1628

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yhang YB, Hong SY (2011) A study on large-scale nudging effects in regional climate model simulation. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 47(3):235–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author’s time at the EPA was supported by post-doctoral training opportunities managed by the National Research Council and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Robert Gilliam and S.T. Rao (US EPA) provided technical feedback on this paper. The critique of the anonymous reviewers served to strengthen this manuscript. The US Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described here. It has been subjected to the Agency’s administrative review and approved for publication.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jared H. Bowden

    Present address: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA

    Jared H. Bowden, Christopher G. Nolte & Tanya L. Otte

Authors
  1. Jared H. Bowden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christopher G. Nolte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tanya L. Otte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jared H. Bowden.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bowden, J.H., Nolte, C.G. & Otte, T.L. Simulating the impact of the large-scale circulation on the 2-m temperature and precipitation climatology. Clim Dyn 40, 1903–1920 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1440-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1440-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation