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A regional climate model simulation over West Africa: parameterization tests and analysis of land-surface fields

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Abstract

The West African Monsoon has been simulated with the regional climate model PROMES, coupled to the land-surface model ORCHIDEE and nested in ECMWF analysis, within AMMA-EU project. Three different runs are presented to address the influence of changes in two parameterizations (moist convection and radiation) on the simulated West African Monsoon. Another aim of the study is to get an insight into the relationship of simulated precipitation and 2-m temperature with land-surface fluxes. To this effect, data from the AMMA land-surface model intercomparison project (ALMIP) have been used. In ALMIP, offline simulations have been made using the same land-surface model than in the coupled simulation presented here, which makes ALMIP data particularly relevant for the present study, as it enables us to analyse the simulated soil and land-surface fields. The simulation of the monsoon depends clearly on the two analysed parameterizations. The inclusion of shallow convection parametrization affects the intensity of the simulated monsoon precipitation and modifies some dynamical aspects of the monsoon. The use of a fractional cloud-cover parameterization and a more complex radiation scheme is important for better reproducing the amplitude of the latitudinal displacement of the precipitation band. This is associated to an improved simulation of the surface temperature field and the easterly jets. However, the parameterization changes do not affect the timing of the main rainy and break periods of the monsoon. A better representation of downward solar radiation is associated with a smaller bias in the surface heat fluxes. The comparison with ALMIP land-surface and soil fields shows that precipitation and temperature biases in the regional climate model simulation are associated to certain biases in land-surface fluxes. The biases in soil moisture seem to be driven by atmospheric biases as they are strongly affected by the parameterization changes in atmospheric processes.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) European project. Based on a French initiative, AMMA was built by an international scientific group and is currently funded by a large number of agencies, especially from France, UK, US and Africa. It has been the beneficiary of a major financial contribution from the European Community’s Sixth Framework Research Program. Detailed information on scientific coordination and funding is available on the AMMA international website http://www.amma-international.org. The authors wish to thank Enrique Sanchez for his help in the figures execution. We thank also ECMWF for his data sets, as well as ALMIP working group for the reference data used in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Sciences Institute, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain

    M. Domínguez

  2. Environmental Sciences Faculty, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain

    M. A. Gaertner

  3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS/CESBIO), Toulouse, France

    P. de Rosnay

  4. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK

    P. de Rosnay

  5. Physical Sciences Faculty, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    T. Losada

Authors
  1. M. Domínguez
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  2. M. A. Gaertner
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  3. P. de Rosnay
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  4. T. Losada
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Correspondence to M. Domínguez.

Additional information

This paper is a contribution to the special issue on West African Climate, consisting of papers from the African multidisciplinary monsoon analysis (AMMA) and West African monsoon modelling and evaluation (WAMME) projects and coordinated by Y. Xue and P. M. Ruti.

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Domínguez, M., Gaertner, M.A., de Rosnay, P. et al. A regional climate model simulation over West Africa: parameterization tests and analysis of land-surface fields. Clim Dyn 35, 249–265 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-010-0769-3

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