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Evaluation of the antarctic surface wind climate from ERA reanalyses and RACMO2/ANT simulations based on automatic weather stations

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Abstract

A continental scale evaluation of Antarctic surface winds is presented from global ERA-40 and ERA-Interim reanalyses and RACMO2/ANT regional climate model at 55 and 27 km horizontal resolution, based on a comparison with observational data from 115 automatic weather stations (AWS). The Antarctic surface wind climate can be classified based on the Weibull shape factor k w . Very high values (k w  > 3) are found in the interior plateaus, typical of very uniform katabatic-dominated winds with high directional constancy. In the coast and all over the Antarctic Peninsula the shape factors are similar to the ones found in mid-latitudes (k w  < 3) typical of synoptically dominated wind climates. The Weibull shape parameter is systematically overpredicted by ERA reanalyses. This is partly corrected by RACMO2/ANT simulations which introduce more wind speed variability in complex terrain areas. A significant improvement is observed in the performance of ERA-Interim over ERA-40, with an overall decrease of 14 % in normalized mean absolute error. In escarpment and coastal areas, where the terrain gets rugged and katabatic winds are further intensified in confluence zones, ERA-Interim bias can be as high as 10 m s−1. These large deviations are partly corrected by the regional climate model. Given that RACMO2/ANT is an independent simulation of the near-surface wind speed climate, as it is not driven by observations, it compares very well to the ERA-Interim and AWS-115 datasets.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the institutes responsible for conducting the various AWS programs used in this study and for making this data freely available for the research community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI), Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium

    Javier Sanz Rodrigo, Jean-Marie Buchlin & Jeroen van Beeck

  2. Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jan T. M. Lenaerts & Michiel R. van den Broeke

  3. National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain (CENER), Sarriguren, Spain

    Javier Sanz Rodrigo

Authors
  1. Javier Sanz Rodrigo
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  2. Jean-Marie Buchlin
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  3. Jeroen van Beeck
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  4. Jan T. M. Lenaerts
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  5. Michiel R. van den Broeke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Javier Sanz Rodrigo.

Appendices

Appendix 1: List of AWS stations

See Table 3 and Figs. 13,14,15.

Table 3 The AWS-115 list of stations, data periods and availability
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Fig. 13
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Map of RACMO2/ANT2 NRPS and zoom in the Victoria Land coast

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Fig. 14
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Situation map of AWS-115 stations

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Fig. 15
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Situation map of Weddle Sea sector

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Fig. 16
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Situation map of Victoria Land

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Appendix 2: Evaluation results for each AWS site

See Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4 Long term statistics
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Table 5 Evaluation results for each AWS site using mixed reference years
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Sanz Rodrigo, J., Buchlin, JM., van Beeck, J. et al. Evaluation of the antarctic surface wind climate from ERA reanalyses and RACMO2/ANT simulations based on automatic weather stations. Clim Dyn 40, 353–376 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1396-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1396-y

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