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COSMO-CLM (CCLM) climate simulations over CORDEX-Africa domain: analysis of the ERA-Interim driven simulations at 0.44° and 0.22° resolution

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Abstract

We present the results of the application of the COSMO-CLM Regional Climate Model (CCLM) over the CORDEX-Africa domain. Two simulations were performed driven by the ERA-Interim reanalysis (1989–2008): the first one with the standard CORDEX spatial resolution (0.44°), and the second one with an unprecedented high resolution (0.22°). Low-level circulation and its vertical structure, the geographical and temporal evolution of temperature and precipitation are critically evaluated, together with the radiation budget and surface energy fluxes. CCLM is generally able to reproduce the overall features of the African climate, although some deficiencies are evident. Flow circulation is generally well simulated, but an excessive pressure gradient is present between the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahara, related to a marked warm bias over the Sahara and a cold bias over southern Sahel. CCLM underestimates the rainfall peak in the regions affected by the passage of the monsoon. This dry bias may be a consequence of two factors, the misplacement of the monsoon centre and the underestimation of its intensity. The former is related to the northern shift of the West African Heat Low. On the other hand, the underestimation of precipitation intensity may be related to the underestimation of the surface short-wave radiation and latent heat flux. The increase of the model resolution does not bring evident improvements to the results for monthly means statistics. As a result, it appears that 0.44° is a suitable compromise between model performances and computational constrains.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Grigory Nikulin (SMHI) for providing some of the observational dataset used in this study, and Diego Guizzardi (JRC) for preparing the FEWS database. The SRB data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center NASA/GEWEX SRB Project. GPCC Precipitation data is provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/ Computing resources have been provided by HLRS, Stuttgart, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF), Reading.

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  1. Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

    Hans-Jürgen Panitz

  2. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy

    Alessandro Dosio

  3. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Potsdam, Germany

    Matthias Büchner

  4. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland

    Daniel Lüthi

  5. Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus, Germany

    Klaus Keuler

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  1. Hans-Jürgen Panitz
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Panitz, HJ., Dosio, A., Büchner, M. et al. COSMO-CLM (CCLM) climate simulations over CORDEX-Africa domain: analysis of the ERA-Interim driven simulations at 0.44° and 0.22° resolution. Clim Dyn 42, 3015–3038 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1834-5

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