We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Cold Season Performance of the NU-WRF Regional Climate Model in the Great Lakes Region.
- Authors
Notaro, Michael; Zhong, Yafang; Xue, Pengfei; Peters-Lidard, Christa; Cruz, Carlos; Kemp, Eric; Kristovich, David; Kulie, Mark; Wang, Junming; Huang, Chenfu; Vavrus, Stephen J.
- Abstract
As Earth's largest collection of freshwater, the Laurentian Great Lakes have enormous ecological and socioeconomic value. Their basin has become a regional hotspot of climatic and limnological change, potentially threatening its vital natural resources. Consequentially, there is a need to assess the current state of climate models regarding their performance across the Great Lakes region and develop the next generation of high-resolution regional climate models to address complex limnological processes and lake–atmosphere interactions. In response to this need, the current paper focuses on the generation and analysis of a 20-member ensemble of 3-km National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (NU-WRF) simulations for the 2014/15 cold season. The study aims to identify the model's strengths and weaknesses; optimal configuration for the region; and the impacts of different physics parameterizations, coupling to a 1D lake model, time-variant lake-surface temperatures, and spectral nudging. Several key biases are identified in the cold-season simulations for the Great Lakes region, including an atmospheric cold bias that is amplified by coupling to a 1D lake model but diminished by applying the Community Atmosphere Model radiation scheme and Morrison microphysics scheme; an excess precipitation bias; anomalously early initiation of fall lake turnover and subsequent cold lake bias; excessive and overly persistent lake ice cover; and insufficient evaporation over Lakes Superior and Huron. The research team is currently addressing these key limitations by coupling NU-WRF to a 3D lake model in support of the next generation of regional climate models for the critical Great Lakes Basin. Significance Statement: Climate change poses a serious threat to the vital natural resources of the Laurentian Great Lakes region. Complex lake–atmosphere interactions and limnological processes are a challenge for regional climate models. To address the threat of climate change, there is a clear need to further evaluate and develop modeling tools for the Great Lakes Basin. Here, we evaluate the regional performance of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's regional climate model at high spatial resolution in support of ongoing efforts to develop the next generation modeling tool for the Great Lakes region.
- Subjects
UNITED States. National Aeronautics &; Space Administration; ATMOSPHERIC models; WEATHER forecasting; LAKES; ICE on rivers, lakes, etc.; METEOROLOGICAL research
- Publication
Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2021, Vol 22, Issue 9, p2423
- ISSN
1525-755X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1175/JHM-D-21-0025.1