Coupled atmosphere ocean climate model simulations in the Mediterranean region: effect of a high-resolution marine model on cyclones and precipitation

Sanna, Antonella; Lionello, Piero; Gualdi, Silvio

doi:10.5194/nhess-13-1567-2013

Cited by 21 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…These studies have shown that two-way, high-frequency interactions and higher SST spatial resolution improve the representation of surface heat fluxes, hydrological parameters, winds, and extremes events (e.g., cyclogenesis, medicanes, and heavy precipitation events) in the Mediterranean region (Lebeaupin Brossier and Drobinski 2009;Sanna et al 2013;Lebeaupin Brossier et al 2014;Akhtar et al 2014). In a recent study, Panthou et al (2016) show that high-resolution regional atmospheric models coupled with Mediterranean Sea models improve the representation of hot days and droughts more than heavy precipitation events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate modeling over the Mediterranean Sea: impact of resolution and ocean coupling

2017

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introduced a warm SST bias in winter. Radiation fluxes were slightly better represented in coarse-grid simulations. Still, only the higher-resolution coupled simulations could reproduce the observed net outgoing total heat flux over the Mediterranean Sea. Investigation of the impact of subdiurnal SST variations showed a strong effect on sub-daily heat fluxes and wind speed but minor effects at longer time scales. Therefore, a coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model should be preferred for studying the Mediterranean Sea climate system. Higher-resolution models should be preferred, but they are not yet able to perform better than their coarse-resolution predecessors in all aspects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate modeling over the Mediterranean Sea: impact of resolution and ocean coupling

2017

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“…We have to keep in mind that most of the published RCSMs were forced by the ERA-40 reanalysis (Artale et al, 2010;Herrmann et al, 2011;Carillo et al, 2012;L'He´ve´der et al, 2013) or by GCMs Krzic et al, 2011;Carillo et al, 2012;Dell'Aquila et al, 2012;Dubois et al, 2012;Rojas et al, 2013;Sanna et al, 2013) Dubois et al (2012), Gualdi et al (2013a)]. Note that reanalysis-driven simulations are expected to perform better than GCM-driven simulations, as their lateral boundary conditions can be considered more realistic.…”

Section: Comparison Of Cnrm-rcsm4 With the Stateof-the-art Mediterranmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SW bias in CNRM-RCSM4 (Sanchez-Gomez et al, 2011;Dubois et al, 2012), which explains the very good behaviour of the model in SSS and salt content. The model SST cold bias is present in most of the other ERA40-driven RCSMs (Li et al, 2012) and GCM-driven RCSMs Sanna et al, 2013) except for the LMDZ-Med/ NEMOMED8 model, which shows nearly no SST bias (L'He´ve´der et al, 2013). However, despite spatial biases, the SSS simulated by CNRM-RCSM4 has the smallest bias on average over the Mediterranean Sea among the published RCSMs, with most of the other RCSMs showing an overestimated SSS L'He´ve´der et al, 2013;Di Luca et al, 2014).…”

Section: Comparison Of Cnrm-rcsm4 With the Stateof-the-art Mediterranmentioning

confidence: 99%

A fully coupled Mediterranean regional climate system model: design and evaluation of the ocean component for the 1980–2012 period

Sevault¹,

Somot²,

Alias³

et al. 2014

Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

123

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A B S T R A C TA fully coupled regional climate system model (CNRM-RCSM4) dedicated to the Mediterranean region is described and evaluated using a multidecadal hindcast simulation (1980Á2012) driven by global atmosphere and ocean reanalysis. CNRM-RCSM4 includes the regional representation of the atmosphere (ALADIN-Climate model), land surface (ISBA model), rivers (TRIP model) and the ocean (NEMOMED8 model), with a daily coupling by the OASIS coupler. This model aims to reproduce the regional climate system with as few constraints as possible: there is no surface salinity, temperature relaxation, or flux correction; the Black Sea budget is parameterised and river runoffs (except for the Nile) are fully coupled. The atmospheric component of CNRM-RCSM4 is evaluated in a companion paper; here, we focus on the airÁsea fluxes, river discharges, surface ocean characteristics, deep water formation phenomena and the Mediterranean thermohaline circulation. Long-term stability, mean seasonal cycle, interannual variability and decadal trends are evaluated using basin-scale climatologies and in-situ measurements when available. We demonstrate that the simulation shows overall good behaviour in agreement with state-of-the-art Mediterranean RCSMs. An overestimation of the shortwave radiation and latent heat loss as well as a cold Sea Surface Temperature (SST) bias and a slight trend in the bottom layers are the primary current deficiencies. Further, CNRM-RCSM4 shows high skill in reproducing the interannual to decadal variability for airÁsea fluxes, river runoffs, sea surface temperature and salinity as well as open-sea deep convection, including a realistic simulation of the Eastern Mediterranean Transient. We conclude that CNRM-RCSM4 is a mature modelling tool allowing the climate variability of the Mediterranean regional climate system to be studied and understood. It is used in hindcast and scenario modes in the HyMeX and Med-CORDEX programs.

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“…Recent studies show that high-resolution coupled models over the Euro-Mediterranean region significantly improve the representation of air-sea fluxes Dubois et al, 2012;Artale et al, 2010;Somot et al, 2008). In another study, Sanna et al (2013) have shown that SSTs simulated through a high-resolution eddypermitting ocean model have strong and beneficial effects on precipitation and cyclogenesis simulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicanes in an ocean–atmosphere coupled regional climate model

Akhtar

Brauch

Dobler

et al. 2014

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. So-called medicanes (Mediterranean hurricanes) are meso-scale, marine, and warm-core Mediterranean cyclones that exhibit some similarities to tropical cyclones. The strong cyclonic winds associated with medicanes threaten the highly populated coastal areas around the Mediterranean basin. To reduce the risk of casualties and overall negative impacts, it is important to improve the understanding of medicanes with the use of numerical models. In this study, we employ an atmospheric limited-area model (COSMO-CLM) coupled with a one-dimensional ocean model (1-D NEMO-MED12) to simulate medicanes. The aim of this study is to assess the robustness of the coupled model in simulating these extreme events. For this purpose, 11 historical medicane events are simulated using the atmosphereonly model, COSMO-CLM, and coupled model, with different setups (horizontal atmospheric grid spacings of 0.44, 0.22, and 0.08 • ; with/without spectral nudging, and an ocean grid spacing of 1/12 • ). The results show that at high resolution, the coupled model is able to not only simulate most of medicane events but also improve the track length, core temperature, and wind speed of simulated medicanes compared to the atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the coupled model is more proficient for systemic and detailed studies of historical medicane events, and that this model can be an effective tool for future projections.

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Coupled atmosphere ocean climate model simulations in the Mediterranean region: effect of a high-resolution marine model on cyclones and precipitation

Cited by 21 publications

References 55 publications

Climate modeling over the Mediterranean Sea: impact of resolution and ocean coupling

Climate modeling over the Mediterranean Sea: impact of resolution and ocean coupling

A fully coupled Mediterranean regional climate system model: design and evaluation of the ocean component for the 1980–2012 period

Medicanes in an ocean–atmosphere coupled regional climate model

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