Modeling Near-Surface Air Temperature and Precipitation Using WRF with 5-km Resolution in the Northern Patagonia Icefield: A Pilot Simulation

Villarroel, Cynthia; Carrasco, Jorge; Casassa, Gino; Falvey, Mark

doi:10.4236/ijg.2013.48113

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Fewer studies compare a 10-km domain with a higher-resolution grid that is explicitly resolving convection. Villarroel et al (2013) found that a high-resolution 5-km domain over southern Chile improved model performance for both temperature and precipitation relative to the driving data, and this result was attributed to improved topographical resolution, but the domain was not compared with a lower-resolution WRF grid. In a simulation over central Japan, Kusaka et al (2010) found that 4-km resolution represented a 5-yr climatology well; again, these results were compared with a lower-resolution WRF grid.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Multidecadal Evaluation of WRF Downscaling Capabilities over Western Australia in Simulating Rainfall and Temperature Extremes

Andrys

Lyons

Kala

2015

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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The authors evaluate a 30-yr (1981-2010) Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) Model regional climate simulation over the southwest of Western Australia (SWWA), a region with a Mediterranean climate, using ERA-Interim boundary conditions. The analysis assesses the spatial and temporal characteristics of climate extremes, using a selection of climate indices, with an emphasis on metrics that are relevant for forestry and agricultural applications. Two nested domains at 10-and 5-km resolution are examined, with the higherresolution simulation resolving convection explicitly. Simulation results are compared with a high-resolution, gridded observational dataset that provides daily rainfall, minimum temperatures, and maximum temperatures. Results show that, at both resolutions, the model is able to simulate the daily, seasonal, and annual variation of temperature and precipitation well, including extreme events. The higher-resolution domain displayed significant performance gains in simulating dry-season convective precipitation, rainfall around complex terrain, and the spatial distribution of frost conditions. The high-resolution domain was, however, influenced by grid-edge effects in the southwestern margin, which reduced the ability of the domain to represent frontal rainfall along the coastal region. On the basis of these results, the authors feel confident in using the WRF Model for regional climate simulations for the SWWA, including studies that focus on the spatial and temporal representation of climate extremes. This study provides a baseline climatological description at a high resolution that can be used for impact studies and will also provide a benchmark for climate simulations driven by general circulation models.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Multidecadal Evaluation of WRF Downscaling Capabilities over Western Australia in Simulating Rainfall and Temperature Extremes

Andrys

Lyons

Kala

2015

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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“…Evaluating the simulated amounts of precipitation remains challenging in the absence of reliable observations, but, qualitatively, RACMO2 is able to resolve the sharp zonal climate gradients, and the modeled high snowfall on the ice fields is broadly confirmed by firn cores. Moreover, equivalent amounts were simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at the same horizontal resolution on the NPI (Schaefer et al 2013;Villarroel et al 2013), with very similar spatial patterns. Using a linear precipitation model, highresolution terrain information, and observed oxygen isotope ratios, Smith and Evans (2007) predicted similarly high spatial variability in the region 448-468S, with strong dependency on the orientation of the local topography.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme Precipitation and Climate Gradients in Patagonia Revealed by High-Resolution Regional Atmospheric Climate Modeling

et al. 2014

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This study uses output of a high-resolution (5.5 km) regional atmospheric climate model to describe the present-day climate of Patagonia, with a particular focus on the surface mass balance (SMB) of the Patagonian ice fields. Through a comparison with available in situ observations, it is shown that the model is able to simulate the sharp climate gradients in western Patagonia. The southern Andes are an efficient barrier for the prevalent atmospheric flow, generating strong orographic uplift and precipitation throughout the entire year. The model suggests extreme orographic precipitation west of the Andes divide, with annual precipitation rates of .5 to 34 m w.e. (water equivalent), and a clear rain shadow east of the divide. These modeled precipitation rates are supported qualitatively by available precipitation stations and SMB estimates on the ice fields derived from firn cores. For the period 1979-2012, a slight atmospheric cooling at upper ice field elevations is found, leading to a small but insignificant increase in the ice field SMB.

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“…Unfortunately, to date there are no empirically-based studies of the meteorological conditions over both sides of the Patagonian Icefields that can constrain the mass balance modeling studies. Due to the lack of observationbased analyses, high uncertainties exist in the glacier surface mass balance model parameterizations precluding a complete validation of the simulated accumulation (Villarroel et al, 2013) as well as a robust assessment of the response of the glaciers to projected climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Snow Accumulation Patterns and Changes on the Patagonian Icefields

Bravo

Bozkurt

González‐Reyes

et al. 2019

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Recent evidence shows that most Patagonian glaciers are receding rapidly. Due to the lack of in situ long-term meteorological observations, the understanding of how glaciers are responding to changes in climate over this region is extremely limited, and uncertainties exist in the glacier surface mass balance model parameterizations. This precludes a robust assessment of glacier response to current and projected climate change. An issue of central concern is the accurate estimation of precipitation phase. In this work, we have assessed spatial and temporal patterns in snow accumulation in both the North Patagonia Icefield (NPI) and South Patagonia Icefield (SPI). We used a regional climate model, RegCM4.6 and four Phase Partitioning Methods (PPM) in addition to short-term snow accumulation observations using ultrasonic depth gauges (UDG). Snow accumulation shows that rates are higher on the west side relative to the east side for both icefields. The values depend on the PPM used and reach a mean difference of 1,500 mm w.e., with some areas reaching differences higher than 3,500 mm w.e. These differences could lead to divergent mass balance estimations depending on the scheme used to define the snow accumulation. Good agreement is found in comparing UDG observations with modeled data on the plateau area of the SPI during a short time period; however, there are important differences between rates of snow accumulation determined in this work and previous estimations using ice core data at annual scale. Significant positive trends are mainly present in the autumn season on the west side of the SPI, while on the east side, significant negative trends in autumn were observed. Overall, for the rest of the area and during other seasons, no significant changes can be determined. In addition, glaciers with positive and stable elevation and frontal changes determined by previous works are related to areas where snow accumulation has increased during the period 2000-2015. This suggests that increases in snow accumulation are attenuating the response of some Patagonian glaciers to warming in a regional context of overall glacier retreat.

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Modeling Near-Surface Air Temperature and Precipitation Using WRF with 5-km Resolution in the Northern Patagonia Icefield: A Pilot Simulation

Cited by 12 publications

References 17 publications

Multidecadal Evaluation of WRF Downscaling Capabilities over Western Australia in Simulating Rainfall and Temperature Extremes

Multidecadal Evaluation of WRF Downscaling Capabilities over Western Australia in Simulating Rainfall and Temperature Extremes

Extreme Precipitation and Climate Gradients in Patagonia Revealed by High-Resolution Regional Atmospheric Climate Modeling

Assessing Snow Accumulation Patterns and Changes on the Patagonian Icefields

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