What global reanalysis best represents near‐surface winds?

Ramón, Jaume Cantallops; Lledó, Llorenç; Torralba, Verónica; Soret, Albert; Doblas‐Reyes, Francisco J.

doi:10.1002/qj.3616

Cited by 271 publications

(214 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…We used the ERA5 reanalysis product (Copernicus Climate Change Service 2017) to represent observed historical meteorological conditions (Olauson 2018, Urraca et al 2018, Ramon et al 2019. The full ERA5 record available at time of analysis was used, 1979-2018, providing 40 years of data.…”

Section: Meteorological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of weather regimes on European renewable energy production and demand

Wiel

Bloomfield

Lee

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

117

109

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The growing share of variable renewable energy increases the meteorological sensitivity of power systems. This study investigates if large-scale weather regimes capture the influence of meteorological variability on the European energy sector. For each weather regime, the associated changes to wintertime-mean and extreme-wind and solar power production, temperature-driven energy demand and energy shortfall (residual load) are explored. Days with a blocked circulation pattern, i.e. the 'Scandinavian Blocking' and 'North Atlantic Oscillation negative' regimes, on average have lower than normal renewable power production, higher than normal energy demand and therefore, higher than normal energy shortfall. These average effects hide large variability of energy parameters within each weather regime. Though the risk of extreme high energy shortfall events increases in the two blocked regimes (by a factor of 1.5 and 2.0, respectively), it is shown that such events occur in all regimes. Extreme high energy shortfall events are the result of rare circulation types and smaller-scale features, rather than extreme magnitudes of common large-scale circulation types. In fact, these events resemble each other more strongly than their respective weather regime mean pattern. For (sub-) seasonal forecasting applications weather regimes may be of use for the energy sector. At shorter lead times or for more detailed system analyses, their ineffectiveness at characterising extreme events limits their potential.

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Section: Meteorological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of weather regimes on European renewable energy production and demand

Wiel

Bloomfield

Lee

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

117

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, Oueslati et al (2017) have reported that the ERA-Interim reanalysis is able to capture very well the annual cycle and its interannual variability of the US heat-index (an index that is used in the present study over the Sahel). There is additional evidence that ERA5 is the reanalysis that offers the best representation of various near surface meteorological products including near surface moisture and wind speed (e.g., Olauson 2018;Ramon et al 2019), which are used in this paper (see Table 1). ERA5 is therefore well suited to this research.…”

Section: Data and Derivation Of Thermal Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and thermodynamics of Sahelian heatwaves analysed using various thermal indices

2020

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Prolonged periods of extreme heat also known as heatwaves are a growing concern in a changing climate. Over the Sahel, a hot and semi-arid region in West Africa, they are still relatively poorly understood and managed. In this research, five multivariate thermal indices derived from the ERA5 database were used to characterize Sahelian heatwaves for statistical analysis and as a sampling basis to investigate their underlying thermodynamic causes. Results show that on average most locations in the Sahel suffer from one or two heatwaves a year lasting 3–5 days but with severe magnitude. The eastern Sahel is more at risk than the west, experiencing more frequent and longer lasting events. Despite similar statistics of intensity, duration and frequency across the heatwave indices, for a given diurnal phase, there is surprisingly low agreement in the timing of events. Furthermore daytime and nighttime heatwaves have little synchronicity. In terms of associated thermodynamic processes, heat advection and the greenhouse effect of moisture are identified as the main causes of Sahelian heatwaves. The processes are nevertheless sensitive to the indices, consequence of the distinctness of their respective samples. Therefore attention should be given to the choice of either index in operational monitoring and forecasting of heatwaves. This will allow to effectively target different exposed socio-economic groups and resultantly enhance the efficiency of early warning systems.

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“…Our analysis used meteorological reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Reanalysis (ERA-Interim; [38]) at the native resolution of 0.75 • in latitude and longitude. ERA-Interim provides a good representation of near-surface winds in the Southern Hemisphere in comparison with other leading reanalyses [39]. For the forward and backward trajectory runs shown in Figure 3a,b, respectively, there is reasonable consistency that the enhanced backscatter features observed with the Buckland Park lidar between 11 and 13 km height on 30 April link back to the Calbuco eruption on 22 April.…”

Section: Buckland Park Scattering Ratiomentioning

confidence: 64%

Australian Lidar Measurements of Aerosol Layers Associated with the 2015 Calbuco Eruption

et al. 2020

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The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile (41.3° S, 72.6° W) underwent three separate eruptions on 22–23 April 2015. Following the eruptions, distinct layers of enhanced lidar backscatter at 532 nm were observed in the lower stratosphere above Buckland Park, South Australia (34.6° S, 138.5° E), and Kingston, Tasmania (43.0° S, 147.3° E), during a small set of observations in April–May 2015. Using atmospheric trajectory modelling and measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) space-borne lidar and the Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, we show that these layers were associated with the Calbuco eruptions. Buckland Park measurements on 30 April and 3 May detected discrete aerosol layers at and slightly above the tropopause, where the relative humidity was well below saturation. Stratospheric aerosol layers likely associated with the eruptions were observed at Kingston on 17 and 22 May in narrow discrete layers accompanied by weaker and more vertically extended backscatter. The measurements on 22 May provided a mean value of the particle linear depolarisation ratio within the main observed volcanic aerosol layer of 18.0 ± 3.0%, which was consistent with contemporaneous CALIOP measurements. The depolarisation measurements indicated that this layer consisted of a filament dominated by ash backscatter residing above a main region having likely more sulfate backscatter. Layer-average optical depths were estimated from the measurements. The mean lidar ratio for the volcanic aerosols on 22 May of 86 ± 37 sr is consistent with but generally higher than the mean for ground-based measurements for other volcanic events. The inferred optical depth for the main volcanic layer on 17 May was consistent with a value obtained from OMPS measurements, but a large difference on 22 May likely reflected the spatial inhomogeneity of the volcanic plume. Short-lived enhancements of backscatter near the tropopause of 17 May likely represented the formation cirrus that was aided by the presence of associated volcanic aerosols. We also provide evidence that gravity waves potentially influenced the layers, particularly in regard to the vertical motion observed in the strong layer on 22 May. Overall, these observations provide additional information on the dispersal and characteristics of the Calbuco aerosol plumes at higher southern latitudes than previously reported for ground-based lidar measurements.

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What global reanalysis best represents near‐surface winds?

Cited by 271 publications

References 52 publications

The influence of weather regimes on European renewable energy production and demand

The influence of weather regimes on European renewable energy production and demand

Characteristics and thermodynamics of Sahelian heatwaves analysed using various thermal indices

Australian Lidar Measurements of Aerosol Layers Associated with the 2015 Calbuco Eruption

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