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Title: The potential value of early (1939-1967) upper-air data in atmospheric climate reanalysis

Journal Article · · Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3040· OSTI ID:1461670
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [4]
  1. European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading (United Kingdom)
  2. Univ. of Bern (Switzerland). Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Institute of Geography
  3. Univ. of Vienna (Austria). Dept. of Meteorology and Geophysics
  4. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
  5. Météo-France, Toulouse (France). Direction de la Climatologie et des Service Climatiques
  6. Météo-France, Brest (France). Direction des Systèmes d'Observation (DSO), Centre de Météorologie Marine (CMM)
  7. Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  8. Russian Research Institute for Hydrometeorological Information - World Data Center (RIHMI-WDC), Obninsk (Russia)
  9. Univ. of Bern, (Switzerland). Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Institute of Geography
  10. Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal). Instituto Dom Luiz
+ Show Author Affiliations

In recent years a number of reanalysis datasets have been published that cover the past century or more, including the ‘Twentieth Century Reanalysis’ 20CRv2 and the European Reanalysis of the twentieth century ERA‐20C . These datasets are widely used, showing the need for, and possible benefit of, reanalysis data products designed for climate applications. The twentieth‐century reanalyses so far have assimilated only surface observations, and rely on independent estimates of monthly averaged sea‐surface temperatures and sea ice concentrations as boundary conditions. While 20CRv2 uses only observations of surface and sea‐level pressure, ERA‐20C additionally assimilates marine winds. Here we describe an experimental reanalysis, referred to as ERA‐PreSAT , which covers the period 1939–1967 and also assimilates historical upper‐air data. Assessments of this dataset including comparisons with independent data show that (i) temperature biases in the Northern Hemisphere are largely reduced compared to reanalyses that assimilate surface data only, (ii) concentration of 1940s upper‐air data in the northern extratropics created a strong interhemispheric asymmetry which is likely not realistic, (iii) the forecast skill in the Northern Hemisphere has increased substantially compared to reanalyses that assimilate surface data only, (iv) day‐to‐day and (in the northern extratropics) month‐to‐month correlations with independent observations (of total column ozone, upper‐air data) increase over time, (v) interannual variability is well captured in the reanalysis, (vi) a signature of the stratospheric Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation is present as far back as the 1940s, and (vii) tropical cyclones are not well represented. The generally encouraging results from the experimental ERA‐PreSAT reanalysis underline that early upper‐air data greatly contribute to our knowledge on the troposphere and lower stratosphere over the twentieth century.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1461670
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1464543
Journal Information:
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 143, Issue 704; ISSN 0035-9009
Publisher:
Royal Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 20 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Can reanalysis products with only surface variables assimilated capture Madden–Julian oscillation characteristics? journal August 2019
Assessment of ECMWF reanalysis data in complex terrain: Can the CERA‐20C and ERA‐Interim data sets replicate the variation in surface air temperatures over Sichuan, China? journal June 2019
On the value of reanalyses prior to 1979 for dynamical studies of stratosphere–troposphere coupling journal January 2019
CERA-20C: A coupled reanalysis of the Twentieth Century text January 2018

Figures / Tables (15)

Table 1(p. 24)table Table 1
Table 2(p. 24)table Table 2
Table 3(p. 25)table Table 3
Table 4(p. 25)table Table 4
Fig. 1(p. 26)figure Fig. 1
Fig. 2(p. 27)figure Fig. 2
Fig. 3(p. 28)figure Fig. 3
Fig. 4(p. 29)figure Fig. 4
Fig. 5(p. 30)figure Fig. 5
Fig. 6(p. 31)figure Fig. 6
Fig. 7(p. 32)figure Fig. 7
Fig. 8(p. 33)figure Fig. 8
Fig. 9(p. 34)figure Fig. 9
Figure 10(p. 35)figure Figure 10
Fig. 11(p. 36)figure Fig. 11

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
climate reanalysis
upper‐air data
historical observations