An evaluation of the variable-resolution CESM for modeling California's climate
Abstract
In this paper, the recently developed variable-resolution option within the Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) is assessed for long-term regional climate modeling of California at 0.25°(28 km) and 0.125°(14 km) horizontal resolutions. The mean climatology of near-surface temperature and precipitation is analyzed and contrasted with reanalysis, gridded observational data sets, and a traditional regional climate model (RCM) - the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Statistical metrics for model evaluation and tests for differential significance have been extensively applied. With only prescribed sea surface temperatures, VR-CESM tended to produce a warmer summer (by about 1-3°C) and overestimated overall winter precipitation (about 25%-35%) compared to reference data sets. Increasing resolution from 0.25°to 0.125°did not produce a statistically significant improvement in the model results. By comparison, the analogous WRF climatology (constrained laterally and at the sea surface by ERA-Interim reanalysis) was 1-3°C colder than the reference data sets, underestimated precipitation by 20%-30% at 27 km resolution, and overestimated precipitation by 65-85% at 9 km. Overall, VR-CESM produced comparable statistical biases to WRF in key climatological quantities. This assessment highlights the value of variable-resolution global climate models (VRGCMs) in capturing fine-scale atmospheric processes, projecting future regional climate, and addressing the computational expense ofmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; University of California, Davis California (United States)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1258593
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1571061
- Grant/Contract Number:
- CA-D-LAW-2203-H; AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Huang, Xingying, Rhoades, Alan M., Ullrich, Paul A., and Zarzycki, Colin M. An evaluation of the variable-resolution CESM for modeling California's climate. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2015MS000559.
Huang, Xingying, Rhoades, Alan M., Ullrich, Paul A., & Zarzycki, Colin M. An evaluation of the variable-resolution CESM for modeling California's climate. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000559
Huang, Xingying, Rhoades, Alan M., Ullrich, Paul A., and Zarzycki, Colin M. Fri .
"An evaluation of the variable-resolution CESM for modeling California's climate". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000559. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1258593.
@article{osti_1258593,
title = {An evaluation of the variable-resolution CESM for modeling California's climate},
author = {Huang, Xingying and Rhoades, Alan M. and Ullrich, Paul A. and Zarzycki, Colin M.},
abstractNote = {In this paper, the recently developed variable-resolution option within the Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) is assessed for long-term regional climate modeling of California at 0.25°(28 km) and 0.125°(14 km) horizontal resolutions. The mean climatology of near-surface temperature and precipitation is analyzed and contrasted with reanalysis, gridded observational data sets, and a traditional regional climate model (RCM) - the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Statistical metrics for model evaluation and tests for differential significance have been extensively applied. With only prescribed sea surface temperatures, VR-CESM tended to produce a warmer summer (by about 1-3°C) and overestimated overall winter precipitation (about 25%-35%) compared to reference data sets. Increasing resolution from 0.25°to 0.125°did not produce a statistically significant improvement in the model results. By comparison, the analogous WRF climatology (constrained laterally and at the sea surface by ERA-Interim reanalysis) was 1-3°C colder than the reference data sets, underestimated precipitation by 20%-30% at 27 km resolution, and overestimated precipitation by 65-85% at 9 km. Overall, VR-CESM produced comparable statistical biases to WRF in key climatological quantities. This assessment highlights the value of variable-resolution global climate models (VRGCMs) in capturing fine-scale atmospheric processes, projecting future regional climate, and addressing the computational expense of uniform-resolution global climate models.},
doi = {10.1002/2015MS000559},
journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
number = 1,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Feb 12 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Fri Feb 12 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}
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Figures / Tables:
Figure 1: The approximate grid spacing in the (a) VR-CESM 0.25° and (b) VR-CESM 0.125° meshes used in this study. (c) A depiction of the transition from the global 1° resolution mesh through two layers of refinement to 0.25° and again to 0.125°.
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