Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain

Abstract A new convection‐permitting regional reanalysis, SPHERA (High Resolution REAnalysis over Italy), has been developed over Italy and the surrounding seas using the COSMO model at 2.2 km horizontal resolution. The reanalysis system is nested in the global reanalysis ERA5; upper‐air and surface...

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Main Authors: Ines Maria Luisa Cerenzia, Antonio Giordani, Tiziana Paccagnella, Andrea Montani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-09-01
Series:Meteorological Applications
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2092
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author Ines Maria Luisa Cerenzia
Antonio Giordani
Tiziana Paccagnella
Andrea Montani
author_facet Ines Maria Luisa Cerenzia
Antonio Giordani
Tiziana Paccagnella
Andrea Montani
author_sort Ines Maria Luisa Cerenzia
collection DOAJ
description Abstract A new convection‐permitting regional reanalysis, SPHERA (High Resolution REAnalysis over Italy), has been developed over Italy and the surrounding seas using the COSMO model at 2.2 km horizontal resolution. The reanalysis system is nested in the global reanalysis ERA5; upper‐air and surface observations are assimilated at the convection‐permitting scale by the COSMO nudging scheme. Before the complete production of the hourly three‐dimensional fields and surface/soil parameters over the period 1995–2020, general issues regarding the reanalysis set‐up needed to be addressed over a shorter test period. These include the identification of the best approach to downscale the lateral boundary conditions from the global driver, and the definition of the bottom boundary condition related to deep soil temperature. With respect to the downscaling methodology, the results show a clear benefit in using lateral boundary conditions directly from the global ERA5, despite the large resolution difference between the two modes (1:15), instead of providing them from an intermediate resolution COSMO‐based reanalysis. Moreover, the soil bottom boundary condition for temperature is reconstructed from the shallower ERA5 soil, using a site‐dependent method based on a delayed running mean of the ERA5 temperature at the deepest soil level. Finally, an evaluation of SPHERA has been performed with respect to the skill in simulating daily precipitation over 2 years. Compared with ERA5, SPHERA shows a higher ability in simulating moderate and intense events, markedly during summer, in terms of skill scores, frequency of occurrence and bias.
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spelling doaj.art-5f5ebc6fa8be44099157f00f5c95661c2022-12-22T02:37:34ZengWileyMeteorological Applications1350-48271469-80802022-09-01295n/an/a10.1002/met.2092Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domainInes Maria Luisa Cerenzia0Antonio Giordani1Tiziana Paccagnella2Andrea Montani3HydroMeteoClimate Service ARPAE‐Emilia Romagna Bologna ItalyHydroMeteoClimate Service ARPAE‐Emilia Romagna Bologna ItalyHydroMeteoClimate Service ARPAE‐Emilia Romagna Bologna ItalyHydroMeteoClimate Service ARPAE‐Emilia Romagna Bologna ItalyAbstract A new convection‐permitting regional reanalysis, SPHERA (High Resolution REAnalysis over Italy), has been developed over Italy and the surrounding seas using the COSMO model at 2.2 km horizontal resolution. The reanalysis system is nested in the global reanalysis ERA5; upper‐air and surface observations are assimilated at the convection‐permitting scale by the COSMO nudging scheme. Before the complete production of the hourly three‐dimensional fields and surface/soil parameters over the period 1995–2020, general issues regarding the reanalysis set‐up needed to be addressed over a shorter test period. These include the identification of the best approach to downscale the lateral boundary conditions from the global driver, and the definition of the bottom boundary condition related to deep soil temperature. With respect to the downscaling methodology, the results show a clear benefit in using lateral boundary conditions directly from the global ERA5, despite the large resolution difference between the two modes (1:15), instead of providing them from an intermediate resolution COSMO‐based reanalysis. Moreover, the soil bottom boundary condition for temperature is reconstructed from the shallower ERA5 soil, using a site‐dependent method based on a delayed running mean of the ERA5 temperature at the deepest soil level. Finally, an evaluation of SPHERA has been performed with respect to the skill in simulating daily precipitation over 2 years. Compared with ERA5, SPHERA shows a higher ability in simulating moderate and intense events, markedly during summer, in terms of skill scores, frequency of occurrence and bias.https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2092convection‐permittingcoupledheavy precipitation eventshydro‐meteorologylong‐rangeprecipitation
spellingShingle Ines Maria Luisa Cerenzia
Antonio Giordani
Tiziana Paccagnella
Andrea Montani
Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
Meteorological Applications
convection‐permitting
coupled
heavy precipitation events
hydro‐meteorology
long‐range
precipitation
title Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
title_full Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
title_fullStr Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
title_full_unstemmed Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
title_short Towards a convection‐permitting regional reanalysis over the Italian domain
title_sort towards a convection permitting regional reanalysis over the italian domain
topic convection‐permitting
coupled
heavy precipitation events
hydro‐meteorology
long‐range
precipitation
url https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2092
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AT andreamontani towardsaconvectionpermittingregionalreanalysisovertheitaliandomain