Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.

Simple chaotic systems are useful tools for testing methods for use in numerical weather simulations owing to their transparency and computational cheapness. The Lorenz system was used here; the full system was defined as 'truth', whereas a truncated version was used as a testbed for param...

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Main Authors: Arnold, H, Moroz, I, Palmer, T
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2013
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author Arnold, H
Moroz, I
Palmer, T
author_facet Arnold, H
Moroz, I
Palmer, T
author_sort Arnold, H
collection OXFORD
description Simple chaotic systems are useful tools for testing methods for use in numerical weather simulations owing to their transparency and computational cheapness. The Lorenz system was used here; the full system was defined as 'truth', whereas a truncated version was used as a testbed for parametrization schemes. Several stochastic parametrization schemes were investigated, including additive and multiplicative noise. The forecasts were started from perfect initial conditions, eliminating initial condition uncertainty. The stochastically generated ensembles were compared with perturbed parameter ensembles and deterministic schemes. The stochastic parametrizations showed an improvement in weather and climate forecasting skill over deterministic parametrizations. Including a temporal autocorrelation resulted in a significant improvement over white noise, challenging the standard idea that a parametrization should only represent sub-gridscale variability. The skill of the ensemble at representing model uncertainty was tested; the stochastic ensembles gave better estimates of model uncertainty than the perturbed parameter ensembles. The forecasting skill of the parametrizations was found to be linked to their ability to reproduce the climatology of the full model. This is important in a seamless prediction system, allowing the reliability of short-term forecasts to provide a quantitative constraint on the accuracy of climate predictions from the same system.
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spelling oxford-uuid:b9e31563-b1fe-4507-ae49-e6f02d6d67862022-03-27T05:06:11ZStochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:b9e31563-b1fe-4507-ae49-e6f02d6d6786EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2013Arnold, HMoroz, IPalmer, TSimple chaotic systems are useful tools for testing methods for use in numerical weather simulations owing to their transparency and computational cheapness. The Lorenz system was used here; the full system was defined as 'truth', whereas a truncated version was used as a testbed for parametrization schemes. Several stochastic parametrization schemes were investigated, including additive and multiplicative noise. The forecasts were started from perfect initial conditions, eliminating initial condition uncertainty. The stochastically generated ensembles were compared with perturbed parameter ensembles and deterministic schemes. The stochastic parametrizations showed an improvement in weather and climate forecasting skill over deterministic parametrizations. Including a temporal autocorrelation resulted in a significant improvement over white noise, challenging the standard idea that a parametrization should only represent sub-gridscale variability. The skill of the ensemble at representing model uncertainty was tested; the stochastic ensembles gave better estimates of model uncertainty than the perturbed parameter ensembles. The forecasting skill of the parametrizations was found to be linked to their ability to reproduce the climatology of the full model. This is important in a seamless prediction system, allowing the reliability of short-term forecasts to provide a quantitative constraint on the accuracy of climate predictions from the same system.
spellingShingle Arnold, H
Moroz, I
Palmer, T
Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title_full Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title_fullStr Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title_full_unstemmed Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title_short Stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the Lorenz '96 system.
title_sort stochastic parametrizations and model uncertainty in the lorenz 96 system
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AT morozi stochasticparametrizationsandmodeluncertaintyinthelorenz96system
AT palmert stochasticparametrizationsandmodeluncertaintyinthelorenz96system