Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization

The simulation of quasi-persistent regime structures in an atmospheric model with horizontal resolution typical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth assessment report simulations, is shown to be unrealistic. A higher resolution configuration of the same model, with horizontal resol...

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Auteurs principaux: Dawson, A, Palmer, T
Format: Journal article
Langue:English
Publié: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2015
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author Dawson, A
Palmer, T
author_facet Dawson, A
Palmer, T
author_sort Dawson, A
collection OXFORD
description The simulation of quasi-persistent regime structures in an atmospheric model with horizontal resolution typical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth assessment report simulations, is shown to be unrealistic. A higher resolution configuration of the same model, with horizontal resolution typical of that used in operational numerical weather prediction, is able to simulate these regime structures realistically. The spatial patterns of the simulated regimes are remarkably accurate at high resolution. A model configuration at intermediate resolution shows a marked improvement over the low-resolution configuration, particularly in terms of the temporal characteristics of the regimes, but does not produce a simulation as accurate as the very-high-resolution configuration. It is demonstrated that the simulation of regimes can be significantly improved, even at low resolution, by the introduction of a stochastic physics scheme. At low resolution the stochastic physics scheme drastically improves both the spatial and temporal aspects of the regimes simulation. These results highlight the importance of small-scale processes on large-scale climate variability, and indicate that although simulating variability at small scales is a necessity, it may not be necessary to represent the small-scales accurately, or even explicitly, in order to improve the simulation of large-scale climate. It is argued that these results could have important implications for improving both global climate simulations, and the ability of high-resolution limited-area models, forced by low-resolution global models, to reliably simulate regional climate change signals. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
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spelling oxford-uuid:cd31f367-24c7-4e85-9fbf-d58e9c2bd5bb2022-03-27T07:26:59ZSimulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterizationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:cd31f367-24c7-4e85-9fbf-d58e9c2bd5bbEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordSpringer Berlin Heidelberg2015Dawson, APalmer, TThe simulation of quasi-persistent regime structures in an atmospheric model with horizontal resolution typical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth assessment report simulations, is shown to be unrealistic. A higher resolution configuration of the same model, with horizontal resolution typical of that used in operational numerical weather prediction, is able to simulate these regime structures realistically. The spatial patterns of the simulated regimes are remarkably accurate at high resolution. A model configuration at intermediate resolution shows a marked improvement over the low-resolution configuration, particularly in terms of the temporal characteristics of the regimes, but does not produce a simulation as accurate as the very-high-resolution configuration. It is demonstrated that the simulation of regimes can be significantly improved, even at low resolution, by the introduction of a stochastic physics scheme. At low resolution the stochastic physics scheme drastically improves both the spatial and temporal aspects of the regimes simulation. These results highlight the importance of small-scale processes on large-scale climate variability, and indicate that although simulating variability at small scales is a necessity, it may not be necessary to represent the small-scales accurately, or even explicitly, in order to improve the simulation of large-scale climate. It is argued that these results could have important implications for improving both global climate simulations, and the ability of high-resolution limited-area models, forced by low-resolution global models, to reliably simulate regional climate change signals. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
spellingShingle Dawson, A
Palmer, T
Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title_full Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title_fullStr Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title_full_unstemmed Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title_short Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
title_sort simulating weather regimes impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
work_keys_str_mv AT dawsona simulatingweatherregimesimpactofmodelresolutionandstochasticparameterization
AT palmert simulatingweatherregimesimpactofmodelresolutionandstochasticparameterization