Identification

Title

Clustering of observed diurnal cycles of precipitation over the United States for evaluation of a WRF multiphysics regional climate ensemble

Abstract

The diurnal cycle of precipitation during the summer season over the contiguous United States is examined in eight distinct regions. These were identified using cluster analysis applied to the diurnal cycle characteristics at 2141 rainfall gauges over the 10-yr period 1991-2000. Application of the clustering technique provides a physically meaningful way of identifying regions for comparison of model results with observations. The diurnal cycle for each region is specified in terms of 1) total precipitation, 2) frequency of precipitation occurrence, and 3) intensity of precipitation per occurrence on an hourly basis averaged over the 10-yr period. The amplitude and phase of each element of the diurnal cycle was obtained from harmonic analysis and has been compared with the results of a 24-member multiphysics ensemble of simulations produced by the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) Model on a region-by-region basis. Three cumulus schemes, two radiation schemes, two microphysics schemes, and two planetary boundary layer schemes were included in the ensemble. Simulations of total precipitation showed reasonable agreement with observations in regions where the diurnal cycle is directly influenced by solar radiation, (e.g., the U.S. Southeast), but they were less successful in regions where other factors influence the diurnal cycle (e.g., the central United States). The diurnal cycle of precipitation frequency and intensity showed substantial biases in the simulations of all eight regions, namely, overestimation of occurrences and underestimation of intensities. Simulations were sensitive to the cumulus and radiation schemes but were largely insensitive to either microphysics or planetary boundary layer schemes.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ww7m99

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact