Open AccessSimulation of subgrid orographic precipitation with an embedded 2‐D cloud‐resolving model
Author(s) -
Jung JoonHee,
Arakawa Akio
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of advances in modeling earth systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.03
H-Index - 58
ISSN - 1942-2466
DOI - 10.1002/2015ms000539
Subject(s) - orographic lift , precipitation , scale (ratio) , standard deviation , cloud computing , benchmark (surveying) , grid , meteorology , representation (politics) , orography , set (abstract data type) , environmental science , range (aeronautics) , atmospheric model , computer science , geology , statistics , mathematics , geodesy , physics , geography , cartography , materials science , politics , political science , law , composite material , programming language , operating system
By explicitly resolving cloud‐scale processes with embedded two‐dimensional (2‐D) cloud‐resolving models (CRMs), superparameterized global atmospheric models have successfully simulated various atmospheric events over a wide range of time scales. Up to now, however, such models have not included the effects of topography on the CRM grid scale. We have used both 3‐D and 2‐D CRMs to simulate the effects of topography with prescribed “large‐scale” winds. The 3‐D CRM is used as a benchmark. The results show that the mean precipitation can be simulated reasonably well by using a 2‐D representation of topography as long as the statistics of the topography such as the mean and standard deviation are closely represented. It is also shown that the use of a set of two perpendicular 2‐D grids can significantly reduce the error due to a 2‐D representation of topography.