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An evaluation of the spatial and interannual variability of tropical precipitation as simulated by GCMs
Author(s) -
Srinivasan G.,
Hulme M.,
Jones C. G.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/95gl01443
Subject(s) - precipitation , climatology , environmental science , general circulation model , boreal , atmospheric sciences , tropics , meteorology , climate change , geology , geography , oceanography , paleontology , fishery , biology
Precipitation is one of the most difficult variables to simulate in a General Circulation Model and arguably one of the most important. The Atmospheric Model Intelcomparison Project (AMIP) provides an opportunity to examine the simulation of precipitation in a wide array of models. Monthly precipitation fields produced by a subset of 19 currently available AMIP model experiments are evaluated for the tropical region using a land‐only observed dataset for the period 1980–1988. The models show large variations in their ability to reproduce observed tropical precipitation, although spatial correlations indicate that some of the models simulate the pattern of observed precipitation fields fairly well. The correlations are strongest during boreal winter (DJF) and weakest during the boreal summer (JJA). Comparison between model and observed precipitation time series for two Central Pacific locations show that most models are unable to reliably reproduce interannual precipitation variability in this region.