DATE2016-05-28 13:38:26
IDABSTRACT20160528133826-1035
CONTACTshimonk@post.tau.ac.il
PRESENTATIONPOSTER
INVITED0
IDSESSION1
TITLEEVALUATING THE ROLE OF RCM MODEL CONFIGURATION IN DETERMINING THE RESULTS OF SIMULATION OF EXTREME PRECIPITATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION
AUTHORSSimon Krichak (2,), Pinhas Alpert (2), Giora Gershtein (3), Edoardo Bucchignani (1), Paola Mercogliano (1)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. Cmcc Euro-mediterranean Center On Climate Change Capua (Italy)
  2. Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv (Israel)
  3. Israel Meteorological Service Bet Dagan (Israel)
ABSTRACTA regional climate model COSMO-CLM is employed for performing an estimation of the role of the model configuration parameters in the reproducing extreme precipitation climate events over the Mediterranean region. The investigation included the two sets of RCM simulations driven by the ERA Interim reanalysis data. The first set has been performed for 1979-2011 with the CORDEX-MENA domain using horizontal resolution of 50 km, 25 km and 8 km (nesting over the Israeli sub-region). In the second set of the simulations the COSMO-CLM model with 50 km horizontal was adopted for the downscaling the reanalysis data for a 6 year time period 1989-1994 using two CORDEX domains (Med-CORDEX and CORDEX-MENA). The use of the time period has been motivated by a notable number of cold season heavy precipitation events during the period. Results of the simulations are evaluated against the observational data available. Evaluation reveals a good capability of the model in reproducing the main climate features of the area, thanks to the high resolution and to the optimized model configuration. Increase of resolution allows a notable reduction of precipitation bias. The analysis demonstrates however the existence of a number of deficiencies of the CCLM representation of seasonal scale climate conditions in the region. The RCM results produced with the CORDEX-MENA domain appear to be more accurately reproducing extreme precipitation events especially in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. The result may be interpreted as an another proof of the importance of a better representation of tropical moisture transports over the eastern Atlantic region for the regional climate modeling of the cold season extreme precipitation events in the Mediterranean.
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