Abstract. The present study focuses on identifying the parameters from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model that strongly influence the simulation of tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) region. Three global sensitivity analysis (SA) methods, namely, the Morris One-at-A-Time (MOAT), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), and surrogate-based Sobol', are employed to identify the most sensitive parameters out of 24 tunable parameters corresponding to seven parameterization schemes of the WRF model. Ten tropical cyclones across different categories, such as cyclonic storms, severe cyclonic storms, and very severe cyclonic storms over BoB between 2011 and 2018, are selected in this study. The sensitivity scores of 24 parameters are evaluated for eight meteorological variables. The parameter sensitivity results are consistent across three SA methods for all the variables, and 8 out of the 24 parameters contribute 80 %–90 % to the overall sensitivity scores. It is found that the Sobol' method with Gaussian progress regression as a surrogate model can produce reliable sensitivity results when the available samples exceed 200. The parameters with which the model simulations have the least RMSE values when compared with the observations are considered the optimal parameters. Comparing observations and model simulations with the default and optimal parameters shows that simulations with the optimal set of parameters yield a 16.74 % improvement in the 10 m wind speed, 3.13 % in surface air temperature, 0.73 % in surface air pressure, and 9.18 % in precipitation simulations compared to the default set of parameters.
Abstract. The present study focuses on identifying the parameters from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model that strongly influence the prediction of tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) region. Three global sensitivity analysis (SA) methods, namely the Morris One-at-A-Time (MOAT), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS), and surrogate-based Sobol' are employed to identify the most sensitive parameters out of 24 tunable parameters corresponding to seven parameterization schemes of the WRF model. Ten tropical cyclones across different categories, such as cyclonic storms, severe cyclonic storms, and very severe cyclonic storms over BoB between 2011 and 2018, are selected in this study. The sensitivity scores of 24 parameters are evaluated for eight meteorological variables. The parameter sensitivity results are consistent across three SA methods for all the variables, and 8 out of the 24 parameters contribute 80 %–90 % to the overall sensitivity scores. It is found that the Sobol' method with Gaussian progress regression as a surrogate model can produce reliable sensitivity results when the available samples exceed 200. The parameters with which the model simulations have the least RMSE values when compared with the observations are considered as the optimal parameters. Comparing observations and model simulations with the default and optimal parameters shows that predictions with the optimal set of parameters yield a 16.74 % improvement in the 10 m wind speed, 3.13 % in surface air temperature, 0.73 % in surface air pressure, and 9.18 % in precipitation predictions compared to the default set of parameters.
The prediction skill of a numerical model can be enhanced by calibrating the sensitive parameters that significantly influence the model forecast. The objective of the present study is to improve the prediction of surface wind speed and precipitation by calibrating the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model parameters for the simulations of tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal region. Ten tropical cyclones across different intensity categories between 2011 and 2017 are selected for the calibration experiments. Eight sensitive model parameters are calibrated by minimizing the prediction error corresponding to 10m wind speed and precipitation, using a multiobjective adaptive surrogate model-based optimization (MO-ASMO) framework. The 10m wind speed and precipitation simulated by the default and calibrated parameter values across different aspects are compared. The results show that the calibrated parameters improved the prediction of 10m wind speed by 17.62% and precipitation by 8.20% compared to the default parameters. The effect of calibrated parameters on other model output variables, such as cyclone track and intensities, and 500 hPa wind fields, is investigated. Eight tropical cyclones across different categories between 2011 and 2018 are selected to corroborate the performance of the calibrated parameter values for other cyclone events. Finally, the robustness of the calibrated parameters across different boundary conditions and grid resolutions is also examined. These results will have significant implications for improving the predictability of tropical cyclone characteristics. This allows us to better plan the adaptation and mitigation strategies and thus help in reducing their adverse effects on society.
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