Freezing rain occurs in complex atmospheric conditions when the temperature is close to 0 C. To better understand how its occurrence will change in the future, there is a need to assess how well regional climate models can reproduce those conditions. The goal of the present study is to investigate the influence of the horizontal resolution on the simulation of freezing rain using the fifth generation of the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM5). Three CRCM5 simulations driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis over Eastern North America at 0.11 , 0.22 and 0.44 were conducted over a period of 36 years (1979 to 2014). Freezing rain is diagnosed using an in-line diagnostic method for precipitation partitioning. A climatology study of annual and seasonal accumulated freezing rain was conducted. In addition, the ability of the three simulations to reproduce individual freezing rain events was evaluated. Our analyses include frequency and partitioning of di↵erent precipitation types and comparisons with observations. All simulations su ciently reproduced the climatology of freezing rain and show similar large-scale patterns. The number of freezing rain events tend to be overestimated at higher resolution and underestimated at lower resolution. Despite the overestimation, detailed maxima associated with freezing rain are well defined and located at higher resolution, notably in regions located in the St. Lawrence River Valley. Overall, this study is in agreement with other added value studies generally showing a mix of improvements and deteriorations of precipitation fields by the higher resolution simulations.
It has been known for a long time that the shape of ice crystals depends on both the air temperature and the relative humidity of the environment. The relationships among these factors have been summarized in classification diagrams and are intensively referred to in the cloud physics literature. To put in perspective the atmospheric conditions in which the different ice crystal habits grow with respect to the level of saturation in the atmosphere, the vapor density excess and supersaturation with respect to ice at liquid water saturation have been included on those diagrams as a function of air temperature. Over the years, the definition of the water saturation included in those types of diagrams has been misdefined. The goal of this study is to show that an error has been introduced in the definition of the excess of water vapor with respect to ice.
<p>During the last few decades, the European climate has changed significantly. Extreme temperatures are now more frequent than ever since the start of industrialization and changes in the water cycle evident. The soil water content could be affected by these changes disturbing the daily life of many people. More often than we would like, anthropogenic factors and more specifically the CO2 emissions are found to be the causes of these perturbations. In this study, we look into the European soil moisture trends in a changing climate. To achieve this, we use a single grand ensemble of 100 members performed with the Kiel Climate Model (KCM). Each simulation starts with different initial conditions taken from a pre-industrial control run and is forced by a 1%-CO2 increase per year. This means that the atmospheric CO2-concentration doubles after 70 years and quadruples after 140 years. Strong drying over most of Europe is simulated with more than 95% of the ensemble members agreeing on the sign of the change. Central Europe experiences a particularly large drying during spring and summer, while the Mediterranean region is affected all year long by drying. The northern European soil moisture also decreases, but to a lesser extent. The changes over all of Europe are mainly due to a reduction in precipitation and, to a certain degree, an increase in evaporation. Precipitation trends in the KCM ensemble are in good agreement with that in the CMIP6 models forced by the shared socioeconomic pathway 5-8.5 (SSP585).</p>
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