Estimation of precipitation and air temperature over western Canada using a regional climate model

Abstract

The Mackenzie River basin (MRB), which covers a geographic region from central Alberta of Canada to the coast of Arctic Ocean, has an area of approximately 1.8 × 106 km2. In this study, the regional climate of MRB, in particular the precipitation and air temperature from the late spring to the fall (May–October), was simulated using a regional climate model Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF). In the open water season of May–October, Mackenzie River provides a critical corridor for Canada's Arctic transportation network. With nine sets of physical parameterizations of WRF selected, we simulated the climate of MRB over representative dry, normal, and wet years to identify the best setting prior to performing the 27‐year simulation for 1979–2005. The major physical parameterizations considered were shortwave (Dudhia, CAM, and RRTMG) and longwave radiation scheme (RRTM, CAM, and RRTMG), microphysics scheme (WRF Double‐Moment 6‐class, WRF Single‐Moment 5‐class, Stony Brook University, and Morrison double‐moment), and cumulus parameterization (Kain–Fritsch, Betts–Miller–Janjic, Tiedtke, and New Simplified Arakawa–Schubert). The simulation for MRB by each set of parameterizations of WRF is assessed using root‐mean‐square error (RMSE), absolute error percentage, and bias maps. After a detailed fine tuning process, and from verifying the 1979–2005 long‐term simulations of WRF, WRF generally simulated realistic air temperature and precipitable water over MRB, but precipitation is over‐simulated, especially at Canadian Rockies.

Assessment of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Physical Schemes Parameterization to Predict Moderate to Extreme Rainfall in Poorly Gauged Basin

“…However, there is not much research in evaluating the performance of microphysics schemes for Malaysia that has been documented. The performance of these schemes has been assessed in other regions including the middle latitude region [53], western Canada [54], southeast India [55], and the Shasta Dam watershed, northern California [56]. This study analysis determines that the microphysics schemes SBU and MDM showed significant performance when combined with the other cumulus schemes.…”

Fidelity of WRF model in simulating heat wave events over India

“…In simulating the relevant climatic variables, e.g., temperature and precipitation, it is highly dependent on various physical process like; cumulus convection, planetary boundary layer (PBL), land surface, and microphysical processes [23][24][25] . Numerous studies have been undertaken with the WRF model to select the most suitable configuration for regional climate simulations [26][27][28] . WRF model capability to simulate very significant severe temperature events during HW days towards coastal regions of India.…”

Future intensity–duration–frequency curves of Edmonton under climate warming and increased convective available potential energy

“…Through results estimated from conducting various test runs, the schemes of WRF chosen are the Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme (Kain 2004), WRF Double-Moment 6-class Microphysics scheme (Lim and Hong 2010), CAM Longwave (LW) and Shortwave (SW) radiation scheme (Collins et al 2004), the Yonsei University PBL (planetary boundary layer) scheme (Hong et al 2006), and the Noah LSM (Chen et al 1996(Chen et al , 1997. These configurations simulated representative climate for the Mackenzie River Basin (Kuo and Gan 2018). Given developing IDF curves require sub-hourly precipitation data, the outputs of WRF at 15-min time intervals for the innermost domain (D3) were used to estimate the grid-based IDF curves of Edmonton.…”