A regional climate model hindcast for Siberia: analysis of snow water equivalent

This study analyzes the added value of a regional climate model hindcast with respect to snow water equivalent (SWE) for Siberia when compared to SWE estimates from forcing NCEP-R. In addition, we examine the discrepancies of simulated SWE to several recent reanalysis products (NCEP-R2 NCEP-CFSR, ER...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: K. Klehmet, B. Geyer, B. Rockel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2013
Subjects:
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
The Cryosphere
Siberia
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1017-2013
https://doaj.org/article/c671576f225e4c74b09550ed079d935f
Description
Summary:This study analyzes the added value of a regional climate model hindcast with respect to snow water equivalent (SWE) for Siberia when compared to SWE estimates from forcing NCEP-R. In addition, we examine the discrepancies of simulated SWE to several recent reanalysis products (NCEP-R2 NCEP-CFSR, ERA-Interim). We apply the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) to a 50 km grid spacing using NCEP-R1 as driving force to obtain a 63 yr (1948 to 2010) gridded dataset of historical SWE. Simulated regional climate data is necessary because of the absence of station data in that region. To perform large-scale assessments we use the satellite-derived daily SWE product of ESA DUE GlobSnow from 1987 to 2010. Russian station SWE data is used for cross-checking the findings. In January (mid-winter), the SWE hindcast is in good agreement with GlobSnow, whereas it overestimates SWE during the melting season. CCLM shows a clear added value in providing realistic SWE information compared to the driving reanalysis. The temporal consistency of CCLM is higher than that presented by ERA-Interim and NCEP-R2.

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