Numerical weather prediction system based on JMA-NHM for field observation campaigns on the Greenland ice sheet

• Main Authors: Hashimoto, Akihiro, Niwano, Masashi, Aoki, Teruo, Tsutaki, Shun, Sugiyama, Shin, Yamasaki, Tetsuhide, Iizuka, Yoshinori, Matoba, Sumito
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 低温科学第75巻編集委員会
• Subjects: Greenland; Weather prediction; Non-hydrostatic model; Arctic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/65105; https://doi.org/10.14943/lowtemsci.75.91

As part of a research project titled, “Snow Impurity and Glacial Microbe effects on abrupt warming in the Arctic” (SIGMA), numerous observation campaigns were conducted on the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) from FY2011 to FY2015. To support research activities in the field, the Japan Meteorological Agency Non-Hydrostatic Model (JMA-NHM) was applied to form a numerical weather prediction system covering all of Greenland. Before executing our numerical simulation using this model, however, we modified the model to better represent the meteorological processes over the GrIS, since the original model was adjusted to fit mid-latitude environments. Using our modified model, we performed numerical weather prediction twice per day such that expedition crews in the field could access the resulting prediction information in the morning and evening, which helped them plan and execute their daily missions. Further, we improved our model during these campaigns by referencing the daily reports obtained from the observation site on the GrIS. In this paper, we describe our weather prediction system and evaluate its performance in reference to surface meteorological observation data.