Evaluation of WRF model configurations for dynamic downscaling of tropical cyclones activity over the North Atlantic basin for Lagrangian moisture tracking analysis in future climate
This study assessed five well-established physics suites of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in operational forecasting systems in the North Atlantic (NATL) basin or from previous sensitive experiments for dynamic downscaling tropical cyclone (TC) activity. We performed long-term sim...
| Published in: | Atmospheric Research |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Atmospheric Research
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11093/7129 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107498 https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0169809524002801 |
| Summary: | This study assessed five well-established physics suites of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in operational forecasting systems in the North Atlantic (NATL) basin or from previous sensitive experiments for dynamic downscaling tropical cyclone (TC) activity. We performed long-term simulations for the 2020 TC season in the NATL and compared the WRF tracks against the HURDAT2 dataset from the US National Hurricane Center. Among the tested configurations, the analysis revealed that the Kain-Fritsch, Purdue Lin, BouLac and revised MM5 schemes for cumulus, microphysics, planetary boundary layer and surface layer, respectively (hereafter WT), outperformed all four others in terms of TC frequency, track density and intensity and showed good performance in the cyclone accumulated energy and TC landfalling locations. In addition, WT well-captured the spatial distribution of accumulated TC precipitation and moisture uptake patterns, although it overestimated the precipitation maxima. Likewise, it agreed on the relative moisture contribution from fixed moisture sources (i.e., Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, tropical NATL, and western NATL) in the NATL basin. Overall, this study highlighted the high potential of using the WT physics suite in WRF for downscaling TC activity over the NATL basin, which will be useful for TC Lagrangian moisture sources analysis in future climate. Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PID2021-122314OB-I00 Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2021/44 Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481B-2023/016 Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED481D 2022/020 Universidade de Vigo/CISUG |
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