Authors: Fei Ji Marie Ekström Jason P Evans Jin Teng
Publish Date: 2013/04/23
Volume: 115, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 297-304
Abstract
This study evaluated the ability of Weather Research and Forecasting WRF multiphysics ensembles to simulate storm systems known as East Coast Lows ECLs ECLs are intense lowpressure systems that develop off the eastern coast of Australia These systems can cause significant damage to the region On the other hand the systems are also beneficial as they generate the majority of high inflow to coastal reservoirs It is the common interest of both hazard control and water management to correctly capture the ECL features in modeling in particular to reproduce the observed spatial rainfall patterns We simulated eight ECL events using WRF with 36 model configurations each comprising physics scheme combinations of two planetary boundary layer pbl two cumulus cu three microphysics mp and three radiation ra schemes The performance of each physics scheme combination and the ensembles of multiple physics scheme combinations were evaluated separately Results show that using the ensemble average gives higher skill than the median performer within the ensemble More importantly choosing a composite average of the better performing pbl and cu schemes can substantially improve the representation of high rainfall both spatially and quantitativelyThis work is made possible by funding from the NSW Environmental Trust for the ESCCIECL project the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage backed NSW/ACT Regional Climate Modelling Project NARCliM and the Australian Research Council as part of the Discovery Project DP0772665 and Linkage Project LP120200777 Thanks to the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative SEACI for funding the CSIRO contribution to this study This research was undertaken on the NCI National Facility in Canberra Australia which is supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government
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