January and July climate simulations over the SADC region using the limited-area model DARLAM

High-resolution climate simulations of near-surface variables are presented for January and July over the Southern African Developing Countries (SADC) region using the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research Limited-Area Model (DARLAM) nested within a General Circulation Model (GCM). The model domain...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water S. A. 2002-10, Vol.28 (4), p.361-374
Main Authors: Rautenbach, C.J. De W., McGregor, J.L., Katzfey, J.J., Engelbrecht, F.A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Meteorology
Other topics in atmospheric geophysics
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:High-resolution climate simulations of near-surface variables are presented for January and July over the Southern African Developing Countries (SADC) region using the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research Limited-Area Model (DARLAM) nested within a General Circulation Model (GCM). The model domain includes tropical (north and south of the equator) and subtropical (Southern Africa) regions. Objective measures of skill are used to assess the quality of model simulations, and the performance of the model is verified over various subregions of the model domain. South of the tropics, DARLAM fields are not only superior to those produced by the GCM, but also compare well with mesoscale observations. This is particularly true for the spatial distribution of rainfall and screen temperature simulations. DARLAM, however, severely over-estimates rainfall totals over regions of steep orography.
ISSN:0378-4738
0378-4738
DOI:10.4314/wsa.v28i4.4909