Modeling the climate dynamics of the Northern Italy (northern part of the Mediterranean region) is particularly challenging due to the presence of significant orographic features such as the Alpine arc surrounding the relatively flat area of the Po Valley, strong air-sea interactions and deep water formation processes in the northern Adriatic Sea associated with Bora wind episodes and a complex river network that includes the Po river (one of the major freshwater sources of the Mediterranean Sea).Here we assess the performances of a state-of-the-art Regional Earth System Model RegCM-ES configuration specifically developed for the northern Italy region. The modeling system is composed by: (i) RegCM5 with an horizontal resolution of 3 km and 41 vertical levels (convection permitting) as atmospheric module, (ii) MITgcm with an horizontal resolution of approximately 700 m and 59 vertical levels (non hydrostatic) for the ocean and (iii) CHyM as river discharge module with an horizontal resolution of approximately 1 kmThe model performances in the region have been evaluated comparing the numerical outputs of a series of hindcast experiments with available observations and reanalysis datasets. Spatial gradients and mean values of land and seawater temperature, precipitation and sea surface salinity are well simulated by the model although some deficiencies are still observed in the domain such as a warm bias in summer over the western part of the Po Valley and an overestimation of precipitation over the Alps (probably linked to a low coverage of the station data at high altitudes).Overall, this configuration has offered valuable indications that it could be considered a suitable tool for studying the factors driving the climate dynamics of the region and will be adopted in the future to produce high resolution climate projections for the region.
Assessing the performances of a high resolution configuration (convection-permitting in the atmosphere/non-hydrostatic in the ocean) of the Regional Earth System Model RegCM-ES over the northern Italy (Northern Mediterranean region)
M. Reale;G. Giuliani;F. Giordano;E. Coppola;S. Querin;Luiza Vargas-Heinz
2024-01-01
Abstract
Modeling the climate dynamics of the Northern Italy (northern part of the Mediterranean region) is particularly challenging due to the presence of significant orographic features such as the Alpine arc surrounding the relatively flat area of the Po Valley, strong air-sea interactions and deep water formation processes in the northern Adriatic Sea associated with Bora wind episodes and a complex river network that includes the Po river (one of the major freshwater sources of the Mediterranean Sea).Here we assess the performances of a state-of-the-art Regional Earth System Model RegCM-ES configuration specifically developed for the northern Italy region. The modeling system is composed by: (i) RegCM5 with an horizontal resolution of 3 km and 41 vertical levels (convection permitting) as atmospheric module, (ii) MITgcm with an horizontal resolution of approximately 700 m and 59 vertical levels (non hydrostatic) for the ocean and (iii) CHyM as river discharge module with an horizontal resolution of approximately 1 kmThe model performances in the region have been evaluated comparing the numerical outputs of a series of hindcast experiments with available observations and reanalysis datasets. Spatial gradients and mean values of land and seawater temperature, precipitation and sea surface salinity are well simulated by the model although some deficiencies are still observed in the domain such as a warm bias in summer over the western part of the Po Valley and an overestimation of precipitation over the Alps (probably linked to a low coverage of the station data at high altitudes).Overall, this configuration has offered valuable indications that it could be considered a suitable tool for studying the factors driving the climate dynamics of the region and will be adopted in the future to produce high resolution climate projections for the region.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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