Representation of Arabian Peninsula summer climate in a regional atmospheric model using spectral nudging
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ArticleAuthors
Attada, RajuKunchala, Ravi Kumar
Dasari, Hari Prasad

Sivareddy, Sanikommu
Yesubabu, Viswanadhapalli
Knio, Omar

Hoteit, Ibrahim

KAUST Department
Applied Mathematics and Computational Science ProgramComputer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
Earth Fluid Modeling and Prediction Group
Earth Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
CRGDate
2021-04-15Online Publication Date
2021-04-15Print Publication Date
2021-07Embargo End Date
2022-04-15Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/669099
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This study assesses the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in simulating the Arabian Peninsula summer climate for the period 2001–2016. The European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis is downscaled using WRF without (CTRL) and with the Spectral Nudging (SPN) method. Our results suggest that the noticeable cold biases in surface temperatures (mean, minimum, and maximum) over the Arabian Peninsula in CTRL are significantly reduced in SPN. The seasonal patterns of surface pressure, cloud cover, lower and upper tropospheric circulation, and mid-tropospheric anticyclone are also simulated more realistically with SPN. The evaluation of mean vertical profiles of dynamical and thermo-dynamical features over the Arabian Peninsula further confirms the enhanced simulations with SPN with respect to CTRL. Though SPN captures better the observed evolution of rainfall compared to that of CTRL, it produces a positive rainfall bias over the Southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Stronger vertical motions associated with the local topography enhance the higher water vapor loading, condenses in the upper layers, and results in excess amount of rainfall in SPN. Furthermore, with SPN, WRF is further able to better simulate the synoptic features of heat waves. Overall, SPN enhances WRF simulation skill of the horizontal structures and vertical profiles of the Arabian Peninsula summer climate by enforcing a better balance between the small and large scale features and associated feedbacks.Citation
Attada, R., Kunchala, R. K., Dasari, H. P., Sivareddy, S., Yesubabu, V., Knio, O., & Hoteit, I. (2021). Representation of Arabian Peninsula summer climate in a regional atmospheric model using spectral nudging. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. doi:10.1007/s00704-021-03617-wSponsors
This research work was supported by the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under the Competitive Research Grant (CRG) program Grant#UFR/1/3706-01-01 and by the Saudi Aramco Center for Marine Environmental Research at KAUST. All simulations were conducted on the KAUST Super Computational facility (SHAHEEN) supported by the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory (KSL).Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCAdditional Links
https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00704-021-03617-wae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s00704-021-03617-w