TY  - JOUR
A1  - Norris, Jesse
A1  - Carvalho, Leila M. V.
A1  - Jones, Charles
A1  - Cannon, Forest
A1  - Bookhagen, Bodo
A1  - Palazzi, Elisa
A1  - Tahir, Adnan Ahmad
T1  - The spatiotemporal variability of precipitation over the Himalaya: evaluation of one-year WRF model simulation
T2  - Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system
N2  - The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate the spatiotemporal distribution of precipitation over central Asia over the year April 2005 through March 2006. Experiments are performed at 6.7 km horizontal grid spacing, with an emphasis on winter and summer precipitation over the Himalaya. The model and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission show a similar inter-seasonal cycle of precipitation, from extratropical cyclones to monsoon precipitation, with agreement also in the diurnal cycle of monsoon precipitation. In winter months, WRF compares better in timeseries of daily precipitation to stations below than above 3-km elevation, likely due to inferior measurement of snow than rain by the stations, highlighting the need for reliable snowfall measurements at high elevations in winter. In summer months, the nocturnal precipitation cycle in the foothills and valleys of the Himalaya is captured by this 6.7-km WRF simulation, while coarser simulations with convective parameterization show near zero nocturnal precipitation. In winter months, higher resolution is less important, serving only to slightly increase precipitation magnitudes due to steeper slopes. However, even in the 6.7-km simulation, afternoon precipitation is overestimated at high elevations, which can be reduced by even higher-resolution (2.2-km) simulations. These results indicate that WRF provides skillful simulations of precipitation relevant for studies of water resources over the complex terrain in the Himalaya.
KW  - WRF
KW  - Himalayas
KW  - Mesoscale
KW  - Precipitation
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Orographicprecipitation
KW  - Water resources
Y1  - 2017
UR  - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46397
SN  - 0930-7575
SN  - 1432-0894
VL  - 49
SP  - 2179
EP  - 2204
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -