气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Assessing reanalysis data for understanding rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa

CCPortal

DOI	10.1007/s00382-018-04604-0
	Assessing reanalysis data for understanding rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa
	Hua W.; Zhou L.; Nicholson S.E.; Chen H.; Qin M.
发表日期	2019
ISSN	0930-7575
起始页码	651
结束页码	669
卷号	53 期号:2020-01-02
英文摘要	Understanding the rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa (CEA) has largely been hampered by the lack of adequate in situ observations and meteorological stations for the last three decades. Large differences and uncertainties among several observational and reanalysis data sets and various climate model simulations present another big challenge. This study comprehensively assesses the currently widely used reanalysis products based on quality-controlled radiosonde observations and a new gauge-based rainfall data set, NIC131, in order to identify the “best” reanalysis products available over CEA. Among the seven reanalysis data sets (i.e., 20CR, CFSR, ERA-Interim, JRA-55, MERRA2, NCEP-1 and NCEP-2), MERRA2 is closest to NIC131 in reproducing the mean climatology and interannual variability and has the smallest biases and root-mean-square error (RMSE) in describing the observed wind fields in the lower- and middle-troposphere, and the two NCEP reanalyses can better capture geopotential height fields than the other reanalyses. Overall, the reanalyses capture the major features of the rainfall seasonal cycle and the seasonal evolution in the reference data but demonstrate an evident spread of spatiotemporal characteristics. By examining the moisture transport, we find that the differences in the lower- and middle-tropospheric circulation can reasonably explain the differences in the rainfall climatology among the reanalyses. Considering the large differences in horizontal and vertical wind fields among the seven reanalyses, we need to use the best reanalysis wind and moisture fields to explain the observed rainfall and associated circulation changes over CEA. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
英文关键词	Central Equatorial Africa; Hydrological cycle; Rainfall; Reanalysis
语种	英语
scopus关键词	annual variation; assessment method; climatology; data set; hydrological cycle; rainfall; wind field; Central Africa
来源期刊	Climate Dynamics
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/146181
作者单位	Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education (KLME)/Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environment Change (ILCEC)/Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters (CIC-FEMD), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China; Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, United States; Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Hua W.,Zhou L.,Nicholson S.E.,et al. Assessing reanalysis data for understanding rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa[J],2019,53(2020-01-02).
APA	Hua W.,Zhou L.,Nicholson S.E.,Chen H.,&Qin M..(2019).Assessing reanalysis data for understanding rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa.Climate Dynamics,53(2020-01-02).
MLA	Hua W.,et al."Assessing reanalysis data for understanding rainfall climatology and variability over Central Equatorial Africa".Climate Dynamics 53.2020-01-02(2019).