Sensitivity of WRF to driving data and physics options on a seasonal time-scale for the southwest of Western Australia

Jatin Kala*, Julia Andrys, Tom J. Lyons, Ian J. Foster, Bradley J. Evans

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    58 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Regional climate models are sensitive to the forcing data used, as well as different model physics options. Additionally, the behaviour of physics parameterisations may vary depending on the location of the domain due to different climatic regimes. In this study, we carry out a sensitivity analysis of the weather research and forecasting model to different driving data and model physics options over a 10-km resolution domain in the southwest of Western Australia, a region with Mediterranean climate. Simulations are carried out on a seasonal time-scale, in order to better inform future long-term regional climate simulations for this region. We show that the choice of radiation scheme had a strong influence on both temperature and precipitation; the choice of planetary boundary layer scheme has a particularly large influence on minimum temperatures; and, the choice of cumulus scheme or more complex micro-physics did not strongly influence precipitation simulations. More importantly, we show that the same radiation scheme, when used with different driving data, can lead to different results.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)633-659
    Number of pages27
    JournalClimate Dynamics
    Volume44
    Issue number3-4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Feb 2015

    Keywords

    • Dynamical downscaling
    • Physics parameterisation
    • Regional climate modeling
    • WRF

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