WRF high resolution simulation of Iberian mean and extreme precipitation climate
Cardoso RM, Soares PMM, Miranda PMA, Belo-Pereira M
International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 33, 11, 2591–2608, DOI: 10.1002/joc.3616.
Download PDF
Abstract
In this study precipitation from a high resolution WRF climate simulation is presented and evaluated against daily gridded observations in the Iberian Peninsula. The simulation corresponds to a dynamical downscaling of ERA-Interim, in the period 1989–2009, performed with two nested grids, at 27 and 9 km horizontal resolution. The higher resolution simulation indicates a significantly improved representation of Iberian precipitation fields, at all timescales, with emphasis on the representation of variability and of extreme weather statistics. Results compare well with recent studies with other models and/or for other regions, further supporting the use of WRF as a regional climate model.