HR: 11:56h
AN: A52A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Regional Climate Model Simulated Timing and Character of Seasonal Rains in South America
AU: * Rauscher, S A
EM: rauscher@iri.columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University/IRI, 61 Route 9 W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Seth, A
EM: seth@iri.columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University/IRI, 61 Route 9 W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Liebmann, B
EM: brant.liebmann@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/Climate Diagnostics Center, 325 Broadway, R/CDC1*, Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AB: Seasonal rainfall prediction, while useful for some planning, does not have the temporal resolution needed for many applications. Information regarding sub-seasonal variations in rainfall are often needed for sectors such as water management and agriculture. In this paper we will present sub-seasonal statistics including rainy season onset/demise, wet/dry days, and wet/dry spells from high resolution model simulations and compare the results with a daily gridded observational dataset and the low resolution driving general circulation model (GCM). These statistics will be computed from an ensemble nested model climatology for South America, which is performed using a regional climate model (RegCM3) driven with lateral boundary conditions from a general circulation model (ECHAM4.5) and reanalyses, and using observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for the period 1982-2003. Our discussion will focus on the potential value of the one-way nested approach in providing useful information on sub-seasonal time scales.
DE: 9360 South America
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting