HR: 14:55h
AN: GC23B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Land surface coupling in regional climate simulations of tropical monsoon systems
AU: * Steiner, A L
EM: alsteiner@umich.edu
AF: Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
AU: Pal, J S
EM: jpal@lmu.edu
AF: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045, United States
AU: Bell, J L
EM: jlb4376@yahoo.com
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Diffenbaugh, N S
EM: diffenbaugh@purdue.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AU: Rauscher, S A
EM: srausche@ictp.it
AF: International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste, 34014, Italy
AU: Giorgi, F
EM: giorgi@ictp.it
AF: International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste, 34014, Italy
AU: Sloan, L C
EM: lcsloan@emerald.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AB: Simulations with the ICTP Regional Climate Model version 3 coupled to the Common Land Model version 3 (RegCM3-CLM3) show significant improvement in the simulation of summer monsoon precipitation and temperature. A ten-year simulation (1992-2001) over Europe and northern Africa driven by reanalysis boundary conditions indicates that timing and magnitude of the African monsoon more closely match observations when a new land surface scheme is implemented. The RegCM3-CLM3 improves the timing of the monsoon advance and retreat across the Guinean Coast and reduces the precipitation bias in the Sahel and Northern Africa. As a result, simulated temperatures are higher, thereby reducing the cool temperature bias noted in northern Africa in RegCM3. The complex treatment of soil in CLM3 leads to a more accurate representation of interannual soil moisture and land surface albedo in RegCM3-CLM, which may lead to the strong land-atmosphere feedback.
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 1843)
DE: 3355 Regional modeling
DE: 9305 Africa
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting