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The performance of RegCM4 over the Central America and Caribbean region using different cumulus parameterizations

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Abstract

A sensitivity study of the performance of the RegCM4 regional climate model driven by the ERA Interim reanalysis is conducted for the Central America and Caribbean region. A set of numerical experiments are completed using four configurations of the model, with a horizontal grid spacing of 25 km for a period of 6 years (1998–2003), using three of the convective parameterization schemes implemented in the model, the Emanuel scheme, the Grell over land-Emanuel over ocean scheme and two configurations of the Tiedtke scheme. The objective of the study is to investigate the ability of each configuration to reproduce different characteristics of the temperature, circulation and precipitation fields for the dry and rainy seasons. All schemes simulate the general temperature and precipitation patterns over land reasonably well, with relatively high correlations compared to observation datasets, though in specific regions there are positive or negative biases, greater in the rainy season. We also focus on some circulation features relevant for the region, such as the Caribbean low level jet and sea breeze circulations over islands, which are simulated by the model with varied performance across the different configurations. We find that no model configuration assessed is best performing for all the analysis criteria selected, but the Tiedtke configurations, which include the capability of tuning in particular the exchanges between cloud and environment air, provide the most balanced range of biases across variables, with no outstanding systematic bias emerging.

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Acknowledgements

The Project “Generation of high resolution climate change scenarios for Cuba, the Caribbean region and the surrounding territories” of the Climate Change Program of the Cuban Environment Agency partially funded this work. Special thanks to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre for funding for storage capacity and to The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) for its financial support to access its facilities to four of the authors through its Associateship and Federation Programs. We thank the Weather and Climate Physics Group of ICTP for providing RegCM4 and for their support during our stays in ICTP. Thanks to our colleague Adrian Ferrer for helping in data processing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Meteorología, Loma de Casablanca S/N, Havana, Cuba

    Daniel Martínez-Castro, Alejandro Vichot-Llano, Arnoldo Bezanilla-Morlot & Abel Centella-Artola

  2. Department of Physics, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica

    Jayaka Campbell

  3. Earth Physics Section, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy

    Filippo Giorgi

  4. Oficina Nacional de Meteorología, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

    Cecilia C. Viloria-Holguin

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  1. Daniel Martínez-Castro
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  2. Alejandro Vichot-Llano
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  3. Arnoldo Bezanilla-Morlot
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  4. Abel Centella-Artola
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  5. Jayaka Campbell
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  6. Filippo Giorgi
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  7. Cecilia C. Viloria-Holguin
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Correspondence to Daniel Martínez-Castro.

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Martínez-Castro, D., Vichot-Llano, A., Bezanilla-Morlot, A. et al. The performance of RegCM4 over the Central America and Caribbean region using different cumulus parameterizations. Clim Dyn 50, 4103–4126 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3863-y

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