Regional Precipitation Study in Central America, Using the WRF Model

Sammanfattning: Using the regional climate model WRF, and the NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis Project data asboundary and initial conditions, regional precipitation was estimated by means of thedynamical downscaling technique for two selected periods, January 2000 and September2007. These months show very particular climatic characteristics of the precipitationregimen in Central America, like dry (wet) conditions in the Pacific (Caribbean) coast of theCentral American isthmus, in January, and wet (dry) conditions, respectively in each coast,during September. Four-nested-domains, each grids of resolution of 90 km (d01), 30 km(d02), 10 km (d03), and 3.3 km (d04), were configured over this region. The runs werereinitialized each 5 days with 6 hours of spin-up time for adjustment of the model. A total of8 experiments (4 per month) were tested in order to study: a) two important CumulusParameterization Schemes (CPS), Kain-Fritsch (KF) and Grell-Devenyi (GD); and b) thephysical interaction between nested domains (one- and two-way nesting), during eachsimulated month.January 2000 results showed that the modeled precipitation is in agreement withobservations, and also captured the mean climate features of rainfall concerning magnitude,and spatial distribution, like the particular precipitation contrast between the Pacific and theCaribbean coast.Outputs from September 2007 revealed significant differences when a visual comparison ismade to the spatial distribution of each coarse domain (d01, d02, and d03) with theirrespective domain in each experiment. However, the inner grids (d04) in all theexperiments, showed a similar spatial distribution and magnitude estimation, mainly inthose runs using one-way nesting configuration. Furthermore, the results for this mothdiffer substantially with observations, and the latter could be related with associateddeficiencies in the boundary condition that do not reproduce well the transition periodsfrom warm to cold El Niño episodes.Moreover, in all the experiments, the KF scheme calculated more precipitation than the GDscheme and it is associated to the ability of the GD scheme to reproduce spotty but intenserainfall, and apparently, this scheme is reluctant to activate, frequently yielding little or norain. However, when rainfall does develop, it is very intense.Also, the time series do not replicate specific precipitation events, thus, the 5-daysintegration period used in this study, is not enough to reproduce short-period precipitationevents.Finally, physical interaction issues between the nested domains are reflected indiscontinuities in the precipitation field, which have been associated to mass fieldadjustment in the CPS.