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Evaluation of the regional climate model ALADIN to simulate the climate over North America in the CORDEX framework

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Abstract

In this study, an ensemble of four multi-year climate simulations is performed with the regional climate model ALADIN to evaluate its ability to simulate the climate over North America in the CORDEX framework. The simulations differ in their driving fields (ERA-40 or ERA-Interim) and the nudging technique (with or without large-scale nudging). The validation of the simulated 2-m temperature and precipitation with observationally-based gridded data sets shows that ALADIN performs similarly to other regional climate models that are commonly used over North America. Large-scale nudging improves the temporal correlation of the atmospheric circulation between ALADIN and its driving field, and also reduces the warm and dry summer biases in central North America. The differences between the simulations driven with different reanalyses are small and are likely related to the regional climate model’s induced internal variability. In general, the impact of different driving fields on ALADIN is smaller than that of large-scale nudging. The analysis of the multi-year simulations over the prairie and the east taiga indicates that the ALADIN 2-m temperature and precipitation interannual variability is similar or larger than that observed. Finally, a comparison of the simulations with observations for the summer 1993 shows that ALADIN underestimates the flood in central North America mainly due to its systematic dry bias in this region. Overall, the results indicate that ALADIN can produce a valuable contribution to CORDEX over North America.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from Fonds de recherche du Québec—Nature et technologies and a visiting scientist position at Meteo-France to the 1st author. This study is a contribution to the CORDEX project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), Folkborgsvägen 17, 601 76, Norrköping, Sweden

    Philippe Lucas-Picher

  2. Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (CNRM-GAME), Météo-France/CNRS, Toulouse, France

    Philippe Lucas-Picher, Samuel Somot, Michel Déqué, Bertrand Decharme & Antoinette Alias

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  1. Philippe Lucas-Picher
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  2. Samuel Somot
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Correspondence to Philippe Lucas-Picher.

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Lucas-Picher, P., Somot, S., Déqué, M. et al. Evaluation of the regional climate model ALADIN to simulate the climate over North America in the CORDEX framework. Clim Dyn 41, 1117–1137 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1613-8

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