Title: Regional climate model simulation for temperature and precipitation over South Asia using different physical parameterisation schemes

Authors: Mujtaba Hassan; Pengfei Du

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Space Sciences, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad Highway, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan ' State Key Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control (SKLESPC), School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract: The ability of ICTP regional climate model version 4 (RegCM4.3) is investigated by using two land surface schemes: the biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS) and the community land model version 3.5 (CLM3.5). To attain the best model configuration over the South Asia region, six sensitivity experiments are conducted with three different cumulus convection schemes. RegCM4.3 coupled with CLM3.5 and mixed convection scheme option (MIX-CLM), produced better simulation than BATS. The cold winter bias and the intensities of wet-dry biases over the foothills of Hindukush-Karakorum-Himalaya (HKH) and Central India are substantially reduced with MIX-CLM. In terms of seasonal variability, results suggest that different convection schemes behaved differently over sub-regions of the domain. The annual cycles of precipitation and temperature are better captured over the Bay of Bengal and Western Ghats by MIX-CLM. In spite of some deficiencies, the MIX-CLM scheme improves the model performance over the various parts of the domain.

Keywords: regional climate modelling; seasonal variability; physical parameterisation; South Asia; model evaluation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2018.088642

International Journal of Global Warming, 2018 Vol.14 No.1, pp.1 - 20

Received: 01 Aug 2015
Accepted: 10 Jan 2016
Published online: 14 Dec 2017 *

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