Abstract
The effects of different RegCM4 land-surface schemes on Tibetan Plateau (TP) precipitation simulations were investigated. Two groups of ten-year (1992–2001) simulation experiments (hereafter referred to as BATS and CLM) were performed based on two land-surface schemes (BATS and CLM3.5, resp.) and were compared with observed data using the same domain, initial, and lateral boundary conditions, cumulus convective scheme, and spatial resolution. The results showed that the CLM monthly precipitation more closely matched the observed data compared with BATS. BATS and CLM both overestimated summer precipitation in the northern TP but underestimated summer precipitation in the southern TP. However, CLM, because of its detailed land-surface process descriptions, reduced the overestimated precipitation areas and magnitudes of BATS. Compared to CN05, the regional average summer precipitation in BATS and CLM was overestimated by 34.7% and underestimated by 24.7%, respectively. Higher soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and heating effects in the BATS experiment triggered changes in atmospheric circulation patterns over the TP. Moreover, BATS simulated the lower atmosphere as warmer and more humid and the upper atmosphere (~150 hPa) as colder than the CLM simulations; these characteristics likely increased the instability for moist convection and produced more summer precipitation.
Highlights
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has a profound influence on China and global weather and climate through both dynamical and thermal effects (e.g., [1, 2]), which generate the most prominent monsoon circulations on Earth
It can be observed that both BiosphereAtmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) and CLM simulated the monthly variations of the precipitation quite well, as indicated by the high correlation coefficients
The results showed that the land-surface processes strongly affected the precipitation simulations
Summary
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has a profound influence on China and global weather and climate through both dynamical and thermal effects (e.g., [1, 2]), which generate the most prominent monsoon circulations on Earth. The TP is usually called the “water tower of Asia” because of its importance in the hydrological cycle. Precipitation is one of the most important climatic elements; it affects people’s daily lives and relates to climate change. Global warming and variations in precipitation characteristics have been urgent issues in climatological and hydrological studies. Precipitation is still the most difficult climatic element to reasonably forecast because it occurs as a result of nonlinear interactions between complicated physical and dynamic processes [4, 5]
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