Abstract
In this paper, we have estimated the spatiotemporal distribution of moisture recycling over the Iberian Peninsula (IP). The recycling ratio was computed from two simulations over the IP using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a horizontal resolution of 15 km spanning the period 2010–2014. The first simulation (WRF N) was nested inside the ERA-Interim with information passed to the domain through the boundaries. The second run (WRF D) is similar to WRF N, but it also includes 3DVAR data assimilation every six hours (12:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. UTC). It was also extended until 2018. The lowest values of moisture recycling (3%) are obtained from November to February, while the highest ones (16%) are observed in spring in both simulations. Moisture recycling is confined to the southeastern corner during winter. During spring and summer, a gradient towards the northeastern corner of the IP is observed in both simulations. The differences between both simulations are associated with the dryness of the soil in the model and are higher during summer and autumn. WRF D presents a lower bias and produces more reliable results because of a better representation of the atmospheric moisture.
Highlights
The Iberian Peninsula presents a heterogeneous topography, and it is affected by different moisture sources as a consequence of being surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea
The validation was carried out for variables such as precipitable water, precipitation, evaporation over the Iberian Peninsula (IP) [73], and wind over the coastal areas [74], and this study presents the analysis of moisture recycling calculated using these thorough estimations of atmospheric moisture fields for the first time
The reason for this is that the local underestimation of evaporation at a limited amount of grid points does not severely affect the estimation of recycling over surrounding areas where other fields smooth the influence of these local evaporation errors
Summary
The Iberian Peninsula (hereafter, IP) presents a heterogeneous topography, and it is affected by different moisture sources as a consequence of being surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea. The main sources of moisture are the large-scale moisture transports [1,2,3], but it is affected by blockings [4] and by teleconnection patterns [5] such as the North Atlantic. Oscillation [6,7] or the East Atlantic pattern [7,8,9,10]. All these factors determine the spatial pattern of precipitation along the year. A negative trend in the precipitation amount has been observed over the IP [8,14,15,16]
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