Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

Diurnal Characteristics of Rainfall over the Contiguous United States and Northern Mexico in the Dynamically Downscaled Reanalysis Dataset (US10)

Tomohito J. Yamada Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan

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Myong-In Lee School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea

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Masao Kanamitsu Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California

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Hideki Kanamaru Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

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Print Publication:
01 Jun 2012
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-11-0121.1
Page(s):
1142–1148
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Abstract

The diurnal characteristics of summer rainfall in the contiguous United States and northern Mexico were examined with the United States reanalysis for 5 years in 10-km horizontal resolution (US10), which is dynamically downscaled from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) Global Reanalysis 1 using the Regional Spectral Model (RSM). The hourly precipitation outputs demonstrate a realistic structure in the temporal evolution of the observed rainfall episodes and their magnitudes across the United States without any prescriptions of the observed rainfall to the global reanalysis and the downscaled regional reanalysis. Nighttime rainfall over the Great Plains associated with eastward-propagating, mesoscale convective systems originating from the Rocky Mountains is also represented realistically in US10, while the original reanalysis and most general circulation models (GCMs) have difficulties in capturing the series of nocturnal precipitation events in summer over the Plains. The results suggest an important role of the horizontal resolution of the model in resolving small-scale, propagating convective systems to improve the diurnal cycle of summer rainfall.

Corresponding author address: Tomohito J. Yamada, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, N13, W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan. E-mail: tomohito@eng.hokudai.ac.jp

Abstract

The diurnal characteristics of summer rainfall in the contiguous United States and northern Mexico were examined with the United States reanalysis for 5 years in 10-km horizontal resolution (US10), which is dynamically downscaled from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) Global Reanalysis 1 using the Regional Spectral Model (RSM). The hourly precipitation outputs demonstrate a realistic structure in the temporal evolution of the observed rainfall episodes and their magnitudes across the United States without any prescriptions of the observed rainfall to the global reanalysis and the downscaled regional reanalysis. Nighttime rainfall over the Great Plains associated with eastward-propagating, mesoscale convective systems originating from the Rocky Mountains is also represented realistically in US10, while the original reanalysis and most general circulation models (GCMs) have difficulties in capturing the series of nocturnal precipitation events in summer over the Plains. The results suggest an important role of the horizontal resolution of the model in resolving small-scale, propagating convective systems to improve the diurnal cycle of summer rainfall.

Corresponding author address: Tomohito J. Yamada, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, N13, W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan. E-mail: tomohito@eng.hokudai.ac.jp
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