Dynamical downscaling of short-term climate fluctuations: On the benefits of precipitation assimilation

Regional downscaling has proven useful in adding details to the global solution. However, the parameterized physical processes can systematically deviate the large-scale features in the regional solution. To demonstrate the precipitation assimilation beneficial impact on the dynamical downscaling, a regional spectral model driven by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project II (NCEP/DOE AMIP-II) Reanalysis was used to downscale the large-scale features over most of North America. The North American Regional Reanalysis provided the 3-hourly precipitation rates that the regional model employed to simulate two opposite extreme climate events: the upper Mississippi River Basin 1988 drought and 1993 floods. In addition to these two cases, the 1990 summer anomalous precipitation over the same area was also investigated. Precipitation assimilation positively influences the dynamical downscaling of these extreme climate events. The regional model when assimilating precipitation was particularly successful in reproducing the observed precipitation patterns over the central United States, where the large-scale circulation affects the precipitation variability. Particularly for the flood year, the intensity and location of the subtropical upper-level westerly jet and its associated transverse circulations were noticeably improved in the regional simulations, where the heavy precipitation core was found. This also suggests that the cumulus convection scheme, in this case the Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert parameterization scheme, can cause the large-scale features to drift during the regional simulation, and precipitation assimilation reduces this departure from the global solution. These changes in the upper-level winds were also followed by better characterization of the drought of 1988 as well as the 1990 summer heavy precipitation simulation, in comparison to regional control simulations, where precipitation was not assimilated.