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Assessing the effect of domain size over the Caribbean region using the PRECIS regional climate model

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Abstract

This study investigates the sensitivity of the one-way nested PRECIS regional climate model (RCM) to domain size for the Caribbean region. Simulated regional rainfall patterns from experiments using three domains with horizontal resolution of 50 km are compared with ERA reanalysis and observed datasets to determine if there is an optimal RCM configuration with respect to domain size and the ability to reproduce important observed climate features in the Caribbean. Results are presented for the early wet season (May–July) and late wet season (August–October). There is a relative insensitivity to domain size for simulating some important features of the regional circulation and key rainfall characteristics e.g. the Caribbean low level jet and the mid summer drought (MSD). The downscaled precipitation has a systematically negative precipitation bias, even when the domain was extended to the African coast to better represent circulation associated with easterly waves and tropical cyclones. The implications for optimizing modelling efforts within resource-limited regions like the Caribbean are discussed especially in the context of the region’s participation in global initiatives such as CORDEX.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted as part of a collaborative effort between Instituto de Meteorologia (Cuba), the Climate Studies Group Mona (CSGM) of the University of the West Indies (Jamaica), the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies (Barbados) and the Antom de Kom University (Suriname) under the Caribbean Modelling Initiative. The collaboration was funded by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (Belize) and the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Research Program of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) of Cuba. INSMET’s participation was partially funded by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) project CARIWIG and by the ‘The Future of Climate Extremes in the Caribbean’ (XCUBE). XCUBE is a joint project between Norway and Cuba funded by the Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet og beredskap (DSB) on an assignment for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The CSGM participation was partially funded by the GoLoCarSce project under the ACP-EU Science and Technology Programme. Special thanks to Dr. Richard G. Jones for instructive comments. Thanks also to the Hadley Centre (UK) for PRECIS model support. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments allowed us to improve the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Meteorologia, Havana, Cuba

    Abel Centella-Artola, Arnoldo Bezanilla-Morlot, Daniel Martinez-Castro & Alejandro Vichot

  2. Department of Physics, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica

    Michael A. Taylor, Jayaka D. Campbell & Tannecia S. Stephenson

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  1. Abel Centella-Artola
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  2. Michael A. Taylor
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  3. Arnoldo Bezanilla-Morlot
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  7. Alejandro Vichot
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Correspondence to Abel Centella-Artola.

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Centella-Artola, A., Taylor, M.A., Bezanilla-Morlot, A. et al. Assessing the effect of domain size over the Caribbean region using the PRECIS regional climate model. Clim Dyn 44, 1901–1918 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2272-8

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