Sub-grid orographic drag directly acts on wind and impacts the regional water cycle through control of atmospheric water vapor (AWV) transport. The effect of turbulent orographic form drag (TOFD) on wind and precipitation is investigated in this study using the WRF model for a winter month over the western Tibetan Plateau (TP), where solid precipitation supplies large amounts of water resources. The diurnal cycle of wind components and atmospheric circulation simulated with TOFD are consistent with observations and ERA-Interim data, whereas stronger westerlies exist in the simulation without the TOFD scheme. The latter results in more zonal AWV transport from the west and more precipitation over the western TP and surroundings. The implementation of the TOFD scheme leads to reduced biases, when evaluated with two observation-based precipitation products. It is therefore concluded that this scheme has a clear dynamical control on the regional atmospheric water recharge and thus the parameterization of the small-scale orographic drag in the model helps to improve the prediction of wintertime precipitation in the western TP region.
1.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, TEL, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, CETES, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 3.Tsinghua Univ, Dept Earth Syst Sci, Key Lab Earth Syst Modeling, Minist Educ, Beijing 10084, Peoples R China 4.Univ Chinese Acad Sci, Beijing 100049, Peoples R China 5.European Ctr Medium Range Weather Forecasts ECMWF, Shinfield Rd, Reading RG2 9AX, Berks, England 6.Free Univ Berlin, Inst Meteorol, D-12165 Berlin, Germany 7.Univ Gothenburg, Dept Earth Sci, Reg Climate Grp, Box 460, S-40530 Gothenburg, Sweden 8.Norwegian Univ Sci & Technol NTNU, Dept Energy & Proc Engn, Ind Ecol Programme, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Recommended Citation:
Zhou, Xu,Yang, Kun,Beljaars, Anton,et al. Dynamical impact of parameterized turbulent orographic form drag on the simulation of winter precipitation over the western Tibetan Plateau[J]. CLIMATE DYNAMICS,2019-01-01,53(1-2):707-720