The climatological skill of a regional model over complex terrain

Abstract

As part of an ongoing study of the regional climate and hydrology of the southwestern United States, in this paper we investigate the systematic biases of two versions of the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model (MM4). These are a standard version and one that includes a more detailed treatment of radiative transfer, surface physics, and soil hydrology. In general, the inclusion of the new physics package did not strongly affect precipitation prediction or the temperature, moisture, and wind midtropospheric biases. In the boundary layer over land, however, the augmented model was significantly colder and drier than the standard model due to larger nighttime surface sensible heat fluxes and lower evaporation rates. -from Authors