1. Verification of dynamically downscaled results around Japan Islands
Izuru Takayabu
Meteorological
Research
Institute
JAPAN
2009/02/10
RT3-meeting
Toulouse

2. Contents On problems of around Japan area.
(1) verification
(2) applying dynamical downscaling method
around Japan area.
(Around 30 – 45 degrees north along the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent)
Here we introduce the results of on going 4 projects in Japan.
(20km, 5km, 4km, 2km and 1km RCMs are used)

3. Japan Islands

4. Local climate around Japan (Winter season)
Snow depth on Feb.

5. Influence of horizontal resolution on the representation of precipitation
RCM
(20km)
AOGCM
(T42, 280km)
RCM
(60km)
OBS.
(R/A 5km)
(Takayabu et al. 2006)

6. Winter monsoon snow accumulation simulated by using 20km RCM (PGWM)
High Snow Cover year Low Snow Cover year
(Hara et al., 2008, Hydrological Res. Letters)

7. Winter monsoon snow-accumulation by using 4km NHM
4km NHM OBS (AMeDAS)
Nov. 15
AMeDAS’s site data
Feb. 15
GPV of the nearest, and second nearest points
May. 15
(Takayabu et al., 2007)

8. On problems on verification
We need to think of
　the observation site’s condition, and
their representative
In our area, for verify the results of our regional climate model, we are using Automated Data Acquisition System, which are operationally used in JMA.

9. AMeDAS site Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System
(T, Wind, Prec., hours of sunlight, snow depth)
Time interval : 10 min.
Sites : 1300
Horizontal resolution : 17km

10. AMeDAS network

11. AMeDAS sites

12. Radar-AMeDAS precip. data
JMA has developed this system as a part of the alerting system for the flood disaster.
This dataset is made by compositing both the rain gage data and the radar data. The purpose of this dataset is to find severe weather systems rapidly. The horizontal resolution of this dataset is now 1km.

13. Problems we are facing now is ..
We need to use high resolution data for verifying the model’s results
However, the operational data is fit for the alerting system, or so.
Thus we need to be careful when we try to use such kind of data for verifying from the standpoint of climate.
 For example, the hydrologists are …

14. Prec. - discharge = evapotranspiration
Hydrologists check the amount of precipitation on the river basin and found that …
Prec. - discharge = evapotranspiration
Plotted for all basins in Japan
The mean value of the evapotranspiratin over Japan is between 500 and 1100 mm/y .
The estimated value of evapotranspiration is too small here.
The underestimation of precipitation is suggested
Mean Temperature
(Kanae, 2007)

15. Estimated discharge [mm/y]
Non-UC
Non-PER UC
Non-PER
OBS. discharge[mm/y]
UC: Undercatch correction
PER: altitude correction
　Improve the consistency with the amount of river dischage. UC
PER
(Kanae, 2007)

16. Summery
Around Japan Islands, we have a dense network to verify the RCM’s data.
However, we should pay attention when we try to use this dataset for climatology, because it was made for the disaster alarming system, and is sometimes too sensitive for discussing the climatic value.
Thus, we are now making efforts to avoid these weaknesses.

17. Other important problems around Japan
① SST impact on winter climate.
② Representative of Floods (Convection scheme and horizontal resolution)

18. ① SST impact on winter climate
We drive 20km WRF model by using 2 kinds of SST data as follows.
SST and S D.
AVHRR+AMSR-E
OISST:0.25deg.
JRA25
* RASST:1.25deg.
(Iizuka, 2008)

19. Difference in Climate averaged in the 9yr winter time from 1999/2000 to 2007/2008 between OISST-Run and RASST-Run
(20km WRF model run)
Increase in Snowfall
Increase in convergence associated with enhanced wind
Enhanced vertical mixing on warmer SST along the western coast of the Japanese Islands
(Iizuka, 2008)

20. ② Representative of floods Precipitation pattern difference between 1km and 5km NHM
1km NHM with cloud microphysics scheme.
5km NHM with KF convection scheme
Flood (Image)
We are now trying to use 2km grid non-parameterized model instead of 5km grid parameterized model to avoid this problem.
(Kanada, 2009)

21. Conclusion
Over the Japan Islands, we have a dense network for getting meteorolgical data.
-It is useful to verify very high resolution RCM, however, we still have some problems.
There exists also some difficulties in simulating the climate like around Japan Isls.
-This is because the Islands are located around the boundary between the tropical , and high-latitude airmasses.
- And also these Islands are all surrounded by water surface.