Climate indices of temperature and precipitation over South America: present climate and validation of the RegCM3 model

Author(s)

Amanda Sabatini Dufek

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico (IAG/SBD)
• Defense date: 2008-05-16

Examining board members

Tercio Ambrizzi; José Antonio Marengo Orsini; Rosmeri Porfirio da Rocha

• Advisor: Tercio Ambrizzi

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to investigate if the RegCM3 model (Regional Climate Model version 3) is able to simulate the spatial patterns of some annual and seasonal climate indices of temperature and precipitation trend over South America for the present climate (1961-1990). The analysis is done for three different simulations where the model was running with different cumulus parametrization, i.e, Grell and Emanuel. An algorithm based on the software RClimDex was developed to calculate the indices. Different data sources such as the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, individual observational stations and others were used to estimate the annual and seasonal indices of temperature and precipitation for the same region and period. Correlation and linear regression coefficients analysis were used in the results comparison. In general, the results suggest that the datasets can provide useful information about annual and seasonal indices of temperature and precipitation at individual grid cells in South America during the period 1961-1990. However, the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis showed reversal trend signals for some indices over Argentina. Within the three simulations with the RegCM3 model, the trends of the annual and seasonal indices of temperature and precipitation over South America are better reproduced by the Emanuel (s2) and Grell (s1) schemes, respectively. The RegCM3(s1) simulates the change to wetter conditions in South America through the r95p, prcptot and rx5day annual indices, particularly in the austral winter. On the other hand, the opposite signal of the trends in cdd and cwd indices, that indicates an increase in the number of days with precipitation, was not well represented by the model. The warming in minimum temperature as a consequence of the increase in the frequency of warm nights and the decrease of cold nights observed all over the South American continent was correctly simulated by the RegCM3(s2). Although the observed maximum temperature extremes did not show any special feature, the simulations with Grell scheme were able to represent the spatial patterns of the warm and cold days indices trend similar to the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The spatial distributions of the annual indices of temperature and precipitation trend obtained from the RegCM3(s2 and s1, respectively) and HadAM3 simulations over South America during the period 1961-1990 are very similar, though the HadAM3 shows a trend less intense. For the annual and seasonal indices of temperature, the HadAM3 simulation is slightly better than the RegCM3 running, while the opposite is found to the annual and seasonal indices of precipitation. (AU)