[en] Greenland rainfall has come into focus as a climate change indicator and from a variety of emerging cryospheric impacts. This study first evaluates rainfall in five state-of-the-art numerical prediction systems (NPSs) (CARRA, ERA5, NHM-SMAP, RACMO, MAR) using in situ rainfall data from two regions spanning from land onto the ice sheet. The new EU Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Arctic Regional ReAnalysis (CARRA), with a relatively fine (2.5 km) horizontal grid spacing and extensive within-model-domain observational initialization, has the lowest average bias and highest explained variance relative to the field data. ERA5 inland wet bias versus CARRA is consistent with the field data and other research and is presumably due to more ERA5 topographic smoothing. A CARRA climatology 1991–2021 has rainfall increasing by more than one-third for the ice sheet and its peripheral ice masses. CARRA and in situ data illuminate extreme (above 300 mm per day) local rainfall episodes. A detailed examination CARRA data reveals the interplay of mass conservation that splits flow around southern Greenland and condensational buoyancy generation that maintains along-flow updraft ‘rapids’ 2 km above sea level, which produce rain bands within an atmospheric river interacting with Greenland. CARRA resolves gravity wave oscillations that initiate as a result of buoyancy offshore, which then amplify from terrain-forced uplift. In a detailed case study, CARRA resolves orographic intensification of rainfall by up to a factor of four, which is consistent with the field data.
Research Center/Unit :
SPHERES - ULiège
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Box, Jason E. ; Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Copenhagen Denmark
Nielsen, Kristian P.; Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen Denmark
Yang, Xiaohua; Danish Meteorological Institute Copenhagen Denmark
Niwano, Masashi; Meteorological Research Institute Japan Meteorological Agency Tsukuba Japan ; National Institute of Polar Research Tachikawa Japan
Wehrlé, Adrien; Institute of Geography University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland
van As, Dirk; Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Copenhagen Denmark
Fettweis, Xavier ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie
Køltzow, Morten A. Ø.; The Norwegian Meteorological Institute Oslo Norway
Palmason, Bolli; Icelandic Met Office Reykjavik Iceland
Fausto, Robert S.; Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Copenhagen Denmark
van den Broeke, Michiel R.; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
Huai, Baojuan; College of Geography and Environment Shandong Normal University Jinan China
Ahlstrøm, Andreas P.; Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Copenhagen Denmark
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