Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Item
    A climate network perspective on the intertropical convergence zone
    (Göttingen : Copernicus Publ., 2021) Wolf, Frederik; Voigt, Aiko; Donner, Reik V.
    The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is an important component of the tropical rain belt. Climate models continue to struggle to adequately represent the ITCZ and differ substantially in its simulated response to climate change. Here we employ complex network approaches, which extract spatiotemporal variability patterns from climate data, to better understand differences in the dynamics of the ITCZ in state-of-the-art global circulation models (GCMs). For this purpose, we study simulations with 14 GCMs in an idealized slab-ocean aquaplanet setup from TRACMIP – the Tropical Rain belts with an Annual cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project. We construct network representations based on the spatial correlation patterns of monthly surface temperature anomalies and study the zonal-mean patterns of different topological and spatial network characteristics. Specifically, we cluster the GCMs by means of the distributions of their zonal network measures utilizing hierarchical clustering. We find that in the control simulation, the distributions of the zonal network measures are able to pick up model differences in the tropical sea surface temperature (SST) contrast, the ITCZ position, and the strength of the Southern Hemisphere Hadley cell. Although we do not find evidence for consistent modifications in the network structure tracing the response of the ITCZ to global warming in the considered model ensemble, our analysis demonstrates that coherent variations of the global SST field are linked to ITCZ dynamics. This suggests that climate networks can provide a new perspective on ITCZ dynamics and model differences therein.
  • Item
    Changes in meandering of the Northern Hemisphere circulation
    (Bristol : Institute of Physics Publishing, 2016) Di Capua, G.; Coumou, D.
  • Item
    Three perceptions of the evapotranspiration landscape: Comparing spatial patterns from a distributed hydrological model, remotely sensed surface temperatures, and sub-basin water balances
    (Chichester : John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2013) Conradt, T.; Wechsung, F.; Bronstert, A.
    A problem encountered by many distributed hydrological modelling studies is high simulation errors at interior gauges when the model is only globally calibrated at the outlet. We simulated river runoff in the Elbe River basin in central Europe (148 268 km2) with the semi-distributed eco-hydrological model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model). While global parameter optimisation led to Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies of 0.9 at the main outlet gauge, comparisons with measured runoff series at interior points revealed large deviations. Therefore, we compared three different strategies for deriving sub-basin evapotranspiration: (1) modelled by SWIM without any spatial calibration, (2) derived from remotely sensed surface temperatures, and (3) calculated from long-term precipitation and discharge data. The results show certain consistencies between the modelled and the remote sensing based evapotranspiration rates, but there seems to be no correlation between remote sensing and water balance based estimations. Subsequent analyses for single sub-basins identify amongst others input weather data and systematic error amplification in inter-gauge discharge calculations as sources of uncertainty. The results encourage careful utilisation of different data sources for enhancements in distributed hydrological modelling.
  • Item
    Do new sea spray aerosol source functions improve the results of a regional aerosol model?
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2018) Barthel, Stefan; Tegen, Ina; Wolke, Ralf
    Sea spray aerosol particle is a dominating part of the global aerosol mass load of natural origin. Thus, it strongly influences the atmospheric radiation balance and cloud properties especially over the oceans. Uncertainties of the estimated climate impacts by this aerosol type are partly caused by the uncertainties in the particle size dependent emission fluxes of sea spray aerosol particle. We present simulations with a regional aerosol transport model system in two domains, for three months and compared the model results to measurements at four stations using various sea spray aerosol particle source source functions. Despite these limitations we found the results using different source functions are within the range of most model uncertainties. Especially the model's ability to produce realistic wind speeds is crucial. Furthermore, the model results are more affected by a function correcting the emission flux for the effect of the sea surface temperature than by the use of different source functions. © 2018 The Authors