Meyer, Jon, Jiming Jin, Ripley McCoy, Utah State
University
This study attempts to
understand and correct processes within the Weather Research and Forecasting
(WRF) model version 3.3 coupled with the Community Land Model (CLM) version 4.0
responsible for underestimated summer-time precipitation associated with the
North American Monsoon. Analysis shows that a cold bias is seen in the Gulf of
CaliforniaÕs sea surface temperature (SST) for WRF employing National Centers
for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data. This cold bias reduces the
amount of moisture transported to the Southwestern United States during the
summer monsoon season, resulting in under-prediction of precipitation in that
region. Thus we integrated high-quality Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) SST data with WRF-CLM to generate improved summer
monsoon precipitation in the Southwest. Further, analysis was conducted using
WRF-CLM to examine how the land surface temperature in the Southwest affects
regional- and synoptic-scale atmospheric processes and monsoon precipitation.