Evaluation of precipitation in ERA-Interim reanalysis using observations from the Czech Republic (1982-2016)

0493729 - ÚFA 2019 DE eng A - Abstract
Rulfová, Zuzana - Beranová, Romana - Kyselý, Jan
Evaluation of precipitation in ERA-Interim reanalysis using observations from the Czech Republic (1982-2016).
EMS Annual Meeting Abstracts, Vol. 15. Berlín: European Meteorological Society, 2018.
[EMS Annual Meeting: European Conference for Applied Meteorology and Climatology 2018. 03.09.2018-07.09.2018, Budapest]
Institutional support: RVO:68378289
Keywords : precipitation * reanalysis * rainfall analysis
OECD category: Meteorology and atmospheric sciences
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EMS2018/EMS2018-243.pdf

Many studies dealt with evaluation of precipitation characteristics in reanalyses. However, little attention has been
paid to ability of reanalyses to reproduce convective and stratiform precipitation, although reanalyses simulate
convective and stratiform (large-scale) precipitation separately through cumulus and large-scale precipitation
parameterizations in forecasts data. The probable reason is the lack of long-term series of precipitation data
disaggregated according to their origin into convective and stratiform. We apply a recently proposed algorithm
for disaggregating station precipitation data into predominantly convective and stratiform, and evaluate biases in
characteristics of convective and stratiform precipitation (e.g. annual cycle of precipitation amount and the number
of wet days, diurnal cycle of convective and stratiform precipitation, and extremes) in an ERA-Interim reanalysis
over 1982-2016 in the Czech Republic.
Mean annual cycles of convective and stratiform precipitation amounts are reproduced reasonably well in
ERA-Interim. The number of wet days is slightly overestimated for convective precipitation, especially for days
with lower precipitation amount, and slightly underestimated for stratiform precipitation. Mean annual maxima of
6-hour and daily precipitation amounts are underestimated in ERA-Interim, especially for convective precipitation,
and this underestimation is not only due to spatial smoothing. The daily distributions of convective and stratiform
precipitation are studied in all seasons. In summer, when both precipitation components contribute almost equally
to the total precipitation amount in the observed data, the peak of convective and stratiform precipitation in
ERA-Interim occurs before noon while in observations convective precipitation has its peak in the afternoon and
stratiform precipitation at night. Similar behaviour is found in all seasons.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0287052