Relationships between circulation indices and heavy precipitation over Central Europe in climate models

0351240 - ÚFA 2011 RIV SK eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Plavcová, Eva - Kyselý, Jan
Relationships between circulation indices and heavy precipitation over Central Europe in climate models.
Povodne 2010: príčiny, priebeh a skúsenosti. Príspevky z konferencie s medzinárodnou účasťou. Bratislava: Výskumný ústav vodného hospodárstva, 2010, -. ISBN 978-80-89062-71-3.
[Povodne 2010: príčiny, priebeh a skúsenosti. Štrbské pleso (SK), 03.11.2010-05.11.2010]
R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP209/10/2265
Grant - others:Mšk(CZ) SVV-2010-261308
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30420517
Keywords : Regional climate model * heavy precipitation * atmospheric circulation * Central Europe
Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology

The present study examines links between atmospheric circulation and daily heavy precipitation over Central Europe in winter and summer. Atmospheric circulation is represented by three circulation indices derived from gridded mean sea level pressure. The aims of the work are (i) to identify errors in RCM-simulated distributions of circulation indices in given seasons and errors in simulated daily precipitation amounts under particular circulation types, (ii) to study how the RCMs capture circulation on days with precipitation amount above the 95% quantile of their empirical distribution in a given season, and (iii) to compare the performance of the individual RCMs and the dependence of results on the driving global climate model. We find that most of the investigated models simulate the links in a relatively good agreement with the observed data, including the seasonal changes. In spite of it, they have some deficiencies from which precipitation biases may arise.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0191036