Pope, RJ orcid.org/0000-0002-3587-837X, Marsham, J orcid.org/0000-0003-3219-8472, Knippertz, P et al. (2 more authors) (2016) Identifying errors in dust models from data assimilation. Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (17). pp. 9270-9279. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Airborne mineral dust is an important component of the Earth system and is increasingly predicted prognostically in weather and climate models. The recent development of data assimilation for remotely sensed aerosol optical depths (AODs) into models offers a new opportunity to better understand the characteristics and sources of model error. Here we examine assimilation increments from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer AODs over northern Africa in the Met Office global forecast model. The model underpredicts (overpredicts) dust in light (strong) winds, consistent with (submesoscale) mesoscale processes lifting dust in reality but being missed by the model. Dust is overpredicted in the Sahara and underpredicted in the Sahel. Using observations of lighting and rain, we show that haboobs (cold pool outflows from moist convection) are an important dust source in reality but are badly handled by the model's convection scheme. The approach shows promise to serve as a useful framework for future model development.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2016. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | aerosol optical depth; dust forecasts; haboobs; data assimilation increments |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Sep 2016 10:21 |
Last Modified: | 06 Nov 2017 10:09 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070621 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2016GL070621 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:104257 |