Contact: William J. Gutowski
The Project to Intercompare Regional Climate Simulations (PIRCS) is a community-based project to intercompare regional models run in climate mode. PIRCS activities so far have consisted of a series of collaborative intercomparison experiments using mesoscale models to simulate the climate for a North American domain, focusing on the Central US. Initial experiments were for 2-month periods during the drought year of 1988 (15 May - 15 July; Exp. 1a) and the Midwest flood period of 1993 (1 June - 31 July; Exp. 1b). The periods and region coincided with GEWEX Numerical Experimentation Panel recommendations for test simulations by regional-scale models. Exp. 1a emphasized thermal and dynamical processes whereas Exp. 1b emphasized water cycle processes. We have recently released boundary conditions for Experiment 1c, which entails multi-year simulation for nearly the same North American domain as as Exps. 1a and 1b. Emphasis is on the North American Monsoon and its connection with other climatic processes across the U.S.
References:
- Anderson, C.J., R. W. Arritt, E. S. Takle, Z. Pan, W. J. Gutowski, R. da Silva, and PIRCS modelers, 2003: Hydrologic processes in regional climate model simulations of the central United States flood of June-July 1993. J. Hydrometeor., in press.
- Takle, E. S., W. J. Gutowski, R. A. Arritt, Z. Pan, C. J. Anderson, R. R. da Silva, D. Caya, S.-C. Chen, J. H. Christensen, S.-Y. Hong, H.-M. H. Juang, J. Katzfey, W. M. Lapenta, R. Laprise, P. Lopez, J. McGregor, and J. O. Roads, 1999: Project to Intercompare Regional Climate Simulations (PIRCS): Description and initial results. J. Geophys. Res., 104, 19,443-19,461.