Investigation of storm track characteristics in a regional climate model
over East Asia
Abstract
Studies have shown that regional climate models (RCMs) can simulate
local climates at a higher resolution for specific regions compared to
global climate models (GCMs), making dynamic downscaling using RCMs a
more effective approach. Therefore, RCMs have become valuable tools for
evaluating the potential impacts of climate change on specific regions
and for informing local adaptation strategies. To fully understand the
added value (AV) of RCMs, it is essential to understand how the
characteristics differ between land and ocean. The complex topography of
East Asia, including land and sea, makes it a suitable region for
evaluating the AV of RCMs. In this study, we compared two regional
simulations that integrated the same RCMs but employed different GCMs
from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment for their
ability to simulate storm tracks in East Asia. The results of the RCMs
over a historical period were compared with their host Coupled Model
Intercomparison Project GCM projections and high-resolution reanalysis.
In mountainous regions, the AV of the RCMs weakened the bias of the GCM
and improved its agreement with the reanalysis. In plains and coastal
areas, owing to the increase in horizontal resolution in RCMs,
small-scale phenomena are well represented, and the storm track of RCMs
shows similar values to that of the GCM in maritime regions. This study
demonstrates the value of RCMs for improving the accuracy of climate
projections in East Asia, informing adaptation strategies, and enhancing
climate research.