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Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2006.

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Other Authors: Landman, Willem Adolf
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Landman, Willem Adolf
author_browse Landman, Willem Adolf
author_facet Landman, Willem Adolf
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © University of Pretor
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2006.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/27215
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:40.578Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/27215 Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa Landman, Willem Adolf Maryjane.kgatuke@weathersa.co.za Kgatuke, Mary-Jane Morongwa Climatic changes Meteorology Southern Africa UCTD Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2006. Global Climate Models (GCMs) and Regional Climate Models (RCMs) represent the atmospheric processes that are nonlinear by nature and are therefore sensitive to small perturbations. The RCMs are provided time dependent Lateral Boundary Conditions (LBCs) either from the GCM or the reanalyses and hence the RCMs are not expected to deviate much from the forcing fields as expected for a free non-linear system. If a GCM is used in a nested system, the nested solutions will be subject to the internal variability of both the GCM and the RCM. The study aims to investigate the variability caused by the internal variability of the GCM and the RCM. The study then looks into the contribution of the RCM’s internal variability to the total variability of the different nested system solutions. In this study four solutions obtained through perturbing the wind fields at initialisation for the ECHAM4.5 are used to force an RCM, the RegCM3, over South Africa. The solutions that are obtained are functions of the internal variability of the ECHAM4.5 as well as of the RegCM3. To determine the amount of the variability that is introduced by the RCM’s internal variability, four other RegCM3 simulations are made through initialising the RegCM3 on different days but using a single realisation from the GCM. The rainfall variability associated with the combined internal variability of both the models is high to an extent that ensemble members produce anomalies that have opposite signs in the same season. However, the sign of the ensemble average anomaly generally corresponds with the observed anomaly. The variability associated with the internal variability of the RCM is negligible when seasonal totals are analysed while with the daily rainfall totals the variability is larger. The variability in areas where small amounts of rainfall occur is smaller than that of the high rainfall regions. The number of events that fall into the three rainfall categories (i.e. below-normal, normal and above-normal) for the RegCM3 ensemble members are close to one another however the timing of the events is different. The results suggest that in operational forecasting making ensemble members associated with the internal variability of an RCM is not necessary because the information obtained from the ensemble members is almost similar. Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology MSc Unrestricted 2013-09-07T10:57:08Z 2007-08-14 2013-09-07T10:57:08Z 2007-04-24 2006 2007-08-13 Dissertation Kgatuke, MM 2006, Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa, MSc Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27215> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27215 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08132007-091356/ © University of Pretor application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Climatic changes
Meteorology
Southern Africa
UCTD
Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title_full Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title_fullStr Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title_full_unstemmed Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title_short Internal variability of the regional climate model RegCM3 over Southern Africa
title_sort internal variability of the regional climate model regcm3 over southern africa
topic Climatic changes
Meteorology
Southern Africa
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/27215
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08132007-091356/