Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model simulations over Western Canada: Control Scenario (ctl-wrf-wca)

The Weather Research and Forecasting model Version 3.6.1 ( the model source code is accessible from http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/downloads.html) was used to simulate the historical (2000-2015) and projected climate (RCP8.5) over western Canada with a convection-permitting resolution of 4 km. The WRF model is fully compressible and nonhydrostatic and uses the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) dynamical solvers. The model domain is composed of 699 x 639 grid points with 4-km horizontal resolution to cover western Canada. The atmospheric simulation consists of hourly historical climate scenario (ctl-wrf-wca) from 2000-10-01 to 2015-09-30 at 4km spatial resolution. The model simulations employed several parameterization schemes, including Thompson microphysics scheme (Thompson et al., 2008), the Yonsei University (YSU) planetary boundary layer scheme, the Noah land surface model (Chen and Dudhia, 2001), and the CAM3 radiative transfer scheme (Collins et al., 2004). The deep cumulus parameterization was turned off because with a 4-km horizontal resolution the model can explicitly resolve deep convection and simulate convective storms. The convection-permitting model produces precipitation more realistically by directly resolving convections. Subgrid cloud cover was also disabled. The control experiment (CTL), a retrospective/control simulation, aimed to reproduce the current climate statistics in terms of variability and mean state from October 1, 2000 to 30 September 2015. This control simulation was forced using 6-hourly 0.7 degree ERA-Interim reanalysis data (Dee et al., 2011) directly. The following atmospheric variables are currently available for western Canada: grid scale precipitation, temperature, latent heat flux, upward heat flux, upward moisture flux, downward long wave flux, downward short wave flux, surface pressure, mixing ratio, U component of the 10-m wind ( along grid x axis) and V-component of the 10-m wind ( along grid Y axis). These data are in NetCDF format and can be downloaded via the Cuizinart Platform (http://cuizinart.io).

The Weather Research Forecasting model can simulate weather systems with spatial scales ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres and is suitable for both operational forecasting and atmospheric research. To assess the hydroclimatic risks posed by climate change in western Canada, a retrospective simulation (CTL) and a pseudo-global warming (PGW) dynamical downscaling of future warming projection under RCP8.5 from an ensemble of CMIP5 climate model projections using a convection-permitting 4-km WRF model. The convection-permitting resolution of the model avoids the error-prone convection parameterization by explicitly resolving cumulus plumes. The CTL-WRF-WCA dataset contains the control simulation of the historical period 2000-2015. This data set will be used support atmospheric research objectives within the Global Water Futures Program funded by Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Li, Y., Li, Z., Zhang, Z., Chen, L., Kurkute, S., Scaff, L., and Pan, X. (2019) High-Resolution Regional Climate Modeling and Projection over Western Canada using a Weather Research Forecasting Model with a Pseudo-Global Warming Approach, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-201, in review.

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