caa a22 4500 605474648 CHVBK 20210128100348.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00382-014-2327-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00382-014-2327-x Challenges of tracking extratropical cyclones in regional climate models [Elektronische Daten] [Hélène Côté, Kevin Grise, Seok-Woo Son, Ramón de Elía, Anne Frigon] Extratropical cyclones (ETCs) play a crucial role in determining the climate in a large part of the world. For this reason, climate models' ability to reproduce ETCs' characteristics (such as track location and development and decay regions) is of great importance. ETC tracking algorithms are sophisticated diagnostic tools that have been used extensively to evaluate models' ability to simulate ETCs. In general, these algorithms have been developed and applied to coarse resolution global datasets such as global climate models and reanalyses. As regional climate models (RCMs) mature, the potential for tracking ETCs at considerably higher resolutions has naturally become attractive. Application of ETC tracking algorithms to RCM-produced datasets, however, introduces additional challenges. In order to investigate these challenges, we compare ETC tracking results of a simulation produced by the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) over North America at a 45-km resolution driven by ECMWF ERA-Interim, with the results obtained directly from the driving reanalyses. The ERA-Interim data is treated in three different ways applying spatial smoothing, the tracking algorithm, and the extraction of the regional grid in a different order, so that individual sources of error can be identified. It is shown that the mere existence of boundaries in the regional domain of the CRCM affects tracking results not only near the boundaries but also well within the domain. To a lesser extent, the use of different spatial smoothing techniques also affects the number of tracked ETCs. However, even after accounting for these artifacts, the CRCM produces a lower ETC count than the driving dataset. This underestimation of the tracking statistics might be related to known CRCM biases, or to someproblems with the surface representation at 45-km resolution. Nevertheless, it is concluded that RCMs are a suitable choice for ETC trajectory studies, but only when handled carefully and used over large domains targeting the cyclone track of interest. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 Regional climate modelling nationallicence Extratropical cyclones nationallicence Storm tracks nationallicence Côté Hélène Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut Grise Kevin Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA aut Son Seok-Woo School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea aut de Elía Ramón Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut Frigon Anne Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut Climate Dynamics Springer Berlin Heidelberg 44/11-12(2015-06-01), 3101-3109 0930-7575 44:11-12<3101 2015 44 382 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2327-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2327-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Côté Hélène Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Grise Kevin Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Son Seok-Woo School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- de Elía Ramón Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Frigon Anne Consortium Ouranos on Regional Climate and Adaptation to Climate Change, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, H3A 1B9, Montreal, QC, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Climate Dynamics Springer Berlin Heidelberg 44/11-12(2015-06-01), 3101-3109 0930-7575 44:11-12<3101 2015 44 382