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Long-Term, Large-Scale Ensemble Forcing Data Set for Darwin Available

 
Published: 3 November 2010

A new data set is now available for the ARM Tropical Western Pacific site in Darwin for long-term, large-scale forcing data. Produced by Dr. Christian Jakob’s group at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, these data were constrained with C-POL radar retrieved rainfall through the variational analysis method (Zhang and Lin 1997) by using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis. This is an ensemble forcing data set (currently N=100), which was produced by considering potential errors in radar-retrieved rainfall estimate, and covers three wet seasons from 2004 to 2007.

The lower panel shows 100 precipitation time-series derived given potential errors in radar-retrieved rainfall estimate. These time-series are an important input to the variational analysis used to create the ensemble large-scale data set. The different precipitation time-series modify the large-scale data, particularly the derived vertical velocity. The upper panel shows the profile of vertical velocity derived using a best-estimate precipitation time-series. Strong rainfall is clearly associated with strong vertical motion in the mid- and upper-levels.

Periods where data are available are:

  • 11/03/2004 to 04/06/2005
  • 11/10/2005 to 04/30/2006
  • 10/12/2006 to 04/19/2007.

More information is available about this data set in the README file in the ARM Data Archive. To access the ensemble forcing data set and its README file, log in to the Data Archive. (Go here to request an account.)

As always, feedback and use of the data are welcomed and encouraged.