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Copyright © 2016 Sium Gebremariam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The performance of twenty GCMs that participated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 5 (CMIP5) is evaluated at Sterling, Virginia, by comparing model outputs with radiosonde observational dataset and reanalysis dataset. We evaluated CMIP5 models in their ability to simulate wind climatology, seasonal cycle, interannual variability, and trends at the pressure levels from 850 hPa to 30 hPa. We also addressed the question of the number of years required to detect statistically significant wind trends using radiosonde wind measurements. Our results show that CMIP5 models and reanalysis successfully reproduced the observed climatological annual mean zonal wind and wind speed vertical distribution. They also capture the observed seasonal zonal, meridional, and wind speed vertical distribution with stronger (weaker) wind during the winter (summer) season. However, there is some disagreement in the magnitude of vertical profiles among CMIP5 models, reanalysis, and radiosonde observation. Overall, the number of years to obtain statistically significant trend decreases with increasing pressure level except for upper troposphere. Although the vertical profile of interannual variability of CMIP5 models and reanalysis agree with the radiosonde observation, the wind trend is not statistically significant. This indicates that detection of trends on local scale is challenging because of small signal-to-noise ratio problems.

Details

Title
An Observational and Model Characterization of Vertical Structure of Wind Fields over Eastern United States: A Case Study of Sterling, Virginia
Author
Gebremariam, Sium; Demoz, Belay; Okonkwo, Churchill; Sakai, Ricardo K
Publication year
2016
Publication date
2016
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISSN
16879309
e-ISSN
16879317
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1755484033
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Sium Gebremariam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.