Canberra

Seminar Abstract

Wednesday 30 June 2010
10.30am (AEST time)
CSIRO Pye Laboratory, Canberra

Dr Francois A. Engelbrecht
CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment
South Africa

Multiscale climate simulation over southern Africa using CCAM

The conformal-cubic atmospheric model (CCAM) of the CSIRO has in recent years been applied extensively over southern Africa, for the purposes of short-range weather prediction, seasonal forecasting, climate simulation and the projection of regional climate change. High-resolution CCAM projections of climate over southern Africa have provided more insight into the dynamic circulation changes that may occur over the region in response to enhanced anthropogenic forcing. The projected changes in average circulation patterns, as well as in the frequency of occurrence of extreme weather events, are discussed in this presentation. A study where CCAM was used to downscale present-day climate (as described by reanalysis data) to ultra-high resolution (1 km in the horizontal) over the southwestern in South Africa is also presented. Regarding shorter time-scale applications, some verification results of CCAM short-range and seasonal weather forecasts over southern Africa are presented. The presentation concludes with a discussion of Earth System model development activities and plans at the CSIR in South Africa. These include the development of a new nonhydrostatic model core that is to be applied to study moist convection.

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Location:
CSIRO = Pye Laboratory, Black Mountain, Canberra

Last updated 24/06/10