Evaluation of CORDEX Africa multi-model precipitation simulations over the Pra River Basin, Ghana
Loading...
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ELSEVIER
Abstract
tudy region: Pra River Basin (PRB) located in Ghana
Study focus: Now, hydrological and climate change impact studies are shifting towards reliance on
openly accessible databases particularly for regions with limited observed datasets. There is
therefore the need to evaluate the reliability of such datasets in order to reduce modelling un
certainties and boost confidence in modelling results. We present an evaluation of the perfor
mance of nine CORDEX RCA4 Regional Climate Model simulations in replicating the observed
precipitation for a 31-year period (1975–2005).
New hydrological insights for the region: On the annual timescale, CanESM2, IPSL, CNRM-CM5 and
HadGEM2-ES reproduced minimal annual mean biases (0.8–18.4 %) and thus selected for the
seasonal and monthly timescale analysis. Generally, with the exception of spring (March, April
and May), all the selected models were able to simulate quite well the seasonal climatology of the
Pra River Basin (PRB) with noticeable distinctions in the reproducibility of the spatial patterns,
variability and magnitude of the observed data. The multi-model ensemble means indicated
strong correlation with observations (r > 0.75) but with weak spatial variability (
σ
<0.25). It is
recommended that for climate impact assessment and hydrologic modelling studies, multi-model
ensembles of CanESM2, IPSL, CNRM-CM5 and HadGEM2-ES be used. However, on singular basis,
the CanESM2 and HadGEM2-ES RCA4 simulation outputs present better representation of the
climate of the basin.
Description
This research article was published by ELSEVIER in 2021