MESMAR v1: a new regional coupled climate model for downscaling, predictability, and data assimilation studies in the Mediterranean region

Abstract

Regional coupled and Earth system models are fundamental numerical tools for climate investigations, downscaling of predictions and projections, process-oriented understanding of regional extreme events, and many more applications. Here we introduce a newly developed coupled regional modeling framework for the Mediterranean region, called MESMAR (Mediterranean Earth System model at ISMAR) version 1, which is composed of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric model, the NEMO oceanic model, and the hydrological discharge (HD) model, coupled via the OASIS coupler. The model is implemented at about 1/12∘ of horizontal resolution for the ocean and river routing, while roughly twice coarser for the atmosphere, and it is targeted to long-term investigations. We focus on the evaluation of skill score metrics from several sensitivity experiments devoted to (i) understanding the best vertical physics configuration for NEMO, (ii) identifying the impact of the interactive river runoff, and (iii) choosing the best-performing physics–microphysics suite for WRF in the regional coupled system. The modeling system has been developed for downscaling reanalyses and long-range predictions, as well as coupled data assimilation experiments. We then formulate and show the performance of the system when weakly coupled data assimilation is embedded in the system (variational assimilation in the ocean and spectral nudging in the atmosphere), in particular for the representation of extreme events like intense Mediterranean cyclones (i.e., medicanes). Finally, we outline plans for future extension of the modeling framework.