Climatological aspects of convective parameters over Europe: A comparison of ERA-Interim and sounding data
Authors:
- Mateusz Taszarek,
- Harold E. Brooks,
- Bartosz Czernecki,
- Piotr Szuster,
- Krzysztof Fortuniak
Abstract
We compare over 1 million sounding measurementswith ERA-Interim reanalysis for the 38-yr periodfrom 1979 to 2016. The large dataset allows us to provide an improved insight into the spatial and tem-poral distributions of the prerequisites of deep moist convection across Europe. In addition, ERA-Interim is also evaluated. ERA-Interim estimates parameters describing boundary layer moisture andmidtropospheric lapse rates well, with correlationcoefficients of 0.94. Mixed-layer CAPE is, on average,underestimated by the reanalysis while the most unstable CAPE is overestimated. Vertical shear pa-rameters in the reanalysis are better correlated with observations than CAPE, but are underestimated byapproximately 1–2 m s21. The underestimation decreases as the depth of the shear layer increases.Compared to radiosonde observations, instabilityin ERA-Interim is overestimated in southern Europeand underestimated over eastern Europe. High values of instability are observed from May to September,out of phase with the climatological pattern of wind shear, which peaks in winter. From September toApril, favorable conditions for thunderstorms occur mainly over southern and western Europe with thepeak location and higher frequency shifting to central and eastern Europe from May to August. Forsouthern Europe, the annual cycle peaks in September with high values of inhibition suppressing thun-derstorm activity in July and August. The area with the highest annual number of days with environ-mental conditions favorable for thunderstorms extends from Italy and Austria eastward through theCarpathians and Balkans.
- Record ID
- CUT18a9b34bc0fc4c2e8d13a768c1c39100
- Publication categories
- ;
- Author
- Journal series
- Journal of Climate, ISSN 0894-8755, e-ISSN 1520-0442
- Issue year
- 2018
- Vol
- 31
- No
- 11
- Pages
- 4281-4308
- Other elements of collation
- il. (w tym kolor.); Bibliografia (na s.) - 4306-4308; Bibliografia (liczba pozycji) - [60]; Oznaczenie streszczenia - Abstr.; Numeracja w czasopiśmie - Vol. 31, No. 11
- Keywords in English
- geographic location, entity, Europe, Atm, ocean structure, phenomena, severe storms, physical meteorology and climatology, climatology, observational techniques and algorithms, radiosonde observations, models and modeling, reanalysis data, variability, annual variations
- DOI
- DOI:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0596.1 Opening in a new tab
- URL
- https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0596.1 Opening in a new tab
- Language
- pol (pl) Polish
- License
- Score (nominal)
- 45
- Additional fields
- Indeksowana w: Web of Science, Scopus
- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://cris.pk.edu.pl/info/article/CUT18a9b34bc0fc4c2e8d13a768c1c39100/
- URN
urn:pkr-prod:CUT18a9b34bc0fc4c2e8d13a768c1c39100
* presented citation count is obtained through Internet information analysis, and it is close to the number calculated by the Publish or PerishOpening in a new tab system.