Articles | Volume 8, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1085-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1085-2015
Development and technical paper
 | 
21 Apr 2015
Development and technical paper |  | 21 Apr 2015

Technical challenges and solutions in representing lakes when using WRF in downscaling applications

M. S. Mallard, C. G. Nolte, T. L. Spero, O. R. Bullock, K. Alapaty, J. A. Herwehe, J. Gula, and J. H. Bowden

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by Megan Mallard on behalf of the Authors (21 Jan 2015)  Author's response    Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (25 Mar 2015) by Simon Unterstrasser
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Short summary
Because global climate models (GCMs) are typically run at coarse spatial resolution, lakes are often poorly resolved in their global fields. When downscaling such GCMs using the Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model, use of WRF’s default interpolation methods can result in unrealistic lake temperatures and ice cover, which can impact simulated air temperatures and precipitation. Here, alternative methods for setting lake variables in WRF downscaling applications are presented and compared.