Hawk simulations support World Climate Research Programme

The Convection-Permitting Third Pole (CPTP) is a 2019 World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)-Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) flagship pilot study coordinated by Gothenburg University.

This project brings together international scientists with expertise in regional climate modelling, model verification, water isotope modelling, and cryosphere studies. The overall aim is to generate kilometre-scale climate simulations that can support studies of local climate, water cycle, ecosystem responses and flood disaster-mitigation. The third pole, encompassing the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau, currently supports nearly 20% of the world’s population with water for drinking, irrigation and power – holding the largest reserve of fresh water outside the polar regions.

Using the Hawk computing resources supported by ARCCA, Dr Marie Ekström of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Cardiff University is currently contributing to CPTP with regional climate model simulations, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.

Recent experiments contribute to a model ensemble for the region, designed to test model sensitivity for this region. In the next year, longer simulations using Hawk are planned which will be used to investigate diurnal, seasonal and interannual variations of convection and its contribution to the total precipitation, solid and liquid phase precipitation.

Availability of the WRF software optimised for Hawk, access to high- capacity parallel storage to perform the model simulation as well as ARCCA technical expertise, are all essential components needed to successfully deliver support for this important research.

Information from the recent Climate Modeling and Hazards poster session can be found at the Fifth Convection-Permitting Modeling Workshop 2021 (CPM2021) website.