Performance of Regional Integrated Environment Modeling System (RIEMS) in precipitation simulations over East Asia

Regional climate models (RCMs) can provide much more precise information on surface characteristics and mesoscale circulation than general circulation models. This potential for obtaining more detailed model results has motivated to a significant focus on RCMs development in East Asia. The Regional Integrated Environment Modeling System, version 2.0 (RIEMS2.0) has been developed from an earlier RCM, RIEMS1.0, at the Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for East Asia and Nanjing University. To test the ability of RIEMS2.0 to simulate long-term climate and climate changes in East Asia and to provide a basis for further development and applications, we compare simulated precipitation from 1979 to 2008 (simulation duration from 1 January 1978 to 31 December 2008) to observed meteorological data. The results show that RIEMS2.0 reproduces the spatial distribution of precipitation in East Asia but that the simulation overestimates precipitation. The simulated 30-year precipitation average is 26 % greater than the observed precipitation. Simulated upper and root soil water correlate well with remote sensing derived soil moisture. Annual and interannual variation in the average precipitation and their anomalies are both well reproduced by the model. A further analysis of three subregions representing different latitude ranges shows that there is good correlation and consistency between the simulated results and the observed data. Annual variation, interannual variation of average precipitation, and the anomalies in the three sub-regions are also well captured by the model. The model’s performance on atmospheric circulation and moisture transport simulations is discussed to explore the bias between the simulation and observations. In summary, RIEMS2.0 shows stability and does well in both simulating long-term climate and climate changes in East Asia and in describing subregional characteristics.