Endris H.S., Omondi P., Jain S., Lennard C., Hewitson B., Chang'a L., Awange J.L., Dosio A., Ketiem P., Nikulin G., Panitz H.-J., Büchner M., Stordal F., Tazalika L.
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, Nairobi, Kenya; University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia; Tanzania Meteorological Agency, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Western Australian Centre for Geodesy and the Institute for Geoscience Research, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy; Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden; Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany; Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany; University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Uganda Meteorological Department, Kampala, Uganda
Endris, H.S., University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Omondi, P., IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, Nairobi, Kenya; Jain, S., University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia; Lennard, C., University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Hewitson, B., University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; Chang'a, L., Tanzania Meteorological Agency, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Awange, J.L., Western Australian Centre for Geodesy and the Institute for Geoscience Research, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; Dosio, A., European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy; Ketiem, P., Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Nikulin, G., Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden; Panitz, H.-J., Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany; Büchner, M., Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany; Stordal, F., University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Tazalika, L., Uganda Meteorological Department, Kampala, Uganda
This study evaluates the ability of 10 regional climate models (RCMs) from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) in simulating the characteristics of rainfall patterns over eastern Africa. The seasonal climatology, annual rainfall cycles, and interannual variability of RCM output have been assessed over three homogeneous subregions against a number of observational datasets. The ability of the RCMs in simulating large-scale global climate forcing signals is further assessed by compositing the El Ninõ-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) events. It is found that most RCMs reasonably simulate the main features of the rainfall climatology over the three subregions and also reproduce the majority of the documented regional responses to ENSO and IOD forcings. At the same time the analysis shows significant biases in individual models depending on subregion and season; however, the ensemble mean has better agreement with observation than individual models. In general, the analysis herein demonstrates that the multimodel ensemble mean simulates eastern Africa rainfall adequately and can therefore be used for the assessment of future climate projections for the region. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.