Dynamical downscaling to assess climate change impacts on diurnal winds in the Tropical Andes.

Funding disclosure: The Ohio State University Department of Geography, National Science Foundation

Abstract

In the Tropical Andes, the diurnal wind patterns contribute to the development and enhancement of clouds and precipitation. Although the influences of climate change on precipitation in the region have been studied on monthly to decadal scales, few studies have examined the effects of increased global temperature on the localized diurnal wind and precipitation patterns. Coarse resolution models fail to capture the complex topography and the localized thermal forcings of the diurnal cycle. This study utilizes the Weather Research and Forecasting model at 1km resolution to determine the ways that the diurnal wind cycle in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru may be impacted by increased global temperatures. This presentation details the methods used in downscaling ERA5 data using one-way nesting and assessing the model performance prior to applying CMIP-6 temperature projections.