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Role of land-surface hydrology schemes in simulating the global incident solar radiation of Tropical Africa using the RegCM4
1  Egyptian Meteorological Authority, Qobry EL-Kobba, Cairo, Egypt, P.O. Box 11784
Academic Editor: Nunzio Cennamo

Abstract:

In the present study, two 12-years (1995-2007) simulations were conducted to examine the potential influence of two land-surface hydrology schemes (TOPMODEL; TOP and Variable Infiltration Capacity; VIC) of the community land model version 4.5 (CLM45) on the Surface Solar Irradiance (SSI) of Tropical using a regional climate model (RegCM4). With enabling the Carbon-Nitrogen (CN) module, the two simulations were designated as: CN-TOP and CN-VIC. The two simulations were evaluated with respect to the Solar Radiation Budget (SRB) reanalysis product. Evaluation process was conducted in two aspects: seasonal climatology overall Africa and over three sub-regions. The results showed that the CN-VIC outperforms the CN-TOP in all seasons while compared to the SRB reanalysis dataset particularly during the summer season. For instance, the CN-VIC underestimates the SSI over the Northern Savannah region by up to 15 W.m-2, while the CN-TOP underestimates the SSI by 30-50 W.m-2. Over different sub-regions, the CN-VIC performs better than the CN-TOP over Northern Savanna during the summer season and over the Congo basin during the winter season. The regional coupled RegCM4-CLM45-CN-VIC model can reasonably simulate the SSI with a reasonable bias when the four parameters of the VIC surface dataset are calibrated against in-situ observation, and therefore it can be recommended for future studies of solar energy projects in Tropical Africa.

Keywords: Hydrology scheme; Regional climate model; Surface Solar Irradiance; Tropical Africa
Comments on this paper
Hakan Çelebi
Valuable and successful work
Samy Anwar
Many thanks

Dr. MARAM AlNaimat
Dr. Samy
This is a very useful article
Thank you
Samy Anwar
Many thanks Dr Maram.

IOANNIS LOGOTHETIS
Interesting and valuable work!
Samy Anwar
Many thanks

Seemant Tiwari
This is a fascinating study and the authors have acquired novel information utilizing state-of-the-art techniques. In overall, the work is nicely written and arranged.

Samy Anwar
Many thanks Seemant. Wish you more success.



 
 
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