Sensitivity Study of the RegCM4’s Surface Schemes in the Simulations of West Africa Climate

Two simulations of five years (2003-2007) were conducted with the Regional Climate models RegCM4, one coupled Land surface BATS and other CLM4.5 over West Africa, where simulated air temperature precipitation analyzed. The purpose this study is to assess performance RegCM4 new scheme standard named in order find best configuration African. This could improve our understanding sensitivity land model Africa climate simulation, provide relevant information users. results show fairly realistic restitution Africa’s climatology indicate correlations 0.60 0.82 between fields (BATS CLM4.5) for precipitation. substitution by configuration, leads mainly an improvement Atlantic Ocean, however, impact not sufficiently noticeable continent. While experiment restores seasonal cycles spatial distribution, biases increase temperature. Positive already existing are amplified some sub-regions. concludes that temporal localization (seasonal effect), distribution (grid points) magnitude (bias) simultaneously improved CLM4.5. introduction CLM4.5, therefore, a same as BATS, albeit more detailed formulation.