Evaluation of Water and Energy Cycles in Contemporary Atmospheric Reanalyses in US Basins
Global atmospheric reanalyses have become an important tool for climate studies, owing to the inclusion of observation driven model quantities that are not easily observed, if at all. This includes the study of regional water and energy budgets, despite the fact that the physical terms of the budgets do not balance, owing in large part to the influence of assimilated observations. Here, we focus on the regional water and energy budgets for key river basins in the US, related to the Humans and Hydroclimate in the US (H2US, a Global Energy and Watercycle EXchanges, GEWEX, regional hydroclimate project). Regional budgets and their residuals (related to the assimilated observations) from contemporary reanalyses will be evaluated and intercompared to assess the improvements over previous reanalyses and identify their strengths and weaknesses as contributions to H2US. When available, the observational analysis increments will be quantified directly, and as residuals when that information is missing. Early results show improvements over the Mississippi River basin water cycle closure, and reduced analysis increments. However, the energy analysis increments show non negligible seasonality. Results for the Colorado River basin and National Climate Assessment (NCA) regions will also be presented. The results will emphasize the need for reanalyses and models to produce complete budget equation terms.