Diurnal Variability of the Hydrologic Cycle in a General Circulation Model

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Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the diurnal and semidiurnal variability of precipitation, evaporation, precipitable water, horizontal moisture flux convergence, cloudiness, and cloud radiative forcing, as simulated by the Colorado State University General Circulation Model (GCM). In broad agreement with observations, the model produces an afternoon precipitation maximum over land in warm rainy regions, such as the tropics and the midlatitude summer continents, and an early morning maximum over the oceans far from land. The statistical significance of these model results is demonstrated using a chi-square test. The observed diurnal variation of temperature in the oceanic tropical middle troposphere is also realistically simulated. Encouraged by these results, the model was used to investigate the causes of the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the oceans. For this purpose, experiments have been performed with an all-ocean global model. Results show that an oceanic diurnal cycle of precipitati... Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the diurnal and semidiurnal variability of precipitation, evaporation, precipitable water, horizontal moisture flux convergence, cloudiness, and cloud radiative forcing, as simulated by the Colorado State University General Circulation Model (GCM). In broad agreement with observations, the model produces an afternoon precipitation maximum over land in warm rainy regions, such as the tropics and the midlatitude summer continents, and an early morning maximum over the oceans far from land. The statistical significance of these model results is demonstrated using a chi-square test. The observed diurnal variation of temperature in the oceanic tropical middle troposphere is also realistically simulated. Encouraged by these results, the model was used to investigate the causes of the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the oceans. For this purpose, experiments have been performed with an all-ocean global model. Results show that an oceanic diurnal cycle of precipitati...

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