30Apr 2015

Comparing Saharan track characteristics between the NCEP/NCAR, NCEP-DOE, and ECMWF (ERA40) Reanalyses

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In this work three climatologies of the Saharan cyclones are created by applying the Melbourne tracking scheme on NCEP/NCAR (NCEP1), NCEP/DOE (NCEP2), and ECMWF (ERA40) for the period 1980-2001. We performed a comparison of the seasonal mean climatologies of the track characteristics of the Saharan cyclones. Generally, the track numbers in NCEP1 is greater than both NCEP2 and ERA40. NCEP2 tracks are more than ERA40 in all seasons except in winter. The cyclogenesis patterns in NCEP2 and ERA40 show that the number of cyclones initiated over Egypt and Libya is less than in NCEP1 climatology in both winter and spring. Cyclone track climatologies show that in spring, the number of tracks decreases significantly over most of the Sahara in both ERA40 and NCEP2 compared with NCEP1. In autumn, the NCEP2 the Sahara tracks are shifted towards western Mediterranean.


[K. Ammar, Mossad El-Metwally, Mansour Almazroui, M. M. A. Wahab (2015); Comparing Saharan track characteristics between the NCEP/NCAR, NCEP-DOE, and ECMWF (ERA40) Reanalyses Int. J. of Adv. Res. 3 (Apr). 0] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com


khaled Ammar