The accuracy of the wind stress over ocean of the Rossby Centre Atmospheric model (RCA)

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate how well the wind stress is described in the regional climate model RCA (Rossby Centre Atmospheric model). The model data is compared with measurements taken at Östergarnsholm, an island located east of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The investigation covers the period October 1997 to September 2000. Compared with the measurements RCA underestimates the wind speed over ocean in most cases. When the wind speed is studied in monthly mean it was found that the wind speed is consistently underestimated in the model, especially during summer and early winter. The wind stress is also underestimated during the year except during late winter and in October when it is overestimated. When wind speed from the model and measurements were studied it was found that lower wind speed is overestimated in the model. This contributes to overestimation of the wind stress for lower wind speeds. For higher wind speeds both wind speed and wind stress is underestimated in RCA. If the model would have a correct wind speed the wind stress would be overestimated with 20-30 % for all wind speeds compared to the measured. This is probably due to miscalculations of wind stress in the model. RCA fail to capture the stability in a satisfactory way. The model describes most of the times a different stratification than the measurements do. Separate studies over modeled and measured wind speed and wind stress was made. RCA is found to represent stable condition well. During unstable stratification modeled wind speed and wind stress are underestimated. Investigation of the measured wave age shows that the model underestimates both wind speed and wind stress for growing sea and mature sea. For the situations when the measured wave age was defined as swell the model overestimated wind speed and wind stress.2