First Application of JMA-NHM to Meteorological Simulation over the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The Japan Meteorological Agency Non-Hydrostatic Model was applied to meteorological simulations under arid and semi-arid environments of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A one-year hindcast experiment was conducted with both an original configuration, which is well tuned for mid-latitude humid conditions around Japan, and a new configuration, which represents a much drier land surface condition. The new configuration produced much better results in terms of the diurnal variation of land surface temperature and consequent surface air temperature, as well as cloud and precipitation occurrence. The most effective factors for improving results are the threshold of soil water content and the parameters associated with surface and soil heat flux. The improvement indicates the validity of the model application to the investigation of cloud and precipitation processes over the UAE.