S. Caires

Bio: S. Caires is an academic researcher from Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Extreme value theory & Significant wave height. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 33 publications receiving 8286 citations. Previous affiliations of S. Caires include Meteorological Service of Canada.

The ERA‐40 re‐analysis

Abstract: ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized. A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the ‘second-generation’ ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2005. The contributions of N. A. Rayner and R. W. Saunders are Crown copyright.

100-Year Return Value Estimates for Ocean Wind Speed and Significant Wave Height from the ERA-40 Data

Abstract: In this article global estimates of 100-yr return values of wind speed and significant wave height are presented. These estimates are based on the ECMWF 40-yr Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data and are linearly corrected using estimates based on buoy data. This correction is supported by global Topographic Ocean Experiment (TOPEX) altimeter data estimates. The calculation of return values is based on the peaks-over-threshold method. The large amount of data used in this study provides evidence that the distributions of significant wave height and wind speed data belong to the domain of attraction of the exponential. Further, the effect of the space and time variability of significant wave height and wind speed on the prediction of their extreme values is assessed. This is done by performing detailed global extreme value analyses using different decadal subperiods of the 45-yr-long ERA-40 dataset.

Climatology, variability and extrema of ocean waves: the Web-based KNMI/ERA-40 wave atlas

Abstract: The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has recently finished ERA-40, a reanalysis covering the period September 1957 to August 2002. One of the products of ERA-40 consists of six-hourly global fields of wave parameters, like significant wave height and wave period. These data have been generated with the centre's WAM wave model. From these results we have derived climatologies of important wave parameters, including significant wave height, mean wave period, and extreme significant wave heights. Particular emphasis is on the variability of these parameters, both in space and time. Besides being important for scientists studying climate change, these results are also important for engineers who have to design maritime constructions. This paper describes the ERA-40 data and gives an overview of the results derived. The results are available on a global 1.5° × 1.5° grid. They are accessible from the Web-based KNMI/ERA-40 wave atlas at http://www.knmi.nl/waveatlas. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society

Validation of ocean wind and wave data using triple collocation

Abstract: [1] Significant wave height and wind speed fields from ERA-40 are validated against buoy, ERS-1, and Topex altimeter measurements. To do so, we propose and apply a triple collocation statistical model. The model takes into account the random errors in observations and model results and allows the estimation of the variances of the errors. We first examine the case where the random errors of the different systems are independent, but situations where independence is not strictly observed are also considered. The results show that the ERA-40 predictions underestimate high values of significant wave height and, contrary to what would be obtained by less sophisticated statistical methods, wind speed, that the variance of the errors associated with the ERA-40 system is much higher than that of the errors of the measurements, and that the former shows a dependence on the value of the observations not present in the latter. The altimeter measurements of significant wave height are very precise, in contrast to the large uncertainty associated with the altimeter retrieved wind speeds.

Intercomparison of Different Wind–Wave Reanalyses

Abstract: This paper describes the comparison of wind speed and significant wave height data from several reanalyses. The data are assessed against time-averaged altimeter and buoy measurements. The comparisons between the datasets are made in terms of description of short-scale features, monthly means, and long-scale features— namely trends and variability. The results show that although the quality of the datasets in terms of their comparisons with observations differs, most of the long-scale features are equally present in all datasets. The differences between the several wave datasets are larger than those between the wind speed datasets; moreover, differences in wave datasets exist even when the forcing winds used to produce the different wave reanalyses are the same. Most of the discrepancies between the datasets occur in the Tropics, testifying that the physics in that region is still poorly known. The data before the mid-1980s show significant discrepancies also in the Southern Hemisphere, most of ...

The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system

Abstract: ERA-Interim is the latest global atmospheric reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The ERA-Interim project was conducted in part to prepare for a new atmospheric reanalysis to replace ERA-40, which will extend back to the early part of the twentieth century. This article describes the forecast model, data assimilation method, and input datasets used to produce ERA-Interim, and discusses the performance of the system. Special emphasis is placed on various difficulties encountered in the production of ERA-40, including the representation of the hydrological cycle, the quality of the stratospheric circulation, and the consistency in time of the reanalysed fields. We provide evidence for substantial improvements in each of these aspects. We also identify areas where further work is needed and describe opportunities and objectives for future reanalysis projects at ECMWF. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society

Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Abstract: Drafting Authors: Neil Adger, Pramod Aggarwal, Shardul Agrawala, Joseph Alcamo, Abdelkader Allali, Oleg Anisimov, Nigel Arnell, Michel Boko, Osvaldo Canziani, Timothy Carter, Gino Casassa, Ulisses Confalonieri, Rex Victor Cruz, Edmundo de Alba Alcaraz, William Easterling, Christopher Field, Andreas Fischlin, Blair Fitzharris, Carlos Gay García, Clair Hanson, Hideo Harasawa, Kevin Hennessy, Saleemul Huq, Roger Jones, Lucka Kajfež Bogataj, David Karoly, Richard Klein, Zbigniew Kundzewicz, Murari Lal, Rodel Lasco, Geoff Love, Xianfu Lu, Graciela Magrín, Luis José Mata, Roger McLean, Bettina Menne, Guy Midgley, Nobuo Mimura, Monirul Qader Mirza, José Moreno, Linda Mortsch, Isabelle Niang-Diop, Robert Nicholls, Béla Nováky, Leonard Nurse, Anthony Nyong, Michael Oppenheimer, Jean Palutikof, Martin Parry, Anand Patwardhan, Patricia Romero Lankao, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Stephen Schneider, Serguei Semenov, Joel Smith, John Stone, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, David Vaughan, Coleen Vogel, Thomas Wilbanks, Poh Poh Wong, Shaohong Wu, Gary Yohe

The ERA‐40 re‐analysis

Abstract: ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized. A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the ‘second-generation’ ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2005. The contributions of N. A. Rayner and R. W. Saunders are Crown copyright.

MERRA: NASA’s Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications

Abstract: The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) was undertaken by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office with two primary objectives: to place observations from NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites into a climate context and to improve upon the hydrologic cycle represented in earlier generations of reanalyses. Focusing on the satellite era, from 1979 to the present, MERRA has achieved its goals with significant improvements in precipitation and water vapor climatology. Here, a brief overview of the system and some aspects of its performance, including quality assessment diagnostics from innovation and residual statistics, is given.By comparing MERRA with other updated reanalyses [the interim version of the next ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) and the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR)], advances made in this new generation of reanalyses, as well as remaining deficiencies, are identified. Although there is little difference between the new reanalyses i...