Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar
A Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) based seasonal rainfall forecast customization tool called FOCUS was developed for Myanmar in order to provide improved seasonal rainfall forecast to the country. The tool was developed using hindcast data from 7 Global Climate Models (GCMs) and observed rainfall data fr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Advances in Meteorology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/4957127 |
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| author | Itesh Dash Masahiko Nagai Indrajit Pal |
| author_facet | Itesh Dash Masahiko Nagai Indrajit Pal |
| author_sort | Itesh Dash |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) based seasonal rainfall forecast customization tool called FOCUS was developed for Myanmar in order to provide improved seasonal rainfall forecast to the country. The tool was developed using hindcast data from 7 Global Climate Models (GCMs) and observed rainfall data from 49 meteorological surface observatories for the period of 1982 to 2011 from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. Based on the homogeneity in terms of the rainfall received annually, the country was divided into six climatological zones. Three different operational MME techniques, namely, (a) arithmetic mean (AM-MME), (b) weighted average (WA-MME), and (c) supervised principal component regression (PCR-MME), were used and built-in to the tool developed. For this study, all 7 GCMs were initialized with forecast data of May month to predict the rainfall during June to September (JJAS) period, which is the predominant rainfall season for Myanmar. The predictability of raw GCMs, bias-corrected GCMs, and the MMEs was evaluated using RMSE, correlation coefficients, and standard deviations. The probabilistic forecasts for the terciles were also evaluated using the relative operating characteristics (ROC) scores, to quantify the uncertainty in the GCMs. The results suggested that MME forecasts have shown improved performance (RMSE = 1.29), compared to the raw individual models (ECMWF, which is comparatively better among the selected models) with RMSE = 4.4 and bias-corrected RMSE = 4.3, over Myanmar. Specifically, WA-MME (CC = 0.64) and PCR-MME (CC = 0.68) methods have shown significant improvement in the high rainfall (delta) zone compared with WA-MME (CC = 0.57) and PCR-MME (CC = 0.56) techniques for the southern zone. The PCR method suggests higher predictability skill for the upper tercile (ROC = 0.78) and lower tercile categories (ROC = 0.85) for the delta region and is less skillful over lower rainfall zones like dry zones with ROC = 0.6 and 0.63 for upper and lower terciles, respectively. The model is thus suggested to perform relatively well over the higher rainfall (Wet) zones compared to the lower (Dry) zone during the JJAS period. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c6d84c25c6be44cd9db54cc8c26e9328 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1687-9309 1687-9317 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
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| series | Advances in Meteorology |
| spelling | doaj-art-c6d84c25c6be44cd9db54cc8c26e93282025-02-03T01:29:18ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93091687-93172019-01-01201910.1155/2019/49571274957127Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of MyanmarItesh Dash0Masahiko Nagai1Indrajit Pal2Disaster Preparedness Mitigation and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Pathum Thani, ThailandDisaster Preparedness Mitigation and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Pathum Thani, ThailandDisaster Preparedness Mitigation and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Khlong Nueng, Pathum Thani, ThailandA Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) based seasonal rainfall forecast customization tool called FOCUS was developed for Myanmar in order to provide improved seasonal rainfall forecast to the country. The tool was developed using hindcast data from 7 Global Climate Models (GCMs) and observed rainfall data from 49 meteorological surface observatories for the period of 1982 to 2011 from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. Based on the homogeneity in terms of the rainfall received annually, the country was divided into six climatological zones. Three different operational MME techniques, namely, (a) arithmetic mean (AM-MME), (b) weighted average (WA-MME), and (c) supervised principal component regression (PCR-MME), were used and built-in to the tool developed. For this study, all 7 GCMs were initialized with forecast data of May month to predict the rainfall during June to September (JJAS) period, which is the predominant rainfall season for Myanmar. The predictability of raw GCMs, bias-corrected GCMs, and the MMEs was evaluated using RMSE, correlation coefficients, and standard deviations. The probabilistic forecasts for the terciles were also evaluated using the relative operating characteristics (ROC) scores, to quantify the uncertainty in the GCMs. The results suggested that MME forecasts have shown improved performance (RMSE = 1.29), compared to the raw individual models (ECMWF, which is comparatively better among the selected models) with RMSE = 4.4 and bias-corrected RMSE = 4.3, over Myanmar. Specifically, WA-MME (CC = 0.64) and PCR-MME (CC = 0.68) methods have shown significant improvement in the high rainfall (delta) zone compared with WA-MME (CC = 0.57) and PCR-MME (CC = 0.56) techniques for the southern zone. The PCR method suggests higher predictability skill for the upper tercile (ROC = 0.78) and lower tercile categories (ROC = 0.85) for the delta region and is less skillful over lower rainfall zones like dry zones with ROC = 0.6 and 0.63 for upper and lower terciles, respectively. The model is thus suggested to perform relatively well over the higher rainfall (Wet) zones compared to the lower (Dry) zone during the JJAS period.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/4957127 |
| spellingShingle | Itesh Dash Masahiko Nagai Indrajit Pal Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar Advances in Meteorology |
| title | Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar |
| title_full | Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar |
| title_fullStr | Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar |
| title_short | Forecast Customization System (FOCUS): A Multimodel Ensemble-Based Seasonal Climate Forecasting Tool for the Homogeneous Climate Zones of Myanmar |
| title_sort | forecast customization system focus a multimodel ensemble based seasonal climate forecasting tool for the homogeneous climate zones of myanmar |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/4957127 |
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