Joint atmospheric-terrestrial water balances for East Africa: a WRF-Hydro case study for the upper Tana River basin

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dc.contributor.author Kerandi, Noah M.
dc.contributor.author Arnault, Joel
dc.contributor.author Laux, Patrick
dc.contributor.author Wagner, Sven
dc.contributor.author Kitheka, Johnson U.
dc.contributor.author Kunstmann, Harald
dc.date.accessioned 2017-06-28T07:39:35Z
dc.date.available 2017-06-28T07:39:35Z
dc.date.issued 2017-02-01
dc.identifier.citation Theoretical and Applied Climatology pp 1–19 (2017) en_US
dc.identifier.issn 0177-798X (Print)
dc.identifier.issn 1434-4483 (Online)
dc.identifier.uri https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00704-017-2050-8.pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://repository.seku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/3461
dc.description DOI: 10.1007/s00704-017-2050-8 en_US
dc.description.abstract For an improved understanding of the hydrometeorological conditions of the Tana River basin of Kenya, East Africa, its joint atmospheric-terrestrial water balances are investigated. This is achieved through the application of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and the fully coupled WRF-Hydro modeling system over the Mathioya-Sagana subcatchment (3279 km2) and its surroundings in the upper Tana River basin for 4 years (2011–2014). The model setup consists of an outer domain at 25 km (East Africa) and an inner one at 5-km (Mathioya-Sagana subcatchment) horizontal resolution. The WRF-Hydro inner domain is enhanced with hydrological routing at 500-m horizontal resolution. The results from the fully coupled modeling system are compared to those of the WRF-only model. The coupled WRF-Hydro slightly reduces precipitation, evapotranspiration, and the soil water storage but increases runoff. The total precipitation from March to May and October to December for WRF-only (974 mm/year) and coupled WRF-Hydro (940 mm/year) is closer to that derived from the Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) data (989 mm/year) than from the TRMM (795 mm/year) precipitation product. The coupled WRF-Hydro-accumulated discharge (323 mm/year) is close to that observed (333 mm/year). However, the coupled WRF-Hydro underestimates the observed peak flows registering low but acceptable NSE (0.02) and RSR (0.99) at daily time step. The precipitation recycling and efficiency measures between WRF-only and coupled WRF-Hydro are very close and small. This suggests that most of precipitation in the region comes from moisture advection from the outside of the analysis domain, indicating a minor impact of potential land-precipitation feedback mechanisms in this case. The coupled WRF-Hydro nonetheless serves as a tool in quantifying the atmospheric-terrestrial water balance in this region. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Springer Verlag en_US
dc.title Joint atmospheric-terrestrial water balances for East Africa: a WRF-Hydro case study for the upper Tana River basin en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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