Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2011VI186B

Lesser Antilles Specific Assessment of the IPCC AR5 Models for the Current Climate

Institute: Virgin Islands
Year Established: 2011 Start Date: 2011-03-01 End Date: 2012-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $18,981 Total Non-Federal Funds: Not available

Principal Investigators: Vasubandhu Misra

Abstract: This project proposes to examine the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 5 (AR5) models for their fidelity of the simulation of the 20th century climate and its variations, specific to the region of Lesser Antilles. Despite the anticipated coarse resolution of the AR5 models which will barely resolve any of the Isles of the Lesser Antilles, we contend based on our prior high resolution modeling work over the region that the large scale Atlantic warm pool (AWP) phenomenon has an important bearing on the local climate. Therefore, examining the simulation of the AWP and its variations in the 20th century would be of direct relevance to the Lesser Antilles.