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| | AMIP: Evaluation of Snow Extent and Its Variability |
 | | Snow cover is an important climatological variable due to its impact on energy and mass exchanges at the surface, and due to its relevance to regional water budgets, in mid latitudes to high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. |
 | | GCM results are evaluated in terms of (1) their similarities to the observed 9-year snow cover extent climatology (with regards to central tendency, systematic bias, and dispersion), (2) the correlation between modeled and observed interannual fluctuations, and (3) model performance as a function of model numerical properties (horizontal representation, horizontal resolution, and vertical resolution). |
 | | AMIP models reproduce a seasonal cycle of snow extent similar to the observed cycle, but are inconsistent, from region to region, season to season, and model to model, in the accuracy of their simulations of mean snow extent and synoptic teleconnection patterns associated with regional snow extent. |
| www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu /people/fac/frei/amip/amip.html (6122 words) |
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