- 1Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma, Italy (giovanni.muscari@ingv.it)
- 2Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
- 3Laboratory for Models and Measurements for Air Quality, and Climate Observations SSPT-CLIMAR-AOC ENEA, 00123 Rome, Italy
- 4Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
- 5Ca' Foscari University of Venice Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venezia-Mestre 30172, Italy
- 6Laboratory for Models and Measurements for Air Quality, and Climate Observations SSPT-CLIMAR-AOC ENEA, 00044 Frascati, Italy
The Thule High Arctic Atmospheric Observatory (THAAO, www.thuleatmos-it.it) is a strategically important site for collecting atmospheric measurements in the Arctic. Located in Pituffik (76.5° N, 68.8° W, 225 m asl) on the Greenland west coast, it experiences harsh environmental conditions and offers invaluable atmospheric measurements otherwise scarce in the region. Over the past decade, increased visits to the observatory have facilitated the expansion, maintenance, and upgrading of its instruments. More than 15 instruments are currently operating at the THAAO, measuring atmospheric and surface climate parameters. Among those are upward- and downward-looking pyranometers and pyrgeometers, radiosondes, microwave spectrometers for atmospheric composition, lidar and ceilometer systems, and a weather station also providing precipitation measurements.
This study compares two prominent reanalysis datasets - ERA5 and the C3S Arctic Regional Reanalysis (CARRA) - produced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Ground-based measurements of various atmospheric parameters, including local and column-integrated variables, are used for this comparison. CARRA delivers higher spatial resolution (2.5 km) but lower temporal resolution (3-hourly) data, concentrating on Greenland and utilising ERA5's global reanalysis (0.25° x 0.25° and hourly) as lateral boundary conditions.
The analysis extends over a period ranging from 3 to 15 years, depending on the parameter, and includes key variables such as temperature, relative humidity, integrated water vapour, radiation components (shortwave and longwave), precipitation, cloud base height, wind speed and direction. In addition, over 50 radiosonde measurements, unevenly distributed between 2016 and 2024, are exploited in the comparison. The data used in this study have not been assimilated into the reanalysis under consideration, allowing an independent evaluation.
The impact of different temporal and spatial resolutions of the reanalyses will be assessed. The climatological length of the reanalyses (> 30 years) allows the assessment of seasonal and annual trends, as well as the regional impact of extreme events over a long time span.
How to cite: Calì Quaglia, F., Muscari, G., Focardi, A., Ciardini, V., Di Bernardino, A., Di Iorio, T., Meloni, D., Pace, G., Tosco, M., and di Sarra, A.: Comparison of ERA5 and CARRA reanalyses with long-term atmospheric measurements at the THAAO, Greenland, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-19437, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-19437, 2025.
