Influence of Ocean Surface Conditions on the Regional Climate of the Northernmost Atlantic, 1988-2004

This data set includes simulations data of the Greenland region created with the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Fifth-Generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) modified for use in polar regions (Polar MM5) using European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) initial boundary conditions. The regional climate model demonstrates regional patterns for the Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance (SMB) change over a 17-year period (1988-2004) characterized by warming.

The Polar MM5 is reinitialized once a day at the surface and continuously updated every 12 hours at the lateral boundaries with the 2.5 degree horizontal resolution ECMWF operational analyses. The 6-hourly data are averaged to produce monthly means for 2-m temperature (C), 2-m specific humidity (g/kg), zonal wind at 10 m (m/s) , meridional wind at 10 m (m/s), wind speed at 10 m (m/s), and precipitation (monthly total in mm).