Impact of spatial resolution on simulated consecutive dry days and near-surface temperature over the central mountains in Japan

To evaluate the influence of spatial resolution in numerical simulations on the duration of consecutive dry days (CDDs) and near-surface temperature over the central mountains in Japan, a regional climate model was used to conduct two experiments with horizontal resolutions of 5 and 20 km. Compared with observations, the spatial and temporal features of the CDDs were simulated well in the 5 km experiment, whereas in the 20 km simulation they were overestimated over the mountains and underestimated in the surrounding regions. The accuracy in the simulated CDDs affected the near-surface temperature in the model. In years with a difference of more than five days in the CDDs between the 5 and 20 km experiments, near-surface temperatures over the mountains were 0.2-0.3 K lower in the 5 km simulation compared with the 20 km simulation. This was due to the lower number of CDDs in 5 km simulation causing active cloud convection and reduced net radiation at the ground, resulting from a large decrease in the solar radiation at the ground. In addition, a land surface wetness controls a spatial heterogeneity of temperature difference between two experiments.