Verification of the ERA-Interim Reanalysis Data in the Azov-Black Sea Basin

Purpose. The purpose of the paper is to assess quality of meteorological information for the Azov–Black Sea basin derived from the ERA-Interim reanalysis (the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), and to examine possibility of using the obtained data for presetting atmospheric forcing in the numerical hydrodynamic model of the Black and Azov seas. Methods. The analysis is based on comparison of the annual average ERA-Interim fields with the measurement data on the atmospheric circulation parameters represented in hydrometeorological atlases. The most significant discrepancies between the ERA-Interim fields and the data of climatic arrays are noted and, consequently, the discrepancy-related potential errors arising in reproducing water circulation in the indicated seas are considered. Results and Conclusions. The comparative analysis showed that, for a number of the parameters, the reanalysis data were in qualitative agreement with the measurements. The highest discrepancies (up to 70%) were revealed in the precipitation field nearby the Caucasian coast in autumn. Such an error in the boundary conditions can negatively affect both the sea surface salinity distribution in the numerical modeling and, therefore, reproduction of thermohaline circulation in this region of the sea. A significant error in the results of numerical modeling can also be induced by the discrepancies in the wind fields. In the ERA-Interim data, the wind speed module is generally understated by 7% over the whole Black Sea in a spring-summer period, and by 20–25% in the Azov Sea throughout a year. The direction of the resultant wind is the most distorted in summer, whereas in winter, the deviations are significant only in the southeastern part of the Black Sea. The best agreement is observed between the temperature and air humidity fields, and the climatic arrays’ data: the discrepancies between the values of these parameters are minimal.