This page provides a sampling of recent research on reanalysis comparisons.*
Antarctic | Arctic | Circulation | Diabatic Heating | Fluxes | Hydrologic Cycle | Precipitation | Temperature
30 year comparison between Antarctic stations (temperature, heights, and surface pressure) and 2nd and 3rd generation reanalyses - Bracegirdle, Thomas J., Gareth J. Marshall, 2012: The Reliability of Antarctic Tropospheric Pressure and Temperature in the Latest Global Reanalyses. J. Climate, 25, 7138–7146. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00685.1
This study shows comparisons of seven different reanalyses with independent observations of temperature, radiative fluxes, precipitation, and wind speed and intercomparisons with with each other, both for seasonal mean values and for trends. It also shows their relative ability to provide forcing for a sea ice model.
Lindsay, R., M. Wensnahan, A. Schweiger, J. Zhang, 2014: Evaluation of Seven Different Atmospheric Reanalysis Products in the Arctic*. J. Climate, 27, 2588–2606. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00014.1
Many additional seasonal intercomparison maps (many more than could be included in the publication) showing the median from the seven reanalyses and the deviations of each from the median are found at http://psc.apl.uw.edu/arctic_reanalyses. Both seasonal means and seasonal trends for the period 1981-2010 are shown. 34 different variables are included: surface fluxes, temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation, and pressure; layer heights and temperatures; and TOA radiative fluxes.
Arctic temperatures and trends over the 20th century in reanalyses, reconstructions, and upper-air observations are compared in Brönnimann, S., A.N. Grant, G.P. Compo,T. Ewen, T. Griesser, A.M. Fischer, M. Schraner, and A. Stickler, 2012: A multi-data set comparison of the vertical structure of temperature variability and change over the Arctic during the past 100 years. Cli. Dyn., 39, 1577-1598, doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1291-6. Discussion Page
Several reanalysis datasets are compared with satellite observations of Arctic clouds in Alexander Chernokulsky and Igor I. Mokhov, “Climatology of Total Cloudiness in the Arctic: An Intercomparison of Observations and Reanalyses,” Advances in Meteorology, vol. 2012, Article ID 542093, 15 pages, 2012. doi:10.1155/2012/542093. Discussion Page
The Arctic cloud fraction and radiative fluxes of several reanalyses are compared with Baseline Surface Radiation Network observations in Zib, B.J., X. Dong, B. Xi, A. Kennedy, 2012: Evaluation and Intercomparison of Cloud Fraction and Radiative Fluxes in Recent Reanalyses over the Arctic Using BSRN Surface Observations. J. Climate, 25, 2291-2305. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00147.1
Nine global reanalysis datasets consistenly show an increase in deep-cyclone counts over the past half centure - Wang, X.L., Y. Feng, R. Chan, and V. Isaac, 2016: Inter-comparison of extra-tropical cyclone activity in nine reanalysis datasets. Atmospheric Research, 181 (2016), 133-153. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.06.010. Discussion Page
What's the difference between GFS and FNL? From the NCAR RDA blog: http://ncarrda.blogspot.com/2015/04/whats-difference-between-gfs-and-fnl.html
Analysis, Forecast, Reanalysis–What's the difference? From the NCAR RDA blog: http://ncarrda.blogspot.com/2015/04/analysis-forecast-reanalysis-whats.html
Interannual Variability of the Atmospheric Angular Momentum in 2nd and 3rd generation reanalyses - Paek, Houk, Huei-Ping Huang, 2012: A Comparison of interannual variability in atmospheric angular momentum and length-of-day using multiple reanalysis datasets, J. Geophys. Res., 117, D20102, doi:10.1029/2012JD018105. Discussion Page
Comparing CFSR and other reanalyses in the troposphere - Chelliah, M., W. Ebisuzaki, S. Weaver, and A. Kumar, 2011: Evaluating the tropospheric variability in National Centers for Environmental Prediction's climate forecast system reanalysis, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D17107, doi:10.1029/2011JD015707. Discussion Page
Comparing trends in sea level pressure from ERA-Interim, ERA-40, CFSR, NCEP-NCAR, MERRA, and 20CR - L'Heureux, M.L., S. Lee, and B. Lyon, 2013: Recent multidecadal strengthening of the Walker circulation across the tropical Pacific, Nature Clim Change, doi: 10.1038/nclimate1840. Discussion Page
3rd generation reanalyses compared with some observations - Jian Ling and Chidong Zhang, Diabatic Heating Profiles in Recent Global Reanalyses (doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00384.1)
The Arctic cloud fraction and radiative fluxes of several reanalyses are compared with Baseline Surface Radiation Network observations in Zib, B.J., X. Dong, B. Xi, A. Kennedy, 2012: Evaluation and Intercomparison of Cloud Fraction and Radiative Fluxes in Recent Reanalyses over the Arctic Using BSRN Surface Observations. J. Climate, 25, 2291-2305. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00147.1
US Regional evaluation of reanalyses summertime interannual variability of precipitation and temperature - Bosilovich, Michael G., 2013: Regional Climate and Variability of NASA MERRA and Recent Reanalyses: U.S. Summertime Precipitation and Temperature. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 52, 1939–1951. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-12-0291.1
Southern African precipitation in ERA-40, ERA-interim, JRA-25, MERRA, CFSR, NCEP-R1, NCEP-R2 and 20CRv2 are compared in Zhang, Q., H. Körnich and K. Holmgren, 2012: How well do reanalyses represent the southern African precipitation? Clim. Dyn., in press (doi: 10.1007/s00382-012-1423-z). Discussion Page
Update to the 2008 precipitation statistics below, focusing more on MERRA but includes other reanalyses, and intercompares the water and energy budgets: Bosilovich, Michael G., Franklin R. Robertson, Junye Chen, 2011: Global Energy and Water Budgets in MERRA. J. Climate, 24, 5721–5739. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2011JCLI4175.1
Focus on global and regional precipitation biases and spatio-temporal variability at the long time scales: Bosilovich, Michael G., Junye Chen, Franklin R. Robertson, Robert F. Adler, 2008: Evaluation of Global Precipitation in Reanalyses. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 47, 2279–2299. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008JAMC1921.1
Arctic temperatures and trends over the 20th century in reanalyses, reconstructions, and upper-air observations are compared in Brönnimann, S., A.N. Grant, G.P. Compo,T. Ewen, T. Griesser, A.M. Fischer, M. Schraner, and A. Stickler, 2012: A multi-data set comparison of the vertical structure of temperature variability and change over the Arctic during the past 100 years. Cli. Dyn., 39, 1577-1598, doi:10.1007/s00382-012-1291-6. Discussion Page
Temperature trends over the continental United States for the period 1979 to 2008 compared to observations - Vose, R. S., S. Applequist, M. J. Menne, C. N. Williams Jr., and P. Thorne. 2012: An intercomparison of temperature trends in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network and recent atmospheric reanalyses. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L10703. (doi:10.1029/2012GL051387) Discussion Page
*This list is not comprehensive, but the interested reader should feel free to request an account and include any relevant published research the reader thinks may be useful to communicate. Please use the existing categories, only adding new as needed. Add a brief description and use reverse chronological order under each topic. Users are encouraged to link a Discussion Page summarizing their paper, presentation, or other results.