Modifying Mountains in Models Reduces Wet Bias in Western North America

This repository contains output from the coupled atmosphere-ocean Global Climate Model (GCM) used in the related study (Sexton et al. 2026, "Modifying Mountains in Models Reduces Wet Bias in Western North America" Journal of Climate): GFDL CM2.5-FLOR (hereafter FLOR). The purpose of the experiments is to test the influence of orographic height on climate, with a particular focus on Western North America. Details for how this data was created and used can be found in the Methods section of the related publication. The data is in netCDF format, with dimensions of latitude, longitude, and, where relevant, time. Datasets marked as "seasonal" contain data where the seasonal mean has already been taken to save space, specifically for the moisture budget decomposition. Datasets marked as "seasonalDJF" contain data where the seasonal mean has already been taken and the DJF season has been selected to save space, specifically for the Nh/U calculations. Experiments/ File categories: flor.ctrl = topography averaged onto model grid (standard method) flor.hitopo = topography interpolated to model grid by taking gricell max flor.cam = hitopo method only over Central America flor.hirocky = hitopo method only over North America Diagnostics (Note: these labels correspond to the file names; the variables within the files follow FLOR conventions.): evap = evaporation rate in kg/m^2/s precip = total precipitation rate in kg/m^2/s streamfunctionX = calculated streamfunction based on winds at X mb t_surf = surface temperature in degrees K uX = zonal winds at X mb vX = meridional winds at X mb WVP = column integrated water vapor, i.e. precipitable water zsurf = height of the topography MBUDG.zip Terms ps = surface pressure q = specific humidity temp = temperature u = zonal winds v = meridional winds NHU.zip Terms T = temperature T_ref = 2 m temperature u = zonal winds u_ref = 2 m zonal winds v = meridional winds v_ref = 2 m meridional winds z = geopotential height relative to surface