Limited area weather prediction models viewed as dynamical systems

Different strategies for building high-resolution models providing a more detailed description of a limited area of interest as for example, in regional weather forecasts are developed. They are subsequently compared, on the basis of the dynamical behavior generated by the corresponding models. The statistical properties of the relevant fields are analyzed, and predictability experiments are performed on statistical ensembles of close lying trajectories whose mean distance represents the uncertainty in the initial state of the system. The results show that a global, variable-mesh model performs much better than a limited area fine mesh one embedded into a coarser global model.