Multidecadal Convection-permitting Simulations of Current and Future Climate over South America using WRF

A high-resolution convection-permitting climate change simulation was performed at 4 km grid spacing covering the entire continent of South America. The simulation was performed using Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model. This dataset is from a 22-year simulation representing the current climate between January 2001 and January 2022. ERA5 data was used to initialize the model and force boundary every 3 hours. This high-resolution simulation allowed for much improved representation of topography, convection, and orographic precipitation and snowpack, resulting in a one-of-a-kind dataset that can be used to study the hydroclimate processes in South America. A second simulation was then performed using the ERA5 weather with a climate perturbation from the CESM2-Large Ensemble (LENS2) for near the end of the 21st century (2060-2080). Monthly mean change signals were computed from the LENS2 and applied to the sub-daily ERA5 data to create the future simulation data used to drive the WRF model. This dataset provides a warmer and wetter 2060-2080 future scenario for South America using the same 2001-2022 day-to-day weather. The combined datasets will enable myriad research studies, spanning fundamental and applied research into regional hydroclimatic change over South America and corresponding impacts across sectors.