Galapagos refined analysis
The Galapagos refined analysis is the regional climate analysis produced in the DARWIN project by dynamically downscaling ERA5 with WRF over the Galapagos Archipelago.
Scientific role
It provides a spatially coherent view of island climate that bridges coarse global data and site-based field observations. This makes it possible to study:
- elevation-dependent moisture gradients
- seasonal transitions between Garua and convective Precipitation
- local responses to Sea surface temperature variability and El Nino-Southern Oscillation
Method overview
- Large-scale forcing: ERA5 reanalysis
- Regional model: WRF with the Tropical WRF setup
- Sensitivity testing: DARWIN WRF experiment suite
- Evaluation basis: automated weather station network and Galapagos refined analysis validation data
Publication thread
The refined analysis underpins several public outputs:
- Heavy rainfall in the Galapagos
- Ecoclimatic cloud zonation in the Galapagos
- El Nino and the Galapagos
The main synthesis paper is the 2025 journal article by Schmidt et al., published in International Journal of Climatology, which analyzes the meso-scale climate of the archipelago through dynamical downscaling of reanalysis data.
The related validation dataset is documented separately in Galapagos refined analysis validation data.
See also: MOC DARWIN Workflow and Results, MOC Galapagos Climate System