Sensitivity of the regional climate model RegCM4.2 to planetary boundary layer parameterisation

This study investigates the performance of two planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterisations in the regional climate model RegCM4.2 with specific focus on the recently implemented prognostic turbulent kinetic energy parameterisation scheme: the University of Washington (UW) scheme. When compared with the default Holtslag scheme, the UW scheme, in the 10-year experiments over the European domain, shows a substantial cooling. It reduces winter warm bias over the north-eastern Europe by 2 °C and reduces summer warm bias over central Europe by 3 °C. A part of the detected cooling is ascribed to a general reduction in lower tropospheric eddy heat diffusivity with the UW scheme. While differences in temperature tendency due to PBL schemes are mostly localized to the lower troposphere, the schemes show a much higher diversity in how vertical turbulent mixing of the water vapour mixing ratio is governed. Differences in the water vapour mixing ratio tendency due to the PBL scheme are present almost throughout the troposphere. However, they alone cannot explain the overall water vapour mixing ratio profiles, suggesting strong interaction between the PBL and other model parameterisations. An additional 18-member ensemble with the UW scheme is made, where two formulations of the master turbulent length scale in unstable conditions are tested and unconstrained parameters associated with (a) the evaporative enhancement of the cloud-top entrainment and (b) the formulation of the master turbulent length scale in stable conditions are systematically perturbed. These experiments suggest that the master turbulent length scale in the UW scheme could be further refined in the current implementation in the RegCM model. It was also found that the UW scheme is less sensitive to the variations of the other two selected unconstrained parameters, supporting the choice of these parameters in the default formulation of the UW scheme.     

Customization of regional climate model (RegCM4) over Indian region

The regional climate model (RegCM4) is customized for 10-year climate simulation over Indian region through sensitivity studies on cumulus convection and land surface parameterization schemes. The model is configured over 30° E–120° E and 15° S–45° N at 30-km horizontal resolution with 23 vertical levels. Six 10-year (1991–2000) simulations are conducted with the combinations of two land surface schemes (BATS, CLM3.5) and three cumulus convection schemes (Kuo, Grell, MIT). The simulated annual and seasonal climatology of surface temperature and precipitation are compared with CRU observations. The interannual variability of these two parameters is also analyzed. The results indicate that the model simulated climatology is sensitive to the convection as well as land surface parameterization. The analysis of surface temperature (precipitation) climatology indicates that the model with CLM produces warmer (dryer) climatology, particularly over India. The warmer (dryer) climatology is due to the higher sensible heat flux (lower evapotranspiration) in CLM. The model with MIT convection scheme simulated wetter and warmer climatology (higher precipitation and temperature) with smaller Bowen ratio over southern India compared to that with the Grell and Kuo schemes. This indicates that a land surface scheme produces warmer but drier climatology with sensible heating contributing to warming where as a convection scheme warmer but wetter climatology with latent heat contributing to warming. The climatology of surface temperature over India is better simulated by the model with BATS land surface model in combination with MIT convection scheme while the precipitation climatology is better simulated with BATS land surface model in combination with Grell convection scheme. Overall, the modeling system with the combination of Grell convection and BATS land surface scheme provides better climate simulation over the Indian region.     

Development of a Single-Column Model in RegCM4 and Its Preliminary Application for Evaluating PBL Schemes in Simulating the Dry Convection Boundary Layer

A single-column model (SCM) is developed in the regional climate model RegCM4. The evolution of a dry convection boundary layer (DCBL) is used to evaluate this SCM. Moreover, four planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes, namely the Holtslag-Boville scheme (HB), Yonsei University scheme (YSU), and two University of Washington schemes (UW01, Grenier-Bretherton-McCaa scheme and UW09, Bretherton-Park scheme), are compared by using the SCM approach. A large-eddy simulation (LES) of the DCBL is performed as a benchmark to examine how well a PBL parameterization scheme reproduces the LES results, and several diagnostic outputs are compared to evaluate the schemes. The results show that the SCM is proper constructed. In general, with the DCBL case, the YSU scheme performs best for reproducing the LES results, which include well-mixed features and vertical sensible heat fluxes; the simulated wind speed, turbulent kinetic energy, entrainment flux, and height of the entrainment zone are all underestimated in the UW09; the UW01 has all those biases of the UW09 but larger, and the simulated potential temperature is not well mixed; the HB is the least skillful scheme, by which the PBL height, entrainment flux, height of the entrainment zone, and the vertical gradients within the mixed layer are all overestimated, and a inversion layer near the top of the surface layer is wrongly simulated.Although more cases and further testing are required, these simulations show encouraging results towards the use of this SCM framework for evaluating the simulated physical processes by the RegCM4.     

Performance of Convective Parameterization Schemes in Asia Using RegCM:Simulations in Three Typical Regions for the Period 1998–2002

This study discusses the sensitivity of convective parameterization schemes(CPSs) in the Regional Climate Model(version 4.3)(Reg CM4.3) over East/South Asia. The simulations using different CPSs in Reg CM are compared to discover a suitable scheme for this region, as the performance of different schemes is greatly influenced by region and seasonality. Over Southeast China and the Bay of Bengal, the Grell scheme exhibits the lowest RMSEs of summer precipitation compared to observed data. Moreover, the Emanuel over land and Grell over ocean(ELGO) scheme enhances the simulation, in comparison with any single CPS(Grell/Emanuel) over Western Ghats, Sri Lanka, and Southeast India. Over the Huang–Huai–Hai Plain(3H) and Tibetan Plateau(TP) regions of China, the Tiedtke scheme simulates the more reasonable summer precipitation with high correlation coefficient and comparable amplitude. Especially, it reproduces a minimum convective precipitation bias of 8 mm d-1and the lowest RMSEs throughout the year over East/South Asia. Furthermore, for seasonal variation of precipitation, the Tiedtke scheme results are closer to the observed data over the 3H and TP regions. However, none of the CPSs is able to simulate the seasonal variation over North Pakistan(NP). In comparison with previous research, the results of this study support the Grell scheme over South Asia. However, the Tiedtke scheme shows superiority for the 3H, TP and NP regions. The thicker PBL, less surface latent heat flux, the unique ability of deep convection and the entrainment process in the Tiedtke scheme are responsible for reducing the wet bias.     

Climate change impact on precipitation for the Amazon and La Plata basins

We analyze the local and remote impacts of climate change on the hydroclimate of the Amazon and La Plata basins of South America (SA) in an ensemble of four 21st century projections (1970–2100, RCP8.5 scenario) with the regional climate model RegCM4 driven by the HadGEM, GFDL and MPI global climate models (GCMs) over the SA CORDEX domain. Two RegCM4 configurations are used, one employing the CLM land surface and the Emanuel convective schemes, and one using the BATS land surface and Grell (over land) convection schemes. First, we find considerable sensitivity of the precipitation change signal to both the driving GCM and the RegCM4 physics schemes (with the latter even greater than the first), highlighting the pronounced uncertainty of regional projections over the region. However, some improvements in the simulation of the annual cycle of precipitation over the Amazon and La Plata basins is found when using RegCM4, and some consistent change signals across the experiments are found. One is a tendency towards an extension of the dry season over central SA deriving from a late onset and an early retreat of the SA monsoon. The second is a dipolar response consisting of reduced precipitation over the broad Amazon and Central Brazil region and increased precipitation over the La Plata basin and central Argentina. An analysis of the relative influence on the change signal of local soil-moisture feedbacks and remote effects of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) over the Niño 3.4 region indicates that the former is prevalent over the Amazon basin while the latter dominates over the La Plata Basin. Also, the soil moisture feedback has a larger role in RegCM4 than in the GCMs.     

Incorporating groundwater dynamics and surface/subsurface runoff mechanisms in regional climate modeling over river basins in China

To improve the capability of numerical modeling of climate-groundwater interactions, a groundwater component and new surface/subsurface runoff schemes were incorporated into the regional climate model RegCM3, renamed RegCM3_Hydro. 20－year simulations from both models were used to investigate the effects of groundwater dynamics and surface/subsurface runoff parameterizations on regional climate over seven river basins in China. A comparison of results shows that RegCM3_Hydro reduced the positive biases of annual and summer (June, July, August) precipitation over six river basins, while it slightly increased the bias over the Huaihe River Basin in eastern China. RegCM3_Hydro also reduced the cold bias of surface air temperature from RegCM3 across years, especially for the Haihe and the Huaihe river basins, with significant bias reductions of 0.80C and 0.88C, respectively. The spatial distribution and seasonal variations of water table depth were also well captured. With the new surface and subsurface runoff schemes, RegCM3_Hydro increased annual surface runoff by 0.11－0.62 mm d－1 over the seven basins. Though previous studies found that incorporating a groundwater component tends to increase soil moisture due to the consideration of upward groundwater recharge, our present work shows that the modified runoff schemes cause less infiltration, which outweigh the recharge from groundwater and result in drier soil, and consequently cause less latent heat and more sensible heat over most of the basins.     

RegCM4.1对中国区域气候模拟能力评估

利用中国气象局提供的1985—2004年756个台站的逐日降水和气温观测数据评估了区域气候模式(RegCM4.1)对中国地区不同季节的降水和气温的模拟性能,并结合中国的区域气候特征和气候带分布进行分区讨论。结果表明RegCM4.1能够较好地再现中国地区四季降水占全年百分比、降水率的空间分布特点以及降水带南北摆动的季节变化特征。RegCM4.1对平均气温分布模拟较好,强度和高低中心与观测事实接近,但对青藏高原地区的气温分布模拟值一致偏低。同时发现RegCM4.1能够合理再现内陆地区气温日较差明显大于沿海地区的总体分布特征,不过模拟值在新疆和沿海地区比观测结果均偏低。     

Land surface coupling in regional climate simulations of the West African monsoon

Coupling of the Community Land Model (CLM3) to the ICTP Regional Climate Model (RegCM3) substantially improves the simulation of mean climate over West Africa relative to an older version of RegCM3 coupled to the Biosphere Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS). Two 10-year simulations (1992–2001) show that the seasonal timing and magnitude of mean monsoon precipitation more closely match observations when the new land surface scheme is implemented. Specifically, RegCM3–CLM3 improves the timing of the monsoon advance and retreat across the Guinean Coast, and reduces a positive precipitation bias in the Sahel and Northern Africa. As a result, simulated temperatures are higher, thereby reducing the negative temperature bias found in the Guinean Coast and Sahel in RegCM3–BATS. In the RegCM3–BATS simulation, warmer temperatures in northern latitudes and wetter soils near the coast create excessively strong temperature and moist static energy gradients, which shifts the African Easterly Jet further north than observed. In the RegCM3–CLM3 simulation, the migration and position of the African Easterly Jet more closely match reanalysis winds. This improvement is triggered by drier soil conditions in the RegCM3–CLM3 simulation and an increase in evapotranspiration per unit precipitation. These results indicate that atmosphere–land surface coupling has the ability to impact regional-scale circulation and precipitation in regions exhibiting strong hydroclimatic gradients.     

Assessment of RegCM4 simulated inter-annual variability and daily-scale statistics of temperature and precipitation over Mexico

The skill of a regional climate model (RegCM4) in capturing the mean patterns, interannual variability and extreme statistics of daily-scale temperature and precipitation events over Mexico is assessed through a comparison of observations and a 27-year long simulation driven by reanalyses of observations covering the Central America CORDEX domain. The analysis also includes the simulation of tropical cyclones. It is found that RegCM4 reproduces adequately the mean spatial patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature, along with the associated interannual variability characteristics. The main model bias is an overestimation of precipitation in mountainous regions. The 5 and 95 percentiles of daily temperature, as well as the maximum dry spell length are realistically simulated. The simulated distribution of precipitation events as well as the 95 percentile of precipitation shows a wet bias in topographically complex regions. Based on a simple detection method, the model produces realistic tropical cyclone distributions even at its relatively coarse resolution (dx = 50 km), although the number of cyclone days is underestimated over the Pacific and somewhat overestimated over the Atlantic and Caribbean basins. Overall, it is assessed that the performance of RegCM4 over Mexico is of sufficient quality to study not only mean precipitation and temperature patterns, but also higher order climate statistics.     

SIMULATION OF PRESENT CLIMATE OVER EAST ASIA BY A REGIONAL CLIMATE MODEL

A 15-year simulation of climate over East Asia is conducted with the latest version of a regional climate model RegCM3 nested in one-way mode to the ERA40 Re-analysis data. The performance of themodel in simulating present climate over East Asia and China is investigated. Results show that RegCM3 can reproduce well the atmospheric circulation over East Asia. The simulation of the main distribution patterns of surface air temperature and precipitation over China and their seasonal cycle/evolution, are basically agree with that of the observation. Meanwhile a general cold bias is found in the simulation. AS for the precipitation, the model tends to overestimate the precipitation in northern China while underestimate it in southern China, particularly in winter. In general, the model has better performance in simulating temperature than precipitation.     

Evaluation of 2-m temperature and precipitation products of the Climate Forecast System version 2 over Iran

Using a continuous multi-decadal simulations over the period 1981–2010, subseasonal to seasonal simulations of the Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) over Iran against the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) dataset are evaluated. CFSv2 shows cold biases over northern hillsides of the Alborz Mountains with the Mediterranean climate and warm biases over northern regions of the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea with a dry climate. Magnitude of the model bias for 2-m temperature over different regions of Iran varies by season, with the least bias in temperate seasons of spring and autumn, and the largest bias in summer. The model bias decreases as temporal averaging period increases from seasonal to annual. The forecast generally produces dry and wet biases over dry and wet regions of Iran, respectively. In general, 2-m temperature over Iran is better captured than precipitation, but the prediction skill of precipitation is generally high over western Iran. Averaged over Iran, observations indicated that 2-m temperature has been gradually increasing during the studied period, with a rate of approximately 0.5 °C per decade, and the upward trend is well simulated by CFSv2. Averaged over Iran, both observations and simulation results indicated that precipitation has been decreasing in spring, with averaged decreasing trends of 0.8 mm (observed) and 1.7 mm (simulated) per season each year during the period 1981–2010. Observations indicated that the maximum increasing trend of 2-m temperature has occurred over western Iran (nearly 0.7 °C per decade), while the maximum decreasing trend of annual precipitation has occurred over western and parts of southern Iran (nearly 45 to 50 mm per decade).     

Coupling of a Regional Climate Model with a Crop Development Model and Evaluation of the Coupled Model across China

In this study, the CERES(Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis) crop model was coupled with CLM3.5, the land module of the regional climate model RegCM4. The new coupled model was named RegCM4_CERES; and in this model, crop type was further divided into winter wheat, spring wheat, spring maize, summer maize, early rice, late rice,single rice, and other crop types based on each distribution fraction. The development of each crop sub-type was simulated by the corresponding crop model separately, with each planting and harvesting date. A simulation test using RegCM4_CERES was conducted across China from 1999 to 2008; a control test was also performed using the original RegCM4. Data on crop LAI(leaf area index), soil moisture at 10 cm depth, precipitation, and 2 m air temperature were collected to evaluate the performance of RegCM4_CERES. The evaluation provided comparison of single-station time series, regional distributions,seasonal variations, and statistical indices for RegCM4_CERES. The results revealed that the coupled model had an excellent ability to simulate the phonological changes and spatial variations in crops. The consideration of dynamic crop development in RegCM4_CERES corrected the wet bias of the original RegCM4 over North China and the cold bias over South China.However, the degree of improvement was minimal and the statistical indices for RegCM4_CERES were roughly the same as the original RegCM4.     

Multi-year Simulations and Experimental Seasonal Predictions for Rainy Seasons in China by Using a Nested Regional Climate Model （RegCM_NCC）. Part Ⅰ： Sensitivity Study

A modified version of the NCAR/RegCM2 has been developed at the National Climate Center （NCC）, China Meteorological Administration, through a series of sensitivity experiments and multi-year simulations and hindcasts, with a special emphasis on the adequate choice of physical parameterization schemes suitable for the East Asian monsoon climate. This regional climate model is nested with the NCC/IAP （Institute of Atmospheric Physics） T63 coupled GCM to make an experimental seasonal prediction for China and East Asia. The four-year （2001 to 2004） prediction results are encouraging. This paper is the first part of a two-part paper, and it mainly describes the sensitivity study of the physical process paraxneterization represented in the model. The systematic errors produced by the different physical parameterization schemes such as the land surface processes, convective precipitation, cloud-radiation transfer process, boundary layer process and large-scale terrain features have been identified based on multi-year and extreme flooding event simulations. A number of comparative experiments has shown that the mass flux scheme （MFS） and Betts-Miller scheme （BM） for convective precipitation, the LPMI （land surface process model I） and LPMII （land surface process model Ⅱ） for the land surface process, the CCM3 radiation transfer scheme for cloud-radiation transfer processes, the TKE （turbulent kinetic energy） scheme for the boundary layer processes and the topography treatment schemes for the Tibetan Plateau are suitable for simulations and prediction of the East Asia monsoon climate in rainy seasons. Based on the above sensitivity study, a modified version of the RegCM2 （RegCM_NCC） has been set up for climate simulations and seasonal predictions.     

Present and future climatologies in the phase I CREMA experiment

We provide an overall assessment of the surface air temperature and precipitation present day (1976–2005) and future (2070–2099) ensemble climatologies in the Phase I CREMA experiment. This consists of simulations performed with different configurations (physics schemes) of the ICTP regional model RegCM4 over five CORDEX domains (Africa, Mediterranean, Central America, South America, South Asia), driven by different combinations of three global climate models (GCMs) and two greenhouse gas (GHG) representative concentration pathways (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). The biases (1976–2005) in the driving and nested model ensembles compared to observations show a high degree of spatial variability and, when comparing GCMs and RegCM4, similar magnitudes and more similarity for precipitation than for temperature. The large scale patterns of change (2070–2099 minus 1976–2005) are broadly consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles and with previous analyses of GCM projections, indicating that the GCMs selected in the CREMA experiment are representative of the more general behavior of current GCMs. The RegCM4, however, shows a lower climate sensitivity (reduced warming) than the driving GCMs, especially when using the CLM land surface scheme. While the broad patterns of precipitation change are consistent across the GCM and RegCM4 ensembles, greater differences are found at sub-regional scales over the various domains, evidently tied to the representation of local processes. This paper serves to provide a reference view of the behavior of the CREMA ensemble, while more detailed and process-based analysis of individual domains is left to companion papers of this special issue.     

Effects of crop growth and development on regional climate: a case study over East Asian monsoon area

In this study, the CERES phenological growth and development functions were implemented into the regional climate model, RegCM3 to give a model denoted as RegCM3_CERES. This model was used to represent interactions between regional climate and crop growth processes. The effects of crop growth and development processes on regional climate were then studied based on two 20-year simulations over the East Asian monsoon area conducted using the original regional climate model RegCM3, and the coupled RegCM3_CERES model. The numerical experiments revealed that incorporating the crop growth and development processes into the regional climate model reduced the root mean squared error of the simulated precipitation by 2.2–10.7% over north China, and the simulated temperature by 5.5–30.9% over the monsoon region in eastern China. Comparison of the simulated results obtained using RegCM3_CERES and RegCM3 showed that the most significant changes associated with crop modeling were the changes in leaf area index which in turn modify the aspects of surface energy and water partitions and lead to moderate changes in surface temperature and, to some extent, rainfall. Further analysis revealed that a robust representation of seasonal changes in plant growth and developmental processes in the regional climate model changed the surface heat and moisture fluxes by modifying the vegetation characteristics, and that these differences in simulated surface fluxes resulted in different structures of the boundary layer and ultimately affected the convection. The variations in leaf area index and fractional vegetation cover changed the distribution of evapotranspiration and heat fluxes, which could potentially lead to anomalies in geopotential height, and consequently influenced the overlying atmospheric circulation. These changes would result in redistribution of the water and energy through advection. Nevertheless, there are significant uncertainties in modeling how monsoon dynamics responds to crop modeling and more research is needed.     

RegCM3对东亚环流和中国气候模拟能力的检验

使用RegCM3区域气候模式,嵌套ERA40再分析资料,对东亚地区进行了15年（1987～2001年）时间长度的数值积分试验,分析了模式对东亚平均环流及中国地区气温和降水的模拟。结果表明,模式对东亚平均环流的特征和中国地区降水、地面气温的年、季地理分布和季节变化特征均具有一定的模拟能力,对气温和降水年际变率的模拟也较好。此外模式模拟在测站稀少地区,可以提供局地如降水分布更可靠的信息。模式对气温的模拟存在1-3℃的系统性冷偏差;对中国地区降水地理分布的模拟也存在一定偏差,如对年平均降水的模拟中,降水最大值位置与观测有一定差距,特别是对冬季降水中心的模拟存在较大偏差。模式模拟的夏季降水,在中国北方地区总体偏大100-200 mm,南方总体偏小100-200 mm。模式对地面气温的模拟效果好于降水。     

Modeling the hydroclimatology of the midwestern United States. Part 1: current climate

An ensemble of six 22-year numerical experiments was conducted to evaluate the ability of Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3) to simulate the energy and water budgets of the midwestern United States. RegCM3 was run using two surface physics schemes: Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) and Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme 1e (BATS1e), and two convective closure assumptions: Fritsch & Chappell (FC80) and Arakawa & Schubert (AS74). Boundary conditions were provided by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction-Department of Energy Reanalysis 2 dataset and the ECHAM5 general circulation model. A companion paper examines the American Midwest under future climate scenarios. Overall, the model that reproduces the observed seasonal cycles of the midwestern United States climate system best is RegCM3 using IBIS and the AS74 convective closure assumption. IBIS simulates shortwave radiation more accurately, while BATS1e simulates longwave radiation more accurately. Summer two-meter air temperature is overestimated by the combination of IBIS and the FC80 convective closure assumption. All models contain a wet bias and overestimate evapotranspiration during the spring. Total runoff, surface runoff, groundwater runoff, and root zone soil moisture are best simulated by RegCM3 using IBIS and the AS74 convective closure assumption. While BATS1e does capture the seasonal cycle of total runoff, gross errors in the partitioning of total runoff between surface runoff and groundwater runoff exist. The seasonal cycle of root zone soil moisture simulated by RegCM3 using IBIS and the AS74 convective closure assumption is dry, but agrees with observations during the summer. The rest of the models underestimate root zone soil moisture.     

Simulation of paleoclimate over East Asia at 6 ka BP and 21 ka BP by a regional climate model

Using a regional climate model with detailed land surface processes (RegCM2), East Asian monsoon climates at 6 ka BP and 21 ka BP are simulated by prescribing vegetation and employing paleovegetation respectively in order to examine land surface effects on East Asian climate system and the potential mechanisms for climate change. The RegCM2 with a 120 × 120 km² resolution has simulated the enlargement of the seasonal cycle of insolation, the temperature rising the whole year, and the reduction of perpetual snow in high latitudes at 6 ka BP. The simulation shows the East Asian summer monsoon strengthening, precipitation and P–E increasing, and the monsoon rain belt shifting westwards and northwards. Effect of paleovegetation included in the modeling reduced surface albedo and caused an increase in the winter temperature, which led to weakening of the winter continental cold anticyclone over China. The results make the seasonal characteristics of simulated temperature changes in better agreement with the geological records, and are an improvement over previous simulations of Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). The RegCM2 simulated the 21 ka BP climate with lowered temperature throughout the year, and with precipitation reduced in most areas of East Asia (but increased in both the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia). Low temperature over East Asia led to the strengthening of the East Asian winter monsoon and the shrinking of the summer monsoon. The effect of paleovegetation included in the experiment has enlarged the glacial climate influence in East Asia, which is closer to geological data than the PMIP simulations directly driven by insolation, glaciation and low CO₂ concentration.     

An evaluation of RegCM3_CERES for regional climate modeling in China

A 20-year simulation of regional climate over East Asia by the regional climate model RegCM3_CERES (Regional Climate Model version 3 coupled with the Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis) was carried out and compared with observations and the original RegCM3 model to comprehensively evaluate its performance in simulating the regional climate over continental China. The results showed that RegCM3_CERES reproduced the regional climate at a resolution of 60 km over China by using ERA40 data as the boundary conditions, albeit with some limitations. The model captured the basic characteristics of the East Asian circulation, the spatial distribution of mean precipitation and temperature, and the daily characteristics of precipitation and temperature. However, it underestimated both the intensity of the monsoon in the monsoonal area and precipitation in southern China, overestimated precipitation in northern China, and produced a systematic cold temperature bias over most of continental China. Despite these limitations, it was concluded that the RegCM3_CERES model is able to simulate the regional climate over continental China reasonably well.     

Fidelity of Regional Climate Model v4.6 in capturing seasonal and subseasonal variability of Indian summer monsoon

Climate modeling studies in the context of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) variability have usually been performed on the seasonal and interannual timescales. The present study assesses the fidelity of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM v4.6) in capturing the subseasonal active and break spells along with the seasonal mean rainfall during the ISM season. The model fields are obtained from 24 years (1982–2005) of simulation and validated against the observations and latest reanalyzed ERA5 data products. Our analysis indicates that RegCM v4.6 fairly captures the large scale features of ISM and improvement in seasonal rainfall is noted as compared to its precedent RegCM v4.4. At subseasonal timescales, though the model captures the active and break spells of ISM, the length and frequency of these events seem inconsistent as compared to the observations. Occurrences of breaks and associated circulation features are mostly consistent but the active spells are significantly misconstrued in the model. The dry air intrusion from the western region and lack of monsoon low over the mainland and Bay of Bengal seem to suppress the precipitation in the model. This subseasonal bias might persist due to systematic errors linked to the lack of ocean coupling, inefficiency of land surface and cumulus parameterization schemes in the model. Overall, RegCM v4.6 offers improvements at seasonal timescale but needs further improvements to realistically represent the subseasonal variability of ISM.