Influence of convective adjustment time scale on the tropical transient activity

The influence of convective adjustment time scale (??) in simulating the tropical transient activity is examined using the NCAR-Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). In the default configuration of the model, the prescribed value of ??, a characteristic time scale with which convective available potential energy (CAPE) is removed at an exponential rate by convection, is assumed to be 1?h. However, some recent observational findings suggest that it is larger by around one order of magnitude, and subsequent modeling studies showed its impact on mean climate and suggest a value of 8?h. To see if alteration of this time scale could affect the transient features of climate, numerical experiments are conducted in aqua-planet and real-planet frameworks. The analysis includes the tropical intraseasonal variability (ISV), convectively coupled equatorial waves (CCEW), diurnal and sub-diurnal variability of precipitation, and intensity and frequency of rainfall. Two sets of simulations are conducted: one with a time scale of 1?h (CTRL) and another with 8?h (EXPT). EXPT produces more reasonable ISV, with prominent, coherent, and organized eastward propagation. The active phases of the ISV constitute hierarchical substructures embedded within them, which are absent in CTRL. The Kelvin waves become slow, Madden?CJulian oscillation (MJO) become energetic, n?=?1 equatorial Rossby (ER) and n?=?0 eastward inertio-gravity (EIG) waves become prominent, with the increase of ??. On the contrary, the mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) waves at higher wavenumber regimes become weak. The amplitude of diurnal variability decreases, but the phase remains largely unchanged. At sub-diurnal scales, the variability of precipitation increases. In CTRL, precipitation always occurs in the tropics with light or moderate intensity, which becomes intermittent when ?? is increased to 8?h.     

The activity of convectively coupled equatorial waves in CMIP3 global climate models

This study evaluates the convectively coupled equatorial waves in ten coupled general circulation models (GCMs) in the twentieth century experiment from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 of the World Climate Research Programme. The antisymmetric bands in all GCMs are weaker than in observations, and the mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) wave seems to be a mixture of the equatorial Rossby (ER) and tropical depression-type (TD-type) waves rather than a mixture of the ER and inertiogravity waves found in observations. The simulated TD-type wave is more organized than in observations with a quasilinear wavenumber–frequency relationship. In most GCMs, the two observed activity centers of the MRG and TD-type waves over the southern Indian Ocean and the southwestern Pacific cannot be separated; only one wave activity center is found over the Maritime Continent. The observed northwestward propagation of the TD-type wave over the western North Pacific is also not well simulated in the GCMs. The simulated active season of the MRG and TD-type waves over the northern hemisphere during the boreal summer and fall is much shorter than in observations. The models from CCSR utilizing the Pan and Randall scheme with the convection suppression simulate the realistic Kelvin wave activity with the maximum activity near the equator, while the wave activities filtered for the Kelvin wave in the other GCMs are similar to the extratropical Rossby wave with the maximum activity at higher latitudes. Likewise, only these two models produce a realistic seasonal cycle of the Kelvin wave activity.     

An Assessment of MJO and Tropical Waves Simulated by Different Versions of the GAMIL Model

Simulated outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) outputs by two versions of the grid-point atmospheric general circulation model (GAMIL) were analyzed to assess the influences of improvements in cloud microphysics and convective parameterization schemes on the simulation of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) and other tropical waves. The wavenumber-frequency spectral analysis was applied to isolate dominant modes of convectively coupled equatorial waves, including the MJO, Kelvin, equatorial Rossby (ER), mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG), and inertio-gravity (IG) waves. The performances of different versions of the GAMIL model (version 1.0 (GAMIL1.0) and version 2.0 (GAMIL2.0)) were evaluated by comparing the power spectrum distributions of these waves among GAMIL1.0, GAMIL2.0, and observational data. GAMIL1.0 shows a weak MJO signal, with the maximum variability occurring separately at wavenumbers 1 and 4 rather than being concentrated on wavenumbers 1–3, suggesting that GAMIL1.0 could not effectively capture the intraseasonal variability. However, GAMIL2.0 is able to effectively reproduce both the symmetric and anti-symmetric waves, and the significant spectra of the MJO, Kelvin, and MRG waves are in agreement with observational data, indicating that the ability of GAMIL2.0 to simulate the MJO and other tropical waves is enhanced by improving the cloud microphysics and convective parameterization schemes and implying that such improvements are crucial to further improving this model’s performance.     

赤道两层海洋模式中基本流的切变不稳定性

设计了一个热带赤道β-平面的两层海洋模式,在准长波近似下,应用最大截断模分析赤道波的基本形态,指出无论是正压模或斜压模Kelvin波、Rossby波及基本流所对应的“地形Rossby波”是最基本的波系,在基本流的一定切变条件下,它们之间可以耦合出一类不稳定波。在浅混合层近似和“快波近似”下,正压模和斜压模是可以分离的,因此可以分别分析它们的色散特征,由于它们的特征量不同,在同样波长(扰动的纬向尺度)下,扰动的增长率也不同,通过分析得出在一定参数下,斜压模扰动增长率为正压模的2倍。近似分析表明,混合层中流场的增长要快于温跃层,但温跃层的温度增长要比混合层明显。     

大气季节内振荡对印度洋—西太平洋地区热带低压/气旋生成的影响

文中利用EOF分析大气季节内振荡 (MJO)的时空变化的方法 ,研究了 1996年 9月～ 1997年 6月间的MJO活动对生成在印度洋—西太平洋海域的热带低压 /气旋的影响。结果发现 ,除西北太平洋之外 ,发生在其他区域的热带低压 /气旋有半数以上生成在向东移动的MJO的湿位相中。伴随MJO的向东传播 ,热带低压 /气旋平均生成位置也随之向东移动 ,而生成在西北太平洋的热带低压 /气旋分别受到向东和向西传播的MJO影响     

低纬大气Kelvin波和Rossby波的非线性相互作用

利用多重尺度摄动法,对低纬大气Kelvin波和Rossby波的波包演变进行了分析,得到两波的非线性相互作用方程为耦合的非线性复系数Landau方程组。数值计算表明两波相遇将使波振幅变化,波宽变窄;两波非线性相互作用可能是低纬强烈天气突然爆发的原因之一。     

简单的热带海气耦合波——Rossby和Kelvin波的相互作用

本文分析了当大气和海洋中未经耦合前的自由波分别为Kelvin波和Rossby波,经相互作用后所产生的耦合波的性质。结果表明,不管大气的自由波为Kelvin波或Rossby波,而海洋的自由波为Rossby波或Kelvin波,经相互作用后的耦合波可以分成两类。一类耦合波的色散关系接近自由的Kelvin波;另一类则由不同经圈模的Rossby波经相互作用后的耦合波。这两类波都具有不稳定性。文中讨论了耦合波的传播和不稳定的物理机制,并指出这类不稳定的热带耦合波,对研究ENSO事件中的某些现象有一定的参考意义。     

Effects of convective adjustment time scale on the simulation of tropical climate

This paper describes the effects of convective adjustment time scale (τ) on the simulation of tropical climate. The NCAR-Community Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) has been used for this study. In the default configuration of the model, the prescribed value of τ, a characteristic time scale with which convective available potential energy (CAPE) is removed at an exponential rate by convection, is assumed to be 1?h. However, some recent observational findings suggest that, it is larger by around one order of magnitude. In order to investigate the dependence of tropical climate simulation to this time scale, we conducted two simulations, one with a time scale of 1?h (CTRL) and another with 8?h (EXPT), and examined the differences in simulated climate. For this, we analyzed both the mean as well as transient features, viz., seasonal mean quantities, equatorial waves, and meridional migration of convective disturbances. The spatial distributions of seasonal mean precipitation are found to be better in EXPT. The spatial correlation coefficients of CTRL and EXPT with the observations are 0.79 and 0.83, respectively, for northern hemisphere winter. Similarly, for northern hemisphere summer, the values are 0.67 and 0.79, respectively. In addition, there is also an improvement in the simulation of equatorial waves, specifically, the Kelvin waves, Madden–Julian oscillation, and n?=?1 equatorial Rossby waves become more realistic in EXPT. The characteristics of meridional migration of convective activity over tropics also become more reasonable in EXPT. Thus, it is found that there is a clear improvement in some of the key aspects of the simulated tropical climate with the revised convective adjustment time scale.     

Mechanism of Kelvin and Rossby waves during ENSO events

Summary ?The fields of sea-level height anomaly (SLHA) and surface zonal wind anomaly (SZWA) have been analyzed to investigate the typical evolution of spatial patterns during El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Sea surface temperature (SST) changes during ENSO events are represented as an irregular interplay of two dominant modes, low-frequency mode and biennial mode. Cyclostationary principal component (PC) time series of the former variables are regressed onto the PC time series of the two dominant SSTA modes to find the spatial patterns of SLHA and SZWA consistent with the two SSTA modes. The two regressed patterns of SLHA explain a large portion of SLHA total variability. The reconstruction of SLHA using only the two components reasonably depicts major ENSO events. Although the low-frequency component of SST variability is much larger than the biennial component, the former does not induce strong Kelvin and Rossby waves. The biennial mode induces much stronger dynamical ocean response than the low-frequency mode. Further decomposition of the SLHA modes into Kelvin and Rossby components shows how these two types of equatorial waves evolve during typical ENSO events. The propagation and reflection of these waves are clearly portrayed in the regressed patterns leading to a better understanding of the wave mechanism in the tropical Pacific associated with ENSO. A close examination suggests that the delayed action oscillator hypothesis is generally consistent with the analysis results reported here. Rossby wave development in the central Pacific in the initiation stage of ENSO and the subsequent reflection of Kelvin waves at the western boundary seems to be an important mechanism for further development of ENSO. The development of Kelvin waves forced by the surface wind in the far-western Pacific cannot be ruled out as a possible mechanism for the growth of ENSO. While Kelvin waves in the far-western Pacific serve as an intiation mechanism of ENSO, they also cause the termination of existing ENSO condition in the central and eastern Pacific, thereby leading to a biennial oscillation over the tropical Pacific. The Kelvin waves from the western Pacific erode the thermocline structure in the central Pacific preventing further devlopment of ENSO and ultimately terminating it. It should be emphasized that this wave mechanism is clear and active only in the biennial mode. Received August 15, 2001; revised March 6, 2002     

Development and propagation of equatorial waves

Development and propagation of equatorial waves are investigated with the model which includes convection -wave convergence feedback and convection-frictional convergence feedback. Two experiments with an initial Kelvin wave (Exp. K) and with an initial Rossby wave (Exp. R) are carried out. The equatorial waves in Exp. R grow much faster than those in Exp. K. The equatorial waves in both experiments follow zonal (eastward / westward) and meridional (poleward) propagation. The equatorial waves can be partitioned into two meridional modes using Parabolic Cylinder Function. An equa?tor mode denotes a wave component with a positive precipitation center at the equator and an off-equator mode rep?resents a wave component with positive precipitation centers off the equator. The equator mode dominates in Exp. K whereeas the off-equator mode dominates in Exp. R. The rapid wave growth in Exp. R is interpreted by analyzing the eddy available potential energy (EAPE) generation. Stronger off-equator mode in Exp. R obtains more EAPE through convection-frictional convergence feedback which results in more rapid wave growth. The relative vorticity tendency is determined by interactions between Earth’s vorticity and lower-troposphere convergence (divergence effect) and between the meridional gradient and lower-troposphere circulation (beta effect). The eastward and poleward propagation of equatorial waves is a result of the divergence effect, and the westward movement is caused by the beta effect.     

Annual ENSO simulated in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model

Using an output from 200-year integration of the Scale Interaction Experiment of EU project-F1 model (SINTEX-F1), the annual ENSO reproduced in the coupled general circulation model is investigated, suggesting the importance of reproducing an annual cycle in realistically simulating ENSO events. Although many features of the annual ENSO are reproduced, the northward expansion of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the eastern tropical Pacific stays south of the equator. It is suggested that this model bias is due to the excitation of the too strong Rossby waves in the southeastern tropical Pacific, which reflect at the western boundary and intrude into the eastern equatorial Pacific. The zonal wind stress anomaly along the equator also plays an important role in generating the equatorial Kelvin waves. The amplitude of SSTA for the annual ENSO mode is reproduced, but its variance is only 20% of the observation; this is again due to the lack of northward migration of seasonal SSTA in the equatorial region and weaker coastal Kelvin waves along South America. Remedies for the model bias are discussed.     

Model multi-cloud parameterizations for convectively coupled waves: Detailed nonlinear wave evolution

Recent observational analysis reveals the central role of three cloud types, congestus, stratiform, and deep-convective cumulus clouds, in the dynamics of large scale convectively coupled Kelvin waves, westward propagating 2-day waves, and the Madden–Julian oscillation. Recently, a systematic model convective parametrization highlighting the dynamic role of the three cloud types has been developed by the authors involving two baroclinic modes of vertical structure: a deep-convective heating mode and a second mode with low level heating and cooling corresponding, respectively, to congestus and stratiform clouds. The model includes a systematic moisture equation where the lower troposphere moisture increases through detrainment of shallow cumulus clouds, evaporation of stratiform rain, and moisture convergence and decreases through deep-convective precipitation and also a nonlinear switch which favors either deep or congestus convection depending on the relative dryness of the middle troposphere. The detailed nonlinear evolution of large scale convectively coupled waves in the model parametrization is studied here in a chaotic intermittent regime of the nonlinear dynamics associated with weaker mean radiative cooling where such waves are isolated in space and time. This regime is utilized to elucidate in a clean fashion several novel features of the model parametrization. In particular, four stages of nonlinear wave evolution occur: in the preconditioning and birth stages, the role of congestus moistening and second baroclinic convergence are crucial while in the dying stage of the large scale convectively coupled wave, the role of the nonlinear switch, and the drying of the troposphere are essential. In the mature phase, the large scale features of the convectively coupled waves resemble those in observations of convectively coupled Kelvin waves including the propagation speed, wave tilt, temperature, heating, and velocity structure.     

边界层动力过程在Madden-Julian振荡发展中的作用

利用包括边界层爱克曼辐合－降水加热过程在内的短期气候变化模式［１］，研究了Ｍａｄｄｅｎ－Ｊｕｌｉａｎ振荡［１１，１２］形成的机制。当经圈方向用抛物圆柱函数展开，并对赤道偶对称解取ｎ＝０，２，４三个截断模时，在长波近似下的自由波解，一为向东的Ｋｅｌｖｉｎ波，另外两支为向西的Ｒｏｓｓｂｙ波。当考虑边界层动力影响后，修正后的Ｋｅｌｖｉｎ波，其向东传播的速度约为１０ｍｓ－１，且在长波波段是不稳定的，最不稳定的波出现在纬向一波附近，不稳定增长率的量级约为Ｏ（１０ｍ－６ｓ－１），理论结果和Ｍａｄｄｅｎ－Ｊｕｌｉａｎ振荡在赤道附近主体环流东传的观测事实接近。另外两支修正后的Ｒｏｓｓｂｙ波，其中经圈尺度较小的那支波，除波长极长的波外，波是阻尼的；但另一支经圈尺度较大的波，在短的波段是不稳定增长的，这似乎可以用来解释Ｍａｄｄｅｎ－Ｊｕｌｉａｎ振荡中大尺度超级云团的西传过程。这些结果表明边界层动力过程在Ｍａｄｄｅｎ－Ｊｕｌｉａｎ振荡的形成中是一种重要的机制。     

Convection activity over the Guinean coast and Central Africa during northern spring from synoptic to intra-seasonal timescales

This study proposes an overview of the main synoptic, medium-range and intraseasonal modes of convection and precipitation in northern spring (March–June 1979–2010) over West and Central Africa, and to understand their atmospheric dynamics. It is based on daily National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outgoing longwave radiation and Cloud Archive User Service Tb convection data, daily TRMM and Global Precipitation Climatology Project rainfall products and daily ERA-Interim reanalysis atmospheric fields. It is first shown that mesoscale convective systems can be modulated in terms of occurrences number and intensity at such time scales. Based on empirical orthogonal function analyses on the 2–90-day filtered data it is shown that the main mode of convective and rainfall variability is located along the Guinean coast with a moderate to weak extension over Central Africa. Corresponding regressed deseasonalised atmospheric fields highlight an eastward propagation of patterns consistent with convectively coupled equatorial Kelvin wave dynamics. Then a singular spectrum analysis combined with a Hierarchical Ascendant Classification enable to define objectively the main spectral bands of variability within the 2–90-day band, and highlight three main bands, 2–8-, 8–22- and 20–90-day. Within these three bands, space–time spectral decomposition is used to identify the relative impacts of convectively coupled equatorial Kelvin, Rossby and inertia–gravity waves, as well as Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) signal. It confirms that eastward propagating signals (convectively coupled equatorial Kelvin wave and MJO) are highly dominant in these convection and precipitation variability modes over the Guinean coast during northern spring. So, while rain-producing individual systems are moving westward, their activity are highly modulated by sub-regional and regional scales envelops moving to the east. This is a burning issue for operational forecasting centers to be able to monitor and predict such eastward propagating envelops of convective activity.     

Model multi-cloud parameterizations for convectively coupled waves: Detailed nonlinear wave evolution

Recent observational analysis reveals the central role of three cloud types, congestus, stratiform, and deep-convective cumulus clouds, in the dynamics of large scale convectively coupled Kelvin waves, westward propagating 2-day waves, and the Madden–Julian oscillation. Recently, a systematic model convective parametrization highlighting the dynamic role of the three cloud types has been developed by the authors involving two baroclinic modes of vertical structure: a deep-convective heating mode and a second mode with low level heating and cooling corresponding, respectively, to congestus and stratiform clouds. The model includes a systematic moisture equation where the lower troposphere moisture increases through detrainment of shallow cumulus clouds, evaporation of stratiform rain, and moisture convergence and decreases through deep-convective precipitation and also a nonlinear switch which favors either deep or congestus convection depending on the relative dryness of the middle troposphere. The detailed nonlinear evolution of large scale convectively coupled waves in the model parametrization is studied here in a chaotic intermittent regime of the nonlinear dynamics associated with weaker mean radiative cooling where such waves are isolated in space and time. This regime is utilized to elucidate in a clean fashion several novel features of the model parametrization. In particular, four stages of nonlinear wave evolution occur: in the preconditioning and birth stages, the role of congestus moistening and second baroclinic convergence are crucial while in the dying stage of the large scale convectively coupled wave, the role of the nonlinear switch, and the drying of the troposphere are essential. In the mature phase, the large scale features of the convectively coupled waves resemble those in observations of convectively coupled Kelvin waves including the propagation speed, wave tilt, temperature, heating, and velocity structure.     

THE ROLES OF BOUNDARY-LAYER DYNAMICS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MADDEN-JULIAN OSCILLATION

In this paper,a tropical atmospheric model of relevance to shorts-term climate variations(Wang and Li 1993)is util-ized for study of the development of Madden-Julian oscillation.The model contains an interactive process ofboundary-layer Ekman convergence and precipitation heating.The model is solved by expanding dependent variables interms of parabolic cylindrical functions in the meridional direction and truncating three meridional modes n=0,2,4 forequatorial symmetric solutions.The free wave solutions obtained under long-wave approximation are induced as aKelvin wave and two Rossby waves.After considering the effect of boundary-layer dynamic process,the modifiedKelvin wave becomes unstable in long-wave bands with a typical growth rate on an order of 10~(-6) s~(-1)and an eastwardphase speed of 10 m s~(-1);the most unstable mode is wavenumber one.These theoretical results are consistent with the ob-served Madden-Julian oscillation in equatorial area.For the two modified Rossby waves,one with a smaller meridionalscale(n=4)decays except for extra long-waves;the other with a larger meridional scale(n=2)grows in short-wavebands.This may be relevant to explaining the westward propagation of super cloud clusters in the Madden-Julianoscillation.The theory suggests that the boundary-layer dynamic process is an important mechanism in the develop-ment of the Madden-Julian oscillation.     

条件不稳定湿大气中三维理想地形上空对流的动力学特征

条件不稳定湿大气情况下,气流经过三维地形可以形成不同性质的对流系统以及不同特征的地形流结构,其对流系统、地形流的性质主要取决于地形上空的对流触发、对流-地形流-重力波三者之间的相互作用,同样这些过程对于地形降水的性质、分布起重要的作用.根据不同湿Fr数(Froude number),湿条件不稳定大气经过三维小尺度山地上空时其对流和地形流动存在4种不同的流域(flow regirnes):(1)下游传播对流模态;(2)上游传播和下游传播共存对流模态;(3)山峰附近准静止和下游传播共存对流模态;(4)下坡稳定和下游传播对流共存模态.地形上空对流系统主要可以通过两种不同机制形成:(1)地形直接的抬升或减速作用;(2)在地形流形成后,由于地形流本身特性(如上游分离、背风涡旋和下坡重力波破碎)触发.在较大的Fr数情况下,地形上空对流生成后反过来可以破坏上、下游的地形流结构,但对背风坡的重力波破碎影响较小.不同初始对流有效位能(CAPE)不仅可以影响对流系统的传播、发展,而且可以影响整体地形流性质.较低的初始CAPE有利于地形流的形成,此时对流对地形流结构特征的影响相对较小,其流场性质与低Fr数流域性质相似.     

Resonance of baroclinic waves in the tropical oceans: The Indian Ocean and the far western Pacific

The Indian Ocean has a particularity, its width is close to half the wavelength of a Rossby wave of biannual frequency, this coincidence having been capitalized on by several authors to give the observations a physical basis. The purpose of this article is to show that this is not the case since the resonance of tropical baroclinic waves occurs in all three oceans. This is because the westward-propagating Rossby wave is retroflexed at the western boundary to form off-equatorial Rossby waves dragged by countercurrents before receding and turning back as a Kelvin wave. Thus a quasi-stationary baroclinic wave is formed, whose mean period is tuned to the forcing period. Two independent basin modes resonantly forced are highlighted – 1) a nearly symmetric zonal 1/2-yr period Quasi-Stationary Wave (QSW) that is resonantly forced by the biannual monsoon. It is formed from first baroclinic mode equatorial-trapped Rossby and Kelvin waves and off-equatorial Rossby waves at the western antinode. This QSW controls the Equatorial Counter Current at the node. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) results from a subharmonic mode locking resulting from the coupling of this QSW and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th baroclinic modes - 2) a 1-yr period QSW formed from an off-equatorial baroclinic Rossby wave, which is induced from the southernmost current of the Indonesian Throughflow through the Timor passage, propagating in the southern and northern hemispheres: the drivers are south-easterlies in the southern hemisphere and monsoon wind in the northern hemisphere.     

THE DIABATIC WAVES IN BAROTROPIC MODEL

The equations of barotropic model are used to discuss the effects of diabatic factors such as heat-ing of convective condensation, evaporation-wind feedback and CISK on the Rossby wave and the Kelvin wave. In low latitudes we have obtained the angular frequency and analyzed the period and stability of waves. The result shows the existence of the diabatic factors not only enlarges the period of adiabatic waves but also changes the stability of waves. Thus we think that the so-called intraseasonal oscillation and some other low-frequency oscillations are a kind of diabatic waves which are important factors producing the long-term weather changes and short-term climatic evolution.