Advance and prospectus of seasonal prediction: assessment of the APCC/CliPAS 14-model ensemble retrospective seasonal prediction (1980–2004)

We assessed current status of multi-model ensemble (MME) deterministic and probabilistic seasonal prediction based on 25-year (1980–2004) retrospective forecasts performed by 14 climate model systems (7 one-tier and 7 two-tier systems) that participate in the Climate Prediction and its Application to Society (CliPAS) project sponsored by the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC). We also evaluated seven DEMETER models’ MME for the period of 1981–2001 for comparison. Based on the assessment, future direction for improvement of seasonal prediction is discussed. We found that two measures of probabilistic forecast skill, the Brier Skill Score (BSS) and Area under the Relative Operating Characteristic curve (AROC), display similar spatial patterns as those represented by temporal correlation coefficient (TCC) score of deterministic MME forecast. A TCC score of 0.6 corresponds approximately to a BSS of 0.1 and an AROC of 0.7 and beyond these critical threshold values, they are almost linearly correlated. The MME method is demonstrated to be a valuable approach for reducing errors and quantifying forecast uncertainty due to model formulation. The MME prediction skill is substantially better than the averaged skill of all individual models. For instance, the TCC score of CliPAS one-tier MME forecast of Niño 3.4 index at a 6-month lead initiated from 1 May is 0.77, which is significantly higher than the corresponding averaged skill of seven individual coupled models (0.63). The MME made by using 14 coupled models from both DEMETER and CliPAS shows an even higher TCC score of 0.87. Effectiveness of MME depends on the averaged skill of individual models and their mutual independency. For probabilistic forecast the CliPAS MME gains considerable skill from increased forecast reliability as the number of model being used increases; the forecast resolution also increases for 2 m temperature but slightly decreases for precipitation. Equatorial Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies are primary sources of atmospheric climate variability worldwide. The MME 1-month lead hindcast can predict, with high fidelity, the spatial–temporal structures of the first two leading empirical orthogonal modes of the equatorial SST anomalies for both boreal summer (JJA) and winter (DJF), which account for about 80–90% of the total variance. The major bias is a westward shift of SST anomaly between the dateline and 120°E, which may potentially degrade global teleconnection associated with it. The TCC score for SST predictions over the equatorial eastern Indian Ocean reaches about 0.68 with a 6-month lead forecast. However, the TCC score for Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) index drops below 0.40 at a 3-month lead for both the May and November initial conditions due to the prediction barriers across July, and January, respectively. The MME prediction skills are well correlated with the amplitude of Niño 3.4 SST variation. The forecasts for 2 m air temperature are better in El Niño years than in La Niña years. The precipitation and circulation are predicted better in ENSO-decaying JJA than in ENSO-developing JJA. There is virtually no skill in ENSO-neutral years. Continuing improvement of the one-tier climate model’s slow coupled dynamics in reproducing realistic amplitude, spatial patterns, and temporal evolution of ENSO cycle is a key for long-lead seasonal forecast. Forecast of monsoon precipitation remains a major challenge. The seasonal rainfall predictions over land and during local summer have little skill, especially over tropical Africa. The differences in forecast skills over land areas between the CliPAS and DEMETER MMEs indicate potentials for further improvement of prediction over land. There is an urgent need to assess impacts of land surface initialization on the skill of seasonal and monthly forecast using a multi-model framework.     

Global seasonal climate predictability in a two tiered forecast system: part I: boreal summer and fall seasons

This paper shows demonstrable improvement in the global seasonal climate predictability of boreal summer (at zero lead) and fall (at one season lead) seasonal mean precipitation and surface temperature from a two-tiered seasonal hindcast forced with forecasted SST relative to two other contemporary operational coupled ocean–atmosphere climate models. The results from an extensive set of seasonal hindcasts are analyzed to come to this conclusion. This improvement is attributed to: (1) The multi-model bias corrected SST used to force the atmospheric model. (2) The global atmospheric model which is run at a relatively high resolution of 50 km grid resolution compared to the two other coupled ocean–atmosphere models. (3) The physics of the atmospheric model, especially that related to the convective parameterization scheme. The results of the seasonal hindcast are analyzed for both deterministic and probabilistic skill. The probabilistic skill analysis shows that significant forecast skill can be harvested from these seasonal hindcasts relative to the deterministic skill analysis. The paper concludes that the coupled ocean–atmosphere seasonal hindcasts have reached a reasonable fidelity to exploit their SST anomaly forecasts to force such relatively higher resolution two tier prediction experiments to glean further boreal summer and fall seasonal prediction skill.     

不同区域海温异常对中国夏季旱涝影响的诊断研究和预测试验

利用季降水异常的典型集合相关预测模式, 研究了前期和同期不同季节全球海表温度距平场与中国夏季旱涝的遥相关分布特征以及这种相关型随季节的变化, 揭示了全球海温的异常变化在中国夏季旱涝中的信号特征.研究表明, 全球不同区域海温对我国夏季降水的影响存在着明显的季节差异.全球特定的海温分布可以作为中国夏季旱涝预报的信号因子.选取不同区域及不同时段的海温场作为因子场分别对1998、 1999年这两个典型年份的我国夏季降水进行了诊断研究和预测试验, 并通过不同区域海温的影响权重做集成预测.试验结果表明:不同区域海温的集成预测不仅可以有效地提高预测的准确性, 而且可以揭示不同时段不同区域海温的异常变化在夏季旱涝中的强信号现象.     

BCC二代气候系统模式的季节预测评估和可预报性分析

本文利用国家气候中心（BCC）第二代季节预测模式系统历史回报数据,从确定性预报和概率预报两个方面系统地评估了该模式对气温、降水和大气环流的季节预报性能,并与BCC一代气候预测模式的结果进行了对比,重点分析了二代模式的季节可预报性问题。结果显示,BCC二代模式对全球气温、降水和环流的预报性能整体上优于一代模式,特别在热带中东太平洋、印度洋和海洋大陆地区的温度和降水的预报效果改进尤为明显。这些热带地区降水预报的改进,可以通过激发太平洋—北美型（PNA）、东亚—太平洋型（EAP）等遥相关波列提升该模式在中高纬地区的季节预报技巧。分析表明,厄尔尼诺和南方涛动（ENSO）信号在热带和热带外地区均是模式季节可预报性的重要来源,BCC二代模式能够较好把握全球大气环流对ENSO信号的响应特征,从而通过对ENSO预报技巧的改进有效地提升了模式整体的预报性能。从概率预报来看,BCC二代模式对我国冬季气温和夏季降水具备一定的预报能力,特别是对我国东部大部分地区冬季气温正异常和负异常事件预报的可靠性和辨析度相对较高。因此,进一步提高模式对热带大尺度异常信号和大气主要模态的预报能力、加强概率预报产品释用对提高季节气候预测水平具有重要意义。     

The seasonal predictability of the Asian summer monsoon in a two-tiered forecast system

An extensive set of boreal summer seasonal hindcasts from a two tier system is compared with corresponding seasonal hindcasts from two other coupled ocean–atmosphere models for their seasonal prediction skill (for precipitation and surface temperature) of the Asian summer monsoon. The unique aspect of the two-tier system is that it is at relatively high resolution and the SST forcing is uniquely bias corrected from the multi-model averaged forecasted SST from the two coupled ocean–atmosphere models. Our analysis reveals: (a) The two-tier forecast system has seasonal prediction skill for precipitation that is comparable (over the Southeast Asian monsoon) or even higher (over the South Asian monsoon) than the coupled ocean–atmosphere. For seasonal anomalies of the surface temperature the results are more comparable across models, with all of them showing higher skill than that for precipitation. (b) Despite the improvement from the uncoupled AGCM all models in this study display a deterministic skill for seasonal precipitation anomalies over the Asian summer monsoon region to be weak. But there is useful probabilistic skill for tercile anomalies of precipitation and surface temperature that could be harvested from both the coupled and the uncoupled climate models. (c) Seasonal predictability of the South Asian summer monsoon (rainfall and temperature) does seem to stem from the remote ENSO forcing especially over the Indian monsoon region and the relatively weaker seasonal predictability in the Southeast Asian summer monsoon could be related to the comparatively weaker teleconnection with ENSO. The uncoupled AGCM with the bias corrected SST is able to leverage this teleconnection for improved seasonal prediction skill of the South Asian monsoon relative to the coupled models which display large systematic errors of the tropical SST’s.     

GRAPES区域集合预报对2019年中国汛期降水预报评估

2019年,数值预报中心开发了以GRAPES全球模式为驱动场,集合变换卡尔曼滤波为初值扰动方法,随机物理过程倾向项为模式扰动方法的10 km水平分辨率GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报模式,并投入业务运行。基于该模式,作者开展了2019年7～9月夏季降水不确定性的集合预报实时试验,并从统计检验和个例分析角度,与GRAPES-REPS V2.0和ECMWF全球集合预报模式进行对比,由此对GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报模式的降水预报能力给予客观评价,并分析了引起中尺度强降水预报不确定性的物理机制,研究结论可为诊断集合预报模式及改进集合预报方法提供依据。结果表明:（1）GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报系统的降水ETS评分在所有预报时效和量级内均优于GRAPES-REPS V2.0区域集合预报模式,降水成员具有明显等同性,且概率预报技巧FSS评分较高,GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报模式降水预报效果全面优于GRAPES-REPS V2.0区域集合预报模式。（2）GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报的集合平均降水BIAS评分及小雨和暴雨ETS评分均明显优于ECMWF全球集合预报系统,降水概率预报与ECMWF降水概率具有一定可比性。（3）个例分析结果表明,不同集合预报模式通过刻画中尺度特征物理量不确定性来捕捉降水预报不确定性,初始时刻,GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报模式和ECMWF全球集合预报模式环流形势分布较为相似,随预报时效演变,GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报模式对中尺度动力、热力场捕捉更为准确,相应地对降水落区与量级预报较好,概率预报技巧较优。（4）与ECMWF全球集合预报模式相比,GRAPES区域集合预报模式集合成员能很好地预报降水发生、发展、消亡整个过程,故GRAPES-REPS V3.0区域集合预报系统对中国汛期降水具有较强的预报能力。     

CFSv2对2018年浙江梅雨降水多尺度预测的性能评估北大核心

从梅雨预测的业务需求出发,系统开展了CFSv2模式对2018年浙江梅雨期降水预报能力的多时间尺度评估。结果发现3月1日—5月31日的起报结果整体上未能较准确地预测6月浙江大部降水偏少的趋势、仅5月31日的预测结果与实况相符;在延伸期尺度上,CFSv2预测的梅雨期总降水量较实况偏少30%左右;基于相关系数、均方根误差和新定义的综合预报技巧指数等指标分析模式的延伸期预报性能,发现对梅雨期总降水量、逐日区域平均降水量和逐日全省各站降水量的预报技巧有限,对浙江梅雨区的预报水平总体高于浙江全省。评估结果表明CFSv2预报产品表现出显著的系统性干偏差;在延伸期尺度上,随着预报时效的缩短,预报效果并非逐步提升、而是客观存在一个最佳预报时效,各起报日也分别对应着不同的最优预报时段,整体而言梅雨降水的延伸期预测可能对初值并不敏感。     

基于ECMWF集合预报产品的降水相态客观预报方法

基于欧洲中期天气预报中心（European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts,ECMWF）集合预报系统的降水相态产品（precipitation type,PTYPE）,分别以HSS评分最优、TS评分最优和频率偏差最优为标准,运用最优概率阈值法,生成雨、雨夹雪、雪和冻雨4类降水相态的确定性预报产品,并与ECMWF集合预报系统控制成员及细网格模式确定性预报进行对比。最优概率阈值显示:3种最优标准下,不同相态降水最优概率阈值不同,但冻雨和降雪最优概率阈值均最大,为40%~80%,雨夹雪最优概率阈值最小,约为10%,三者最优概率阈值均随预报时效延长而减小;降雨最优概率阈值为7%~25%,随预报时效延长而增大。对比检验结果显示:最优概率阈值法明显提高了降水相态预报能力,且以HSS评分最优时预报效果最佳;最优概率阈值法有效减小冻雨空报,同时显著改善降雨和降雪预报的频率偏差和TS评分,对雨夹雪预报改进效果有限。     

Ensemble hindcasts of ENSO events over the past 120 years using a large number of ensembles

Based on an intermediate coupled model (ICM), a probabilistic ensemble prediction system (EPS) has been developed. The ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) data assimilation approach is used for generating the initial ensemble conditions, and a linear, first-order Markov-Chain SST anomaly error model is embedded into the EPS to provide model-error perturbations. In this study, we perform ENSO retrospective forecasts over the 120 year period 1886–2005 using the EPS with 100 ensemble members and with initial conditi...     

A theoretical relationship between probabilistic relative operating characteristic skill and deterministic correlation skill in dynamical seasonal climate prediction

Understanding the relationship between probabilistic and deterministic prediction skills is of important significance for the study of seasonal forecasting and verification. Based on the Brier skill score methodology, we have previously found a theoretical relationship between the probabilistic resolution skill and the deterministic correlation (i.e., anomaly correlation; AC) skill and a lack of necessary or consistent relationship between the probabilistic reliability skill and the deterministic skill in dynamical seasonal prediction. Here, we further theoretically investigate the relationship between the probabilistic relative operating characteristic (ROC) skill and the deterministic skill. The ROC measures the discrimination attribute of probabilistic forecast quality, another important attribute besides the resolution and reliability. With some simplified assumptions, we first derive theoretical expressions for the hit and false-alarm rates that are basic ingredients for the ROC curve, then demonstrate a sole dependence of the ROC curve on the AC, and finally analytically derive a relationship between the related ROC score and the AC. Such a theoretically derived ROC-AC relationship is further examined using dynamical models’ ensemble seasonal hindcasts, which is well verified. The finding here along with our previous findings implies that the discrimination and resolution attributes of probabilistic seasonal forecast skill are intrinsically equivalent to the corresponding deterministic skill, while the reliability appears to be the fundamental attribute of the probabilistic skill that differs from the deterministic skill, which constitutes an understanding of the fundamental similarities and difference between the two types of seasonal forecasting skills and predictability and can offer important implications for the study of seasonal forecasting and verification.

     

Asian summer monsoon prediction in ECMWF System 4 and NCEP CFSv2 retrospective seasonal forecasts

The seasonal prediction skill of the Asian summer monsoon is assessed using retrospective predictions (1982–2009) from the ECMWF System 4 (SYS4) and NCEP CFS version 2 (CFSv2) seasonal prediction systems. In both SYS4 and CFSv2, a cold bias of sea-surface temperature (SST) is found over the equatorial Pacific, North Atlantic, Indian Oceans and over a broad region in the Southern Hemisphere relative to observations. In contrast, a warm bias is found over the northern part of North Pacific and North Atlantic. Excessive precipitation is found along the ITCZ, equatorial Atlantic, equatorial Indian Ocean and the maritime continent. The southwest monsoon flow and the Somali Jet are stronger in SYS4, while the south-easterly trade winds over the tropical Indian Ocean, the Somali Jet and the subtropical northwestern Pacific high are weaker in CFSv2 relative to the reanalysis. In both systems, the prediction of SST, precipitation and low-level zonal wind has greatest skill in the tropical belt, especially over the central and eastern Pacific where the influence of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is dominant. Both modeling systems capture the global monsoon and the large-scale monsoon wind variability well, while at the same time performing poorly in simulating monsoon precipitation. The Asian monsoon prediction skill increases with the ENSO amplitude, although the models simulate an overly strong impact of ENSO on the monsoon. Overall, the monsoon predictive skill is lower than the ENSO skill in both modeling systems but both systems show greater predictive skill compared to persistence.     

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).     

NCEP CFSv2对中国2015年夏季月尺度降水和环流预报分析

利用美国环境预报中心的第二代气候预报系统(NCEP CFSv2)提供的1982~2010年历史回报资料和2015年6~8月预报产品、NCEP CFSR再分析资料及中国地面观测降水资料,评估了NCEP CFSv2对2015年(厄尔尼诺发展年)中国夏季月降水和环流形势的预报能力,并分析了影响模式预报技巧高低的可能因子。结果表明:1)模式对降水的预报技巧较低且表现出明显的月变化(7月最高,8月次之,6月最低),但总体水平都不高。预报技巧明显依赖于提前时间的长短。2)CFSv2对影响我国夏季降水的500h Pa关键区环流异常空间模态表现出较高的预报技巧。对全东亚区域,模式基本都可提前5~9天(7月9天,6月6天,8月5天)较为准确的预报出未来一个月高度异常空间模态。3)通过对比分析发现,CFSv2环流预报中选取12个集合成员(滑动3天)可以得到较稳定的预报结果。4)在2015年夏季月尺度环流异常模态预报中,东亚全区的环流预报水平很大程度上取决于中高纬地区的预报。CFSv2对中高纬环流月预报技巧(6~8月都能从提前4天开始就基本稳定维持在较高水平)比热带地区更高更稳定。      

Assessing the Seasonal Predictability of Summer Precipitation over the Huaihe River Basin with Multiple APCC Models

Seasonal rainfall predictability over the Huaihe River basin is evaluated in this paper on the basis of 23-year(1981-2003) retrospective forecasts by 10 climate models from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) Climate Center(APCC) multi-model ensemble(MME) prediction system.It is found that the summer rainfall variance in this basin is largely internal,which leads to lower rainfall predictability for most individual climate models.By dividing the 10 models into three categories according to their sea surface temperature(SST) boundary conditions including observed,predicted,and persistent SSTs,the MME deterministic predictive skill of summer rainfall over Huaihe River basin is investigated.It is shown that the MME is effective for increasing the current seasonal forecast skill.Further analysis shows that the MME averaged over predicted SST models has the highest rainfall prediction skill,which is closely related to model’s capability in reproducing the observed dominant modes of the summer rainfall anomalies in Huaihe River basin.This result can be further ascribed to the fact that the predicted SST MME is the most effective model ensemble for capturing the relationship between the summer rainfall anomalies over Huaihe River basin and the SST anomalies(SSTAs) in equatorial oceans.     

Prediction of Wintertime Northern Hemisphere Blocking by the NCEP Climate Forecast System

Daily output from the hindcasts by the NCEP Climate Forecast System version 2(CFSv2) is analyzed to understand CFSv2's skill in forecasting wintertime atmospheric blocking in the Northern Hemisphere.Prediction skills of sector blocking,sector-blocking episodes,and blocking onset/decay are assessed with a focus on the Euro-Atlantic sector(20°W-45°E) and the Pacific sector(160°E-135°W).Features of associated circulation and climate patterns are also examined.The CFSv2 well captures the observed features of longitudinal distribution of blocking activity,but underestimates blocking frequency and intensity and shows a decreasing trend in blocking frequency with increasing forecast lead time.Within 14-day lead time,the Euro-Atlantic sector blocking receives a higher skill than the Pacific sector blocking.Skillful forecast(taking the hit rate of 50%as a criterion) can be obtained up to 9 days in the Euro-Atlantic sector,which is slightly longer than that in the Pacific sector(7 days).The forecast skill of sector-blocking episodes is slightly lower than that of sector blocking in both sectors,and it is slightly higher in the Euro-Atlantic sector than in the Pacific sector.Compared to block onset,the skill for block decay is lower in the Euro-Atlantic sector,slightly higher in the Pacific sector during the early three days but lower after three days in lead time.In both the Euro-Atlantic and the Pacific sectors,a local dipole pattern in 500-hPa geopotential height associated with blocking is well presented in the CFSv2 prediction,but the wave-train like pattern that is far away from the blocking sector can only maintain in the forecast of relative short lead time.The CFSv2 well reproduces the observed characteristics of local temperature and precipitation anomalies associated with blocking.     

国家气候中心多模式解释应用集成预测

多模式集合和降尺度技术是提升模式预测能力的有效工具。该文对国家气候中心多模式解释应用集成预测 (MODES) 技术与业务应用现状进行了综合介绍。MODES采用欧洲中期天气预报中心、东京气候中心、美国国家环境预报中心和中国气象局国家气候中心4个气候业务季节预测模式输出场,利用EOF迭代、变形的典型相关分析、最优子集回归和高相关回归集成4种统计降尺度方法以及等权平均、经典超级集合等集成方法进行全国月及季节降水和气温预测。目前对MODES进行了夏季回报检验和约1年的实时业务应用。回报检验和业务应用表明,MODES对气温有较好的预测能力 (月预测平均PS评分为76),对降水有一定预测技巧 (月预测平均PS评分为68),具有短期气候预测业务应用价值。     

How are seasonal prediction skills related to models’ performance on mean state and annual cycle?

Given observed initial conditions, how well do coupled atmosphere–ocean models predict precipitation climatology with 1-month lead forecast? And how do the models’ biases in climatology in turn affect prediction of seasonal anomalies? We address these questions based on analysis of 1-month lead retrospective predictions for 21 years of 1981–2001 made by 13 state-of-the-art coupled climate models and their multi-model ensemble (MME). The evaluation of the precipitation climatology is based on a newly designed metrics that consists of the annual mean, the solstitial mode and equinoctial asymmetric mode of the annual cycle, and the rainy season characteristics. We find that the 1-month lead seasonal prediction made by the 13-model ensemble has skills that are much higher than those in individual model ensemble predictions and approached to those in the ERA-40 and NCEP-2 reanalysis in terms of both the precipitation climatology and seasonal anomalies. We also demonstrate that the skill for individual coupled models in predicting seasonal precipitation anomalies is positively correlated with its performances on prediction of the annual mean and annual cycle of precipitation. In addition, the seasonal prediction skill for the tropical SST anomalies, which are the major predictability source of monsoon precipitation in the current coupled models, is closely link to the models’ ability in simulating the SST mean state. Correction of the inherent bias in the mean state is critical for improving the long-lead seasonal prediction. Most individual coupled models reproduce realistically the long-term annual mean precipitation and the first annual cycle (solstitial mode), but they have difficulty in capturing the second annual (equinoctial asymmetric) mode faithfully, especially over the Indian Ocean (IO) and Western North Pacific (WNP) where the seasonal cycle in SST has significant biases. The coupled models replicate the monsoon rain domains very well except in the East Asian subtropical monsoon and the tropical WNP summer monsoon regions. The models also capture the gross features of the seasonal march of the rainy season including onset and withdraw of the Asian–Australian monsoon system over four major sub-domains, but striking deficiencies in the coupled model predictions are observed over the South China Sea and WNP region, where considerable biases exist in both the amplitude and phase of the annual cycle and the summer precipitation amount and its interannual variability are underestimated.     

长江流域夏季降水的贝叶斯多模式集合概率预测

A Bayesian probabilistic prediction scheme of the Yangtze River Valley (YRV) summer rainfall is proposed to combine forecast information from multi-model ensemble dataset provided by ENSEMBLES project.Due to the low forecast skill of rainfall in dynamic models,the time series of regressed YRV summer rainfall are selected as ensemble members in the new scheme,instead of commonly-used YRV summer rainfall simulated by models.Each time series of regressed YRV summer rainfall is derived from a simple linear regression.The predictor in each simple linear regression is the skillfully simulated circulation or surface temperature factor which is highly linear with the observed YRV summer rainfall in the training set.The high correlation between the ensemble mean of these regressed YRV summer rainfall and observation benefit extracting more sample information from the ensemble system.The results show that the cross-validated skill of the new scheme over the period of 1960 to 2002 is much higher than equally-weighted ensemble,multiple linear regression,and Bayesian ensemble with simulated YRV summer rainfall as ensemble members.In addition,the new scheme is also more skillful than reference forecasts (random forecast at a 0.01 significance level for ensemble mean and climatology forecast for probability density function).     

Seasonal prediction skill of ECMWF System 4 and NCEP CFSv2 retrospective forecast for the Northern Hemisphere Winter

The seasonal prediction skill for the Northern Hemisphere winter is assessed using retrospective predictions (1982–2010) from the ECMWF System 4 (Sys4) and National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) CFS version 2 (CFSv2) coupled atmosphere–ocean seasonal climate prediction systems. Sys4 shows a cold bias in the equatorial Pacific but a warm bias is found in the North Pacific and part of the North Atlantic. The CFSv2 has strong warm bias from the cold tongue region of the eastern Pacific to the equatorial central Pacific and cold bias in broad areas over the North Pacific and the North Atlantic. A cold bias in the Southern Hemisphere is common in both reforecasts. In addition, excessive precipitation is found in the equatorial Pacific, the equatorial Indian Ocean and the western Pacific in Sys4, and in the South Pacific, the southern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific in CFSv2. A dry bias is found for both modeling systems over South America and northern Australia. The mean prediction skill of 2 meter temperature (2mT) and precipitation anomalies are greater over the tropics than the extra-tropics and also greater over ocean than land. The prediction skill of tropical 2mT and precipitation is greater in strong El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) winters than in weak ENSO winters. Both models predict the year-to-year ENSO variation quite accurately, although sea surface temperature trend bias in CFSv2 over the tropical Pacific results in lower prediction skill for the CFSv2 relative to the Sys4. Both models capture the main ENSO teleconnection pattern of strong anomalies over the tropics, the North Pacific and the North America. However, both models have difficulty in forecasting the year-to-year winter temperature variability over the US and northern Europe.     

Sources of Subseasonal Prediction Skill for Heatwaves over the Yangtze River Basin Revealed from Three S2S Models

Based on the reforecast data (1999–2010) of three operational models [the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction of the U.S. (NCEP) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)] that participated in the Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction (S2S) project, we identified the major sources of subseasonal prediction skill for heatwaves over the Yangtze River basin (YRB). The three models show limited prediction skills in terms of the fraction of correct predictions for heatwave days in summer; the Heidke Skill Score drops quickly after a 5-day forecast lead and falls down close to zero beyond the lead time of 15 days. The superior skill of the ECMWF model in predicting the intensity and duration of the YRB heatwave is attributable to its fidelity in capturing the phase evolution and amplitude of high-pressure anomalies associated with the intraseasonal oscillation and the dryness of soil moisture induced by less precipitation via the land–atmosphere coupling. The effects of 10–30-day and 30–90-day circulation prediction skills on heatwave predictions are comparable at shorter forecast leads (10 days), while the biases in 30–90-day circulation amplitude prediction show close connection with the degradation of heatwave prediction skill at longer forecast leads (> 15–20 days). The biases of intraseasonal circulation anomalies further affect precipitation anomalies and thus land conditions, causing difficulty in capturing extremely hot days and their persistence in the S2S models.