Understanding the West African monsoon variability and its remote effects: an illustration of the grid point nudging methodology

General circulation models still show deficiencies in simulating the basic features of the West African Monsoon at intraseasonal, seasonal and interannual timescales. It is however, difficult to disentangle the remote versus regional factors that contribute to such deficiencies, and to diagnose their possible consequences for the simulation of the global atmospheric variability. The aim of the present study is to address these questions using the so-called grid point nudging technique, where prognostic atmospheric fields are relaxed either inside or outside the West African Monsoon region toward the ERA40 reanalysis. This regional or quasi-global nudging is tested in ensembles of boreal summer simulations. The impact is evaluated first on the model climatology, then on intraseasonal timescales with an emphasis on North Atlantic/Europe weather regimes, and finally on interannual timescales. Results show that systematic biases in the model climatology over West Africa are mostly of regional origin and have a limited impact outside the domain. A clear impact is found however on the eddy component of the extratropical circulation, in particular over the North Atlantic/European sector. At intraseasonal timescale, the main regional biases also resist to the quasi-global nudging though their magnitude is reduced. Conversely, nudging the model over West Africa exerts a strong impact on the frequency of the two North Atlantic weather regimes that favor the occurrence of heat waves over Europe. Significant impacts are also found at interannual timescale. Not surprisingly, the quasi-global nudging allows the model to capture the variability of large-scale dynamical monsoon indices, but exerts a weaker control on rainfall variability suggesting the additional contribution of regional processes. Conversely, nudging the model toward West Africa suppresses the spurious ENSO teleconnection that is simulated over Europe in the control experiment, thereby emphasizing the relevance of a realistic West African monsoon simulation for seasonal prediction in the extratropics. Further experiments will be devoted to case studies aiming at a better understanding of regional processes governing the monsoon variability and of the possible monsoon teleconnections, especially over Europe.     

Interannual variability of the sea surface salinity and its related freshwater flux in the tropical Pacific: A comparison of CMIP5 and CMIP6

This paper assesses the interannual variabilities of simulated sea surface salinity (SSS) and freshwater flux (FWF) in the tropical Pacific from phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6). The authors focus on comparing the simulated SSS and FWF responses to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) from two generations of models developed by the same group. The results show that CMIP5 and CMIP6 models can perform well in simulating the spatial distributions of the SSS and FWF responses associated with ENSO, as well as their relationship. It is found that most CMIP6 models have improved in simulating the geographical distribution of the SSS and FWF interannual variability in the tropical Pacific compared to CMIP5 models. In particular, CMIP6 models have corrected the underestimation of the spatial relationship of the FWF and SSS variability with ENSO in the central-western Pacific. In addition, CMIP6 models outperform CMIP5 models in simulating the FWF interannual variability (spatial distribution and intensity) in the tropical Pacific. However, as a whole, CMIP6 models do not show improved skill scores for SSS interannual variability, which is due to their overestimation of the intensity in some models. Large uncertainties exist in simulating the interannual variability of SSS among CMIP5 and CMIP6 models and some improvements with respect to physical processes are needed.摘要通过比较CMIP5和CMIP6来自同一个单位两代模式模拟, 表明CMIP5和CMIP6均能较好地模拟出热带太平洋的海表盐度 (SSS) 和淡水通量 (FWF) 对ENSO响应的分布及其响应间的关系. 与CMIP5模式相比, 大部份CMIP6模式模拟的SSS和FWF年际变化分布均呈现改进, 特别是纠正了较低的中西太平洋SSS和FWF变化的空间关系. 但是, 整体上, CMIP6模式模拟的SSS年际变化技巧没有提高, 与SSS年际变率的强度被高估有关. CMIP5和CMIP6模式模拟SSS的年际变化还存在较大的不确定性, 在物理方面需要改进.     

The Asian summer monsoon: an intercomparison of CMIP5 vs. CMIP3 simulations of the late 20th century

The boreal summer Asian monsoon has been evaluated in 25 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-5 (CMIP5) and 22 CMIP3 GCM simulations of the late twentieth Century. Diagnostics and skill metrics have been calculated to assess the time-mean, climatological annual cycle, interannual variability, and intraseasonal variability. Progress has been made in modeling these aspects of the monsoon, though there is no single model that best represents all of these aspects of the monsoon. The CMIP5 multi-model mean (MMM) is more skillful than the CMIP3 MMM for all diagnostics in terms of the skill of simulating pattern correlations with respect to observations. Additionally, for rainfall/convection the MMM outperforms the individual models for the time mean, the interannual variability of the East Asian monsoon, and intraseasonal variability. The pattern correlation of the time (pentad) of monsoon peak and withdrawal is better simulated than that of monsoon onset. The onset of the monsoon over India is typically too late in the models. The extension of the monsoon over eastern China, Korea, and Japan is underestimated, while it is overestimated over the subtropical western/central Pacific Ocean. The anti-correlation between anomalies of all-India rainfall and Niño3.4 sea surface temperature is overly strong in CMIP3 and typically too weak in CMIP5. For both the ENSO-monsoon teleconnection and the East Asian zonal wind-rainfall teleconnection, the MMM interannual rainfall anomalies are weak compared to observations. Though simulation of intraseasonal variability remains problematic, several models show improved skill at representing the northward propagation of convection and the development of the tilted band of convection that extends from India to the equatorial west Pacific. The MMM also well represents the space–time evolution of intraseasonal outgoing longwave radiation anomalies. Caution is necessary when using GPCP and CMAP rainfall to validate (1) the time-mean rainfall, as there are systematic differences over ocean and land between these two data sets, and (2) the timing of monsoon withdrawal over India, where the smooth southward progression seen in India Meteorological Department data is better realized in CMAP data compared to GPCP data.     

Periodicity in intraseasonal variation of summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa, India in relation to synoptic disturbances

Summary The summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa, a state of eastern India, shows characteristic intraseasonal and interannual variability, due to interaction of basic westerly flow with orography and the synoptic scale monsoon disturbances including low-pressure systems and cyclonic circulations extending upto mid-tropospheric level (LPSC). These systems normally develop over the north Bay of Bengal and move west-northwestwards along the monsoon trough. The essence of this study is to find out the main features of the intraseasonal variability of daily monsoon rainfall over Orissa in relation to synoptic systems like LPSC and its implication on the interannual variation of rainfall. For this purpose, the actual and mean daily rainfall data of 31 uniformly distributed stations, six homogeneous regions and Orissa as a whole during monsoon season (June–September) over a period of 20 years (1980–1999) are subjected to auto-correlation and power spectrum analyses. The actual and average daily scores of significant EOFs and actual daily occurrence along with daily probability of occurrence of the LPSC influencing rainfall over Orissa during the same period are also subjected to auto-correlation and power spectrum analyses. The intraseasonal variation of monsoon rainfall over Orissa and different homogeneous regions is dominated by the synoptic mode (3–9 days) of variation due to the similar mode of variation in the occurrence of LPSC influencing the rainfall. The seasonal rainfall and hence the interannual variation depends on the intraseasonal variation of rainfall modulated with the synoptic mode of variation in the occurrence of the LPSC. The occurrence of LPSC over the northwest (NW) Bay/NW and adjoining northeast (NE) Bay and its subsequent movement and persistence over Orissa and east Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh in synoptic mode (3–6 days) alongwith absence of similar mode in the occurrence of the LPSC over NE Bay, Gangetic West Bengal (GWB) in the north and west central (WC) Bay to the south leads to excess rainfall over different homogeneous regions and Orissa as a whole. The reverse is the case in deficient years over Orissa and all homogeneous regions except southwest Orissa. The occurrence of the LPSC over GWB in synoptic mode (about 5 days) alongwith absence of synoptic mode in the occurrence of the LPSC over NW Bay leads to deficient rainfall year over southwest Orissa. Correspondence: U. C. Mohanty, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India     

Characteristics of the synoptic time scale variability over the South China Sea based on Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

Characteristics of the synoptic time scale variability over the South China Sea (SCS) are explored based on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and auxiliary atmospheric data. Unlike the intraseasonal oscillations, which are significant only during the summer monsoon season (May–September), the synoptic timescale disturbances are active not only during the periods of the South China Sea Summer Monsoon (SCSSM), but also after summer monsoon retreat (October–December). The maximum synoptic time scale signals occur in September. The synoptic time scale variabilities over the SCS are strong modulated by the ENSO events, especially after the retreat of the SCSSM. The synoptic timescale signals in October–December are much stronger during the La Nina years than those in the El Nino years. Moreover, the synoptic time scale variabilities over the SCS are also related the activities of the SCSSM. The synoptic time scale signals in the monsoon onset periods and the early summer are much stronger during the strong SCSSM years than during the weak SCSSM years.     

The Indo-Australian monsoon and its relationship to ENSO and IOD in reanalysis data and the CMIP3/CMIP5 simulations

A large spread exists in both Indian and Australian average monsoon rainfall and in their interannual variations diagnosed from various observational and reanalysis products. While the multi model mean monsoon rainfall from 59 models taking part in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3 and CMIP5) fall within the observational uncertainty, considerable model spread exists. Rainfall seasonality is consistent across observations and reanalyses, but most CMIP models produce either a too peaked or a too flat seasonal cycle, with CMIP5 models generally performing better than CMIP3. Considering all North-Australia rainfall, most models reproduce the observed Australian monsoon-El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection, with the strength of the relationship dependent on the strength of the simulated ENSO. However, over the Maritime Continent, the simulated monsoon-ENSO connection is generally weaker than observed, depending on the ability of each model to realistically reproduce the ENSO signature in the Warm Pool region. A large part of this bias comes from the contribution of Papua, where moisture convergence seems to be particularly affected by this SST bias. The Indian summer monsoon-ENSO relationship is affected by overly persistent ENSO events in many CMIP models. Despite significant wind anomalies in the Indian Ocean related to Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events, the monsoon-IOD relationship remains relatively weak both in the observations and in the CMIP models. Based on model fidelity in reproducing realistic monsoon characteristics and ENSO teleconnections, we objectively select 12 “best” models to analyze projections in the rcp8.5 scenario. Eleven of these models are from the CMIP5 ensemble. In India and Australia, most of these models produce 5–20 % more monsoon rainfall over the second half of the twentieth century than during the late nineteenth century. By contrast, there is no clear model consensus over the Maritime Continent.     

A revised picture of the structure of the “monsoon” and land ITCZ over West Africa

This article presents an overview of the land ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) over West Africa, based on analysis of NCAR–NCEP Reanalysis data. The picture that emerges is much different than the classic one. The most important feature is that the ITCZ is effectively independent of the system that produces most of the rainfall. Rainfall linked directly to this zone of surface convergence generally affects only the southern Sahara and the northern-most Sahel, and only in abnormally wet years in the region. A second feature is that the rainbelt normally assumed to represent the ITCZ is instead produced by a large core of ascent lying between the African Easterly Jet and the Tropical Easterly Jet. This region corresponds to the southern track of African Easterly Waves, which distribute the rainfall. This finding underscores the need to distinguish between the ITCZ and the feature better termed the “tropical rainbelt”. The latter is conventionally but improperly used in remote sensing studies to denote the surface ITCZ over West Africa. The new picture also suggests that the moisture available for convection is strongly coupled to the strength of the uplift, which in turn is controlled by the characteristics of the African Easterly Jet and Tropical Easterly Jet, rather than by moisture convergence. This new picture also includes a circulation feature not generally considered in most analyses of the region. This feature, a low-level westerly jet termed the African Westerly Jet, plays a significant role in interannual and multidecadal variability in the Sahel region of West Africa. Included are discussions of the how this new view relates to other aspects of West Africa meteorology, such as moisture sources, rainfall production and forecasting, desertification, climate monitoring, hurricanes and interannual variability. The West African monsoon is also related to a new paradigm for examining the interannual variability of rainfall over West Africa, one that relates changes in annual rainfall to changes in either the intensity of the rainbelt or north–south displacements of this feature. The new view presented here is consistent with a plethora of research on the synoptic and dynamic aspects of the African Easterly Waves, the disturbances that are linked to rainfall over West Africa and spawn hurricanes over the Atlantic, and with our knowledge of the prevailing synoptic and dynamic features. This article demonstrate a new aspect of the West Africa monsoon, a bimodal state, with one mode linked to dry conditions in the Sahel and the other linked to wet conditions. The switch between modes appears to be linked to an inertial instability mechanism, with the cross-equatorial pressure gradient being a critical factor. The biomodal state has been shown for the month of August only, but this month contributes most of the interannual variability. This new picture of the monsoon and interannual variability shown here appears to be relevant not only to interannual variability, but also to the multidecadal variability evidenced in the region between the 1950s and 1980s.     

Slow and Intraseasonal Modes of the Boreal Winter Atmospheric Circulation Simulated by CMIP5 Models

Abstract The authors evaluate the performance of models from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5（CMIP5）in simulating the historical（1951-2000）modes of interannual variability in the seasonal mean Northern Hemisphere（NH）500 hPa geopotential height during winter（December-January-February,DJF）.The analysis is done by using a variance decomposition method,which is suitable for studying patterns of interannual variability arising from intraseasonal variability and slow variability（time scales of a season or longer）.Overall,compared with reanalysis data,the spatial structure and variance of the leading modes in the intraseasonal component are generally well reproduced by the CMIP5 models,with few clear differences between the models.However,there are systematic discrepancies among the models in their reproduction of the leading modes in the slow component.These modes include the dominant slow patterns,which can be seen as features of the Pacific-North American pattern,the North Atlantic Oscillation/Arctic Oscillation,and the Western Pacific pattern.An overall score is calculated to quantify how well models reproduce the three leading slow modes of variability.Ten models that reproduce the slow modes of variability relatively well are identified.     

Differences between CMIP6 and CMIP5 Models in Simulating Climate over China and the East Asian Monsoon

We compare the ability of coupled global climate models from the phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP5 and CMIP6, respectively) in simulating the temperature and precipitation climatology and interannual variability over China for the period 1961–2005 and the climatological East Asian monsoon for the period1979–2005. All 92 models are able to simulate the geographical distribution of the above variables reasonably well.Compared with earlier CMIP5 models, current CMIP6 models have nationally weaker cold biases, a similar nationwide overestimation of precipitation and a weaker underestimation of the southeast–northwest precipitation gradient, a comparable overestimation of the spatial variability of the interannual variability, and a similar underestimation of the strength of winter monsoon over northern Asia. Pairwise comparison indicates that models have improved from CMIP5 to CMIP6 for climatological temperature and precipitation and winter monsoon but display little improvement for the interannual temperature and precipitation variability and summer monsoon. The ability of models relates to their horizontal resolutions in certain aspects. Both the multi-model arithmetic mean and median display similar skills and outperform most of the individual models in all considered aspects.     

Variability of seasonal-mean fields arising from intraseasonal variability. Part 3: Application to SH winter and summer circulations

A study has been made, using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research re-analysis 500 hPa geopotential height data, to determine how intraseasonal variability influences, or can generate, coherent patterns of interannual variability in the extratropical summer and winter Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. In addition, by separating this intraseasonal component of interannual variability, we also consider how slowly varying external forcings and slowly varying (interannual and longer) internal dynamics might influence the interannual variability of the Southern Hemisphere circulation. This slow component of interannual variation is more likely to be potentially predictable. How sea surface temperatures are related to the slow components is also considered. The four dominant intraseasonal modes of interannual variability have horizontal structures similar to those seen in both well-known intraseasonal dynamical modes and statistical modes of intraseasonal variability. In particular, they reflect intraseasonal variability in the high latitudes associated with the Southern Annular Mode, and wavenumber 4 (summer) and wavenumber 3 (winter) patterns associated with south Pacific regions of persistent anomalies and blocking, and possibly variability related to the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). The four dominant slow components of interannual variability, in both seasons, are related to high latitude variability associated with the Southern Annular Mode, El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability, and South Pacific Wave variability associated with Indian Ocean SSTs. In both seasons, there are strong linear trends in the first slow mode of high latitude variability and these are shown to be related to similar trends in the Indian Ocean. Once these are taken into account there is no significant sea surface temperature forcing of these high latitude modes. The second and third ENSO related slow modes, in each season, have high correlations with tropical sea surface temperature variability in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, both contemporaneously and at one season lag. The fourth slow mode has a characteristic South Pacific wave structure of either a wavenumber 4 (summer) or wavenumber 3 (winter) pattern, with strongest loadings in the South Pacific sector, and an association simultaneously with a dipole SST temperature gradient in the subtropical Indian Ocean.     

Roles of Multi-Scale Disturbances over the Tropical North Pacific in the Turnabout of 1997-98 El Nino

The space-time features of major vorticity disturbances over the western North Pacific during the 1997-98 El Nino ranked as one of the strongest events on record was investigated in this study. We distinguished the different roles that these disturbances had on different timescales in causing the reversal or turnabout of the El Nino event. Remarkable differences in the various disturbances of synoptic, intraseasonal, and interannual timescales were found in the time evolution, propagation, and in their contributions to the changes in nearequatorial zonal flow, which was crucial to the demise of the warm sea surface temperature anomalies in the central-eastern Pacific. It is hypothesized that the westward-traveling synoptic and intraseasonal oscillations in the western North Pacific might be considered as a self-provided negative feedback from the El Nino and played an additional role in its reversal in comparison with other interannual internal and external forcings. In this case, the off-equatorial synoptic and intraseaonal fluctuations served as a stochastic forcing for the tropical ocean and gave rise to the aperiodicity or irregularity of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.     

Daily modes of South Asian summer monsoon variability in the NCEP climate forecast system

The leading modes of daily variability of the Indian summer monsoon in the climate forecast system (CFS), a coupled general circulation model, of the National Centers for Environmental Predictions (NCEP) are examined. The space?Ctime structures of the daily modes are obtained by applying multi-channel singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) on the daily anomalies of rainfall. Relations of the daily modes to intraseasonal and interannual variability of the monsoon are investigated. The CFS has three intraseasonal oscillations with periods around 106, 57 and 30?days with a combined variance of 7%. The 106-day mode has spatial structure and propagation features similar to the northeastward propagating 45-day mode in the observations except for its longer period. The 57-day mode, despite being in the same time scale as of the observations has poor eastward propagation. The 30-day mode is northwestward propagating and is similar to its observational counterpart. The 106-day mode is specific to the model and should not be mistaken for a new scale of variability in observations. The dominant interannual signal is related to El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and, unlike in the observations, has maximum variance in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. Although the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) mode was not obtained as a separate mode in the rainfall, the ENSO signal has good correlations with the dipole variability, which, therefore, indicates the dominance of ENSO in the model. The interannual variability is largely determined by the ENSO signal over the regions where it has maximum variance. The interannual variability of the intraseasonal oscillations is smaller in comparison.     

Changes in the interannual SST-forced signals on West African rainfall. AGCM intercomparison

Rainfall over West Africa shows strong interannual variability related to changes in Sea Surface Temperature (SST). Nevertheless, this relationship seem to be non-stationary. A particular turning point is the decade of the 1970s, which witnessed a number of changes in the climatic system, including the climate shift of the late 1970s. The first aim of this study is to explore the change in the interannual variability of West African rainfall after this shift. The analysis indicates that the dipolar features of the rainfall variability over this region, related to changes in the Atlantic SST, disappear after this period. Also, the Pacific SST variability has a higher correlation with Guinean rainfall in the recent period. The results suggest that the current relationship between the Atlantic and Pacific El Ni?o phenomena is the principal responsible for these changes. A fundamental goal of climate research is the development of models simulating a realistic current climate. For this reason, the second aim of this work is to test the performance of Atmospheric General Circulation models in simulating rainfall variability over West Africa. The models have been run with observed SSTs for the common period 1957?C1998 as part of an intercomparison exercise. The results show that the models are able to reproduce Guinean interannual variability, which is strongly related to SST variability in the Equatorial Atlantic. Nevertheless, problems in the simulation of the Sahelian interannual variability appear: not all models are able to reproduce the observed negative link between rainfall over the Sahel and El Ni?o-like anomalies in the Pacific, neither the positive correlation between Mediterranean SSTs and Sahelian rainfall.     

Intraseasonal atmospheric variability and its interannual modulation in Central Africa

The spatial and temporal structures of the intraseasonal atmospheric variability over central Africa is investigated using 2.5°?×?2.5° daily outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis zonal winds for the period 1980–2010. The study begins with an overview of the Central African rainfall regime, noting in particular the contrast amongst Western and Eastern parts, with different topography and surface conditions features. The annual mean rainfall and OLR over the region revealed a zone of intense convective activity centered on the equator near 30°E, which extends southward and covers almost all the Congo forest. The annual cycle of rainfall reflects the classical bi-annual shift of Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone across the equatorial belt, between 10°S and 10°N. The result of the empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) analysis has shown that the three leading EOF modes explain about 45?% of total intraseasonal variability. The power spectra of all the three corresponding principal components (PCs) peak around 45–50?days, indicating a Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) signal. The first mode exhibits high positive loadings over Northern Congo, the second over Southern Ethiopia and the third over Southwestern Tanzania. The PCs time series revealed less interannual modulation of intraseasonal oscillations for the Congo mode, while Ethiopian and Tanzanian modes exhibit strong interannual variations. H?vmoller plots of OLR, 200 and 850?hPa NCEP zonal winds found the eastward propagating features to be the dominant pattern in all the three times series, but this propagation is less pronounced in the OLR than in the 850 and 200?hpa zonal wind anomalies. An index of MJO strength was built by averaging the 30–50?day power for each day. A plot of MJO indices and El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle confirm a strong interannual modulation of MJO over Eastern central Africa partially linked with the ENSO events (El Ni?o and La Ni?a). Strong MJO activity is observed during La Ni?a years or during ENSO-neutral years, while weak or absent MJO activity is typically associated with strong El Ni?o episodes.     

Uncertainty of ENSO-amplitude projections in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models

There is a long-standing debate on how the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude may change during the twenty-first century in response to global warming. Here we identify the sources of uncertainty in the ENSO amplitude projections in models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 5 (CMIP5) and Phase 6 (CMIP6), and quantify scenario uncertainty, model uncertainty and uncertainty due to internal variability. The model projections exhibit a large spread, ranging from increasing standard deviation of up to 0.6 °C to diminishing standard deviation of up to − 0.4 °C by the end of the twenty-first century. The ensemble-mean ENSO amplitude change is close to zero. Internal variability is the main contributor to the uncertainty during the first three decades; model uncertainty dominates thereafter, while scenario uncertainty is relatively small throughout the twenty-first century. The total uncertainty increases from CMIP5 to CMIP6: while model uncertainty is reduced, scenario uncertainty is considerably increased. The models with “realistic” ENSO dynamics have been analyzed separately and categorized into models with too small, moderate and too large ENSO amplitude in comparison to instrumental observations. The smallest uncertainties are observed in the sub-ensemble exhibiting realistic ENSO dynamics and moderate ENSO amplitude. However, the global warming signal in ENSO-amplitude change is undetectable in all sub-ensembles. The zonal wind-SST feedback is identified as an important factor determining ENSO amplitude change: global warming signal in ENSO amplitude and zonal wind-SST feedback strength are highly correlated across the CMIP5 and CMIP6 models.

     

Winter cyclone frequencies in thirteen models participating in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP1)

Various aspects of the simulated behaviour of cyclones in thirteen models participating in the AMIP1 exercise are presented. In the simulation of the winter climatological mean sea level pressure field for the Northern Hemisphere, the models produce reasonable simulations of the "semi-permanent" features of the climatology. The greatest departures from the observed climatology occur near the exit regions of the oceanic storm tracks; i.e., over northwestern North America, over and to the west of the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. The departures in the three geographical areas are very systematic in that at least eleven of the models exhibit similar departures from observations. In the Southern Hemisphere the intensity of the circumpolar trough is generally well simulated but positioned slightly too far north. Most models exhibit errors south of Africa, New Zealand, and South America. The simulations of the cyclone events show that the models are reasonably successful in reproducing the large-scale aspects of observed cyclone events but deficiencies in the details of the simulations are apparent. The paucity of simulated events to the south of the Alps and to the east of the Rockies suggests that the models have difficulty simulating lee cyclogenesis. Over much of North America, the models have difficulty simulating the correct level of synoptic activity as demonstrated by the low numbers of both cyclone events and anticyclone events. The models have difficulty simulating the distribution of cyclone events as a function of central pressure. The most common problem is that the models exhibit an ever increasing deficit of events with decreasing central pressure. This problem is more apparent in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere and does not appear to be resolution dependent. There is an apparent ENSO signal in the observed Northern Hemisphere interannual variability of intense winter cyclone events. With the exception of ECMWF, the models fail to reproduce this phenomenon. There is some evidence that the models do indeed respond to the interannual variability in the SSTs, but the response tends to be negatively correlated with that of the real atmosphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, there does not appear to be ENSO-induced interannual variability in the observed numbers of cyclone events. Consequently, it could be argued that the models have been reasonably successful in the Southern Hemisphere since they, like the observations, do not exhibit any ENSO-induced interannual variability.     

Evaluating the performance of CMIP3 and CMIP5 global climate models over the north-east Atlantic region

One of the main sources of uncertainty in estimating climate projections affected by global warming is the choice of the global climate model (GCM). The aim of this study is to evaluate the skill of GCMs from CMIP3 and CMIP5 databases in the north-east Atlantic Ocean region. It is well known that the seasonal and interannual variability of surface inland variables (e.g. precipitation and snow) and ocean variables (e.g. wave height and storm surge) are linked to the atmospheric circulation patterns. Thus, an automatic synoptic classification, based on weather types, has been used to assess whether GCMs are able to reproduce spatial patterns and climate variability. Three important factors have been analyzed: the skill of GCMs to reproduce the synoptic situations, the skill of GCMs to reproduce the historical inter-annual variability and the consistency of GCMs experiments during twenty-first century projections. The results of this analysis indicate that the most skilled GCMs in the study region are UKMO-HadGEM2, ECHAM5/MPI-OM and MIROC3.2(hires) for CMIP3 scenarios and ACCESS1.0, EC-EARTH, HadGEM2-CC, HadGEM2-ES and CMCC-CM for CMIP5 scenarios. These models are therefore recommended for the estimation of future regional multi-model projections of surface variables driven by the atmospheric circulation in the north-east Atlantic Ocean region.     

Simulated Change in the Interannual Variability of South Asian Summer Monsoon in the 21st Century

This study investigates the projected changes in interannual variability of South Asian summer monsoon and changes of ENSO-monsoon relationships in the 21st century under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios A1B and A2, respectively, by analyzing the simulated results of twelve Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) coupled models. The dynamical monsoon index (DMI) was adopted to describe the interannual variability of South Asian summer monsoon, and the standard dev...     

Summer Sahel-ENSO teleconnection and decadal time scale SST variations

The correlation between Sahel rainfall and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the northern summer has been varying for the last fifty years. We propose that the existence of periods of weak or strong relationship could result from an interaction with the global decadal scale sea surface temperature (SST) background. The main modes of SST variability have been extracted through a principal component analysis with Varimax rotation. The correlations between a July-September Sahel rainfall index and these SST modes have been computed on a 20-year running window between 1945 and 1993. The correlations with the interannual ENSO-SST mode are negative, not significant in the 1960s during the transition period from the wet climate phasis to the long-running drought in the Sahel, but then were significant since 1976. During the former period, the correlations between the Sahel rainfall index and the other SST modes (expressing mostly on quasi and multi-decadal scales) are the highest, in particular correlations with the tropical Atlantic “dipole”. Correlations between Sahel and Guinea Coast rainfall are also significantly negative. After 1970, the Sahel-Guinea Coast rainfall correlations are no longer significant, and the ENSO-SST mode becomes the only one significantly correlated with Sahel rainfall, especially due to the impact of warm events. The partial correlations between the ENSO-SST mode and the Sahel rainfall index, when the influence of the other SST modes are eliminated, are significant over all the 20-year running periods between 1945 and 1993, suggesting that this summer teleconnection could be modulated by the decadal scale SST background. The NCEP/NCAR reanalyses reproduce accurately the interannual variability of the atmospheric circulation after 1968. In particular a regional West African Monsoon Index (WAMI), combining wind speed anomalies at 925 and 200?hPa, is highly correlated with the July-September Sahel rainfall index. A warm ENSO event is associated both with an eastward mean sea level pressure gradient between the eastern tropical Pacific and the tropical Atlantic and with a northward pressure gradient along the western coast of West Africa. This pattern leads to enhanced trade winds over the tropical Atlantic and to weaker moisture advection over West Africa, consistent with a weaker monsoon system strength and a weaker Southern Hemisphere Hadley circulation. The NCEP/NCAR reanalyses do not reproduce accurately the decadal variability of the atmospheric circulation over West Africa because of artifical biases. Therefore the impact of the decadal scale pattern of the atmospheric circulation has been investigated with atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) sensitivity experiments, by forcing the ARPEGE-Climat model with different combinations of an El Niño-like SST pattern with the pattern of the main mode of decadal scale SST variability where the hightest weights are located in the Pacific and Indian basins. AGCM outputs show that the decadal scale SST variations weakly affect Sahel rainfall variability but that they do induce an indirect effect on Sahel rainfall by enhancing the impact of the warm ENSO phases after 1980, through an increase in the fill-in of the monsoon trough and a moisture advection deficit over West Africa.     

Interannual variations of the boreal summer intraseasonal variability predicted by ten atmosphere–ocean coupled models

The reproducibility of boreal summer intraseasonal variability (ISV) and its interannual variation by dynamical models are assessed through diagnosing 21-year retrospective forecasts from ten state-of-the-art ocean–atmosphere coupled prediction models. To facilitate the assessment, we have defined the strength of ISV activity by the standard deviation of 20–90 days filtered precipitation during the boreal summer of each year. The observed climatological ISV activity exhibits its largest values over the western North Pacific and Indian monsoon regions. The notable interannual variation of ISV activity is found primarily over the western North Pacific in observation while most models have the largest variability over the central tropical Pacific and exhibit a wide range of variability in spatial patterns that are different from observation. Although the models have large systematic biases in spatial pattern of dominant variability, the leading EOF modes of the ISV activity in the models are closely linked to the models’ El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which is a feature that resembles the observed ISV and ENSO relationship. The ENSO-induced easterly vertical shear anomalies in the western and central tropical Pacific, where the summer mean vertical wind shear is weak, result in ENSO-related changes of ISV activity in both observation and models. It is found that the principal components of the predicted dominant modes of ISV activity fluctuate in a very similar way with observed ones. The model biases in the dominant modes are systematic and related to the external SST forcing. Thus the statistical correction method of this study based on singular value decomposition is capable of removing a large portion of the systematic errors in the predicted spatial patterns. The 21-year-averaged pattern correlation skill increases from 0.25 to 0.65 over the entire Asian monsoon region after applying the bias correction method to the multi-model ensemble mean prediction.