Performance of FGOALS-s2 in simulating intraseasonal oscillation over the south Asian monsoon region

The capability of the current version of the air-sea coupled climate model, the Flexible Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land System model, Spectral Version 2 (FGOALS-s2), in simulating the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) over the south Asian monsoon (SAM) region is diagnosed, in terms of dominant period, propagation direction, and vertical structure. Results show that the coupled model can reasonably simulate the main features of observed ISO propagation compared to the chosen AGCM. These features include the eastward movement of intraseasonal 850-hPa zonal wind over the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, the vertical structure in active phases, and the realistic phase relationship between ISO and underlying SST. However, the eastward propagation cannot be reproduced in the uncoupled model. This suggests that air-sea interaction is important in generating intraseasonal variability over the SAM region. Nevertheless, some deficiencies remain in the coupled model, which may relate to physical processes depicted by the cumulus parameterization and PBL schemes within its atmospheric component.