Summer monsoon circulation and precipitation over the tropical Indian Ocean during ENSO in the NCEP climate forecast system

This study investigates the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnections to tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) and their relationship with the Indian summer monsoon in the coupled general circulation model climate forecast system (CFS). The model shows good skill in simulating the impact of El Niño over the Indian Oceanic rim during its decay phase (the summer following peak phase of El Niño). Summer surface circulation patterns during the developing phase of El Niño are more influenced by local Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the model unlike in observations. Eastern TIO cooling similar to that of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is a dominant model feature in summer. This anomalous SST pattern therefore is attributed to the tendency of the model to simulate more frequent IOD events. On the other hand, in the model baroclinic response to the diabatic heating anomalies induced by the El Niño related warm SSTs is weak, resulting in reduced zonal extension of the Rossby wave response. This is mostly due to weak eastern Pacific summer time SST anomalies in the model during the developing phase of El Niño as compared to observations. Both eastern TIO cooling and weak SST warming in El Niño region combined together undermine the ENSO teleconnections to the TIO and south Asia regions. The model is able to capture the spatial patterns of SST, circulation and precipitation well during the decay phase of El Niño over the Indo-western Pacific including the typical spring asymmetric mode and summer basin-wide warming in TIO. The model simulated El Niño decay one or two seasons later, resulting long persistent warm SST and circulation anomalies mainly over the southwest TIO. In response to the late decay of El Niño, Ekman pumping shows two maxima over the southern TIO. In conjunction with this unrealistic Ekman pumping, westward propagating Rossby waves display two peaks, which play key role in the long-persistence of the TIO warming in the model (for more than a season after summer). This study strongly supports the need of simulating the correct onset and decay phases of El Niño/La Niña for capturing the realistic ENSO teleconnections. These results have strong implications for the forecasting of Indian summer monsoon as this model is currently being adopted as an operational model in India.     

强弱南海夏季风年水汽输送路径特征分析

采用印度洋偶极子指数（dipole mode index,简称DMI）、Nino3指数和国内学者定义的5种东亚夏季风指数来比较分析印度洋偶极子（Indian Ocean dipole,简称IOD）、ENSO与东亚夏季风年际变化联系的年代际改变,讨论了这种改变的可能成因。结果表明,东亚夏季风指数分别与DMI、Ni-no3指数的年际变化的联系都呈明显的年代际改变。东亚夏季风指数除了在20世纪80年代及90年代初期与DMI联系较弱之外,其余时段均与DMI具有很好的正相关关系。当季风指数与DMI为正相关时,其与Nino3指数则呈负相关,IOD和ENSO对夏季风具有相反的影响。当季风指数与DMI呈较强的正相关时,其与ENSO的相关较弱;而在70年代末至80年代初季风指数与ENSO呈较强的相关时,其与DMI的关系亦较弱。东亚夏季风与IOD、ENSO年际变化之间的联系呈现此强彼弱的特点。1972—1982年和1983—1993年这两个阶段海温分布的显著不同,可能导致了海气相互作用过程中环流变化的周期及分布的改变,使得东亚夏季风与IOD和ENSO的关系发生年代际改变。     

夏季江淮流域持久性旱涝现象的环流特征

基于美国环境预测中心提供的CFSv2模式回报数据以及淮河流域172个气象台站的气温降水观测数据, 评估了该模式对淮河流域夏季气温降水的预测能力。结果表明:模式对气温气候平均态的模拟与实况较为接近, 降水虽然能够反映出南多北少的分布特征, 但气候平均值明显偏小。模式对于气温和降水均方差的模拟均偏小。从频率分布来看, 回报气温的频率分布与实况较为接近, 回报降水不仅存在很大的负偏差, 出现异常降水的频率也比实况明显偏低。对ROC曲线的分析进一步表明模式预测高温事件的能力明显好于低温事件, 预测降水异常事件的能力在不同起报月有差异。从主要模态的时空结构来看, 模式能够反映出其空间结构, 对于增暖的趋势模拟也相当不错, 但增暖的速率高于实况, 虽然模式没有能够反映出降水主要模态的年代际变化特征, 但对于年际变化有较高的预测技巧。这些评估为短期气候预测和模式解释应用提供了参考。

     

An assessment of the surface climate in the NCEP climate forecast system reanalysis

This paper analyzes surface climate variability in the climate forecast system reanalysis (CFSR) recently completed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The CFSR represents a new generation of reanalysis effort with first guess from a coupled atmosphere?Cocean?Csea ice?Cland forecast system. This study focuses on the analysis of climate variability for a set of surface variables including precipitation, surface air 2-m temperature (T2m), and surface heat fluxes. None of these quantities are assimilated directly and thus an assessment of their variability provides an independent measure of the accuracy. The CFSR is compared with observational estimates and three previous reanalyses (the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis or R1, the NCEP/DOE reanalysis or R2, and the ERA40 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The CFSR has improved time-mean precipitation distribution over various regions compared to the three previous reanalyses, leading to a better representation of freshwater flux (evaporation minus precipitation). For interannual variability, the CFSR shows improved precipitation correlation with observations over the Indian Ocean, Maritime Continent, and western Pacific. The T2m of the CFSR is superior to R1 and R2 with more realistic interannual variability and long-term trend. On the other hand, the CFSR overestimates downward solar radiation flux over the tropical Western Hemisphere warm pool, consistent with a negative cloudiness bias and a positive sea surface temperature bias. Meanwhile, the evaporative latent heat flux in CFSR appears to be larger than other observational estimates over most of the globe. A few deficiencies in the long-term variations are identified in the CFSR. Firstly, dramatic changes are found around 1998?C2001 in the global average of a number of variables, possibly related to the changes in the assimilated satellite observations. Secondly, the use of multiple streams for the CFSR induces spurious jumps in soil moisture between adjacent streams. Thirdly, there is an inconsistency in long-term sea ice extent variations over the Arctic regions between the CFSR and other observations with the CFSR showing smaller sea ice extent before 1997 and larger extent starting in 1997. These deficiencies may have impacts on the application of the CFSR for climate diagnoses and predictions. Relationships between surface heat fluxes and SST tendency and between SST and precipitation are analyzed and compared with observational estimates and other reanalyses. Global mean fields of surface heat and water fluxes together with radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere are documented and presented over the entire globe, and for the ocean and land separately.     

Sensitivity of tropical climate to low-level clouds in the NCEP climate forecast system

In this work, we examine the sensitivity of tropical mean climate and seasonal cycle to low clouds and cloud liquid water path (CLWP) by prescribing them in the NCEP climate forecast system (CFS). It is found that the change of low cloud cover alone has a minor influence on the amount of net shortwave radiation reaching the surface and on the warm biases in the southeastern Atlantic. In experiments where CLWP is prescribed using observations, the mean climate in the tropics is improved significantly, implying that shortwave radiation absorption by CLWP is mainly responsible for reducing the excessive surface net shortwave radiation over the southern oceans in the CFS. Corresponding to large CLWP values in the southeastern oceans, the model generates large low cloud amounts. That results in a reduction of net shortwave radiation at the ocean surface and the warm biases in the sea surface temperature in the southeastern oceans. Meanwhile, the cold tongue and associated surface wind stress in the eastern oceans become stronger and more realistic. As a consequence of the overall improvement of the tropical mean climate, the seasonal cycle in the tropical Atlantic is also improved. Based on the results from these sensitivity experiments, we propose a model bias correction approach, in which CLWP is prescribed only in the southeastern Atlantic by using observed annual mean climatology of CLWP. It is shown that the warm biases in the southeastern Atlantic are largely eliminated, and the seasonal cycle in the tropical Atlantic Ocean is significantly improved. Prescribing CLWP in the CFS is then an effective interim technique to reduce model biases and to improve the simulation of seasonal cycle in the tropics.     

热带夏季风对ENSO的非线性响应

采用1950—2002年NCEP/NCAR53 a夏季平均的850 hPa低空风场和GISST海温资料,通过非线性典型相关分析（Nonlinear Canonical Correlation Analysis;NLCCA）,得到热带夏季风对ENSO的响应存在一定的非线性。强La Nina年与强El Nino年相比,环流中心明显偏西偏南,澳大利亚上空出现了一个异常的反气旋系统,风场强度也有很大的差异。当海温正异常或负异常变化时,非线性主要表现在强度上;当海温由正（负）异常变为负（正）异常时,非线性在强度和流型上都有很清楚的表现。热带夏季风对ENSO的响应可分为线性和非线性响应,这两部分分别解释方差的67.45%和32.55%,孟加拉湾—中南半岛西部和菲律宾群岛以西的异常环流主要是由非线性响应引起的。     

Anatomy of the Indian Summer Monsoon and ENSO relationships in state-of-the-art CGCMs: role of the tropical Indian Ocean

Climate Dynamics - Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) rainfall and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibit an inverse relationship during boreal summer, which is one of the roots of ISM...     

印度与东亚夏季风环流对ENSO及其年代际异常响应的数值研究

根据诊断分析结果,利用LAGS改进的L9R15气候谱模式,设计了3个数值试验,讨论了不同的年代际背景下ENSO异常对亚洲夏季风环流的影响。研究表明不同背景的ENSO异常与亚洲夏季风活动存在密切的关系。在冷背景条件下,当ENSO处于发展时,印度夏季风偏弱,风速较小,降水量偏少。而东亚夏季风偏南气流较强,受低气压控制,有利于气流辐合,降水量偏多。在ENSO衰减期,印度夏季风仍偏弱,风速偏小,具有干旱的趋势,而东亚夏季风区大陆仍为低气压控制,风速略有减小,降水量比正常年多,而比ENSO前一年有减少的趋势。在暖背     

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.     

Prediction of summer monsoon rainfall over India using the NCEP climate forecast system

The performance of a dynamical seasonal forecast system is evaluated for the prediction of summer monsoon rainfall over the Indian region during June to September (JJAS). The evaluation is based on the National Centre for Environmental Prediction’s (NCEP) climate forecast system (CFS) initialized during March, April and May and integrated for a period of 9 months with a 15 ensemble members for 25 years period from 1981 to 2005. The CFS’s hindcast climatology during JJAS of March (lag-3), April (lag-2) and May (lag-1) initial conditions show mostly an identical pattern of rainfall similar to that of verification climatology with the rainfall maxima (one over the west-coast of India and the other over the head Bay of Bengal region) well simulated. The pattern correlation between verification and forecast climatology over the global tropics and Indian monsoon region (IMR) bounded by 50°E–110°E and 10°S–35°N shows significant correlation coefficient (CCs). The skill of simulation of broad scale monsoon circulation index (Webster and Yang; WY index) is quite good in the CFS with highly significant CC between the observed and predicted by the CFS from the March, April and May forecasts. High skill in forecasting El Nino event is also noted for the CFS March, April and May initial conditions, whereas, the skill of the simulation of Indian Ocean Dipole is poor and is basically due to the poor skill of prediction of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. Over the IMR the skill of monsoon rainfall forecast during JJAS as measured by the spatial Anomaly CC between forecast rainfall anomaly and the observed rainfall anomaly during 1991, 1994, 1997 and 1998 is high (almost of the order of 0.6), whereas, during the year 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1989 the ACC is only around 0.3. By using lower and upper tropospheric forecast winds during JJAS over the regions of significant CCs as predictors for the All India Summer Monsoon Rainfall (AISMR; only the land stations of India during JJAS), the predicted mean AISMR with March, April and May initial conditions is found to be well correlated with actual AISMR and is found to provide skillful prediction. Thus, the calibrated CFS forecast could be used as a better tool for the real time prediction of AISMR.     

亚洲冬夏季风对ENSO事件的响应

根据NCEP/NCAR_1980～1995年的再分析资料,分析了1980年以来5个El Ni?o和La Ni?a年冬、春和夏季200、500和850 hPa合成高度场、风场、流函数场及温度场。发现在冬季El Ni?o（La Ni?a）年亚洲上空的环流型不利（有利）于寒潮向南爆发,导致亚洲冬季风和大洋洲夏季风弱（强）。在El Ni?o（La Ni?a）年冬季华南和青藏高原降水或降雪量为正（负）距平,这使得在晚春和初夏南亚的加热慢（快）,导致夏季海陆的热力对比小（大）,因而出现弱（强）夏季风。我们还发现强El Ni?o年冬季,在印度洋-亚洲上空出现类似于东太平洋-北美上空的PNA遥相关,我们称之为印度洋-亚洲遥相关型（IA）,引起亚洲冬夏季风年际变化的物理过程都是由IA遥相关型引起的。     

东亚夏季风环流与ENSO循环的关系

采用NCEP/NCAR再分析资料和NCAR海温资料 ,对ENSO循环不同阶段东亚夏季风环流的变化进行了分析。计算了各年夏季风环流的强度系数及其与多年平均夏季风环流的相似系数和差异系数 ,分析它们与海温变化的关系。结果表明 :东亚夏季风环流强度有明显的年际变化和年代际变化 ,且与赤道东太平洋SST有较好的负相关关系 ,其中又以与三个月前的海温变化关系最好。在春季 (3～4月 )Nino 1+2区为冷、暖水时 ,当年夏季 (6～ 7月 )东亚季风区中 85 0hPa等压面上 >2m·s-1的经向风北伸纬度和东亚季风区的垂直经圈环流都有明显差异 ,在冷水期 >2m·s-1的经向风北伸纬度比暖水期高 ,季风环流圈的上升支北移 ,东亚夏季风环流较暖水期强。     

Interannual Variability of Sea Surface Temperature in the Northern Indian Ocean Associated with ENSO and IOD

The Northern Indian Ocean(NIO) sea surface temperature(SST) warming,associated with the El Ni o/Southern Oscillations(ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD) mode,is investigated using the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set(ICOADS) monthly data for the period 1979 2010.Statistical analyses are used to identify respective contribution from ENSO and IOD.The results indicate that the first NIO SST warming in September November is associated with an IOD event,while the second NIO SST warming in spring-summer following the mature phase of ENSO is associated with an ENSO event.In the year that IOD co-occurred with ENSO,NIO SST warms twice,rising in the ENSO developing year and decay year.Both shortwave radiation and latent heat flux contribute to the NIO SST variation.The change in shortwave radiation is due to the change in cloudiness.A cloud-SST feedback plays an important role in NIO SST warming.The latent heat flux is related to the change in monsoonal wind.In the first NIO warming,the SST anomaly is mainly due to the change in the latent heat flux.In the second NIO warming,both factors are important.     

ENSO冷暖位相影响东亚冬季风与东亚夏季风联系的非对称性

东亚冬季风（East Asian Winter Monsoon,简称EAWM）和东亚夏季风（East Asian Summer Monsoon,简称EASM）作为东亚季风系统的两个组成部分,他们之间存在显著的转换关系。前人的研究表明EAWM与次年EASM的转换关系只有在ENSO事件发生时才显著,然而这些研究都是基于ENSO对大气环流的影响是对称的这一假设下进行的。本文的研究表明EAWM和次年EASM的转换关系在ENSO冷暖事件中存在着明显的不对称性。通过将EAWM分为与ENSO有关的部分（EAWM_EN）和与ENSO无关的部分（EAWM_RES）,我们发现在强EAWM_EN年（即La Ni?a年）,在西北太平洋会存在一个从冬季维持到次年夏季的气旋性环流异常（the anomalous western North Pacific Cyclone,WNPC）,从而造成EASM偏弱;而在弱EAWM_EN年（即El Ni?o年时）,在西北太平洋会存在一个从冬季维持到次年夏季的反气旋性环流异常（the anomalous western North Pacific anticyclone,WNPAC）,从而引起次年EASM偏强。比较而言,WNPAC的位置比WNPC的位置偏南,且强度更强,因而在El Ni?o年能够引起次年EASM更大幅度的增强。造成这一不对称联系的主要原因是热带太平洋和印度洋异常海温的演变差异。在强EAWM_EN年,热带太平洋的负海温异常衰减地较慢,使得在次年夏季仍然维持着显著的负异常海温;相反,在弱EAWM_EN年,热带太平洋的正海温异常衰减地较快,以至于在次年夏季的异常海温信号已经基本消失,但此时印度洋却有着显著的暖海温异常。海温演变的差异进一步造成了大气环流的差异,从而导致EAWM与次年EASM联系的不对称性。     

Diagnostics of subseasonal prediction biases of the Asian summer monsoon by the NCEP climate forecast system

Biases of subseasonal prediction of the Asian summer monsoon are diagnosed using daily data from the hindcasts of 45-day integrations by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System version 2. The retrospective forecasts often show apparent systematic biases, which are mostly represented by the underestimation of the whole Asian monsoon. Biases depend not only on lead time, but also on the stage of monsoon evolution. An abrupt turning point of bias development appears around late June and early July, when ensemble spread and bias growth of winds and precipitation show a significant change over the northwestern Pacific (NWP) and the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) region. The abrupt turning of bias development of winds, precipitation, and surface temperature is also captured by the first two modes of multivariate empirical orthogonal function analysis. Several features appear associated with the abrupt change in bias development: the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) begins its first northward jump and the surface temperature over the Tibetan Plateau commences a transition from warm bias to cold bias, and a reversal of surface temperature biases occurs in the eastern tropical Indian Ocean and the SASM region. The shift of WPSH position and the transition of surface thermal bias show close relationships with the formation of bias centers in winds and precipitation. The rapid growth in bias due to the strong internal atmospheric variability during short leads seems to mainly account for the weak WPSH and SASM in the model. However, at certain stages, particularly for longer-lead predictions, the biases of slowly varying components may also play an important role in bias development of winds and precipitation.     

Evaluation of NCEP TIGGE short-range forecast for Indian summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation

Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is one of the most critical parameters in the research on agro-ecological systems. The computational methods for the estimation of PET vary in data demands from very simple (empirically based), requiring only information based on air temperatures, to complex ones (more physically based) that require data on radiation, relative humidity, wind speed, etc. The current research is focused on three study areas in Greece that face different climatic conditions due to their location. Twelve PET formulae were used, analyzed and inter-compared in terms of their sensitivity regarding their input coefficients for the Ardas River basin in north-eastern Greece, Sperchios River basin in Central Greece and Geropotamos River basin in South Greece. The aim was to compare all the methods and conclude to which empirical PET method(s) better represent the PET results in each area and thus should be adopted and used each time and which factors influence the results in each case. The results indicated that for the areas that face Mediterranean climatic conditions, the most appropriate method for the estimation of PET was the temperature-based, Hamon’s second version (PET_Ham2). Furthermore, the PET_Ham2 was able to estimate PET almost similarly to the average results of the 12 equations. For the Ardas River basin, the results indicated that both PET_Ham2 and PET_Ham1 can be used to estimate PET satisfactorily. Moreover, the temperature-based equations have proven to produce better results, followed by the radiation-based equations. Finally, PET_ASCE, which is the most commonly used PET equation, can also be applied occasionally in order to provide satisfactory results.