Simulation of Indian summer monsoon circulation and rainfall using RegCM3

Summary The Regional Climate Model RegCM3 has been used to examine its suitability in simulating the Indian summer monsoon circulation features and associated rainfall. The model is integrated at 55 km horizontal resolution over a South Asia domain for the period April–September of the years 1993 to 1996. The characteristics of wind at 850 hPa and 200 hPa, temperature at 500 hPa, surface pressure and rainfall simulated by the model over the Indian region are examined for two convective schemes (a Kuo-type and a mass flux scheme). The monsoon circulation features simulated by RegCM3 are compared with those of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and the simulated rainfall is validated against observations from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Validation of the wind and temperature fields shows that the use of the Grell convection scheme yields results close to the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. Similarly, the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) simulated by the model with the Grell convection scheme is close to the corresponding observed values. In order to test the model response to land surface changes such as the Tibetan snow depth, a sensitivity study has also been conducted. For such sensitivity experiment, NIMBUS-7 SMMR snow depth data in spring are used as initial conditions in the RegCM3. Preliminary results indicate that RegCM3 is very much sensitive to Tibetan snow. The model simulated Indian summer monsoon circulation becomes weaker and the associated rainfall is reduced by about 30% with the introduction of 10 cm of snow over the Tibetan region in the month of April.     

Sensitivity of the GCM driven summer monsoon simulations to cumulus parameterization schemes in nested RegCM3

The regional climate model (RegCM3) from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics has been used to simulate the Indian summer monsoon for three different monsoon seasons such as deficit (1987), excess (1988) and normal (1989). Sensitivity to various cumulus parameterization and closure schemes of RegCM3 driven by the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting global spectral model products has been tested. The model integration of the nested RegCM3 is conducted using 90 and 30-km horizontal resolutions for outer and inner domains, respectively. The India Meteorological Department gridded rainfall (1° × 1°) and National Centre for Environment Prediction (NCEP)–Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis-2 of 2.5° × 2.5° horizontal resolution data has been used for verification. The RegCM3 forced by NCEP–DOE reanalysis-2 data simulates monsoon seasons of 1987 and 1988 reasonably well, but the monsoon season of 1989 is not represented well in the model simulations. The RegCM3 runs driven by the global model are able to bring out seasonal mean rainfall and circulations well with the use of the Grell and Anthes–Kuo cumulus scheme at 90-km resolution. While the rainfall intensity and distribution is brought out well with the Anthes–Kuo scheme, upper air circulation features are brought out better by the Grell scheme. The simulated rainfall distribution is better with RegCM3 using the MIT-Emanuel cumulus scheme for 30-km resolution. Several statistical analyses, such as correlation coefficient, root mean square error, equitable threat score, confirm that the performance of MIT-Emanuel scheme at 30-km resolution is better in simulating all-India summer monsoon rainfall. The RegCM3 simulated rainfall amount is more and closer to observations than that from the global model. The RegCM3 has corrected its driven GCM in terms of rainfall distribution and magnitude over some parts of India during extreme years. This study brings out several weaknesses of the RegCM model which are documented in this paper.     

区域海气耦合模式对中国夏季降水的模拟

以区域气候模式RegCM3和普林斯顿海洋模式POM为基础,建立了一个区域海气耦合模式,对1963-2002年中国夏季气候进行模拟,重点分析该耦合模式对中国夏季降水的模拟性能以及降水模拟改进的可能原因.结果表明:耦合模式对中国夏季雨带分布的模拟明显优于控制试验(单独的大气模式),对长江流域以及华南降水的模拟性能改进尤为明显,同时耦合模式能够更为真实地刻画中国东部地区汛期雨带的移动.对降水的年际变化分析发现,耦合模式模拟的1963-2002年中国夏季降水年际变率与观测吻合,模拟的夏季长江流域降水与观测降水相关系数达到0.48,模拟的华南夏季降水与观测的相关系数达到0.61,而控制试验结果与观测降水的相关系数均较小.对中国东部长江流域夏季降水与近海海温的相关分析表明,用给定海温驱动的大气模式,并不能正确模拟出中国东部夏季降水与海温的关系,而耦合模式能够较好地模拟出长江流域与孟加拉湾、南海以及黑潮区海温的关系,与GISST(全球海冰和海表温度)和观测降水相关关系一致.对水汽输送通量的分析发现,控制试验模拟的水汽输送路径与NCEP/NCAR再分析资料相比差别较大,耦合模式模拟的来自海洋上的水汽输送强度和路径与NCEP/NCAR再分析资料一致,提高了耦合模式对水汽输送的模拟能力,从而改善了模式对华南以及长江流域降水的模拟.     

Indian summer monsoon rainfall variability in global coupled ocean-atmospheric models

Performance of seven fully coupled models in simulating Indian summer monsoon climatology as well as the inter-annual variability was assessed using multi member 1 month lead hindcasts made by several European climate groups as part of the program called Development of a European multi-model ensemble system for seasonal-to-inter-annual prediction (DEMETER). Dependency of the model simulated Indian summer monsoon rainfall and global sea surface temperatures on model formulation and initial conditions have been studied in detail using the nine ensemble member simulations of the seven different coupled ocean–atmosphere models participated in the DEMETER program. It was found that the skills of the monsoon predictions in these hindcasts are generally positive though they are very modest. Model simulations of India summer monsoon rainfall for the earlier period (1959–1979) are closer to the ‘perfect model’ (attainable) score but, large differences are observed between ‘actual’ skill and ‘perfect model’ skill in the recent period (1980–2001). Spread among the ensemble members are found to be large in simulations of India summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) and Indian ocean dipole mode (IODM), indicating strong dependency of model simulated Indian summer monsoon on initial conditions. Multi-model ensemble performs better than the individual models in simulating ENSO indices, but does not perform better than the individual models in simulating ISMR and IODM. Decreased skill of multi-model ensemble over the region indicates amplification of errors due to existence of similar errors in the individual models. It appears that large biases in predicted SSTs over Indian Ocean region and the not so perfect ENSO-monsoon (IODM-monsoon) tele-connections are some of the possible reasons for such lower than expected skills in the recent period. The low skill of multi-model ensemble, large spread among the ensemble members of individual models and the not so perfect monsoon tele-connection with global SSTs points towards the importance of improving individual models for better simulation of the Indian monsoon.     

Simulation of China Summer Precipitation Using a Regional Air-Sea Coupled Model

A regional air-sea coupled model based on the regional climate model(RegCM3)and the regional oceanic model POM(Princeton Ocean Model)is developed and a series of experiments are performed to verify the ability of the coupled model in simulating the summer precipitation over China from 1963 to 2002.The results show that the space correlation coefficients between the GISST(Global Ice and Sea Surface Temperature)data and the simulated SST by RegCM3-POM exceed 0.9.Compared with the uncoupled experiments,the coupled model RegCM3-POM has a better performance in simulating the mean summer(June to August)precipitation over China,and the distribution of the rainband in the coupled model is more accurate.The improvement of the rainfall simulation is significant over the Yangtze River Valley and in South China.The rainbelt intraseasoaal evolution over eastern China in summer indicates that the simulation ability of RegCM3-POM is improved in comparison with the uncoupled model.The interannual summer rainfall variation over eastern China simulated by RegCM3-POM is in accordance with observation,while the spatial pattern of the interannual summer rainfall variation in the uncoupled model is inaccurate.The simulated correlation coefficient between the summer rainfall in the uncoupled model RegCM3 and observation is0.30 over the Yangtze River Valley and 0.29 in South China.The coefficient between the rainfall in the coupled RegCM3-POM and observation is 0.48 over the Yangtze River Valley and 0.61 in South China.The RegCM3-POM has successfully simulated the correlation coefficients between summer rainfall in the Yangtze River Valley and SST anomalies of the Bay of Bengal,South China Sea,and the Kuroshio area,whereas the uncoupled model RegCM3 fails to reproduce this relationship.The study further shows that the monsoon circulation and the path of the moisture transport flux simulated by RegCM3-POM are in good agreement with the NCEP/NCAR data.     

RegCM3对中国淮河流域降水模拟能力的检验及分析

检验了区域气候模式RegCM3(Regional Climate Model version3)对中国淮河流域(30°55′—36°36′N,111°55′—121°25′E)1982—2001年夏季降水及大尺度环流场的模拟能力,并选取降水明显偏多的2003年夏季为个例,评估了RegCM3模式对该年淮河流域夏季降水的集合模拟能力。模拟的20a降水的空间分布与实测资料对比表明,RegCM3成功地模拟出了淮河流域夏季降水的空间分布和年际变化;通过分析对比RegCM3模拟出的低层850hPa流场结构和水汽输送状况与实测情况,可知RegCM3能模拟出低层流场结构的大致分布和水汽输送特点,但模拟所得风速和湿度均比实况偏大。对2003年淮河流域夏季降水的集合模拟结果表明,RegCM3对中小尺度极端强降水的降水量和降水中心的模拟能力尚有待进一步提高。     

A study on drought features of the Indian summer monsoon 2002

In this paper, a diagnostic study is carried out with global analysis data sets to determine how the large scale atmospheric circulation affecting the anomalous drought of the Indian summer monsoon 2002. The daily analysis obtained from National Centre for Environmental Prediction/National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) for the month of July is used to investigate the mean circulation characteristics and the large scale energetics over the Indian monsoon domain. Examination of rainfall revealed that the summer monsoon (JJAS) rainfall of 2002 over India is 22% below normal in which the large deficit of 56% below normal rainfall in July. The recent past drought during summer season of 2004 and 2009 are 12 and 23%, respectively, below normal rainfall. The large deficit of rainfall in 2009 is from the June month with 48% below normal rainfall, where as 2004 drought contributed from July (19%) and August (24%). Another significant facet of the rainfall in July 2002 is lowest ever recorded in the past 138 years (1871–2008). The circulation features illustrated weak low level westerly wind at 850 hPa (Somali Jet) in July during large deficit rainfall years of 1987 and 2002 with a reduction of about 30% when compared with the excess and normal rainfall years of 1988 and 2003. Also, tropical easterly jet at 150 hPa reduced by 15% during the deficit rainfall year of 2002 against the excess rainfall year of 1988. Both the jet streams are responsible for low level convergence and upper level divergence leading to build up moisture and convective activity to sustain the strength of the monsoon circulation. These changes are well reflected in reduction of tropospheric moisture profile considerably. It is found that the maximum number of west pacific cyclonic system during July 2002 is also influenced for large deficit rainfall over India. The dynamic, thermodynamic and energetic clearly show the monsoon break type situation over India in the month of July 2002 resulting less convective activity and the reduction of moisture. The large diabatic heating, flux convergence of heat and moisture over south east equatorial Indian Ocean are also responsible for drought situation in July 2002 over the Indian region.     

Monsoon precipitation in the AMIP runs

 We present an analysis of the seasonal precipitation associated with the African, Indian and the Australian-Indonesian monsoon and the interannual variation of the Indian monsoon simulated by 30 atmospheric general circulation models undertaken as a special diagnostic subproject of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP). The seasonal migration of the major rainbelt observed over the African region, is reasonably well simulated by almost all the models. The Asia West Pacific region is more complex because of the presence of warm oceans equatorward of heated continents. Whereas some models simulate the observed seasonal migration of the primary rainbelt, in several others this rainbelt remains over the equatorial oceans in all seasons. Thus, the models fall into two distinct classes on the basis of the seasonal variation of the major rainbelt over the Asia West Pacific sector, the first (class I) are models with a realistic simulation of the seasonal migration and the major rainbelt over the continent in the boreal summer; and the second (class II) are models with a smaller amplitude of seasonal migration than observed. The mean rainfall pattern over the Indian region for July-August (the peak monsoon months) is even more complex because, in addition to the primary rainbelt over the Indian monsoon zone (the monsoon rainbelt) and the secondary one over the equatorial Indian ocean, another zone with significant rainfall occurs over the foothills of Himalayas just north of the monsoon zone. Eleven models simulate the monsoon rainbelt reasonably realistically. Of these, in the simulations of five belonging to class I, the monsoon rainbelt over India in the summer is a manifestation of the seasonal migration of the planetary scale system. However in those belonging to class II it is associated with a more localised system. In several models, the oceanic rainbelt dominates the continental one. On the whole, the skill in simulation of excess/deficit summer monsoon rainfall over the Indian region is found to be much larger for models of class I than II, particularly for the ENSO associated seasons. Thus, the classification based on seasonal mean patterns is found to be useful for interpreting the simulation of interannual variation. The mean rainfall pattern of models of class I is closer to the observed and has a higher pattern correlation coefficient than that of class II. This supports Sperber and Palmer’s (1996) result of the association of better simulation of interannual variability with better simulation of the mean rainfall pattern. The hypothesis, that the skill of simulation of the interannual variation of the all-India monsoon rainfall in association with ENSO depends upon the skill of simulation of the seasonal variation over the Asia West Pacific sector, is supported by a case in which we have two versions of the model where NCEP1 is in class II and NCEP2 is in class I. The simulation of the interannual variation of the local response over the central Pacific as well as the all-India monsoon rainfall are good for NCEP2 and poor for NCEP1. Our results suggest that when the model climatology is reasonably close to observations, to achieve a realistic simulation of the interannual variation of all-India monsoon rainfall associated with ENSO, the focus should be on improvement of the simulation of the seasonal variation over the Asia West Pacific sector rather than further improvement of the simulation of the mean rainfall pattern over the Indian region. Received: 2 June 1997 / Accepted: 8 January 1998     

Spatial variability of Holocene changes in the annual precipitation pattern: a model-data synthesis for the Asian monsoon region

This study provides a detailed analysis of the mid-Holocene to present-day precipitation change in the Asian monsoon region. We compare for the first time results of high resolution climate model simulations with a standardised set of mid-Holocene moisture reconstructions. Changes in the simulated summer monsoon characteristics (onset, withdrawal, length and associated rainfall) and the mechanisms causing the Holocene precipitation changes are investigated. According to the model, most parts of the Indian subcontinent received more precipitation (up to 5 mm/day) at mid-Holocene than at present-day. This is related to a stronger Indian summer monsoon accompanied by an intensified vertically integrated moisture flux convergence. The East Asian monsoon region exhibits local inhomogeneities in the simulated annual precipitation signal. The sign of this signal depends on the balance of decreased pre-monsoon and increased monsoon precipitation at mid-Holocene compared to present-day. Hence, rainfall changes in the East Asian monsoon domain are not solely associated with modifications in the summer monsoon circulation but also depend on changes in the mid-latitudinal westerly wind system that dominates the circulation during the pre-monsoon season. The proxy-based climate reconstructions confirm the regional dissimilarities in the annual precipitation signal and agree well with the model results. Our results highlight the importance of including the pre-monsoon season in climate studies of the Asian monsoon system and point out the complex response of this system to the Holocene insolation forcing. The comparison with a coarse climate model simulation reveals that this complex response can only be resolved in high resolution simulations.     

Fluctuations of Tropical Easterly Jet during contrasting monsoons over India: A GCM study

Summary  The fluctuations of intensity of the Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ) and its association with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall have been examined using the diagnostics from NCEP/NCAR (National Centre for Environmental Prediction/National Centre for Atmospheric Research) reanalyses project for the period 1986 to 1994. The intensity of TEJ is found to be well correlated with India summer monsoon rainfall. The TEJ is weaker/stronger during the El Ni?o/La Ni?a year of 1987/1988 and is associated with deficient (excess) summer monsoon rainfall over India. A numerical study was carried out for the same period using the Centre for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere studies General Circulation Model (COLA GCM, T30L18) with observed Sea-Surface Temperature (SST). The GCM simulates the TEJ with reasonable accuracy. The strong interannual variability of TEJ during the El Ni?o/La Ni?a years of 1987/1988 are well simulated in the GCM. Like observations, the intensity of the TEJ is positively correlated with the summer monsoon rainfall over India in the model simulation. The intensity of Tibetan anticyclone and diabatic heating over the Tibetan Plateau diminished during the El Ni?o-year of 1987. The divergence centre in the upper troposphere associated with Asian monsoon becomes weaker and shifts eastward during the weak monsoon season of 1987. However, the opposite happens for the strong monsoon season of 1988. Also the middle and upper tropospheric meridional temperature gradient between the Tibetan High and Indian Ocean region decreased (increased) during the weak(strong) monsoon season of 1987 (1988). Received May 27, 1999/Revised March 20, 2000     

Regional climate simulations of summer diurnal rainfall variations over East Asia and Southeast China

This study evaluates the performance of RegCM3 (Regional Climate Model Version 3) in simulating the East Asian rainfall, with emphasis on the diurnal variations of rainfall over Southeast China during the 1998–2002 summer (June–August) seasons. The evaluation focuses on the sensitivity of the choice of cumulus parameterizations and model domain. With the right setup, the spatial and temporal evolution of diurnal rainfall over Southeast China, which has not been well simulated by past studies, can be accurately simulated by RegCM3. Results show that the Emanuel cumulus scheme has a more realistic simulation of summer mean rainfall in East Asia, while the GFC (Grell scheme with the Frisch-Chappell convective closure assumption) scheme is better in simulating the diurnal variations of rainfall over Southeast China. The better performance of these two schemes [relative to the other two schemes in RegCM3: the Kuo scheme and the GAS (Grell scheme with the Arakawa–Schubert closure assumption) scheme] can be attributed to the reasonable reproduction of the major formation mechanism of rainfall—the moisture flux convergence—over Southeast China. Furthermore, when the simulation domain covers the entire Tibetan Plateau, the diurnal variations of rainfall over Southeast China are found to exhibit a noticeable improvement without changes in the physics schemes.     

Introduction to the Regional Coupled Model WRF4-LICOM: Performance and Model Intercomparison over the Western North Pacific

Regional coupled modeling is one of the frontiers of regional climate modeling, but intercomparison has not been well coordinated. In this study, a community regional climate model, WRF4, with a resolution of 15 km, was coupled with a high-resolution(0.1°) North Pacific Ocean model(LICOM_np). The performance of the regional coupled model,WRF4_LICOM, was compared to that of another regional coupled model, RegCM4_LICOM, which was a coupling of version 4 of the Regiona...     

Evaluation and Analysis of RegCM3 Simulated Summer Rainfall over the Huaihe River Basin of China

This study evaluates the ability of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics(ICTP)version 3 Regional Climate Model(RegCM3) in simulating the summer rainfall amount and distribution and large-scale circulation over the Huaihe River basin of China.We conducted the simulation for the period of 1982-2001 and the wet year of 2003 to test the ensemble simulation capacity of RegCM3.First,by comparing the simulated rainfall amount and distribution against the observations,it is found that RegCM3 can reproduce the rainfall pattern and its annual variations.In addition,the simulated spatial patterns of 850-hPa wind and specific humidity fields are close to the observations,although the wind speed and humidity values are larger.Finally,the ensemble simulation of RegCM3 for summer 2003 failed to capture the spatial distribution and underestimated the magnitude of the precipitation anomalies,and the reasons are analyzed.     

Pre-onset land surface processes and ��internal�� interannual variabilities of the Indian summer monsoon

It is proposed that, land?Catmosphere interaction around the time of monsoon onset could modulate the first episode of climatological intraseasonal oscillation (CISO) and may generate significant ??internal?? interannual variation in the Indian summer monsoon rainfall. The regional climate model RegCM3 is used over Indian monsoon domain for 27?years of control simulation. In order to prove the hypothesis, another two sets of experiment are performed using two different boundary conditions (El Ni?o year and non-ENSO year). In each of these experiments, a single year of boundary conditions are used repeatedly year after year to generate ??internal?? interannual monsoon variability. Simulation of monsoon climate in the control model run is found to be in reasonably good agreement with observation. However, large rainfall bias is seen over Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. The interannual monsoon rainfall variability are of the same order in two experiments, which suggest that the external influences may not be important on the generation of ??internal?? monsoon rainfall variability. It is shown that, a dry (wet) pre-onset land-surface condition increases (decreases) rainfall in June which in turn leads to an anomalous increase (decrease) in seasonal (JJAS) rainfall. The phase and amplitude of CISO are modulated during May?CJune and beyond that the modulation of CISO is quite negligible. Though the pre-onset rainfall is unpredictable, significant modulation of the post-onset monsoon rainfall by it can be exploited to improve predictive skill within the monsoon season.     

中国与印度夏季风降水的比较研究

本文用1951—1980年中国和印度的降水资料研究了两个地区在西南季风时期(6—9月)总雨量变化的关系。发现印度的雨量变化与中国各地雨量的相关关系有正、有负,最明显的是印度中西部与我国华北地区有较高的正相关。进一步对两个地区降水存在遥相关的原因进行了分析,发现南亚次大陆低压是联系两个季风区雨量变化的重要环节。中国季风雨量与印度季风雨量的相关趋势,主要决定于中国各地雨量与东亚夏季风强度的关系。      

Dependence of Indian monsoon rainfall on moisture fluxes across the Arabian Sea and the impact of coupled model sea surface temperature biases

The Arabian Sea is an important moisture source for Indian monsoon rainfall. The skill of climate models in simulating the monsoon and its variability varies widely, while Arabian Sea cold sea surface temperature (SST) biases are common in coupled models and may therefore influence the monsoon and its sensitivity to climate change. We examine the relationship between monsoon rainfall, moisture fluxes and Arabian Sea SST in observations and climate model simulations. Observational analysis shows strong monsoons depend on moisture fluxes across the Arabian Sea, however detecting consistent signals with contemporaneous summer SST anomalies is complicated in the observed system by air/sea coupling and large-scale induced variability such as the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation feeding back onto the monsoon through development of the Somali Jet. Comparison of HadGEM3 coupled and atmosphere-only configurations suggests coupled model cold SST biases significantly reduce monsoon rainfall. Idealised atmosphere-only experiments show that the weakened monsoon can be mainly attributed to systematic Arabian Sea cold SST biases during summer and their impact on the monsoon-moisture relationship. The impact of large cold SST biases on atmospheric moisture content over the Arabian Sea, and also the subsequent reduced latent heat release over India, dominates over any enhancement in the land-sea temperature gradient and results in changes to the mean state. We hypothesize that a cold base state will result in underestimation of the impact of larger projected Arabian Sea SST changes in future climate, suggesting that Arabian Sea biases should be a clear target for model development.     

Spatial and temporal relationships between global land surface air temperature anomalies and Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Summary Using the 60 year period (1931–1990) gridded land surface air temperature anomalies data, the spatial and temporal relationships between Indian summer monsoon rainfall and temperature anomalies were examined. Composite temperature anomalies were prepared in respect of 11 deficient monsoon years and 9 excess monsoon years. Statistical tests were carried out to examine the significance of the composites. In addition, correlation coefficients between the temperature anomalies and Indian summer monsoon rainfall were also calculated to examine the teleconnection patterns.There were statistically significant differences in the composite of temperature anomaly patterns between excess and deficient monsoon years over north Europe, central Asia and north America during January and May, over NW India during May, over central parts of Africa during May and July and over Indian sub-continent and eastern parts of Asia during July. It has been also found that temperature anomalies over NW Europe, central parts of Africa and NW India during January and May were positively correlated with Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Similarly temperature anomalies over central Asia during January and temperature anomalies over central Africa and Indian region during July were negatively correlated. There were secular variations in the strength of relationships between temperature anomalies and Indian summer monsoon rainfall. In general, temperature anomalies over NW Europe and NW India showed stronger correlations during the recent years. It has been also found that during excess (deficient) monsoon years temperature gradient over Eurasian land mass from sub-tropics to higher latitudes was directed equatowards (polewards) indicating strong (weak) zonal flow. This temperature anomaly gradient index was found to be a useful predictor for long range forecasting of Indian summer monsoon rainfall.With 12 Figures     

Assessment of CORDEX-SA experiments in representing precipitation climatology of summer monsoon over India

The present work assesses the performance of 11 regional climate simulations in representing the precipitation patterns of summer monsoon over India for the period 1970–2005. These simulations have been carried out under Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment–South Asia (CORDEX-SA) project. The regional climate models (RCMs) have been inter-compared as well as evaluated against the observation to identify the common weaknesses and differences between them. For this, a number of statistical analysis has been carried out to compare the model precipitation field with the corresponding observation. Model uncertainty has been also evaluated through bias studies and analysis of the spread in the ensemble mean (hereafter, ensemble). The models which perform better than the rest are identified and studied to look for any improvement in the ensemble performance. These better performing experiments (best RCM experiments) are further assessed over the monsoon core region (MCR) of India. This has been done to understand how well the models perform in a spatially homogeneous zone of precipitation which is considered to be a representative region of Indian summer monsoon characteristics. Finally, an additional analysis has been done to quantify the skill of models based on two different metrics—performance and convergence including a combination of the two. The experiment with regional model RegCM4 forced with the global model GFDL-ESM2M shows the highest combined mean skill in capturing the seasonal mean precipitation. In general, a significant dry bias is found over a larger part of India in all the experiments which seems most pronounced over the central Indian region. Ensemble on an average tends to outperform many of the individual experiments with bias of smaller magnitude and an improved spatial correlation compared with the observation. Experiments which perform better over India improve the results but only slightly in terms of agreement among experiments and bias.     

Contrasting Regional Responses of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall to Exhausted Spring and Concurrently Emerging Summer El Ni?o Events

The inverse relationship between the warm phase of the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation(ENSO) and the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall(ISMR) is well established. Yet, some El Ni?o events that occur in the early months of the year(boreal spring) transform into a neutral phase before the start of summer, whereas others begin in the boreal summer and persist in a positive phase throughout the summer monsoon season. This study investigates the distinct influences of an exhausted spring El Ni?o(springtime)...     

Projected changes in South Asian summer monsoon by multi-model global warming experiments

South Asian summer monsoon (June through September) rainfall simulation and its potential future changes are evaluated in a multi-model ensemble of global coupled climate models outputs under World Climate Research Program Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (WCRP CMIP3) dataset. The response of South Asian summer monsoon to a transient increase in future anthropogenic radiative forcing is investigated for two time slices, middle (2031–2050) and end of the twenty-first century (2081–2100), in the non-mitigated Special Report on Emission Scenarios B1, A1B and A2 .There is large inter-model variability in the simulation of spatial characteristics of seasonal monsoon precipitation. Ten out of the 25 models are able to simulate space–time characteristics of the South Asian monsoon precipitation reasonably well. The response of these selected ten models has been examined for projected changes in seasonal monsoon rainfall. The multi-model ensemble of these ten models projects a significant increase in monsoon precipitation with global warming. The substantial increase in precipitation is observed over western equatorial Indian Ocean and southern parts of India. However, the monsoon circulation weakens significantly under all the three climate change experiments. Possible mechanisms for the projected increase in precipitation and for precipitation–wind paradox have been discussed. The surface temperature over Asian landmass increases in pre-monsoon months due to global warming and heat low over northwest India intensifies. The dipole snow configuration over Eurasian continent strengthens in warmer atmosphere, which is conducive for the enhancement in precipitation over Indian landmass. No notable changes have been projected in the El Niño–Monsoon relationship, which is useful for predicting interannual variations of the monsoon.