Performance assessment of three convective parameterization schemes in WRF for downscaling summer rainfall over South Africa

Austral summer rainfall over the period 1991/1992 to 2010/2011 was dynamically downscaled by the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model at 9 km resolution for South Africa. Lateral boundary conditions for WRF were provided from the European Centre for medium-range weather (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA) interim data. The model biases for the rainfall were evaluated over the South Africa as a whole and its nine provinces separately by employing three different convective parameterization schemes, namely the (1) Kain–Fritsch (KF), (2) Betts–Miller–Janjic (BMJ) and (3) Grell–Devenyi ensemble (GDE) schemes. All three schemes have generated positive rainfall biases over South Africa, with the KF scheme producing the largest biases and mean absolute errors. Only the BMJ scheme could reproduce the intensity of rainfall anomalies, and also exhibited the highest correlation with observed interannual summer rainfall variability. In the KF scheme, a significantly high amount of moisture was transported from the tropics into South Africa. The vertical thermodynamic profiles show that the KF scheme has caused low level moisture convergence, due to the highly unstable atmosphere, and hence contributed to the widespread positive biases of rainfall. The negative bias in moisture, along with a stable atmosphere and negative biases of vertical velocity simulated by the GDE scheme resulted in negative rainfall biases, especially over the Limpopo Province. In terms of rain rate, the KF scheme generated the lowest number of low rain rates and the maximum number of moderate to high rain rates associated with more convective unstable environment. KF and GDE schemes overestimated the convective rain and underestimated the stratiform rain. However, the simulated convective and stratiform rain with BMJ scheme is in more agreement with the observations. This study also documents the performance of regional model in downscaling the large scale climate mode such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and subtropical dipole modes. The correlations between the simulated area averaged rainfalls over South Africa and Nino3.4 index were ?0.66, ?0.69 and ?0.49 with KF, BMJ and GDE scheme respectively as compared to the observed correlation of ?0.57. The model could reproduce the observed ENSO-South Africa rainfall relationship and could successfully simulate three wet (dry) years that are associated with La Niña (El Niño) and the BMJ scheme is closest to the observed variability. Also, the model showed good skill in simulating the excess rainfall over South Africa that is associated with positive subtropical Indian Ocean Dipole for the DJF season 2005/2006.     

我国东南沿岸及复杂山地后汛期降水日变化的数值研究

利用2009~2017年7~9月福建省逐小时地面加密自动站资料和2015~2017年7~9月厦门站的探空资料,通过K均值聚类法和中尺度数值模式(WRF3.9.1.1版本)理想数值模拟,分析了我国东南沿岸及复杂山地(福建)后汛期降水日变化特征,揭示了地形热力环流以及海陆风环流在热对流降水日变化形成中的作用,探讨了环境温湿廓线及风垂直廓线对热对流降水日峰值强度和日峰值出现时间的影响。结果发现:我国东南沿岸复杂山地(福建)后汛期降水日变化受地形热力环流和海陆风环流的影响和调制,白天辐射加热在复杂山地形成的局地热力环流激发出对流降雨带,午后受海风环流的影响,对流降雨带组织发展达到峰值,之后随着地形热力环流和海风环流减弱雨带逐渐减弱。武夷山及周边复杂山地的降水日变化主要受地形热力环流的影响,在午后对流降水达到峰值,夜间减弱几近消失。理想数值试验进一步证实了我国东南沿岸复杂山地地形热力环流对对流降雨的触发以及海陆风环流在山地对流雨带组织发展中的作用,环境温湿廓线以及风垂直廓线对热对流降水日峰值强度以及日峰值出现的时间具有重要影响,其中环境温湿廓线的大气抬升凝结高度、大气可降水量、大气的对流不稳定度以及大气中低层湿度分布的不同,会影响热对流降水日峰值强度,并通过影响山地热力对流触发时间,改变热对流降水日峰值时间,而环境风垂直廓线的低层气流强度和方向、中低层垂直风切变的不同,会影响地形热力对流系统的启动、组织发展和移动等特征,进而影响热对流降水日峰值强度以及热对流降水日峰值时间。     

The Effects of Model Resolution on the Simulation of Regional Climate Extreme Events

The fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University/NCAR Mesoscale Model Version 3 (MM5V3) was used to simulate extreme heavy rainfall events over the Yangtze River Basin in June 1999. The effects of model's horizontal and vertical resolution on the extreme climate events were investigated in detail. In principle, the model was able to characterize the spatial distribution of monthly heavy precipitation. The results indicated that the increase in horizontal resolution could reduce the bias of the modeled heavy rain and reasonably simulate the change of daily precipitation during the study period. A finer vertical resolution led to obviously improve rainfall simulations with smaller biases, and hence, better resolve heavy rainfall events. The increase in both horizontal and vertical resolution could produce better predictions of heavy rainfall events. Not only the rainfall simulation altered in the cases of different horizontal and vertical grid spacing, but also other meteorological fields demonstrated diverse variations in terms of resolution change in the model. An evident improvement in the simulated sea level pressure resulted from the increase of horizontal resolution, but the simulation was insensitive to vertical grid spacing. The increase in vertical resolution could enhance the simulation of surface temperature as well as atmospheric circulation at low levels, while the simulation of circulation at middle and upper levels were found to be much less dependent on changing resolution. In addition, cumulus parameterization schemes showed high sensitivity to horizontal resolution. Different convective schemes exhibited large discrepancies in rainfall simulations with regards to changing resolution. The percentage of convective precipitation in the Grell scheme increased with increasing horizontal resolution. In contrast, the Kain-Fritsch scheme caused a reduced ratio of convective precipitation to total rainfall accumulations corresponding to increasing horizontal resolution.     

Vertical Structures of Convective and Stratiform Clouds in Boreal Summer over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Neighboring Regions

Cloud is essential in the atmosphere, condensing water vapor and generating strong convective or large-scale persistent precipitation. In this work, the relationships between cloud vertical macro- or microphysical properties, radiative heating rate, and precipitation for convective and stratiform clouds in boreal summer over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are analyzed and compared with its neighboring land and tropical oceans based on CloudSat/CALIPSO satellite measurements and TRMM precipitation data. The precipitation intensity caused by convective clouds is twofold stronger than that by stratiform clouds. The vertical macrophysics of both cloud types show similar features over the TP, with the region weakening the precipitation intensity and compressing the cloud vertical expansion and variation in cloud top height, but having an uplift effect on the average cloud top height. The vertical microphysics of both cloud types under conditions of no rain over the TP are characterized by lower-level ice water, ice particles with a relatively larger range of sizes, and a relatively lower occurrence of denser ice particles. The features are similar to other regions when precipitation enhances, but convective clouds gather denser and larger ice particles than stratiform clouds over the TP. The atmospheric shortwave (longwave) heating (cooling) rate strengthens with increased precipitation for both cloud types. The longwave cooling layer is thicker when the rainfall rate is less than 100 mm d^?1, but the net heating layer is typically compressed for the profiles of both cloud types over the TP. This study provides insights into the associations between clouds and precipitation, and an observational basis for improving the simulation of convective and stratiform clouds over the TP in climate models.     

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 Regional Climate Model(RegCM4) with LICOM_np. The analysis focused on the 2005 western North Pacific summer monsoon rainfall. The results showed that the regional coupled models with either RegCM4 or WRF4 as their atmospheric model component simulated the broad features over the WNP reasonably well. Quantitative intercomparison of the regional coupled simulations exhibited different biases for different climate variables.RegCM4_LICOM exhibited smaller biases in its simulation of the averaged June–July–August SST and rainfall, while WRF4_LICOM better captured the tropical cyclone(TC) intensity, the percentage contributions of rainfall induced by TCs to the total rainfall, and the diurnal cycle of rainfall and stratiform percentages, especially over land areas. The different behaviors in rainfall simulated by the two models were partly ascribed to the behaviors in the simulated western North Pacific subtropical high(WNPSH). The stronger(weaker) WNPSH in WRF4_LICOM(RegCM4_LICOM) was driven by overestimated(underestimated) diabatic heating, which peaked at approximately 450 hPa over the region around the Philippines in association with different condensation–radiation processes. Coupling of WRF4 with LIOCM is a crucial step towards the development of the next generation of regional earth system models at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

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.     

How well can CMIP5 simulate precipitation and its controlling processes over tropical South America?

Underestimated rainfall over Amazonia was a common problem for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) models. We investigate whether it still exists in the CMIP phase 5 (CMIP5) models and, if so, what causes these biases? Our evaluation of historical simulations shows that some models still underestimate rainfall over Amazonia. During the dry season, both convective and large-scale precipitation is underestimated in most models. GFDL-ESM2M and IPSL notably show more pentads with no rainfall. During the wet season, large-scale precipitation is still underestimated in most models. In the dry and transition seasons, models with more realistic moisture convergence and surface evapotranspiration generally have more realistic rainfall totals. In some models, overestimates of rainfall are associated with the adjacent tropical and eastern Pacific ITCZs. However, in other models, too much surface net radiation and a resultant high Bowen ratio appears to cause underestimates of rainfall. During the transition season, low pre-seasonal latent heat, high sensible flux, and a weaker influence of cold air incursions contribute to the dry bias. About half the models can capture, but overestimate, the influences of teleconnection. Based on a simple metric, HadGEM2-ES outperforms other models especially for surface conditions and atmospheric circulation. GFDL-ESM2M has the strongest dry bias presumably due to its overestimate of moisture divergence, induced by overestimated ITCZs in adjacent oceans, and reinforced by positive feedbacks between reduced cloudiness, high Bowen ratio and suppression of rainfall during the dry season, and too weak incursions of extratropical disturbances during the transition season.     

MM5 simulations of interannual change and the diurnal cycle of southern African regional climate

Summary Two cumulus convection and two planetary boundary layer schemes are used to investigate the climate of southern Africa using the MM5 regional climate model. Both a wet (1988/89) and a dry (1991/92) summer (December–February, DJF) rainfall season are simulated and the results compared with three different observational sources: Climate Research Unit seasonal data (precipitation, 2 m surface temperature, number of rain days), satellite-derived diurnal precipitation and the Surface Radiation Budget diurnal short-wave fluxes and optical depth. Using the ETA model boundary layer in MM5 simulates too much incident short-wave radiation at the surface at 12 UTC, whereas the medium range forecast model boundary layer yields a diurnal cycle of short-wave radiation closer to the observed. The Betts-Miller convection scheme in MM5 simulates peak rainfall later in the day and less rain days than observed, whereas when using the Kain-Fritsch convection scheme a peak rainfall earlier in the day and more rain days than observed are simulated. The intensity of the hydrological cycle is therefore dependent on the choice of convection scheme, which in turn is further modified by the boundary layer scheme. Precipitation during the wet 1988/89 season is reasonably captured by most simulations, though using the Betts-Miller scheme more accurately simulates rainfall during the dry 1991/92 season. Mean DJF biases in the surface temperature and diurnal temperature range are consistent with biases in the number of rain days and the diurnal cycles of surface moisture and energy.     

Precipitation changes in wet and dry seasons over the 20th century simulated by two versions of the FGOALS model

Seasonal precipitation changes over the globe during the 20 th century simulated by two versions of the Flexible Global Ocean–Atmosphere–Land System(FGOALS) model are assessed. The two model versions differ in terms of their AGCM component, but the remaining parts of the system are almost identical. Both models reasonably reproduce the mean-state features of the timings of the wet and dry seasons and related precipitation amounts, with pattern correlation coefficients of 0.65–0.84 with observations. Globally averaged seasonal precipitation changes are analyzed. The results show that wet seasons get wetter and the annual range(precipitation difference between wet and dry seasons) increases during the 20 th century in the two models, with positive trends covering most parts of the globe, which is consistent with observations. However,both models show a moistening dry season, which is opposite to observations. Analysis of the globally averaged moisture budget in the historical climate simulations of the two models shows little change in the horizontal moisture advection in both the wet and dry seasons. The globally averaged seasonal precipitation changes are mainly dominated by the changes in evaporation and vertical moisture advection. Evaporation and vertical moisture advection combine to make wet seasons wetter and enhance the annual range. In the dry season, the opposite change of evaporation and vertical moisture advection leads to an insignificant change in precipitation. Vertical moisture advection is the most important term that determines the changes in precipitation, wherein the thermodynamic component is dominant and the dynamic component tends to offset the effect of the thermodynamic component.     

Diurnal cycles of precipitation over subtropical China in IPCC AR5 AMIP simulations

Atmospheric Intercomparison Project simulations of the summertime diurnal cycle of precipitation and low-level winds over subtropical China by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report models were evaluated. By analyzing the diurnal variation of convective and stratiform components, results confirmed that major biases in rainfall diurnal cycles over subtropical China are due to convection parameterization and further pointed to the diurnal variation of convective rainfall being closely related to the closure of the convective scheme. All models captured the early-morning peak of total rainfall over the East China Sea, but most models had problems in simulating diurnal rainfall variations over land areas of subtropical China. When total rainfall was divided into stratiform and convective rainfall, all models successfully simulated the diurnal variation of stratiform rainfall with a maximum in the early morning. The models, overestimating noon-time （nocturnal） total rainfall over land, generally simulated too much convective rainfall, which peaked close to noon （midnight）, sharing some similarities in the closures of their deep convection schemes. The better performance of the Meteorological Research Institute atmospherer. ocean coupled global climate model version 3 （MRI-CGCM3） is attributed to the well captured ratio of the two kinds of rainfall, but not diurnal variations of the two components. Therefore, a proper ratio of convective and stratiform rainfall to total rainfall is also important to improve simulated diurnal rainfall variation.     

分辨率对区域气候极端事件模拟的影响

利用NCAR MM5V3对1999年6月长江流域的极端异常降水事件进行了模拟,主要研究不同水平和垂直分辨率对极端区域气候事件模拟的影响。数值模拟试验表明:模式能够模拟出极端强降水的主要分布特征;水平分辨率的提高降低了模式模拟的强降水偏差,对逐日降水变化的模拟更加合理,而垂直分辨率的提高基本上也都减小了模拟的强降水过程的偏差,改善对强降水的模拟能力;模式水平、垂直分辨率的提高在一定程度上增强了对强降水过程的模拟能力。水平分辨率的提高能够改善模式对海平面气压的模拟,而垂直分辨率的提高可以改善模式模拟的地面气温和低层环流。分辨率对中层大气环流的影响不是很敏感。不同积云对流参数化方案模拟的对流降水比率随水平分辨率的变化是不同的,Grell方案对流降水比例随分辨率的提高而增加,而Kain-Fritsch方案的结果相反。     

Validating a regional climate model’s downscaling ability for East Asian summer monsoonal interannual variability

Performance of a regional climate model (RCM), WRF, for downscaling East Asian summer season climate is investigated based on 11-summer integrations associated with different climate conditions with reanalysis data as the lateral boundary conditions. It is found that while the RCM is essentially unable to improve large-scale circulation patterns in the upper troposphere for most years, it is able to simulate better lower-level meridional moisture transport in the East Asian summer monsoon. For precipitation downscaling, the RCM produces more realistic magnitude of the interannual variation in most areas of East Asia than that in the reanalysis. Furthermore, the RCM significantly improves the spatial pattern of summer rainfall over dry inland areas and mountainous areas, such as Mongolia and the Tibetan Plateau. Meanwhile, it reduces the wet bias over southeast China. Over Mongolia, however, the performance of precipitation downscaling strongly depends on the year: the WRF is skillful for normal and wet years, but not for dry years, which suggests that land surface processes play an important role in downscaling ability. Over the dry area of North China, the WRF shows the worst performance. Additional sensitivity experiments testing land effects in downscaling suggest the initial soil moisture condition and representation of land surface processes with different schemes are sources of uncertainty for precipitation downscaling. Correction of initial soil moisture using the climatology dataset from GSWP-2 is a useful approach to robustly reducing wet bias in inland areas as well as to improve spatial distribution of precipitation. Despite the improvement on RCM downscaling, regional analyses reveal that accurate simulation of precipitation over East China, where the precipitation pattern is strongly influenced by the activity of the Meiyu/Baiu rainfall band, is difficult. Since the location of the rainfall band is closely associated with both lower-level meridional moisture transport and upper-level circulation structures, it is necessary to have realistic upper-air circulation patterns in the RCM as well as lower-level moisture transport in order to improve the circulation-associated convective rainfall band in East Asia.     

The role of northern Arabian Sea surface temperature biases in CMIP5 model simulations and future projections of Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Many climate models have problems simulating Indian summer monsoon rainfall and its variability, resulting in considerable uncertainty in future projections. Problems may relate to many factors, such as local effects of the formulation of physical parametrisation schemes, while common model biases that develop elsewhere within the climate system may also be important. Here we examine the extent and impact of cold sea surface temperature (SST) biases developing in the northern Arabian Sea in the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble, where such SST biases are shown to be common. Such biases have previously been shown to reduce monsoon rainfall in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM) by weakening moisture fluxes incident upon India. The Arabian Sea SST biases in CMIP5 models consistently develop in winter, via strengthening of the winter monsoon circulation, and persist into spring and summer. A clear relationship exists between Arabian Sea cold SST bias and weak monsoon rainfall in CMIP5 models, similar to effects in the MetUM. Part of this effect may also relate to other factors, such as forcing of the early monsoon by spring-time excessive equatorial precipitation. Atmosphere-only future time-slice experiments show that Arabian Sea cold SST biases have potential to weaken future monsoon rainfall increases by limiting moisture flux acceleration through non-linearity of the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship. Analysis of CMIP5 model future scenario simulations suggests that such effects are small compared to other sources of uncertainty, although models with large Arabian Sea cold SST biases may suppress the range of potential outcomes for changes to future early monsoon rainfall.     

亚洲季风区积云降水和层云降水时空分布特征及其可能成因分析

本文利用最近12年的TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission)卫星资料,分析了亚洲季风区积云降水和层云降水的时空分布特征.结果表明:从多年平均角度看,亚洲季风区积云降水和层云降水空间分布主要呈现出随纬度变化的特征:25°N以北的副热带季风区以层云降水方式为主,其所占比例在50％...     

土壤湿度异常对区域短期气候影响的数值模拟试验

用区域气候模式 (RegCM_NCC) 对江淮流域地区春季初始土壤湿度异常导致的区域气候效应进行了数值模拟分析, 结果表明:土壤湿度异常变化对区域降水的影响非常显著, 土壤湿度的正异常使得异常区域内降水增大, 地面空气增湿、蒸发加大, 与此相应, 地表气温迅速降低, 土壤湿度的负异常有与之相反的结果, 这种区域气候响应是通过改变地表辐射平衡及地-气系统能通量而实现的; 区域土壤湿度异常对短期气候的影响在一个月之内较明显, 它的影响可持续至以后的几个月, 但强度逐渐减弱; 区域土壤湿度异常的气候响应不仅仅局限于异常区域内部, 而且可以通过次级环流影响到其他区域的降水、温度等变化。     

基于气候系统模式FGOALS-g2的热带气旋活动及其影响的动力降尺度模拟

热带气旋是气候模拟关注的重要对象,但是,由于当前的气候系统模式分辨率较低,难以合理再现热带气旋分布特征,因此,动力降尺度就成为一种有效的手段。本文使用区域气候模式RegCM3,对中国科学院大气物理研究所气候系统模式FGOALS-g2的模拟结果进行动力降尺度,基于热带气旋路径追踪法,从热带气旋的路径、强度和降水三个方面,检验了动力降尺度在热带气旋模拟能力上的增值。结果表明,动力降尺度结果大幅提升了热带气旋路径频率的模拟,较之全球模式,其与观测的路径频率分布的空间相关系数从0.57提升至0.74;区域模式模拟的热带气旋强度与观测更为一致,全球模式难以模拟40 m s?1以上风速的热带气旋,区域模式能够模拟风速为60 m s?1的热带气旋;在热带气旋降水方面,降尺度后的热带气旋降水贡献率和平均热带气旋降水强度均有所改善,在西北太平洋区域较之全球模式,区域模式将热带气旋降水贡献率和降水强度提高了10%和4.7 mm d?1。动力降尺度后TC（tropical cyclone）的模拟技巧得到提升的区域为西北太平洋区域,但在中国南海区域,技巧提升的不显著甚至有所下降。关于动力降尺度结果在西北太平洋区域的技巧提升,分析表明能够更好体现CISK（Conditional Instability of the Second Kind）机制是主要原因,区域模式模拟的水汽增多、正涡度增强、上升运动增强而垂直风切变减弱都有显著贡献。     

Simulation of the annual and diurnal cycles of rainfall over South Africa by a regional climate model

The capability of a current state-of-the-art regional climate model for simulating the diurnal and annual cycles of rainfall over a complex subtropical region is documented here. Hourly rainfall is simulated over Southern Africa for 1998–2006 by the non-hydrostatic model weather research and forecasting (WRF), and compared to a network of 103 stations covering South Africa. We used five simulations, four of which consist of different parameterizations for atmospheric convection at a 0.5 × 0.5° resolution, performed to test the physic-dependency of the results. The fifth experiment uses explicit convection over tropical South Africa at a 1/30° resolution. WRF simulates realistic mean rainfall fields, albeit wet biases over tropical Africa. The model mean biases are strongly modulated by the convective scheme used for the simulations. The annual cycle of rainfall is well simulated over South Africa, mostly influenced by tropical summer rainfall except in the Western Cape region experiencing winter rainfall. The diurnal cycle shows a timing bias, with atmospheric convection occurring too early in the afternoon, and causing too abundant rainfall. This result, particularly true in summer over the northeastern part of the country, is weakly physic-dependent. Cloud-resolving simulations do not clearly reduce the diurnal cycle biases. In the end, the rainfall overestimations appear to be mostly imputable to the afternoon hours of the austral summer rainy season, i.e., the periods during which convective activity is intense over the region.     

集合动力因子对登陆台风“莫拉克”(0908)暴雨 落区的诊断与预报研究

“莫拉克”是2009年登陆我国热带气旋中影响范围最广、造成损失最大的台风.“莫拉克”带来的强降水导致台湾南部发生50年来最严重的水灾,福建、浙江等省的部分站点过程雨量超过50年一遇.因此,在台风暴雨(强降水)预报中,能否准确把握其落区就显得尤为重要.本文首先利用中尺度非静力数值模式WRF对台风“莫拉克”进行高分辨率数值模拟(三层嵌套,最高分辨率为2 km).模式较好地再现了台风中心的移动路径、强度;模拟的降水分布区域与实况也较为相符.利用再分析资料及模拟的高分辨率资料对暴雨成因进行诊断分析,表明造成此次强降水过程的水汽主要由西南季风输送,并且垂直运动旺盛,贯穿整个对流层.根据集合动力因子预报方法,运用广义湿位温、对流涡度矢量垂直分量及水汽散度通量对暴雨落区进行了诊断和预报,发现广义湿位温等值线的“漏斗状”区域与暴雨落区对应关系显著;基于NCEP-GFS每日四次的预报场资料,利用对流涡度矢量和水汽散度通量做出的降水落区预报表明,二者对降水落区均有一定的指示意义.强降水主要位于对流层中低层对流涡度矢量垂直积分量的梯度大值区附近,其时间演变与观测降水的演变具有相当高的一致性;水汽通量散度抓住了垂直运动和水汽散度这两个引发暴雨的关键因子,对降水的发生范围和强降水极值中心的判断更为准确.这三个动力因子都可以为“莫拉克”台风暴雨(强降水)落区提供信号,对台风暴雨落区具有一定的诊断和预报意义.     

Present-day regional climate simulation over Malaysia and western Maritime Continent region using PRECIS forced with ERA40 reanalysis

This study examines the performance of the regional climate model, PRECIS, in reproducing the historical seasonal mean climatology over the Malaysian region. The performance of the model in simulating the seasonal climate pattern of the temperature, precipitation and large-scale circulation was reasonably good. The biases of temperature are less than 2 °C in general, while the seasonal cycles match the observed pattern despite some differences in certain regions. However, the biases for precipitation were greater, particularly over the mountainous areas. These biases could be associated with the deficiencies of the model physics, related to the misrepresentation of the land–surface interaction and convective scheme. Furthermore, the model fails to simulate the mean sea-level pressure over the interior part of Borneo with a significant low-pressure centre. A higher magnitude of the moisture convergence and divergence simulated by the model also contributed to the biases of precipitation over Malaysia.     

A Study on the Mesoscale Convective Systems during the Summer Monsoon Onset over the South China Sea in 1998 Part Ⅰ: Analysis of Large-Scale Fields for Occurrence and Development of the Mesoscale Convective Systems

The summer monsoon onset over the northern South China Sea (SCS) in May 16-20, 1998 was characterized by the abrupt onset of mesoscale convective activities and rapid increase of precipitation. The possible mechanism for formation of the mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and related rain belts were revealed through discussing their forming physical conditions under the large-scale background: (1) The high pseudo-equivalent potential temperature and the convective instability in the lower troposphere, the low-level southwesterly confluence and the high-level divergence over South China and the northern SCS provided the favorable large-scale thermodynamic and dynamic conditions for development of MCSs. The southwesterly flow from the Bay of Bengal (BOB) interacted with that to the western flank of the subtropical high, which constituted the major moisture channels, thus bringing about deep wet layers and strong moisture convergence;(2) triggered by several cold troughs from high and mid latitudes, the convectively unstable energy was released and the convective activities over the northern SCS broke out abruptly;(3)analysis of retrieved precipitation based on the dual-Doppler radar during South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX) indicated that active convection influenced by the monsoon trough and corresponding wind shear line organized and formed continually some mesoscale convective rainbelts. During May 15-19,about 12 precipitation processes with 6-12-hour life span or more were observed;and (4) under the favorable synoptic conditions, establishment of the monsoon trough and shear line in the low levels, as well as production and development of mesoscale low vortex were all necessary conditions for the formation and maintenance of MCSs.