Sensitivity of near-surface atmospheric circulation to tropical instability waves

A set of atmospheric general circulation model experiments were performed where the Community Atmospheric Model version 3.1 is forced with sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) that have the imprint of tropical instability waves (TIWs) of varying strengths. The presence of TIWs in the SSTs increased the variance in the large-scale circulation in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The impact of TIWs in the SST anomalies is directly seen in enhanced mixing of the air temperature anomalies, thereby diffusing the air temperature gradients setup by the oceanic fronts throughout the ABL. The presence of TIWs transformed the diffusive-natured ABL to advection-dominated regime. This implies that within the ABL, the presence of TIWs leads to the enhanced interactions among the neighboring grid cells and prompts greater horizontal communications among atmospheric variables. However, the advection in the ABL due to the TIWs is not a linear function of increasing TIW strength. Unlike air temperature, zonal, and vertical velocity, the variance in the meridional velocity changes at the top of the ABL due to the momentum mixing across the ABL in the vertical direction. This causes the ABL to be more turbulent beyond seasonal time scales. This analysis also suggests that a simple parameterization is not sufficient to take the account of rectification effects on the atmospheric variables that are missing due to the lack of TIW representation in the coarse-resolution coupled general circulation models.     

Comment on ‘Shang S. 2012. Calculating actual crop evapotranspiration under soil water stress conditions with appropriate numerical methods and time step. Hydrological Processes 26: 3338–3343. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.8405’

A previous study analyzed errors in the numerical calculation of actual crop evapotranspiration (ET_a) under soil water stress. Assuming no irrigation or precipitation, it constructed equations for ET_a over limited soil‐water ranges in a root zone drying out due to evapotranspiration. It then used a single crop‐soil composite to provide recommendations about the appropriate usage of numerical methods under different values of the time step and the maximum crop evapotranspiration (ET_c). This comment reformulates those ET_a equations for applicability over the full range of soil water values, revealing a dependence of the relative error in numerical ET_a on the initial soil water that was not seen in the previous study. It is shown that the recommendations based on a single crop‐soil composite can be invalid for other crop‐soil composites. Finally, a consideration of the numerical error in the time‐cumulative value of ET_a is discussed besides the existing consideration of that error over individual time steps as done in the previous study. This cumulative ET_a is more relevant to the final crop yield. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

The role of atmospheric internal variability on the prediction skill of interannual North Pacific sea-surface temperatures

The sensitivity of the sea-surface temperature (SST) prediction skill to the atmospheric internal variability (weather noise) in the North Pacific (20^°–60^°N;120^°E–80^°W) on decadal timescales is examined using state-of-the-art Climate Forecasting System model version 2 (CFS) and a variation of CFS in an Interactive Ensemble approach (CFSIE), wherein six copies of atmospheric components with different perturbed initial states of CFS are coupled with the same ocean model by exchanging heat, momentum and fresh water fluxes dynamically at the air-sea interface throughout the model integrations. The CFSIE experiments are designed to reduce weather noise and using a few ten-year long forecasts this study shows that reduction in weather noise leads to lower SST forecast skill. To understand the pathways that cause the reduced SST prediction skill, two twenty-year long forecasts produced with CFS and CFSIE for 1980-2000 are analyzed for the ocean subsurface characteristics that influence SST due to the reduction in weather noise in the North Pacific. The heat budget analysis in the oceanic mixed layer across the North Pacific reveals that weather noise significantly impacts the heat transport in the oceanic mixed layer. In the CFSIE forecasts, the reduced weather noise leads to increased variations in heat content due to shallower mixed layer, diminished heat storage and enhanced horizontal heat advection. The enhancement of the heat advection spans from the active Kuroshio regions of the east coast of Japan to the west coast of continental United States and significantly diffuses the basin-wide SST anomaly (SSTA) contrasts and leads to reduction in the SST prediction skill in decadal forecasts.