Improvement of model forecast on the Asian summer rainfall anomaly with the application of a spatial filtering scheme

Summary A revised 25-point Shuman-Shapiro Spatial Filter (RSSSF) has been applied to six atmospheric circulation models and multi-model ensemble (MME) predictions, and its effect on the improvement of model forecast skill scores of the Asian summer precipitation anomaly is discussed in this paper. On the basis of 21-yr model ensemble predictions, the RSSSF can remove the unpredictable ‘noise’ with respect to the 2-grid wavelength in the model precipitation anomaly fields and maintain the large-scale counterpart, which is related to the response of the model to large-scale boundary forcing. Therefore, this could possibly enhance the forecast skill of the Asian summer rainfall anomaly in the models and the MME. The potential improvement of model forecasting skill is found in the Asian summer monsoon region, where the anomaly correlation coefficient (ACC) has been improved by 7–40%, corresponding to the decreased root mean square error (RMSE) in the model and the MME precipitation anomaly forecasts.