Comparison of coupled and uncoupled models in simulating Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation from CMIP6

The monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) is the dominant variability over the Indian Ocean during the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) season and is characterized by pronounced northward propagation. Previous studies have shown that general circulation models (GCMs) still have difficulty in simulating the northward-propagating MISO, and that the role of air-sea interaction in MISO is unclear. In this study, 14 atmosphere-ocean coupled GCMs (CGCMs) and the corresponding atmosphere-only GCMs (AGCMs) are selected from Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) to assess their performance in reproducing MISO and the associated vortex tilting mechanism. The results show that both CGCMs and AGCMs are able to well simulate the significant relationship between MISO and vortex tilting. However, 80% of CGCMs show better simulation skills for MISO than AGCMs in CMIP6. In AGCMs, the poor model fidelity in MISO is due to the failure simulation of vortex tilting. Moreover, it is found that failure to simulate the downward motion to the north of convection is responsible for the poor simulation of vortex tilting in AGCMs. In addition, it is observed that there is a significant relationship between the simulated sea surface temperature gradient and simulated vertical velocity shear in the meridional direction. These findings indicate that air-sea interaction may play a vital role in simulating vertical motions in tilting and MISO processes. This work offers us a specific target to improve the MISO simulation and further studies are needed to elucidate the physical processes of this air-sea interaction coupling with vortex tilting.