scholarly journals Precipitation Features of the Maritime Continent in Parameterized and Explicit Convection Models

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 2449-2466 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Argüeso ◽  
R. Romero ◽  
V. Homar
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Atmospheric Models ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Convective Systems ◽  
Physical Mechanisms ◽  
Precipitation Characteristics ◽  
Simulated Precipitation ◽  
Shallow Clouds

AbstractThe Maritime Continent is the largest archipelago in the world and a region of intense convective activity that influences Earth’s general circulation. The region features one of the warmest oceans, very complex topography, dense vegetation, and an intricate configuration of islands, which together result in very specific precipitation characteristics, such as a marked diurnal cycle. Atmospheric models poorly resolve deep convection processes that generate rainfall in the archipelago and show fundamental errors in simulating precipitation. Spatial resolution and the use of convective schemes required to represent subgrid convective circulations have been pointed out as culprits of these errors. However, models running at the kilometer scale explicitly resolve most convective systems and thus are expected to contribute to solve the challenge of accurately simulating rainfall in the Maritime Continent. Here we investigate the differences in simulated precipitation characteristics for different representations of convection, including parameterized and explicit, and at various spatial resolutions. We also explore the vertical structure of the atmosphere in search of physical mechanisms that explain the main differences identified in the rainfall fields across model experiments. Our results indicate that both increased resolution and representing convection explicitly are required to produce a more realistic simulation of precipitation features, such as a correct diurnal cycle both over land and ocean. We found that the structures of deep and shallow clouds are the main differences across experiments and thus they are responsible for differences in the timing and spatial distribution of rainfall patterns in the various convection representation experiments.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Asian summer precipitation in different configurations of a high-resolution general circulation model in a range of decision-relevant spatial scales

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 6381-6405
Author(s):  
Mark R. Muetzelfeldt ◽  
Reinhard Schiemann ◽  
Andrew G. Turner ◽  
Nicholas P. Klingaman ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Summer Precipitation ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Simulated Precipitation ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Precipitation Bias

Abstract. High-resolution general circulation models (GCMs) can provide new insights into the simulated distribution of global precipitation. We evaluate how summer precipitation is represented over Asia in global simulations with a grid length of 14 km. Three simulations were performed: one with a convection parametrization, one with convection represented explicitly by the model's dynamics, and a hybrid simulation with only shallow and mid-level convection parametrized. We evaluate the mean simulated precipitation and the diurnal cycle of the amount, frequency, and intensity of the precipitation against satellite observations of precipitation from the Climate Prediction Center morphing method (CMORPH). We also compare the high-resolution simulations with coarser simulations that use parametrized convection. The simulated and observed precipitation is averaged over spatial scales defined by the hydrological catchment basins; these provide a natural spatial scale for performing decision-relevant analysis that is tied to the underlying regional physical geography. By selecting basins of different sizes, we evaluate the simulations as a function of the spatial scale. A new BAsin-Scale Model Assessment ToolkIt (BASMATI) is described, which facilitates this analysis. We find that there are strong wet biases (locally up to 72 mm d−1 at small spatial scales) in the mean precipitation over mountainous regions such as the Himalayas. The explicit convection simulation worsens existing wet and dry biases compared to the parametrized convection simulation. When the analysis is performed at different basin scales, the precipitation bias decreases as the spatial scales increase for all the simulations; the lowest-resolution simulation has the smallest root mean squared error compared to CMORPH. In the simulations, a positive mean precipitation bias over China is primarily found to be due to too frequent precipitation for the parametrized convection simulation and too intense precipitation for the explicit convection simulation. The simulated diurnal cycle of precipitation is strongly affected by the representation of convection: parametrized convection produces a peak in precipitation too close to midday over land, whereas explicit convection produces a peak that is closer to the late afternoon peak seen in observations. At increasing spatial scale, the representation of the diurnal cycle in the explicit and hybrid convection simulations improves when compared to CMORPH; this is not true for any of the parametrized simulations. Some of the strengths and weaknesses of simulated precipitation in a high-resolution GCM are found: the diurnal cycle is improved at all spatial scales with convection parametrization disabled, the interaction of the flow with orography exacerbates existing biases for mean precipitation in the high-resolution simulations, and parametrized simulations produce similar diurnal cycles regardless of their resolution. The need for tuning the high-resolution simulations is made clear. Our approach for evaluating simulated precipitation across a range of scales is widely applicable to other GCMs.

The Diurnal Cycle of Clouds and Precipitation along the Sierra Madre Occidental Observed during NAME-2004: Implications for Warm Season Precipitation Estimation in Complex Terrain

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Nesbitt ◽  
David J. Gochis ◽  
Timothy J. Lang
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Sierra Madre Occidental ◽  
Convective Systems ◽  
Sierra Madre ◽  
Precipitation Estimation ◽  
Rainfall Estimates ◽  
Tier I

Abstract This study examines the spatial and temporal variability in the diurnal cycle of clouds and precipitation tied to topography within the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) tier-I domain during the 2004 NAME enhanced observing period (EOP, July–August), with a focus on the implications for high-resolution precipitation estimation within the core of the monsoon. Ground-based precipitation retrievals from the NAME Event Rain Gauge Network (NERN) and Colorado State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (CSU–NCAR) version 2 radar composites over the southern NAME tier-I domain are compared with satellite rainfall estimates from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center Morphing technique (CMORPH) and Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information Using Artificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN) operational and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 research satellite estimates along the western slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO). The rainfall estimates are examined alongside hourly images of high-resolution Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 11-μm brightness temperatures. An abrupt shallow to deep convective transition is found over the SMO, with the development of shallow convective systems just before noon on average over the SMO high peaks, with deep convection not developing until after 1500 local time on the SMO western slopes. This transition is shown to be contemporaneous with a relative underestimation (overestimation) of precipitation during the period of shallow (deep) convection from both IR and microwave precipitation algorithms due to changes in the depth and vigor of shallow clouds and mixed-phase cloud depths. This characteristic life cycle in cloud structure and microphysics has important implications for ice-scattering microwave and infrared precipitation estimates, and thus hydrological applications using high-resolution precipitation data, as well as the study of the dynamics of convective systems in complex terrain.

scholarly journals Role of Diurnal Cycle in the Maritime Continent Barrier Effect on MJO Propagation in an AGCM

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 1545-1565
Author(s):  
R. S. Ajayamohan ◽  
Boualem Khouider ◽  
V. Praveen ◽  
Andrew J. Majda
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Barrier Effect ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Stochastic Case ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe barrier effect of the Maritime Continent (MC) in stalling or modifying the propagation characteristics of the MJO is widely accepted. The strong diurnal cycle of convection over the MC is believed to play a dominant role in this regard. This hypothesis is studied here, with the help of a coarse-resolution atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). The dry dynamical core of the AGCM is coupled to the multicloud parameterization piggybacked with a dynamical bulk boundary layer model. A set of sensitivity experiments is carried out by systematically varying the strength of the MC diurnal flux to assess the impact of the diurnal convective variability on the MJO propagation. The effects of deterministic and stochastic diurnal forcings on MJO characteristics are compared. It is found that the precipitation and zonal wind variance, on the intraseasonal time scales, over the western Pacific region decreases with the increase in diurnal forcing, indicating the blocking of MC precipitation. An increase in precipitation variance over the MC associated with the weakening of precipitation variance over the west Pacific is evident in all experiments. The striking difference between deterministic and stochastic diurnal forcing experiments is that the strength needed for the deterministic case to achieve the same degree of blocking is almost double that of stochastic case. The stochastic diurnal flux over the MC seems to be more detrimental in blocking the MJO propagation. This hints at the notion that the models with inadequate representation of organized convection tend to suffer from the MC-barrier effect.

Resolution dependence of the simulated precipitation and diurnal cycle over the Maritime Continent

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 4009-4028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Li ◽  
Nicolas C. Jourdain ◽  
Andréa S. Taschetto ◽  
Alex Sen Gupta ◽  
Daniel Argüeso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Simulated Precipitation

scholarly journals Diurnal cycle of precipitation and near-surface atmospheric conditions over the maritime continent: land–sea contrast and impacts of ambient winds in cloud-permitting simulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuntao Wei ◽  
Zhaoxia Pu
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Return Flow ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Regional Variability ◽  
Near Surface

AbstractA set of cloud-permitting-scale numerical simulations during January–February 2018 is used to examine the diurnal cycle (DC) of precipitation and near-surface variables (e.g., 2 m temperature, 10 m wind and convergence) over the Indo-Pacific Maritime Continent under the impacts of shore-orthogonal ambient winds (SOAWs). It is found that the DC of these variables and their variabilities of daily maxima, minima, and diurnal amplitudes vary over land, sea, and coastal regions. Among all variables, the DC of precipitation has the highest linear correlation with near-surface convergence (near-surface temperature) over coastal (noncoastal) regions. The correlations among the DCs of precipitation, wind, and heating are greater over the ocean than over land. Sine curves can model accurately the DCs of most variables over the ocean, but not over land. SOAWs act to influence the DC mainly by affecting the diurnal amplitude of the considered variables, with DC being stronger under more strengthened offshore SOAWs, though variable dependence and regional variability exist. Composite analysis over Sumatra reveals that under weak SOAWs, shallow clouds are dominant and cause a pre-moistening effect, supporting shallow-to-deep convection transition. A sea breeze circulation (SBC) with return flow aloft can develop rapidly. Cold pools are better able to trigger new updrafts and contribute to the upscale growth and inland migration of deep convection. In addition, warm gravity waves can propagate upward throughout the troposphere, thereby supporting a strong DC. In contrast, under strong SOAWs, both shallow and middle-high clouds prevail and persist throughout the day. The evolution of moistening and SBC is reduced, leading to weak variation in vertical motion and rainwater confined to the boundary layer. Large-scale winds, moisture, and convection are discussed to interpret how strong SOAWs affect the DC of Sumatra.

The Role of Entrainment in the Diurnal Cycle of Continental Convection

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2722-2738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D. Del Genio ◽  
Jingbo Wu
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Free Parameter ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
Entrainment Rate ◽  
Cumulus Parameterizations

Abstract In continental convective environments, general circulation models typically produce a diurnal cycle of rainfall that peaks close to the noon maximum of insolation, hours earlier than the observed peak. One possible reason is insufficient sensitivity of their cumulus parameterizations to the state of the environment due to weak entrainment. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, run at cloud-resolving (600 and 125 m) resolution, is used to study the diurnal transition from shallow to deep convection during the monsoon break period of the Tropical Warm Pool–International Cloud Experiment. The WRF model develops a transition from shallow to deep convection in isolated events by 1430–1500 local time. The inferred entrainment rate weakens with increasing time of day as convection deepens. Several current cumulus parameterizations are tested for their ability to reproduce the WRF behavior. The Gregory parameterization, in which entrainment rate varies directly with parcel buoyancy and inversely as the square of the updraft speed, is the best predictor of the inferred WRF entrainment profiles. The Gregory scheme depends on a free parameter that represents the fraction of buoyant turbulent kinetic energy generation on the cloud scale that is consumed by the turbulent entrainment process at smaller scales. A single vertical profile of this free parameter, increasing with height above the boundary layer but constant with varying convection depth, produces entrainment rate profiles consistent with those inferred from the WRF over the buoyant depth of the convection. Parameterizations in which entrainment varies inversely with altitude or updraft speed or increases with decreasing tropospheric relative humidity do not perform as well. Entrainment rate at cloud base decreases as convection depth increases; this behavior appears to be related to an increase in vertical velocity at downdraft cold pool edges.

scholarly journals The Impact of MJO, Kelvin, and Equatorial Rossby Waves on the Diurnal Cycle over the Maritime Continent

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 711
Author(s):  
Lakemariam Worku ◽  
Ademe Mekonnen ◽  
Carl Schreck
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Kelvin Waves ◽  
Kelvin Wave ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Diurnal Cycles ◽  
Precipitation Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Convection Dominated ◽  
Equatorial Rossby Waves

The impacts of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), Kelvin waves, and Equatorial Rossby (ER) waves on the diurnal cycle of rainfall and types of deep convection over the Maritime Continent are investigated using rainfall from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis and Infrared Weather States (IR–WS) data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. In an absolute sense, the MJO produced its strongest modulations of rainfall and organized deep convection over the islands, when and where convection is already strongest. The MJO actually has a greater percentage modulation over the coasts and seas, but it does not affect weaker diurnal cycle there. Isolated deep convection was also more prevalent over land during the suppressed phase, while organized deep convection dominated the enhanced phase, consistent with past work. This study uniquely examined the effects of Kelvin and ER waves on rainfall, convection, and their diurnal cycles over the Maritime Continent. The modulation of convection by Kelvin waves closely mirrored that by the MJO, although the Kelvin wave convection continued farther into the decreasing phase. The signals for ER waves were also similar but less distinct. An improved understanding of how these waves interact with convection could lead to improved subseasonal forecast skill.

scholarly journals Numerical Study of a Typhoon with a Large Eye: Model Simulation and Verification

2005 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 725-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing-Hong Zhang ◽  
Shou-Jun Chen ◽  
Ying-Hwa Kuo ◽  
Kai-Hon Lau ◽  
Richard A. Anthes
Keyword(s):  
Mesoscale Model ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Mature Stage ◽  
State University ◽  
Convective Systems ◽  
Fifth Generation ◽  
Shallow Clouds

Typhoon Winnie (1997) was the fourth supertyphoon in the western North Pacific in 1997. In its mature stage, an outer eyewall, consisting of deep convection with a diameter of 370 km, was observed by satellite and radar. Within this unusually large outer eyewall existed an inner eyewall, which consisted of a ring of shallow clouds with a diameter of ∼50 km. In this study, Typhoon Winnie is simulated using a nested-grid version of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) with an inner grid length of 9 km. The model reproduces an outer cloud eyewall with a diameter of ∼350 km. The simulated radar reflectivity and hourly precipitation are verified with satellite microwave, infrared, and cloud brightness temperature images. Analysis of the model results indicates that the large outer eyewall in many ways possesses the structure of a typical hurricane eyewall. This includes strong tangential winds and radial inflow outside the eyewall as well as an extremely large horizontal wind shear right at the eyewall. The outer eyewall is characterized with a ring of high vorticity (RHV). This RHV is closely related to a ring of high convergence (RHC). This RHC is caused by organized convective systems along the eyewall. The eye simulated by Winnie is characterized by a broad region of warm, dry slowly sinking air. The factors determining the diameter of eyes in tropical cyclones are discussed by considering the scale of the environmental angular momentum and the maximum kinetic energy achieved by parcels of air originating in the environment and reaching the radius of maximum wind. It is hypothesized that the formation of a large eye is favored by large circulations in which parcels of air are drawn in toward the center of the storm from great distances, and trajectories of air in Winnie that support this hypothesis are shown.

scholarly journals Diagnosing the average spatio-temporal impact of convective systems – Part 2: A model inter-comparison using satellite data

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 9155-9201 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Johnston ◽  
S. Eliasson ◽  
P. Eriksson ◽  
R. M. Forbes ◽  
A. Gettelman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Rain Rate ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Convective Systems ◽  
Deep Convective Systems ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. The representation of the effect of tropical deep convective (DC) systems on upper-tropospheric moist processes and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) is evaluated in the climate models EC-Earth, ECHAM6, and CAM5 using satellite observations. A composite technique is applied to thousands of deep convective systems that are identified using local rain rate (RR) maxima in order to focus on the temporal evolution of the deep convective processes in the model and observations. The models tend to over-produce rain rates less than about 3 mm h−1 and underpredict the occurrence of more intense rain. While the diurnal distribution of oceanic rain rate maxima in the models is similar to the observations, the land-based maxima are out of phase. Over land, the diurnal cycle of rain is too intense, with DC events occurring at the same position on subsequent days, while the observations vary more in timing and geographical location. Despite having a larger climatological mean upper tropospheric relative humidity, models closely capture the observed moistening of the upper troposphere following the peak rain rate in the deep convective systems. A comparison of the evolution of vertical profiles of ice water content and cloud fraction shows significant differences between models and with the observations. Simulated cloud fractions near the tropopause are also larger than observed, but the corresponding ice water contents are smaller compared to the observations. EC-Earth's CF at pressure levels > 300 hPa are generally less than the obervations while the other models tend to have larger CF for similar altitudes. The models' performance for ocean-based systems seems to capture the evolution of DC systems fairly well, but the land-based systems show significant discrepancies. In particular, the models have a significantly stronger diurnal cycle at the same geo-spatial position. Finally, OLR anomalies associated with deep convection are in reasonable agreement with the observations. This study shows that such agreement with observations can be achieved in different ways in the three models due to different representations of deep convection processes and compensating errors.

A local-to-large scale view of Maritime Continent rainfall: control by ENSO, MJO and equatorial waves

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Simon C. Peatman ◽  
Juliane Schwendike ◽  
Cathryn E. Birch ◽  
John H. Marsham ◽  
Adrian J. Matthews ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Extreme Rainfall ◽  
Equatorial Waves ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Local Circulation ◽  
Wind Regimes ◽  
Equatorial Rossby Waves

AbstractThe canonical view of the Maritime Continent (MC) diurnal cycle is deep convection occurring over land during the afternoon and evening, tending to propagate offshore overnight. However, there is considerable day-to-day variability in the convection, and the mechanism of the offshore propagation is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that large-scale drivers such as ENSO, the MJO and equatorial waves, through their modification of the local circulation, can modify the direction or strength of the propagation, or prevent the deep convection from triggering in the first place. Taking a local-to-large scale approach we use in situ observations, satellite data and reanalyses for five MC coastal regions, and show that the occurrence of the diurnal convection and its offshore propagation is closely tied to coastal wind regimes we define using the k-means cluster algorithm. Strong prevailing onshore winds are associated with a suppressed diurnal cycle of precipitation; while prevailing offshore winds are associated with an active diurnal cycle, offshore propagation of convection and a greater risk of extreme rainfall. ENSO, the MJO, equatorial Rossby waves and westward mixed Rossby-gravity waves have varying levels of control over which coastal wind regime occurs, and therefore on precipitation, depending on the MC coastline in question. The large-scale drivers associated with dry and wet regimes are summarised for each location as a reference for forecasters.

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