scholarly journals Simulation of the North American Monsoon by the NCAR CCM3 and Its Sensitivity to Convection Parameterization

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2851-2866 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Craig Collier ◽  
Guang J. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Experimental Simulation ◽  
Specific Humidity ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Hourly Precipitation ◽  
The North

Abstract Two 9-yr runs of the NCAR Community Climate Model version 3 (CCM3) are compared in their simulations of the North American summer monsoon. In a control simulation, the Zhang–McFarlane deep convection scheme is used. For an experimental simulation, the following modifications to the scheme are implemented. The closure is based on the large-scale forcing of virtual temperature, and a relative humidity threshold on convective parcels lifted from the boundary layer is applied. The sensitivity to these modifications for simulating the North American monsoon is investigated. Model validation relies on hourly precipitation rates from surface gauges over the United States, hourly precipitation rates derived from the combination of microwave and radar measurements from NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite over Mexico, and CAPE values as calculated from temperature, specific humidity, and pressure fields from the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis. Results show that the experimental run improves the timing of the monsoon onset and peak in the regions of core monsoon influence considered here, though it increases a negative bias in the peak monsoon intensity in one region of northern Mexico. Sensitivity of the diurnal cycle of precipitation to modifications in the convective scheme is highly geographically dependent. Using a combination of gauge-based rainfall rates and reanalysis-based CAPE, it is found that improvements in the simulated diurnal cycle are confined to a convective regime in which the diurnal evolution of precipitation is observed to lag that of CAPE. For another regime, in which CAPE is observed to be approximately in phase with precipitation, model phase biases increase nearly everywhere. Some of the increased phase biases in the latter regime are primarily because of application of the relative humidity threshold.

scholarly journals Effects of Increased Horizontal Resolution on Simulation of the North American Monsoon in the NCAR CAM3: An Evaluation Based on Surface, Satellite, and Reanalysis Data

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1843-1861 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Craig Collier ◽  
Guang J. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Monsoon Season ◽  
The United States ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Sierra Madre Occidental ◽  
The North ◽  
Sierra Madre ◽  
Monsoon System

Abstract Simulation of the North American monsoon system by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3) is evaluated in its sensitivity to increasing horizontal resolution. For two resolutions, T42 and T85, rainfall is compared to Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite-derived and surface gauge-based rainfall rates over the United States and northern Mexico as well as rainfall accumulations in gauges of the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) Enhanced Rain Gauge Network (NERN) in the Sierra Madre Occidental. Simulated upper-tropospheric mass and wind fields are compared to those from NCEP–NCAR reanalyses. The comparison presented herein demonstrates that tropospheric motions associated with the North American monsoon system are sensitive to increasing the horizontal resolution of the model. An increase in resolution from T42 to T85 results in changes to a region of large-scale midtropospheric descent found north and east of the monsoon anticyclone. Relative to its simulation at T42, this region extends farther south and west at T85. Additionally, at T85, the subsidence is stronger. Consistent with the differences in large-scale descent, the T85 simulation of CAM3 is anomalously dry over Texas and northeastern Mexico during the peak monsoon months. Meanwhile, the geographic distribution of rainfall over the Sierra Madre Occidental region of Mexico is more satisfactorily simulated at T85 than at T42 for July and August. Moisture import into this region is greater at T85 than at T42 during these months. A focused study of the Sierra Madre Occidental region in particular shows that, in the regional-average sense, the timing of the peak of the monsoon is relatively insensitive to the horizontal resolution of the model, while a phase bias in the diurnal cycle of monsoon season precipitation is somewhat reduced in the higher-resolution run. At both resolutions, CAM3 poorly simulates the month-to-month evolution of monsoon rainfall over extreme northwestern Mexico and Arizona, though biases are considerably improved at T85.

scholarly journals A Numerical Investigation of Wet and Dry Onset Modes in the North American Monsoon Core Region. Part I: A Regional Mechanism for Interannual Variability

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 3953-3969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cuauhtémoc Turrent ◽  
Tereza Cavazos
Keyword(s):  
Interannual Variability ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
North American ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Core Region ◽  
Eastern Pacific ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
The Core ◽  
The North

In this study the results of two regional fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) simulations forced at their boundaries with low-pass-filtered North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) composite fields from which synoptic-scale variability was removed are presented. The filtered NARR data are also assimilated into the inner domain through the use of field nudging. The purpose of this research is to investigate wet and dry onset modes in the core region of the North American monsoon (NAM). Key features of the NAM that are present in the NARR fields and assimilated into the regional simulations include the position of the midlevel anticyclone, low-level circulation over the Gulf of California, and moisture flux patterns into the core monsoon region, for which the eastern Pacific is the likely primary source of moisture. The model develops a robust diurnal cycle of deep convection over the peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) that results solely from its radiation scheme and internal dynamics, in spite of the field nudging. The wet onset mode is related to a regional land–sea thermal contrast (LSTC) that is ~2°C higher than in the dry mode, and is further characterized by a northward-displaced midlevel anticyclone, a stronger surface pressure gradient along the Gulf of California, larger mean moisture fluxes into the core region from the eastern Pacific, a stronger diurnal cycle of deep convection, and the more northward distribution of precipitation along the axis of the SMO. A proposed regional LSTC mechanism for NAM onset interannual variability is consistent with the differences between both onset modes.

scholarly journals Assessment of CMIP5 Model Simulations of the North American Monsoon System

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (22) ◽  
pp. 8787-8801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerrie L. Geil ◽  
Yolande L. Serra ◽  
Xubin Zeng
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Monthly Precipitation ◽  
Large Scale Circulation ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The North ◽  
Monsoon System

Abstract Precipitation, geopotential height, and wind fields from 21 models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) are examined to determine how well this generation of general circulation models represents the North American monsoon system (NAMS). Results show no improvement since CMIP3 in the magnitude (root-mean-square error and bias) of the mean annual cycle of monthly precipitation over a core monsoon domain, but improvement in the phasing of the seasonal cycle in precipitation is notable. Monsoon onset is early for most models but is clearly visible in daily climatological precipitation, whereas monsoon retreat is highly variable and unclear in daily climatological precipitation. Models that best capture large-scale circulation patterns at a low level usually have realistic representations of the NAMS, but even the best models poorly represent monsoon retreat. Difficulty in reproducing monsoon retreat results from an inaccurate representation of gradients in low-level geopotential height across the larger region, which causes an unrealistic flux of low-level moisture from the tropics into the NAMS region that extends well into the postmonsoon season. Composites of the models with the best and worst representations of the NAMS indicate that adequate representation of the monsoon during the early to midseason can be achieved even with a large-scale circulation pattern bias, as long as the bias is spatially consistent over the larger region influencing monsoon development; in other words, as with monsoon retreat, it is the inaccuracy of the spatial gradients in geopotential height across the larger region that prevents some models from realistic representation of the early and midseason monsoon system.

scholarly journals The effects of ENSO and the North American monsoon on mast seeding in two Rocky Mountain conifer species

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1839) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas P. Wion ◽  
Ian S. Pearse ◽  
Kyle C. Rodman ◽  
Thomas T. Veblen ◽  
Miranda D. Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Mast Seeding ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
Conifer Species ◽  
Cone Production ◽  
The North

We aimed to disentangle the patterns of synchronous and variable cone production (i.e. masting) and its relationship to climate in two conifer species native to dry forests of western North America. We used cone abscission scars to reconstruct ca 15 years of recent cone production in Pinus edulis and Pinus ponderosa , and used redundancy analysis to relate time series of annual cone production to climate indices describing the North American monsoon and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We show that the sensitivity to climate and resulting synchrony in cone production varies substantially between species. Cone production among populations of P. edulis was much more spatially synchronous and more closely related to large-scale modes of climate variability than among populations of P. ponderosa . Large-scale synchrony in P. edulis cone production was associated with the North American monsoon and we identified a dipole pattern of regional cone production associated with ENSO phase. In P. ponderosa , these climate indices were not strongly associated with cone production, resulting in asynchronous masting patterns among populations. This study helps frame our understanding of mast seeding as a life-history strategy and has implications for our ability to forecast mast years in these species. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The ecology and evolution of synchronized seed production in plants’.

scholarly journals Multiscale Variability of the Flow during the North American Monsoon Experiment

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1628-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard H. Johnson ◽  
Paul E. Ciesielski ◽  
Brian D. McNoldy ◽  
Peter J. Rogers ◽  
Richard K. Taft
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North American ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Return Flow ◽  
Southwestern United States ◽  
The North ◽  
Upper Level

Abstract The 2004 North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) provided an unprecedented observing network for studying the structure and evolution of the North American monsoon. This paper focuses on multiscale characteristics of the flow during NAME from the large scale to the mesoscale using atmospheric sounding data from the enhanced observing network. The onset of the 2004 summer monsoon over the NAME region accompanied the typical northward shift of the upper-level anticyclone or monsoon high over northern Mexico into the southwestern United States, but in 2004 this shift occurred slightly later than normal and the monsoon high did not extend as far north as usual. Consequently, precipitation over the southwestern United States was slightly below normal, although increased troughiness over the Great Plains contributed to increased rainfall over eastern New Mexico and western Texas. The first major pulse of moisture into the Southwest occurred around 13 July in association with a strong Gulf of California surge. This surge was linked to the westward passages of Tropical Storm Blas to the south and an upper-level inverted trough over northern Texas. The development of Blas appeared to be favored as an easterly wave moved into the eastern Pacific during the active phase of a Madden–Julian oscillation. On the regional scale, sounding data reveal a prominent sea breeze along the east shore of the Gulf of California, with a deep return flow as a consequence of the elevated Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) immediately to the east. Subsidence produced a dry layer over the gulf, whereas a deep moist layer existed over the west slopes of the SMO. A prominent nocturnal low-level jet was present on most days over the northern gulf. The diurnal cycle of heating and moistening (Q1 and Q2) over the SMO was characterized by deep convective profiles in the mid- to upper troposphere at 1800 LT, followed by stratiform-like profiles at midnight, consistent with the observed diurnal evolution of precipitation over this coastal mountainous region. The analyses in the core NAME domain are based on a gridded dataset derived from atmospheric soundings only and, therefore, should prove useful in validating reanalyses and regional models.

Applications of Monsoon Research: Opportunities to Inform Decision Making and Reduce Regional Vulnerability

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1608-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea J. Ray ◽  
Gregg M. Garfin ◽  
Margaret Wilder ◽  
Marcela Vásquez-León ◽  
Melanie Lenart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
North American ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Precipitation Regime ◽  
The North ◽  
Integrated Assessments ◽  
Inform Decision Making

Abstract This article presents ongoing efforts to understand interactions between the North American monsoon and society in order to develop applications for monsoon research in a highly complex, multicultural, and binational region. The North American monsoon is an annual precipitation regime that begins in early June in Mexico and progresses northward to the southwestern United States. The region includes stakeholders in large urban complexes, productive agricultural areas, and sparsely populated arid and semiarid ecosystems. The political, cultural, and socioeconomic divisions between the United States and Mexico create a broad range of sensitivities to climate variability as well as capacities to use forecasts and other information to cope with climate. This paper highlights methodologies to link climate science with society and to analyze opportunities for monsoon science to benefit society in four sectors: natural hazards management, agriculture, public health, and water management. A list of stakeholder needs and a calendar of decisions is synthesized to help scientists link user needs to potential forecasts and products. To ensure usability of forecasts and other research products, iterative scientist–stakeholder interactions, through integrated assessments, are recommended. These knowledge-exchange interactions can improve the capacity for stakeholders to use forecasts thoughtfully and inform the development of research, and for the research community to obtain feedback on climate-related products and receive insights to guide research direction. It is expected that integrated assessments can capitalize on the opportunities for monsoon science to inform decision making and, in the best instances, reduce regional climate vulnerabilities and enhance regional sustainability.

Can a Regional Climate Model Improve the Ability to Forecast the North American Monsoon?

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (23) ◽  
pp. 8212-8237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher L. Castro ◽  
Hsin-I Chang ◽  
Francina Dominguez ◽  
Carlos Carrillo ◽  
Jae-Kyung Schemm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dynamical Downscaling ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Regional Model ◽  
Precipitation Anomaly ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
The North ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation

Abstract Global climate models are challenged to represent the North American monsoon, in terms of its climatology and interannual variability. To investigate whether a regional atmospheric model can improve warm season forecasts in North America, a retrospective Climate Forecast System (CFS) model reforecast (1982–2000) and the corresponding NCEP–NCAR reanalysis are dynamically downscaled with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), with similar parameterization options as used for high-resolution numerical weather prediction and a new spectral nudging capability. The regional model improves the climatological representation of monsoon precipitation because of its more realistic representation of the diurnal cycle of convection. However, it is challenged to capture organized, propagating convection at a distance from terrain, regardless of the boundary forcing data used. Dynamical downscaling of CFS generally yields modest improvement in surface temperature and precipitation anomaly correlations in those regions where it is already positive in the global model. For the North American monsoon region, WRF adds value to the seasonally forecast temperature only in early summer and does not add value to the seasonally forecast precipitation. CFS has a greater ability to represent the large-scale atmospheric circulation in early summer because of the influence of Pacific SST forcing. The temperature and precipitation anomaly correlations in both the global and regional model are thus relatively higher in early summer than late summer. As the dominant modes of early warm season precipitation are better represented in the regional model, given reasonable large-scale atmospheric forcing, dynamical downscaling will add value to warm season seasonal forecasts. CFS performance appears to be inconsistent in this regard.

scholarly journals An Examination of Precipitation in Observations and Model Forecasts during NAME with Emphasis on the Diurnal Cycle

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1680-1692 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Janowiak ◽  
Valery J. Dagostaro ◽  
Vernon E. Kousky ◽  
Robert J. Joyce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Direct Evaluation ◽  
The North

Abstract Summertime rainfall over the United States and Mexico is examined and is compared with forecasts from operational numerical prediction models. In particular, the distribution of rainfall amounts is examined and the diurnal cycle of rainfall is investigated and compared with the model forecasts. This study focuses on a 35-day period (12 July–15 August 2004) that occurred amid the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) field campaign. Three-hour precipitation forecasts from the numerical models were validated against satellite-derived estimates of rainfall that were adjusted by daily rain gauge data to remove bias from the remotely sensed estimates. The model forecasts that are evaluated are for the 36–60-h period after the model initial run time so that the effects of updated observational data are reduced substantially and a more direct evaluation of the model precipitation parameterization can be accomplished. The main findings of this study show that the effective spatial resolution of the model-generated precipitation is considerably more coarse than the native model resolution. On a national scale, the models overforecast the frequency of rainfall events in the 1–75 mm day−1 range and underforecast heavy events (>85 mm day−1). The models also have a diurnal cycle that peaks 3–6 h earlier than is observed over portions of the eastern United States and the NAME tier-1 region. Time series and harmonic analysis are used to identify where the models perform well and poorly in characterizing the amplitude and phase of the diurnal cycle of precipitation.

scholarly journals The Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation over the North American Monsoon Region during the NAME 2004 Field Campaign

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 771-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Becker ◽  
Ernesto Hugo Berbery
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
North American ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
The Core ◽  
The North ◽  
Eta Model ◽  
Diurnal Cycle Of Precipitation

Abstract The structure of the diurnal cycle of warm-season precipitation and its associated fields during the North American monsoon are examined for the core monsoon region and for the southwestern United States, using a diverse set of observations, analyses, and forecasts from the North American Monsoon Experiment field campaign of 2004. Included are rain gauge and satellite estimates of precipitation, Eta Model forecasts, and the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR). Daily rain rates are of about the same magnitude in all datasets with the exception of the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing (CMORPH) technique, which exhibits markedly higher precipitation values. The diurnal cycle of precipitation within the core region occurs earlier in the day at higher topographic elevations, evolving with a westward shift of the maximum. This shift appears in the observations, reanalysis, and, while less pronounced, in the model forecasts. Examination of some of the fields associated with this cycle, including convective available potential energy (CAPE), convective inhibition (CIN), and moisture flux convergence (MFC), reveals that the westward shift appears in all of them, but more prominently in the latter. In general, warm-season precipitation in southern Arizona and parts of New Mexico shows a strong effect due to northward moisture surges from the Gulf of California. A reported positive bias in the NARR northward winds over the Gulf of California limits their use with confidence for studies of the moist surges along the Gulf; thus, the analysis is complemented with operational analysis and the Eta Model short-term simulations. The nonsurge diurnal cycle of precipitation lags the CAPE maximum by 6 h and is simultaneous with a minimum of CIN, while the moisture flux remains divergent throughout the day. During surges, CAPE and CIN have modifications only to the amplitude of their cycles, but the moisture flux becomes strongly convergent about 6 h before the precipitation maximum, suggesting a stronger role in the development of precipitation.

Synthesis of Results from the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) Process Study

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1601-1607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Higgins ◽  
David Gochis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central America ◽  
North American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Background Information ◽  
North American Monsoon ◽  
The North ◽  
Process Study ◽  
Monsoon System ◽  
United States Mexico

Abstract An international team of scientists from the United States, Mexico, and Central America carried out a major field campaign during the summer of 2004 to develop an improved understanding of the North American monsoon system leading to improved precipitation forecasts. Results from this campaign, which is the centerpiece of the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) Process Study, are reported in this issue of the Journal of Climate. In addition to a synthesis of key findings, this brief overview article also raises some important unresolved issues that require further attention. More detailed background information on NAME, including motivating science questions, where NAME 2004 was conducted, when, and the experimental design, was published previously by Higgins et al.

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