scholarly journals Characteristics of Large-Scale Circulation Affecting the Inter-Annual Precipitation Variability in Northern Sumatra Island during Boreal Summer

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Yahya Darmawan ◽  
Huang-Hsiung Hsu ◽  
Jia-Yuh Yu

This study aims to explore the contrasting characteristics of large-scale circulation that led to the precipitation anomalies over the northern parts of Sumatra Island. Further, the impact of varying the Asian–Australian Monsoon (AAM) was investigated for triggering the precipitation variability over the study area. The moisture budget analysis was applied to quantify the most dominant component that induces precipitation variability during the JJA (June, July, and August) period. Then, the composite analysis and statistical approach were applied to confirm the result of the moisture budget. Using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Anaysis Interim (ERA-Interim) from 1981 to 2016, we identified 9 (nine) dry and 6 (six) wet years based on precipitation anomalies, respectively. The dry years (wet years) anomalies over the study area were mostly supported by downward (upward) vertical velocity anomaly instead of other variables such as specific humidity, horizontal velocity, and evaporation. In the dry years (wet years), there is a strengthening (weakening) of the descent motion, which triggers a reduction (increase) of convection over the study area. The overall downward (upward) motion of westerly (easterly) winds appears to suppress (support) the convection and lead to negative (positive) precipitation anomaly in the whole region but with the largest anomaly over northern parts of Sumatra. The AAM variability proven has a significant role in the precipitation variability over the study area. A teleconnection between the AAM and other global circulations implies the precipitation variability over the northern part of Sumatra Island as a regional phenomenon. The large-scale tropical circulation is possibly related to the PWC modulation (Pacific Walker Circulation).

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (19) ◽  
pp. 8005-8021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongdong Peng ◽  
Tianjun Zhou ◽  
Lixia Zhang ◽  
Bo Wu

The ecosystem and societal development over arid Central Asia, the core connecting region of the Silk Road Economic Belt, are highly sensitive to climate change. The results derived from multiobservational datasets show that summer precipitation over Central Asia has significantly increased by 20.78% from 1961 to 2013. It remains unclear whether anthropogenic forcing has contributed to the summer wetting trend or not. In this study, the corresponding physical processes and contributions of anthropogenic forcing are investigated by comparing reanalysis and experiments of the Community Atmosphere Model, version 5.1 (CAM5.1), from the CLIVAR Climate of the Twentieth Century Plus (C20C+) Project. The observed wetting trend is well reproduced in the simulation driven by all radiative forcings (CAM5-All), but poorly reproduced in the simulation with natural forcings only (CAM5-Nat), confirming the important role of human contribution in the observed wetting trend. Moisture budget analysis shows that the observed wetting trend is dominated by the increasing vertical moisture advection term and results from enhanced vertical motion over nearly all of Central Asia. The observed contributions of moisture budget components to the wetting trend are only captured by CAM5-All experiments. The dynamic contribution is determined by the warm advection anomalies in association with a human-induced meridional uneven warm pattern. Human-induced warming increases the specific humidity over all of Central Asia, increasing (decreasing) the precipitation over the climatological ascent (descent) region in eastern (western) Central Asia.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiting Mao ◽  
Dolly Hall ◽  
Zhuyun Ye ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
Dirk Felton ◽  
...  

Abstract. The impact of large-scale circulation on urban gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) was investigated through analysis of 2008–2015 measurement data from an urban site in New York City (NYC), New York, USA. Distinct annual cycles were observed in 2009–2010 with mixing ratios in warm seasons (i.e. spring–summer) 10–20 ppqv (~ 10 %–25 %) higher than in cool seasons (i.e. fall–winter). This annual cycle was disrupted in 2011 by an anomalously strong influence of the North American trough in that warm season and was reproduced in 2014 with annual amplitude enhanced up to ~ 70 ppqv associated with a particularly strong Bermuda High. North American trough axis index (TAI) and intensity index (TII) were used to characterize the effect of the North American trough on NYC GEM especially in winter and summer. The intensity and position of the Bermuda High had a significant impact on GEM in warm seasons supported by a strong correlation (r reaching 0.96, p 


2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 6052-6059 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Timbal ◽  
P. Hope ◽  
S. Charles

Abstract The consistency between rainfall projections obtained from direct climate model output and statistical downscaling is evaluated. Results are averaged across an area large enough to overcome the difference in spatial scale between these two types of projections and thus make the comparison meaningful. Undertaking the comparison using a suite of state-of-the-art coupled climate models for two forcing scenarios presents a unique opportunity to test whether statistical linkages established between large-scale predictors and local rainfall under current climate remain valid in future climatic conditions. The study focuses on the southwest corner of Western Australia, a region that has experienced recent winter rainfall declines and for which climate models project, with great consistency, further winter rainfall reductions due to global warming. Results show that as a first approximation the magnitude of the modeled rainfall decline in this region is linearly related to the model global warming (a reduction of about 9% per degree), thus linking future rainfall declines to future emission paths. Two statistical downscaling techniques are used to investigate the influence of the choice of technique on projection consistency. In addition, one of the techniques was assessed using different large-scale forcings, to investigate the impact of large-scale predictor selection. Downscaled and direct model projections are consistent across the large number of models and two scenarios considered; that is, there is no tendency for either to be biased; and only a small hint that large rainfall declines are reduced in downscaled projections. Among the two techniques, a nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model provides greater consistency with climate models than an analog approach. Differences were due to the choice of the optimal combination of predictors. Thus statistically downscaled projections require careful choice of large-scale predictors in order to be consistent with physically based rainfall projections. In particular it was noted that a relative humidity moisture predictor, rather than specific humidity, was needed for downscaled projections to be consistent with direct model output projections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 876 ◽  
pp. 1108-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Zürner ◽  
Felix Schindler ◽  
Tobias Vogt ◽  
Sven Eckert ◽  
Jörg Schumacher

Combined measurements of velocity components and temperature in a turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection flow at a low Prandtl number of $Pr=0.029$ and Rayleigh numbers of $10^{6}\leqslant Ra\leqslant 6\times 10^{7}$ are conducted in a series of experiments with durations of more than a thousand free-fall time units. Multiple crossing ultrasound beam lines and an array of thermocouples at mid-height allow for a detailed analysis and characterization of the complex three-dimensional dynamics of the single large-scale circulation roll in a cylindrical convection cell of unit aspect ratio which is filled with the liquid metal alloy GaInSn. We measure the internal temporal correlations of the complex large-scale flow and distinguish between short-term oscillations associated with a sloshing motion in the mid-plane as well as varying orientation angles of the velocity close to the top/bottom plates and the slow azimuthal drift of the mean orientation of the roll as a whole that proceeds on a time scale up to a hundred times slower. The coherent large-scale circulation drives a vigorous turbulence in the whole cell that is quantified by direct Reynolds number measurements at different locations in the cell. The velocity increment statistics in the bulk of the cell displays characteristic properties of intermittent small-scale fluid turbulence. We also show that the impact of the symmetry-breaking large-scale flow persists to small-scale velocity fluctuations thus preventing the establishment of fully isotropic turbulence in the cell centre. Reynolds number amplitudes depend sensitively on beam-line position in the cell such that different definitions have to be compared. The global momentum and heat transfer scalings with Rayleigh number are found to agree with those of direct numerical simulations and other laboratory experiments.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Vanniere ◽  
Malcolm Roberts ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
Kevin Hodges ◽  
Marie-Estelle Demory

<p>Previous studies have shown that, the number, intensity and structure of simulated tropical cyclones (TC) in climate models get closer to the observations as the horizontal resolution is increased. However, the sensitivity of tropical cyclone precipitation and moisture budget to changes in resolution has received less attention. In this study, we use the five-model ensemble from project PRIMAVERA/HighResMIP to investigate the systematic changes associated with the water budget of tropical cyclones in a range of horizontal resolutions from 1º to 0.25º. Our results show that despite a large change in the distribution of TC intensity with resolution, the distribution of precipitation per TC does not change significantly. This result is explained by the large scale balance which characterises the moisture budget of TCs, i.e. radii of ~15º a scale that low and high resolution models represent equally well. The wind profile is found to converge between low and high resolutions for radii > 5º, resulting in a moisture flux convergence into the TC with similar magnitude at low and high resolutions. In contrast to precipitation per TC, the larger TC intensity at higher resolution is explained by the larger surface latent heat flux near the center of the storm, which leads to an increase in equivalent potential temperature and warmer core anomalies, despite representing a negligible contribution to the moisture budget. We discuss the complication arising from the choice of the tracking algorithm when assessing the impact of model resolution and the implications of such a constraint on the TC moisture budget in the context of climate change.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott J. Weaver ◽  
Sumant Nigam

Abstract The evolution of supersynoptic (i.e., pentad) Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ) variability, its precipitation impacts, and large-scale circulation context are analyzed in the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR)—a high-resolution precipitation-assimilating dataset—and the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis. The analysis strategy leans on the extended EOF technique, which targets both spatial and temporal recurrence of a variability episode. Pentad GPLLJ variability structures are found to be spatially similar to those in the monthly analysis. The temporal evolution of the supersynoptic GPLLJ-induced precipitation anomalies reveal interesting lead and lag relationships highlighted by GPLLJ variability-leading precipitation anomalies. Interestingly, similar temporal phasing of the GPLLJ and precipitation anomalies were operative during the 1993 (1988) floods (drought) over the Great Plains, indicating the importance of these submonthly GPLLJ variability modes in the instigation of extreme hydroclimatic episodes. The northward-shifted (dry) GPLLJ variability mode is linked to large-scale circulation variations emanating from remote regions that are modified by interaction with the Rocky Mountains, suggesting that the supersynoptic GPLLJ fluctuations may have their origin in orographic modulation of baroclinic development.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Duteil ◽  
Andreas Oschlies ◽  
Claus W. Böning

Abstract. The impact of the positive and negative phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on the extension of the poorly oxygenated regions of the eastern Pacific ocean has been assessed using a coupled ocean circulation-biogeochemical model. We show that during a typical PDO positive phase the volume of the suboxic regions expands by 7 % in 50 years due to a slow-down of the large scale circulation related with the decrease of the intensity of the trade winds. The oxygen levels are mostly constrained by advective processes between 10° N and 10° S while the diffusive processes are dominant poleward of 10°: in a typical PDO positive phase the sluggish equatorial current system provides less oxygen into the eastern equatorial part of the basin while the oxygen transport by diffusive processes significantly decreases south of 10° S. The region located north of 10° N displays less sensitivity to the phase of the PDO as the local upwelling-related processes play a dominant role compared to the large scale circulation in setting the oxygen concentration. Our study suggests that the prevailing PDO positive conditions since 1975 may explain a significant part of the current deoxygenation occurring in the eastern Pacific Ocean.


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