Chi-Yung Tam

CMIP5 Projections of Two Types of El Niño and Their Related Tropical Precipitation in the Twenty-First Century

AbstractFuture projections of the eastern-Pacific (EP) and central-Pacific (CP) types of El Nino in the twenty-first century, as well as their associated tropical circulation and precipitation variability, are investigated using historical runs and representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) simulations from 31 coupled models in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). As inferred from CMIP5 models that best capture both El Nino flavors, EP El Nino sea surface temperature (SST) variability will become weaker in the future climate, while no robust change of CP El Nino SST is found. Models also reach no consensus on the future change of relative frequency from CP to EP El Nino. However, there are robust changes in the tropical overturning circulation and precipitation associated with both types of El Nino. Under a warmer climate, magnitudes of precipitation anomalies during EP El Nino are projected to increase, presenting significant enhancement of the dry (wet) signal over the we...

Sensitivity of urban rainfall to anthropogenic heat flux ‐ a numerical experiment

In this paper we investigate the sensitivity of local precipitation statistics to surface heat fluxes in an urban subdomain in the Pearl River Delta region, which is situated along the coast of south China. By conducting simulations of a past record-breaking rainfall event with a cloud-resolving model, we found that rainfall rates and the spatial distribution of accumulated rainfall are very sensitive to imposed urban surface heat fluxes. Diagnostics of the planetary boundary layer show increasing fluctuations of turbulence and buoyant turbulence production with increasing surface heat emission, causing increased near-surface mixing and convection. Heavy precipitation rates show a higher sensitivity than lighter rates. The extreme tail of the distribution is hence more affected. This study serves as an example of how sensitive the magnitude of local high impact weather phenomena can be to local forcing.

Sensitivity of precipitation statistics to urban growth in a subtropical coastal megacity cluster

This short paper presents an investigation on how human activities may or may not affect precipitation based on numerical simulations of precipitation in a benchmark case with modified lower boundary conditions, representing different stages of urban development in the model. The results indicate that certain degrees of urbanization affect the likelihood of heavy precipitation significantly, while less urbanized or smaller cities are much less prone to these effects. Such a result can be explained based on our previous work where the sensitivity of precipitation statistics to surface anthropogenic heat sources lies in the generation of buoyancy and turbulence in the planetary boundary layer and dissipation through triggering of convection. Thus only mega cities of sufficient size, and hence human-activity-related anthropogenic heat emission, can expect to experience such effects. In other words, as cities grow, their effects upon precipitation appear to grow as well.

How do the strength and type of ENSO affect SST predictability in coupled models

The effects of amplitude and type of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on sea surface temperature (SST) predictability on a global scale were investigated, by examining historical climate forecasts for the period 1982–2006 from air-sea coupled seasonal prediction systems. Unlike in previous studies, SST predictability was evaluated in different phases of ENSO and for episodes with various strengths. Our results reveal that the seasonal mean Niño 3.4 index is well predicted in a multi-model ensemble (MME), even for four-month lead predictions. However, coupled models have particularly low skill in predicting the global SST pattern during weak ENSO events. During weak El Niño events, which are also El Niño Modoki in this period, a number of models fail to reproduce the associated tri-pole SST pattern over the tropical Pacific. During weak La Niña periods, SST signals in the MME tend to be less persistent than observations. Therefore, a good ENSO forecast does not guarantee a good SST prediction from a global perspective. The strength and type of ENSO need to be considered when inferring global SST and other climate impacts from model-predicted ENSO information.

Roles of tropical SST patterns during two types of ENSO in modulating wintertime rainfall over southern China

The impacts of the eastern-Pacific (EP) and central-Pacific (CP) El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the southern China wintertime rainfall (SCWR) have been investigated. Results show that wintertime rainfall over most stations in southern China is enhanced (suppressed) during the EP (CP) El Niño, which are attributed to different atmospheric responses in the western North Pacific (WNP) and South China Sea (SCS) during two types of ENSO. When EP El Niño occurs, an anomalous low-level anticyclone is present over WNP/the Philippines region, resulting in stronger-than-normal southwesterlies over SCS. Such a wind branch acts to suppress East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and enhance moisture supply, implying surplus SCWR. During CP El Niño, however, anomalous sinking and low-level anticyclonic flow are found to cover a broad region in SCS. These circulation features are associated with moisture divergence over the northern part of SCS and suppressed SCWR. General circulation model experiments have also been conducted to study influence of various tropical sea surface temperature (SST) patterns on the EAWM atmospheric circulation. For EP El Niño, formation of anomalous low-level WNP anticyclone is jointly attributed to positive/negative SST anomalies (SSTA) over the central-to-eastern/ western equatorial Pacific. However, both positive and negative CP Niño-related-SSTA, located respectively over the central Pacific and WNP/SCS, offset each other and contribute a weak but broad-scale anticyclone centered at SCS. These results suggest that, besides the vital role of SST warming, SST cooling over SCS/WNP during two types of El Niño should be considered carefully for understanding the El Niño-EAWM relationship.

Dispersion characteristics and circulation associated with boreal summer westward travelling mixed-Rossby gravity wave-like disturbances

AbstractAn algorithm has been developed to track synoptic-scale, westward-traveling mixed Rossby–gravity (MRG) wave–like disturbances with a cross-equatorial component. Applied to space–time-filtered meridional wind data, this algorithm finds locations with Gaussian-shaped wind structures stated in the solutions of shallow-water equations (SWEs). Based on 850-hPa meridional wind from the global National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) dataset, local and instantaneous wave properties including the occurrence time, wavenumber, intrinsic frequency, and magnitude were examined. It was found that these low-level MRG wave–like disturbances can be classified into a longer-wavelength group and a shorter-wavelength group. While most waves identified in the eastern Pacific give longer wavelengths, disturbances in the western Pacific tend to have a wider range of wavenumbers. Composite analysis revealed that east of ~140°E, low-level disturbances are characterize...

Predictability of two types of El Niño and their climate impacts in boreal spring to summer in coupled models

The predictability of the two El Niño types and their different impacts on the East Asian climate from boreal spring to summer have been studied, based on coupled general circulation models (CGCM) simulations from the APEC Climate Center (APCC) multi-model ensemble (MME) hindcast experiments. It was found that both the spatial pattern and temporal persistence of canonical (eastern Pacific type) El Niño sea surface temperature (SST) are much better simulated than those for El Niño Modoki (central Pacific type). In particular, most models tend to have El Niño Modoki events that decay too quickly, in comparison to those observed. The ability of these models in distinguishing between the two types of ENSO has also been assessed. Based on the MME average, the two ENSO types become less and less differentiated in the model environment as the forecast leadtime increases. Regarding the climate impact of ENSO, in spring during canonical El Niño, coupled models can reasonably capture the anomalous low-level anticyclone over the western north Pacific (WNP)/Philippine Sea area, as well as rainfall over coastal East Asia. However, most models have difficulties in predicting the springtime dry signal over Indochina to South China Sea (SCS) when El Niño Modoki occurs. This is related to the location of the simulated anomalous anticyclone in this region, which is displaced eastward over SCS relative to the observed. In boreal summer, coupled models still exhibit some skills in predicting the East Asian rainfall during canonical El Nino, but not for El Niño Modoki. Overall, models’ performance in spring to summer precipitation forecasts is dictated by their ability in capturing the low-level anticyclonic feature over the WNP/SCS area. The latter in turn is likely to be affected by the realism of the time mean monsoon circulation in models.