Kiran Salunke

Indian summer monsoon rainfall simulation and prediction skill in the CFSv2 coupled model: Impact of atmospheric horizontal resolution

This study compares the simulation and prediction skill of the Indian summer monsoon at two different horizontal resolutions viz., T126 (~100 km) and T382 (~38 km) using 28 years of hindcast runs of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) model. It is found that the simulation of the mean state of the South Asian summer monsoon, its variance, and prediction skill of the all India summer monsoon rainfall (AISMR) are better represented in the high-resolution configuration (T382) of the CFSv2 compared to the low-resolution (T126) configuration. In the high-resolution run, the systematic bias in the teleconnection between the AISMR and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) has considerably reduced and the teleconnections between the AISMR and El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) remained same. We hypothesize that the better simulation of mean climate and IOD-AISMR teleconnection in high-resolution configuration (T382) of CFSv2 are responsible for the improved prediction skill of AISMR in T382 configuration. Although the T382 configuration of CFSv2 has shown a significant improvement in the simulation and prediction of Indian summer monsoon as compared to the T126 configuration, several parallel efforts are still essential to understand the processes controlling some of the systematic biases of CFSv2 and those efforts are underway as part of the Monsoon Mission project.

Diurnal Cycle Induced Amplification of Sea Surface Temperature Intraseasonal Oscillations Over the Bay of Bengal in Summer Monsoon Season

In spite of strong mean summer monsoon winds, the magnitudes of diurnal and intraseasonal oscillations (ISO) of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are as strong as the respective magnitudes in the western Pacific. Using continuous observations during the peak summer monsoon of 1998 at BoB buoy (DS4) located at (89° E, 19° N), we show that the strong near-surface diurnal variation in the BoB during warming phases of the ISO leads to almost double the magnitude of the diurnal SST over the BoB as compared to that during the cooling phases. The simulation experiments with and without the diurnal cycle of surface fluxes indicate that more than one-third of the observed SST ISO amplitude could arise from the rectification of the diurnal cycle through the influence of late night and early daytime upper-ocean mixing processes during the warming phases. The rapid shoaling of the upper-ocean mixed layer occurs during afternoon while it deepens slowly during late night and early daytime which tends to retain the warm SSTs at the end of the nighttime cooling. The insight derived from these experiments on the influence of the diurnal cycle on ISOs of the SST underlines the need for a proper simulation of the diurnal cycle of the SST in climate models.

Diagnosis of boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation in high resolution NCEP climate forecast system

AbstractThe present study examines the ability of high resolution (T382) National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled atmosphere–ocean climate forecast system version 2 (CFS T382) in simulating the salient spatio-temporal characteristics of the boreal summertime mean climate and the intraseasonal variability. The shortcomings of the model are identified based on the observation and compared with earlier reported biases of the coarser resolution of CFS (CFS T126). It is found that the CFS T382 reasonably mimics the observed features of basic state climate during boreal summer. But some prominent biases are noted in simulating the precipitation, tropospheric temperature (TT) and sea surface temperature (SST) over the global tropics. Although CFS T382 primarily reproduces the observed distribution of the intraseasonal variability over the Indian summer monsoon region, some difficulty remains in simulating the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) characteristics. The simulated eastward propagation of BSISO decays rapidly across the Maritime Continent, while the northward propagation appears to be slightly slower than observation. However, the northward propagating BSISO convection propagates smoothly from the equatorial region to the northern latitudes with observed magnitude. Moreover, the observed northwest-southeast tilted rain band is not well reproduced in CFS T382. The warm mean SST bias and inadequate simulation of high frequency modes appear to be responsible for the weak simulation of eastward propagating BSISO. Unlike CFS T126, the simulated mean SST and TT exhibit warm biases, although the mean precipitation and simulated BSISO characteristics are largely similar in both the resolutions of CFS. Further analysis of the convectively coupled equatorial waves (CCEWs) indicates that model overestimates the gravest equatorial Rossby waves and underestimates the Kelvin and mixed Rossby-gravity waves. Based on analysis of CCEWs, the study further explains the possible reasons behind the realistic simulation of northward propagating BSISO in CFS T382, even though the model shows substantial biases in simulating mean state and other BSISO modes.

Prediction of Indian Summer-Monsoon Onset Variability: A Season in Advance

Monsoon onset is an inherent transient phenomenon of Indian Summer Monsoon and it was never envisaged that this transience can be predicted at long lead times. Though onset is precipitous, its variability exhibits strong teleconnections with large scale forcing such as ENSO and IOD and hence may be predictable. Despite of the tremendous skill achieved by the state-of-the-art models in predicting such large scale processes, the prediction of monsoon onset variability by the models is still limited to just 2–3 weeks in advance. Using an objective definition of onset in a global coupled ocean-atmosphere model, it is shown that the skillful prediction of onset variability is feasible under seasonal prediction framework. The better representations/simulations of not only the large scale processes but also the synoptic and intraseasonal features during the evolution of monsoon onset are the comprehensions behind skillful simulation of monsoon onset variability. The changes observed in convection, tropospheric circulation and moisture availability prior to and after the onset are evidenced in model simulations, which resulted in high hit rate of early/delay in monsoon onset in the high resolution model.