Effects of air�Csea coupling on the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillations over the tropical Indian Ocean

The effects of air?Csea coupling over the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) on the eastward- and northward-propagating boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) are investigated by comparing a fully coupled (CTL) and a partially decoupled Indian Ocean (pdIO) experiment using SINTEX-F coupled GCM. Air?Csea coupling over the TIO significantly enhances the intensity of both the eastward and northward propagations of the BSISO. The maximum spectrum differences of the northward- (eastward-) propagating BSISO between the CTL and pdIO reach 30% (25%) of their respective climatological values. The enhanced eastward (northward) propagation is related to the zonal (meridional) asymmetry of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA). A positive SSTA appears to the east (north) of the BSISO convection, which may positively feed back to the BSISO convection. In addition, air?Csea coupling may enhance the northward propagation through the changes of the mean vertical wind shear and low-level specific humidity. The interannual variations of the TIO regulate the air?Csea interaction effect. Air?Csea coupling enhances (reduces) the eastward-propagating spectrum during the negative Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode, positive Indian Ocean basin (IOB) mode and normal years (during positive IOD and negative IOB years). Such phase dependence is attributed to the role of the background mean westerly in affecting the wind-evaporation-SST feedback. A climatological weak westerly in the equatorial Indian Ocean can be readily reversed by anomalous zonal SST gradients during the positive IOD and negative IOB events. Although the SSTA is always positive to the northeast of the BSISO convection for all interannual modes, air?Csea coupling reduces the zonal asymmetry of the low-level specific humidity and thus the eastward propagation spectrum during the positive IOD and negative IOB modes, while strengthening them during the other modes. Air?Csea coupling enhances the northward propagation under all interannual modes due to the persistent westerly monsoon flow over the northern Indian Ocean.     

Intraseasonal variability in the far-east pacific: investigation of the role of air�Csea coupling in a regional coupled model

Intraseasonal variability in the eastern Pacific warm pool in summer is studied, using a regional ocean?Catmosphere model, a linear baroclinic model (LBM), and satellite observations. The atmospheric component of the model is forced by lateral boundary conditions from reanalysis data. The aim is to quantify the importance to atmospheric deep convection of local air?Csea coupling. In particular, the effect of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies on surface heat fluxes is examined. Intraseasonal (20?C90?day) east Pacific warm-pool zonal wind and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) variability in the regional coupled model are correlated at 0.8 and 0.6 with observations, respectively, significant at the 99% confidence level. The strength of the intraseasonal variability in the coupled model, as measured by the variance of outgoing longwave radiation, is close in magnitude to that observed, but with a maximum located about 10° further west. East Pacific warm pool intraseasonal convection and winds agree in phase with those from observations, suggesting that remote forcing at the boundaries associated with the Madden?CJulian oscillation determines the phase of intraseasonal convection in the east Pacific warm pool. When the ocean model component is replaced by weekly reanalysis SST in an atmosphere-only experiment, there is a slight improvement in the location of the highest OLR variance. Further sensitivity experiments with the regional atmosphere-only model in which intraseasonal SST variability is removed indicate that convective variability has only a weak dependence on the SST variability, but a stronger dependence on the climatological mean SST distribution. A scaling analysis confirms that wind speed anomalies give a much larger contribution to the intraseasonal evaporation signal than SST anomalies, in both model and observations. A LBM is used to show that local feedbacks would serve to amplify intraseasonal convection and the large-scale circulation. Further, Hovm?ller diagrams reveal that whereas a significant dynamic intraseasonal signal enters the model domain from the west, the strong deep convection mostly arises within the domain. Taken together, the regional and linear model results suggest that in this region remote forcing and local convection?Ccirculation feedbacks are both important to the intraseasonal variability, but ocean?Catmosphere coupling has only a small effect. Possible mechanisms of remote forcing are discussed.     

印度洋海温年际异常与热带夏季季节内振荡的关系及其数值模拟研究

利用观测分析资料和SINTEX-F海气耦合长时间(70年)数值模拟结果,分析了印度洋海温年际异常与热带夏季季节内振荡(BSISO)各种传播模态之间关系及其物理过程。结果表明,印度洋海温年际异常与热带BSISO关系密切,当印度洋为正(负)偶极子情况,中东印度洋北传BSISO减弱(加强);当印度洋为正(负)海盆异常(BWA)情况,印度洋西太平洋赤道地区(40°E -180°)东传BSISO加强(减弱)。印度洋海温年际变化通过大气环流背景场和BSISO结构影响热带BSISO不同传播模态强度的年际变化。在负(正)偶极子年夏季,由于对流层大气垂直东风切变加强(减弱),对流扰动北侧的正压涡度、边界层水汽辐合加强更明显(不明显),导致形成BSISO较强(弱)的经向不对称结构,因此北传BSISO偏强(减弱)。印度洋BWA模态通过影响赤道西风背景以及海气界面热力交换,导致赤道东传BSISO强度产生变化。在正BWA年夏季,赤道地区西风较明显,当季节内振荡叠加在这种西风背景下,扰动中心的东侧(西侧)风速减弱(加强)更明显,海面蒸发及蒸发潜热减弱(加强)更明显,导致扰动中心的东侧(西侧)海温升高(降低)幅度更大,从而使边界层产生辐合(辐散)更强、水汽更多(少),因此赤道东传BSISO偏强;而在负BWA年,赤道地区西风背景减弱,以上物理过程受削弱使赤道东传BSISO偏弱。     

Seasonally asymmetric transition of the Asian monsoon in response to ice age boundary conditions

Modulation of a monsoon under glacial forcing is examined using an atmosphere?Cocean coupled general circulation model (AOGCM) following the specifications established by Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project phase 2 (PMIP2) to understand the air?Csea?Cland interaction under different climate forcing. Several sensitivity experiments are performed in response to individual changes in the continental ice sheet, orbital parameters, and sea surface temperature (SST) in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 21?ka) to evaluate the driving mechanisms for the anomalous seasonal evolution of the monsoon. Comparison of the model results in the LGM with the pre-industrial (PI) simulation shows that the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal are characterized by enhancement of pre-monsoon convection despite a drop in the SST encompassing the globe, while the rainfall is considerably suppressed in the subsequent monsoon period. In the LGM winter relative to the PI, anomalies in the meridional temperature gradient (MTG) between the Asian continents minus the tropical oceans become positive and are consistent with the intensified pre-monsoon circulation. The enhanced MTG anomalies can be explained by a decrease in the condensation heating relevant to the suppressed tropical convection as well as positive insolation anomalies in the higher latitude, showing an opposing view to a warmer future climate. It is also evident that a latitudinal gradient in the SST across the equator plays an important role in the enhancement of pre-monsoon rainfall. As for the summer, the sensitivity experiments imply that two ice sheets over the northern hemisphere cools the air temperature over the Asian continent, which is consistent with the reduction of MTG involved in the attenuated monsoon. The surplus pre-monsoon convection causes a decrease in the SST through increased heat loss from the ocean surface; in other words, negative ocean feedback is also responsible for the subsequent weakening of summer convection.     

Simulations of Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillations with the Climate Forecast System,version 2, over India and the Western Pacific: Role of Air–Sea Coupling

In this study, we examine the characteristics of the boreal summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) using the second version of the Climate Forecast System (CFSv2) and revisit the role of air–sea coupling in BSISO simulations. In particular, simulations of the BSISO in two carefully designed model experiments are compared: a fully coupled run and an uncoupled atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) run with prescribed sea surface temperatures (SSTs). In these experiments an identical AGCM is used, and the daily mean SSTs from the coupled run are prescribed as a boundary condition in the AGCM run. Comparisons indicate that air–sea coupling plays an important role in realistically simulating the BSISO in CFSv2. Compared with the AGCM run, the coupled run not only simulates the spatial distributions of intraseasonal rainfall variations better but also shows more realistic spectral peaks and northward and eastward propagation features of the BSISO over India and the western Pacific. This study indicates that including an air–sea feedback mechanism may have the potential to improve the realism of the mean flow and intraseasonal variability in the Indian and western Pacific monsoon region.     

Boreal summer intraseasonal variability simulated in the NCEP climate forecast system: insights from moist static energy budget and sensitivity to convective moistening

The NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS) with the relaxed Arakawa Schubert (RAS, hereafter referred to as CTRL) convection scheme of Moorthi and Suarez exhibits better performance in representing boreal summer tropical intraseasonal variability as compared with a simulation using simplified Arakawa–Schubert scheme. The intraseasonal moist static energy (MSE) budget is analyzed in this version of the CFS model (CTRL), which produces realistic eastward and northward propagation characteristics. The moist and thermodynamic processes involved in the maintenance and propagation of the poleward moving intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) disturbances are examined here. Budget diagnostics show that horizontal MSE advection is the principal component of the budget, contributing to the poleward movement of the convection. The injection of MSE moistens the atmosphere north of the convective area causing the poleward movement of convection by destabilization of the atmosphere. The moistening process is mainly contributed by the climatological wind acting on the anomalous moisture gradient as confirmed from the examination of moisture advection equation. While surface enthalpy fluxes (consisting of radiative and surface turbulent heat fluxes) maintain the ISO anomalies, they oppose the MSE tendency due to horizontal advection thus regulating the poleward propagation characteristics. In addition, the model results show that wind–evaporation feedback dominates over cloud–radiation feedback for ISO propagation; this is in contrast to our estimates using the newly available European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Interim reanalysis. Sensitivity experiments suggest that intraseasonal variability in the CFS model with the RAS scheme is highly sensitive to the parameterization of both the shallow convection and the convective rain evaporation and downdrafts. Removal of these components adversely affects the propagation characteristics and greatly reduces the amplitude of intraseasonal variability. Our results support the primary importance of the moisture preconditioning ahead of the ISO and the physical relationship between moisture and precipitation. For realistic ISO simulations, models need to represent these features appropriately.     

北半球夏季热带季节内振荡影响我国夏季降水的规律和预测方法

利用1979—2018年夏季逐日观测和再分析数据，对北半球夏季热带季节内振荡影响我国夏季降水的规律和预测方法开展了研究。首先，利用非传统滤波即异常相对倾向（Anomalous Relative Tendency，ART）方法获取了气象要素的次季节变化分量，并采用EOF分析方法提取了北半球夏季热带主要季节内振荡信号，结果表明向外长波辐射（Outgoing Longwave Radiation，OLR）异常相对倾向EOF前两个模态共同反映了北半球夏季起源于印度洋并向东和向北传播的、具有30~60 d周期的季节内振荡（Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation，BSISO）信号。回归分析表明，该季节内振荡信号能够导致当地及其北面地区低层风场和位势高度场异常，影响该地区及其北面地区的水汽辐合辐散，从而能引起我国尤其是我国南方地区季节内旱涝变化，并一定程度上反映了我国异常雨带的向北推进过程。而后，将提取的热带主要季节内振荡信号作为预测因子，将降水异常相对倾向作为先行预板对象，利用多元线性回归方法构建了我国夏季旬降水异常相对倾向的预报模型，将预报的旬降水异常相对倾向加上观测已知的降水近期背景距平，从而得到旬降水距平的预报结果。通过历史回报和交叉检验，评估了该模型对梅雨期我国江淮流域降水（包括2020年梅汛期异常降水）的次季节预测能力。     

Decadal change in the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation

A decadal change in activity of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) was identified at a broad scale. The change was more prominent during August–October in the boreal summer. The BSISO activity during 1999–2008 (P2) was significantly greater than that during 1984–1998 (P1). Compared to P1, convection in the BSISO was enhanced and the phase speed of northward-propagating convection was reduced in P2. Under background conditions, warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in P2 were apparent over the tropical Indian Ocean and the western tropical Pacific. The former supplied favorable conditions for the active convection of the BSISO, whereas the latter led to a strengthened Walker circulation through enhanced convection. This induced descending anomalies over the tropical Indian Ocean. Thermal convection tends to be suppressed by descending anomalies, whereas once an active BSISO signal enters the Indian Ocean, convection is enhanced through convective instability by positive SST anomalies. After P2, the BSISO activity was weakened during 2009–2014 (P3). Compared to P2, convective activity in the BSISO tended to be inactive over the southern tropical Indian Ocean in P3. The phase speed of the northward-propagating convection was accelerated. Under background conditions during P3, warmer SST anomalies over the maritime continent enhance convection, which strengthened the local Hadley circulation between the western tropical Pacific and the southern tropical Indian Ocean. Hence, the convection in the BSISO over the southern tropical Indian Ocean was suppressed. The decadal change in BSISO activity correlates with the variability in seasonal mean SST over the tropical Asian monsoon region, which suggests that it is possible to predict the decadal change.

     

A Survey of Statistical Relationships between Tropical Cyclone Genesis and Convectively Coupled Equatorial Rossby Waves

Convectively coupled equatorial Rossby waves(ERW)modulate tropical cyclone activities over tropical oceans.This study presents a survey of the statistical relationship between intraseasonal ERWs and tropical cyclone genesis(TCG)over major global TC basins using four-decade-long outgoing longwave radiation(OLR)and TC best-track datasets.Intraseasonal ERWs are identified from the OLR anomalies using an empirical orthogonal function(EOF)analysis method without imposing equatorial symmetry.We find that westward-propagating ERWs are most significant in four tropical ocean basins over the summer hemisphere and that ERWs exhibit similar northeast-southwest(southeast-northwest)tilted phase lines in the northern(southern)hemisphere,with an appreciable poleward advance of wave energy in most TC basins.The EOF-based ERW indices quantitatively show that ERWs significantly modulate TC genesis.The convectively active(suppressed)phases of ERWs coincide with increased(reduced)TCG occurrences.The TCG modulation by ERWs achieves the maximum where the ERWs propagate through the climatological TCG hotspots.As a result,the total number of TCG occurrences in the TC basins varies significantly according to the ERW phase.The ERW-TCG relationship is significant over the northwestern Pacific Ocean,northeastern Pacific Ocean,and the northern Indian Ocean during the northern summer seasons.In the southern summer season,the ERW-TCG relationship is significant over the southern Indian Ocean,Indonesian-Australia basin,and the southwestern Pacific Ocean.However,ERW activities are weak in the main TC development region of the Atlantic Ocean;and the impact on Atlantic TCG appears to be insignificant.     

Intraseasonal SST-precipitation relationship and its spatial variability over the tropical summer monsoon region

The SST-precipitation relationship in the intraseasonal variability (ISV) over the Asian monsoon region is examined using recent high quality satellite data and simulations from a state of the art coupled model, the climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2). CFSv2 demonstrates high skill in reproducing the spatial distribution of the observed climatological mean summer monsoon precipitation along with its interannual variability, a task which has been a conundrum for many recent climate coupled models. The model also exhibits reasonable skill in simulating coherent northward propagating monsoon intraseasonal anomalies including SST and precipitation, which are generally consistent with observed ISV characteristics. Results from the observations and the model establish the existence of spatial variability in the atmospheric convective response to SST anomalies, over the Asian monsoon domain on intraseasonal timescales. The response is fast over the Arabian Sea, where precipitation lags SST by ~5 days; whereas it is slow over the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea, with a lag of ~12 days. The intraseasonal SST anomalies result in a similar atmospheric response across the basins, which consists of a destabilization of the bottom of the atmospheric column, as observed from the equivalent potential temperature anomalies near the surface. However, the presence of a relatively strong surface convergence over the Arabian Sea, due to the presence of a strong zonal gradient in SST, which accelerates the upward motion of the moist air, results in a relatively faster response in terms of the local precipitation anomalies over the Arabian Sea than over the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea. With respect to the observations, the ocean–atmosphere coupling is well simulated in the model, though with an overestimation of the intraseasonal SST anomalies, leading to an exaggerated SST-precipitation relationship. A detailed examination points to a systematic bias in the thickness of the mixed layer of the ocean model, which needs to be rectified. A too shallow (deep) mixed layer enhances (suppress) the amplitude of the intraseasonal SST anomalies, thereby amplifying (lessening) the ISV and the active-break phases of the monsoon in the model.     

Factors Limiting the Forecast Skill of the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation in a Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Model

In this study,we evaluate the forecast skill of the subseasonal-to-seasonal(S2S)prediction model of the Beijing Climate Center(BCC)for the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation(BSISO).We also discuss the key factors that inhibit the BSISO forecast skill in this model.Based on the bivariate anomaly correlation coefficient(ACC)of the BSISO index,defined by the first two EOF modes of outgoing longwave radiation and 850-hPa zonal wind anomalies over the Asian monsoon region,we found that the hindcast skill degraded as the lead time increased.The ACC dropped to below 0.5for lead times of 11 days and longer when the predicted BSISO showed weakened strength and insignificant northward propagation.To identify what causes the weakened forecast skill of BSISO at the forecast lead time of 11 days,we diagnosed the main mechanisms responsible for the BSISO northward propagation.The same analysis was also carried out using the observations and the outputs of the four-day forecast lead that successfully predicted the observed northward-propagating BSISO.We found that the lack of northward propagation at the 11-day forecast lead was due to insufficient increases in low-level cyclonic vorticity,moistening and warm temperature anomalies to the north of the convection,which were induced by the interaction between background mean flows and BSISO-related anomalous fields.The BCC S2S model can predict the background monsoon circulations,such as the low-level southerly and the northerly and easterly vertical shears,but has limited capability in forecasting the distributions of circulation and moisture anomalies.     

Different Impacts of Intraseasonal Oscillations on Precipitation in Southeast China between Early and Late Summers

This study investigates the influences of boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation(BSISO), which originates from the equatorial Indian Ocean and prevails over the Indo-Pacific region, on precipitation over Southeast China, including South China and Yangtze River Valley. The results indicate that the BSISO-related precipitation anomalies are remarkably different between early summer(May–June) and late summer(July–August). The BSISO-related precipitation anomalies tend to appear more northward in l...     

外强迫对热带季节内振荡影响的模拟研究

应用经过修改的NCAR CCM3模式和CAM2模式进行的数值实验结果以及NCEP的GFS模式的输出结果讨论了海温等外强迫作用对热带季节内振荡的影响.结果表明,热带季节内振荡是热带大气固有的内部变率.它是由大气内部过程的相互作用决定的.但外强迫对热带季节内振荡的强度、传播方向等有明显的影响.当外强迫没有变化时,模式可以模拟出与观测近似的低频振荡.当作为外强迫的海温和太阳辐射有年内季节变化时,模式模拟的季节内振荡则明显减弱.当海温与辐射不仅有季节变化而且有年际变化时,模式模拟的季节内振荡会进一步减弱.具有长周期的外强迫还会削弱季节内振荡中东移波动的能量而增加静止波的强度.在与海洋模式耦合的状态下,模式不受来自海洋的外强迫影响,而是与海洋构成一个耦合系统,可以产生最强的季节内振荡.     

Climate sensitivity to tropical land surface changes with coupled versus prescribed SSTs

Tropical land cover change experiments with fixed sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) and with an interactive ocean are compared to assess the relevance of including the ocean system in sensitivity studies to land surface conditions. The results show that the local response to deforestation is similar with fixed and simulated SSTs. Over Amazonia, all experiments simulate a comparable decrease in precipitation and no change in moisture convergence, implying that there is only a change in local water recycling. Over Africa, the impact on precipitation is not identical for all experiments; however, the signal is smaller than over Amazonia and simulations of more than 50 years would be necessary to statistically discriminate the precipitation change. We observe small but significant changes in SSTs in the coupled simulation in the tropical oceans surrounding the deforested regions. Impacts on mid and high latitudes SSTs are also possible. As remote impacts to deforestation are weak, it has not been possible to establish possible oceanic feedbacks to the atmosphere. Overall, this study indicates that the oceanic feedback to land surface sensitivity studies is of second importance, and that the inclusion of the oceanic system will require ensembles of long climate simulations to properly take into account the low frequency variability of the ocean.     

Caribbean Sea rainfall variability during the rainy season and relationship to the equatorial Pacific and tropical Atlantic SST

The present study investigates the Caribbean Sea rainfall variability during the early and late rainy seasons and its association with sea surface temperature (SST) and air?Csea interaction based on observational estimates, the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS) and Global Forecast System (GFS) simulations, and the CFS retrospective forecasts. Analysis of the observational estimates indicates that air?Csea interaction is important over the Caribbean Sea, whereas the atmospheric forcing of SST dominates over the Gulf of Mexico. The CFS simulation captures the basic elements of this observed air?Csea relationship. The GFS simulation produces spurious SST forcing of the atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico largely due to prescribing SST. The CFS forecasts capture the air?Csea relationship in the late rainy season (August?COctober), but cannot reproduce the SST forcing of atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea in the early rainy season (May?CJuly). An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis indicates that the leading modes of percent anomalies of the rainy season precipitation have the largest loading in the southern Caribbean Sea in observations. The model simulations and forecasts skillfully reproduce the spatial pattern, but not the temporal evolution. The Caribbean Sea rainfall variability in the early rainy season is mainly due to the tropical North Atlantic (TNA) SST anomalies in observations, is contributed by both the TNA and eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) SST anomalies in the CFS simulation, and has an overly large impact from the EEP SST anomalies in the GFS simulation and the CFS forecasts. The observed Caribbean Sea rainfall variability in the late rainy season has a leading impact from the EEP SST anomalies, with a secondary contribution from the TNA SST anomalies. In comparison, the model simulations and forecasts overestimate the impacts of the EEP SST anomalies due to an earlier development and longer duration of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation in the CFS compared to observations.     

北半球夏季大气季节内振荡对中国东南沿海热带气旋暴雨的影响

本文采用美国台风联合警报中心整编的1981—2012年的best-track热带气旋资料、中国大陆743站逐日降水数据、亚太经合组织气候中心的北半球夏季季节内振荡(BSISO)指数和美国国家环境预报中心及大气研究中心的再分析资料,分析了中国东南部地区热带气旋暴雨特征及其与BSISO 8个位相的联系。结果表明:7、8月,中国东南沿海地区的热带气旋暴雨发生的频次最多,多个站点热带气旋暴雨占总暴雨频次的比例达40%以上。7、8月热带气旋暴雨主要发生于BSISO1的第1、2、7、8位相,发生的暴雨频次占总频次的78.4%,主要分布于福建省沿海地区和西南部;BSISO2的第5、6、7位相热带气旋暴雨发生的频次也较多,占总频次的73.6%,主要分布于福建省沿海地区及西南部和广东省西南沿海地区。对发生较多热带气旋暴雨的BSISO1和BSISO2位相背景下的环流合成异常的诊断显示,西北太平洋伸向中国东南沿海地区,大尺度引导气流为显著的异常东风带,有利于热带气旋登陆中国大陆;显著异常的纬向东风切变、气旋性相对涡度和整层水汽的异常辐合,有利于热带气旋登陆过程强度的维持,促使热带气旋暴雨发生在中国大陆。     

The sensitivity of African easterly waves to eastern tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperatures

The results of two regional atmospheric model simulations are compared to assess the influence of the eastern tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperature maximum on local precipitation, transient easterly waves and the West African summer monsoon. Both model simulations were initialized with reanalysis 2 data (US National Center for Environmental Prediction and Department of Energy) on 15 May 2006 and extended through 6 October 2006, forced by synchronous reanalysis 2 lateral boundary conditions introduced four times daily. One simulation uses 2006 reanalysis 2 sea-surface temperatures, also updated four times daily, while the second simulation considers ocean forcing absent the sea-surface temperature maximum, achieved here by subtracting 3°K at every ocean grid point between 0° and 15°N during the entire simulation. The simulation with 2006 sea-surface temperature forcing produces a realistic distribution of June?CSeptember mean precipitation and realistic westward propagating swaths of maximum rainfall, based on validation against Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) estimates. The simulation without the sea-surface temperature maximum produces only 57% of the control June?CSeptember total precipitation over the eastern tropical Atlantic and about 83% of the Sahel precipitation. The simulation with warmer ocean temperatures generates generally stronger circulation, which in turn enhances precipitation by increasing moisture convergence. Some local precipitation enhancement is also attributed to lower vertical thermal stability above the warm water. The study shows that the eastern tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperature maximum enhances the strength of transient easterly waves and broadens the spatial extent of associated precipitation. However, large-scale circulation and its interaction with the African continent, and not sea-surface temperatures, control the timing and trajectories of the waves.     

The boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation simulated by four Chinese AGCMs participating in the CMIP5 project

The performances of four Chinese AGCMs participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 （CMIP5） in the simulation of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation （BSISO） are assessed. The authors focus on the major characteristics of BSISO： the intensity, significant period, and propagation. The results show that the four AGCMs can reproduce boreal summer intraseasonal signals of precipitation; however their limitations are also evident. Compared with the Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis of Precipitation （CMAP） data, the models underestimate the strength of the intraseasonal oscillation （ISO） over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean （IO） during the boreal summer （May to October）, but overestimate the intraseasonal variability over the western Pacific （WP）. In the model results, the westward propagation dominates, whereas the eastward propagation dominates in the CMAP data. The northward propagation in these models is tilted southwest-northeast, which is also different from the CMAP result. Thus, there is not a northeast-southwest tilted rain belt revolution off the equator during the BSISO＇s eastward journey in the models. The biases of the BSISO are consistent with the summer mean state, especially the vertical shear. Analysis also shows that there is a positive feedback between the intraseasonal precipitation and the summer mean precipitation. The positive feedback processes may amplify the models＇ biases in the BSISO simulation.     

Impacts of the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation on the Warm-Season Rainfall over Hainan Island

This study investigates the roles of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) in the diurnal rainfall cycle over Hainan Island during the warm season (April-September) using 20-year satellite-based precipitation, ERA5 and the outgoing longwave radiation data with the phase composite analysis method. Results show that the spatial distributions of the hourly rainfall anomaly significantly change under the BSISO phases 1-8 while no clear variations are found on the daily and anomaly daily area-averaged rainfall over the island. During the BSISO phase 1, the rainfall anomaly distinctly increases in the morning over the southwest and late afternoon over the northeast of the island, while suppressed convection occurs in the early afternoon over the southwest area. Under this circumstance, strong low-level westerly winds bring abundant moisture into the island, which helps initiate the nocturnal-morning convection over the south coastal area, and drives the convergence region of sea breeze fronts to concentrate into the northwest. Opposite to Phase 1, an almost completely reversed diurnal cycle of rainfall anomaly is found in Phase 5, whereas a positive anomalous rainfall peak is observed in the early afternoon over the center while negative peaks are found in the morning and late afternoon over the southwest and northeast, owing to a strong low-level northeasterly anomaly flow, which causes relatively low moisture and enlarges a sea-breeze convergence area over the island. During Phase 8, strongest moisture is found over the island all through the day, which tends to produce highest rainfall in the afternoon with enhanced anomalous northerly. These results further indicate that multiscale interactions between the large-scale circulations and local land-sea breeze circulations play important roles in modulating diurnal precipitation cycles over the tropical island.     

The relationship between South Atlantic SST and SACZ intensity and positioning

This study explores the ocean–atmosphere interaction in the formation and dynamics of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ), through the analysis of the heat sources estimated through the outgoing longwave radiation. The results obtained with this study show that the coupled variability between SACZ and the South Atlantic Ocean indicates that in northern positioned SACZ cases (over Southeastern Brazil), westerly anomalies are verified in the low level continental tropical circulation, consistent with the active phase of the South America Monsoon System (SAMS). In these cases, cold anomalies in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean cause an increase in the continent–ocean temperature gradient, favoring an easterly flow in this region, and blocking the SACZ at a northerly position. Easterly anomalies in the tropical continent were verified in the low level circulation in southern positioned cases (over Southern Brazil), consistent with the SAMS break phase. The SST anomaly patterns indicate cold anomalies in the tropics and warm anomalies in the subtropics, which do not favor the development of an easterly flow at low levels over the western tropical Atlantic. In these cases, two situations may occur: the strengthening of the Low Level Jet (LLJ), which prevails in the eastern subtropical South America and convergence with the South Atlantic Subtropical High at its southern position; or the atmospheric unstable conditions caused by ocean warm SST anomalies (in this case the LLJ may be weaker than its climatological intensity).