The characteristics of tropical mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) simulated with a finer-resolution (~50-km) version of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) AM4 model are evaluated by comparing with a comprehensive long-term observational dataset. It is shown that the model can capture the various aspects of MCSs reasonably well. The simulated spatial distribution of MCSs is broadly in agreement with the observations. This is also true for seasonality and interannual variability over different land and oceanic regions. The simulated MCSs are generally longer-lived, weaker and larger than observed. Despite these biases, an event-scale analysis suggests that their duration, intensity and size are strongly correlated. Specifically, longer-lived and stronger events tend to be bigger, which is consistent with the observations. The same model is used to investigate the response of tropical MCSs to global warming using time-slice simulations forced by prescribed sea surface temperatures (SST) and sea-ice. There is an overall decrease in occurrence frequency, and the reduction over land is more prominent than over ocean.
Monsoon low-pressure systems (MLPSs) are among the most important synoptic-scale disturbances of the South Asian summer monsoon. Potential changes in their characteristics in a warmer climate would have broad societal impacts. Yet, the findings from a few existing studies are inconclusive. We use the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) coupled climate model CM4.0 to examine the projected changes in the simulated MLPS activity under a future emission scenario. It is shown that CM4.0 can skillfully simulate the number, genesis location, intensity and lifetime of MLPSs. Global warming gives rise to a significant decrease in MLPS activity. An analysis of several large-scale environmental variables, both dynamic and thermodynamic, suggests that the decrease in MLPS activity can be attributed mainly to a reduction in low-level relative vorticity over the core genesis region. The decreased vorticity is consistent with weaker large-scale ascent, which leads to less vorticity production through the stretching term in the vorticity equation. Assuming a fixed radius of influence, the projected reduction in MLPSs would significantly lower the associated precipitation over the north central India, despite an overall increase in mean precipitation.
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0168.1
Qiu, T, Wenyu Huang, Jonathon S Wright, Yanluan Lin, Ping Lu, Xinsheng He, Zifan Yang, and Wenhao Dong, et al., December 2019: Moisture Sources for Wintertime Intense Precipitation Events Over the Three Snowy Subregions of the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124(23), DOI:10.1029/2019JD031110. Abstract
Wintertime intense precipitation events often lead to severe snow disasters. In this study, a Lagrangian approach is employed to examine the evaporative moisture sources for wintertime intense precipitation events over the three snowy subregions of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during 1979–2016, including the western TP (WTP), south central TP (SCTP), and southeastern TP (SETP). More than 80.0% of the moisture for intense precipitation over each subregion originates from terrestrial areas. Although prevailing westerly winds dominate above the TP and its surrounding areas during winter, half of the precipitation over the three subregions is supplied by evaporation from the south (i.e., the Indian Peninsula). Specifically, evaporation from the Indian Peninsula contributes 68.0%, 65.0%, and 45.0% of the moisture for intense precipitation over the WTP, SCTP, and SETP, respectively. The two primary oceanic moisture source regions for intense precipitation are the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, playing complementary roles in supplying moisture. The relative contributions of the Arabian Sea to intense precipitation over the WTP, SCTP, and SETP are 9.2%, 6.9%, and 1.1%, while those of the Bay of Bengal are 1.1%, 12.1%, and 8.6%. Southerly winds downstream of a cyclonic anomaly over the Indian Peninsula are crucial for the low‐level moisture transport from the south to the Himalayan foothills. Under the combined effects of orographic lifting and favorable large‐scale circulation patterns, moisture ascends further into the three subregions. Changes in the position and intensity of the cyclonic anomaly are particularly crucial to facilitating moisture contributions from the key source regions.
Dong, Wenhao, Yanluan Lin, Jonathon S Wright, Yuanyu Xie, and Yi Ming, et al., August 2018: Regional disparities in warm season rainfall changes over arid eastern-central Asia. Scientific Reports, 8, 13051, DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-31246-3. Abstract
Multiple studies have reported a shift in the trend of warm season rainfall over arid eastern–central Asia (AECA) around the turn of the new century, from increasing over the second half of the twentieth century to decreasing during the early years of the twenty-first. Here, a closer look based on multiple precipitation datasets reveals important regional disparities in these changes. Warm-season rainfall increased over both basin areas and mountain ranges during 1961–1998 due to enhanced moisture flux convergence associated with changes in the large-scale circulation and increases in atmospheric moisture content. Despite a significant decrease in warm-season precipitation over the high mountain ranges after the year 1998, warm season rainfall has remained large over low-lying basin areas. This discrepancy, which is also reflected in changes in river flow, soil moisture, and vegetation, primarily results from disparate responses to enhanced warming in the mountain and basin areas of AECA. In addition to changes in the prevailing circulation and moisture transport patterns, the decrease in precipitation over the mountains has occurred mainly because increases in local water vapor saturation capacity (which scales with temperature) have outpaced the available moisture supply, reducing relative humidity and suppressing precipitation. By contrast, rainfall over basin areas has been maintained by accelerated moisture recycling driven by rapid glacier retreat, snow melt, and irrigation expansion. This trend is unsustainable and is likely to reverse as these cryospheric buffers disappear, with potentially catastrophic implications for local agriculture and ecology.
Wang, Y, Yuanyu Xie, Wenhao Dong, and Yi Ming, et al., October 2017: Adverse Effects of Increasing Drought on Air Quality via Natural Processes. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(20), DOI:10.5194/acp-17-12827-2017. Abstract
Drought is a recurring extreme of the climate system with well-documented impacts on agriculture and water resources. The strong perturbation of drought to the land biosphere and atmospheric water cycle will affect atmospheric composition, the nature and extent of which are not well understood. Here we present observational evidence that surface ozone and PM2.5 in the US are significantly correlated with drought severity, with 3.5 ppbv (8 %) and 1.6 μg m−3 (17 %) increases respectively under severe drought. These enhancements show little sensitivity to the decreasing trend of US anthropogenic emissions, indicating natural processes as the primary cause. Elevated ozone and PM2.5 are attributed to the combined effects of drought on natural emissions (wildfires, biogenic VOCs and dust), deposition, and chemistry. Most climate-chemistry models are not able to reproduce the observed responses of ozone and PM2.5 to drought severity, suggesting a lack of mechanistic understanding of drought effects on atmospheric composition. The model deficiencies are partly attributed to the lack of drought-induced changes in land-atmosphere exchanges of reactive gases and particles and misrepresentation of cloud changes under drought conditions. By applying the observed relationships between drought and air pollutants to climate model projected drought occurrences, we estimate an increase of 1–6 % for ground-level O3 and 1–16 % for PM2.5 in the US by 2100 compared to the 2000s due to increasing drought alone. Drought thus poses another aspect of climate change penalty on air quality not recognized before. Improvements in the models are imperative to facilitate better prediction of air quality challenges due to changing hydroclimate and atmospheric composition feedback to climate.
Dong, Wenhao, Yanluan Lin, Jonathon S Wright, and Yi Ming, et al., March 2016: Summer rainfall over the southwestern Tibetan Plateau controlled by deep convection over the Indian subcontinent. Nature Communications, 7, 10925, DOI:10.1038/ncomms10925. Abstract
Despite the importance of precipitation and moisture transport over the Tibetan Plateau for
glacier mass balance, river runoff and local ecology, changes in these quantities remain highly
uncertain and poorly understood. Here we use observational data and model simulations to
explore the close relationship between summer rainfall variability over the southwestern
Tibetan Plateau (SWTP) and that over central-eastern India (CEI), which exists despite the
separation of these two regions by the Himalayas. We show that this relationship is maintained
primarily by ‘up-and-over’ moisture transport, in which hydrometeors and moisture are
lifted by convective storms over CEI and the Himalayan foothills and then swept over the
SWTP by the mid-tropospheric circulation, rather than by upslope flow over the Himalayas.
Sensitivity simulations confirm the importance of up-and-over transport at event scales, and
an objective storm classification indicates that this pathway accounts for approximately half
of total summer rainfall over the SWTP.
