Atmospheric processes

Abstract:

Subgrid-scale (SGS) velocity variations result in gridscale sea surface flux enhancements that must be parameterized in weather and climate models. Traditional parameterizations are deterministic in that they assign a unique value of the SGS velocity flux enhancement to any given configuration of the resolved state. In this study, we assess the statistics of SGS velocity flux enhancement over a range of averaging scales (as a proxy for varying model resolution) through systematic coarse-graining of a convection-permitting atmospheric model simulation over the Indian Ocean and west Pacific warm pool. Conditioning the statistics of the SGS velocity flux enhancement on 1) the fluxes associated with the resolved winds and 2) the precipitation rate, we find that the lack of a separation between “resolved” and “unresolved” scales results in a distribution of flux enhancements for each configuration of the resolved state. That is, the SGS velocity flux enhancement should be represented stochastically rather than deterministically. The spatial and temporal statistics of the SGS velocity flux enhancement are investigated by using basic descriptive statistics and through a fit to an anisotropic space–time covariance structure. Potential spatial inhomogeneities of the statistics of the SGS velocity flux enhancement are investigated through regional analysis, although because of the relatively short duration of the simulation (9 days) distinguishing true inhomogeneity from sampling variability is difficult. Perspectives for the implementation of such a stochastic parameterization in weather and climate models are discussed.

Abstract:

The impact of stochastic physics on El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is investigated in the EC-Earth coupled climate model. By comparing an ensemble of three members of control historical simulations with three ensemble members that include stochastics physics in the atmosphere, we find that in EC-Earth the implementation of stochastic physics improves the excessively weak representation of ENSO. Specifically, the amplitude of both El Niño and, to a lesser extent, La Niña increases. Stochastic physics also ameliorates the temporal variability of ENSO at interannual time scales, demonstrated by the emergence of peaks in the power spectrum with periods of 5–7 years and 3–4 years. Based on the analogy with the behaviour of an idealized delayed oscillator model (DO) with stochastic noise, we find that when the atmosphere–ocean coupling is small (large) the amplitude of ENSO increases (decreases) following an amplification of the noise amplitude. The underestimated ENSO variability in the EC-Earth control runs and the associated amplification due to stochastic physics could be therefore consistent with an excessively weak atmosphere–ocean coupling. The activation of stochastic physics in the atmosphere increases westerly wind burst (WWB) occurrences (i.e. amplification of noise amplitude) that could trigger more and stronger El Niño events (i.e. increase of ENSO oscillation) in the coupled EC-Earth model. Further analysis of the mean state bias of EC-Earth suggests that a cold sea surface temperature (SST) and dry precipitation bias in the central tropical Pacific together with a warm SST and wet precipitation bias in the western tropical Pacific are responsible for the coupled feedback bias (weak coupling) in the tropical Pacific that is related to the weak ENSO simulation. The same analysis of the ENSO behaviour is carried out in a future scenario experiment (RCP8.5 forcing), highlighting that in a coupled model with an extreme warm SST, characterized by a strong coupling, the effect of stochastic physics on the ENSO representation is opposite. This corroborates the hypothesis that the mean state bias of the tropical Pacific region is the main reason for the ENSO representation deficiency in EC-Earth.

Abstract:

Studies conducted by the UK Met Office reported significant skill in predicting the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index with their seasonal prediction system. At the same time, a very low signal‐to‐noise ratio was observed, as measured using the “ratio of predictable components” (RPC) metric. We analyse both the skill and signal‐to‐noise ratio using a new statistical toy model, which assumes NAO predictability is driven by regime dynamics. It is shown that if the system is approximately bimodal in nature, with the model consistently underestimating the level of regime persistence each season, then both the high skill and high RPC value of the Met Office hindcasts can easily be reproduced. Underestimation of regime persistence could be attributable to any number of sources of model error, including imperfect regime structure or errors in the propagation of teleconnections. In particular, a high RPC value for a seasonal mean prediction may be expected even if the model's internal level of noise is realistic.

Abstract:

This study investigates the mechanisms by which short-timescale perturbations to atmospheric processes can affect El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in climate models. To this end a control simulation of NCAR’s Community Climate System Model is compared to a simulation in which the model’s atmospheric diabatic tendencies are perturbed every time step using a Stochastically Perturbed Parameterized Tendencies (SPPT) scheme. The SPPT simulation compares better with ECMWF’s 20th-century reanalysis in having lower inter-annual sea surface temperature (SST) variability and more irregular transitions between El Niño and La Niña states, as expressed by a broader, less peaked spectrum. Reduced-order linear inverse models (LIMs) derived from the 1-month lag covariances of selected tropical variables yield good representations of tropical interannual variability in the two simulations. In particular, the basic features of ENSO are captured by the LIM’s least-damped oscillatory eigenmode. SPPT reduces the damping timescale of this eigenmode from 17 to 11 months, which is in better agreement with the 8 months obtained from reanalyses. This noise-induced stabilization is consistent with perturbations to the frequency of the ENSO eigenmode and explains the broadening of the SST spectrum (that is, the greater ENSO irregularity). Although the improvement in ENSO shown here was achieved through stochastic physics parameterizations, it is possible that similar improvements could be realized through changes in deterministic parameterizations or higher numerical resolution. It is suggested LIMs could provide useful insight into model sensitivities, uncertainties, and biases also in those cases.