Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models

Abstract The Rossby wave source (RWS) in the upper troposphere plays an important role in the tropical‐extratropical teleconnections. Using the daily outputs from the Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models, the overall model performances in simulating the climatological...

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Main Authors: Yu Nie, Yang Zhang, Xiu‐Qun Yang, Hong‐Li Ren
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2019-10-01
Series:Earth and Space Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EA000674
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author Yu Nie
Yang Zhang
Xiu‐Qun Yang
Hong‐Li Ren
author_facet Yu Nie
Yang Zhang
Xiu‐Qun Yang
Hong‐Li Ren
author_sort Yu Nie
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The Rossby wave source (RWS) in the upper troposphere plays an important role in the tropical‐extratropical teleconnections. Using the daily outputs from the Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models, the overall model performances in simulating the climatological Rossby wave sources in both winter and summer are evaluated. The ensemble mean of the CMIP5 models can simulate the large‐scale geographical distributions of the RWS reasonably close to the observations, with the simulations of RWS in general better in the Southern Hemisphere. For the Northern Hemisphere, most models overestimate the subtropical RWS but underestimate the midlatitude RWS in both winter and summer. Many models even fail to simulate the seasonal source‐sink shift of RWS in East Asia. Greatest intermodel differences are shown in East Asia, western North America in both seasons, and in the subtropical belt in winter hemisphere. Possible reasons for the model biases in RWS are further investigated. In the Northern Hemisphere, our analysis shows that model performance in simulating the local divergence, which might relate to the overly smoothed topography in Asia and western North America in the model, is most responsible for the biases of the RWS simulations. In the Southern Hemisphere, the bias in subtropical divergence pattern and tropical convection all contribute to the intermodel divergence of RWS simulation.
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spelling doaj.art-0cab5cdd7ac2458e9f3915e16ce9be162022-12-21T20:01:39ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Earth and Space Science2333-50842019-10-016101831184610.1029/2019EA000674Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 ModelsYu Nie0Yang Zhang1Xiu‐Qun Yang2Hong‐Li Ren3Laboratory for Climate Studies, CMA‐NJU Joint Laboratory for Climate Prediction Studies, National Climate Center China Meteorological Administration Beijing ChinaCMA‐NJU Joint Laboratory for Climate Prediction Studies, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaCMA‐NJU Joint Laboratory for Climate Prediction Studies, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences Nanjing University Nanjing ChinaLaboratory for Climate Studies, CMA‐NJU Joint Laboratory for Climate Prediction Studies, National Climate Center China Meteorological Administration Beijing ChinaAbstract The Rossby wave source (RWS) in the upper troposphere plays an important role in the tropical‐extratropical teleconnections. Using the daily outputs from the Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models, the overall model performances in simulating the climatological Rossby wave sources in both winter and summer are evaluated. The ensemble mean of the CMIP5 models can simulate the large‐scale geographical distributions of the RWS reasonably close to the observations, with the simulations of RWS in general better in the Southern Hemisphere. For the Northern Hemisphere, most models overestimate the subtropical RWS but underestimate the midlatitude RWS in both winter and summer. Many models even fail to simulate the seasonal source‐sink shift of RWS in East Asia. Greatest intermodel differences are shown in East Asia, western North America in both seasons, and in the subtropical belt in winter hemisphere. Possible reasons for the model biases in RWS are further investigated. In the Northern Hemisphere, our analysis shows that model performance in simulating the local divergence, which might relate to the overly smoothed topography in Asia and western North America in the model, is most responsible for the biases of the RWS simulations. In the Southern Hemisphere, the bias in subtropical divergence pattern and tropical convection all contribute to the intermodel divergence of RWS simulation.https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EA000674Rossby wave sourceteleconnection patternmodel simulation
spellingShingle Yu Nie
Yang Zhang
Xiu‐Qun Yang
Hong‐Li Ren
Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
Earth and Space Science
Rossby wave source
teleconnection pattern
model simulation
title Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
title_full Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
title_fullStr Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
title_full_unstemmed Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
title_short Winter and Summer Rossby Wave Sources in the CMIP5 Models
title_sort winter and summer rossby wave sources in the cmip5 models
topic Rossby wave source
teleconnection pattern
model simulation
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EA000674
work_keys_str_mv AT yunie winterandsummerrossbywavesourcesinthecmip5models
AT yangzhang winterandsummerrossbywavesourcesinthecmip5models
AT xiuqunyang winterandsummerrossbywavesourcesinthecmip5models
AT hongliren winterandsummerrossbywavesourcesinthecmip5models