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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2022-12-05
    Description: Classification of atmospheric circulation patterns (CP) is a common tool for downscaling rainfall, but it is rarely used for West Africa. In this study, a two‐step classification procedure is proposed for this region, which is applied from 1989 to 2010 for the Sudan‐Sahel zone (Central Burkina Faso) with a focus on heavy rainfall. The approach is based on a classification of large‐scale atmospheric CPs (e.g., Saharan Heat Low) of the West African Monsoon using a fuzzy rule‐based method to describe the seasonal rainfall variability. The wettest CPs are further classified using meso‐scale monsoon patterns to better describe the daily rainfall variability during the monsoon period. A comprehensive predictor screening for the seasonal classification indicates that the best performing predictor variables (e.g., surface pressure, meridional moisture fluxes) are closely related to the main processes of the West African Monsoon. In the second classification step, the stream function at 700 hPa for identifying troughs and ridges of tropical waves shows the highest performance, providing an added value to the overall performance of the classification. Thus, the new approach can better distinguish between dry and wet CPs during the rainy season. Moreover, CPs are identified that are of high relevance for daily heavy rainfall in the study area. The two wettest CPs caused roughly half of the extremes on about 6.5% of days. Both wettest patterns are characterized by an intensified Saharan Heat Low and a cyclonic rotation near the study area, indicating a tropical wave trough. Since the classification can be used to condition other statistical approaches used in climate sciences and other disciplines, the presented classification approach opens many different applications for the West African Monsoon region.
    Description: A two‐step classification of daily atmospheric circulation patterns is used to describe seasonal and daily rainfall variability in West Africa. The approach clearly distinguishes between dry and wet patterns if sea level pressure and stream function at 700 hPa are used. The two wettest patterns trigger about half of heavy rainfall events in Central Burkina Faso. They are characterized by an intensified Saharan Heat Low and a cyclonic rotation indicating a tropical wave trough near the study area.
    Description: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347
    Keywords: ddc:551.5 ; circulation pattern ; classification ; downscaling ; heavy rainfall ; West Africa
    Language: English
    Type: doc-type:article
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2022-11-14
    Description: The Indo-Pacific Warm Pool (IPWP) exerts a dominant role in global climate by releasing huge amounts of water vapour and latent heat to the atmosphere and modulating upper ocean heat content (OHC), which has been implicated in modern climate change1. The long-term variations of IPWP OHC and their effect on monsoonal hydroclimate are, however, not fully explored. Here, by combining geochemical proxies and transient climate simulations, we show that changes of IPWP upper (0–200 m) OHC over the past 360,000 years exhibit dominant precession and weaker obliquity cycles and follow changes in meridional insolation gradients, and that only 30%–40% of the deglacial increases are related to changes in ice volume. On the precessional band, higher upper OHC correlates with oxygen isotope enrichments in IPWP surface water and concomitant depletion in East Asian precipitation as recorded in Chinese speleothems. Using an isotope-enabled air–sea coupled model, we suggest that on precessional timescales, variations in IPWP upper OHC, more than surface temperature, act to amplify the ocean–continent hydrological cycle via the convergence of moisture and latent heat. From an energetic viewpoint, the coupling of upper OHC and monsoon variations, both coordinated by insolation changes on orbital timescales, is critical for regulating the global hydroclimate.
    Type: Article , PeerReviewed
    Format: text
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2022-10-13
    Description: Accurate and reliable precipitation data with high spatial and temporal resolution are essential in studying climate variability, water resources management, and hydrological forecasting. A range of global precipitation data are available to this end, but how well these capture actual precipitation remains unknown, particularly for mountain regions where ground stations are sparse. We examined the performance of three global high‐resolution precipitation products for capturing precipitation over Central Asia, a hotspot of climate change, where reliable precipitation data are particularly scarce. Specifically, we evaluated MSWEP, CHIRPS, and GSMAP against independent gauging stations for the period 1985–2015. Our results show that MSWEP and CHIRPS outperformed GSMAP for wetter periods (i.e., winter and spring) and wetter locations (150–600 mm·year−1), lowlands, and mid‐altitudes (0–3,000 m), and regions dominated by winter and spring precipitation. MSWEP performed best in representing temporal precipitation dynamics and CHIRPS excelled in capturing the volume and distribution of precipitation. All precipitation products poorly estimated precipitation at higher elevations (〉3,000 m), in drier areas (〈150 mm), and in regions characterized by summer precipitation. All products accurately detected dry spells, but their performance decreased for wet spells with increasing precipitation intensity. In sum, we find that CHIRPS and MSWEP provide the most reliable high‐resolution precipitation estimates for Central Asia. However, the high spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the performance call for a careful selection of a suitable product for local applications considering the prevailing precipitation dynamics, climatic, and topographic conditions.
    Description: We present the first quantitative evaluation of global high‐resolution (below 12 km) precipitation products against independent ground observations over Central Asia. Our results show that MSWEP was best at representing temporal precipitation dynamics, and CHIRPS was most prominent in representing the volume and distribution of precipitation. This is especially the case of wet seasons, altitudes below 3,000 m, and regions dominated by spring and winter precipitation. Our analysis provides key insights on the precipitation products' suitability for local hydrological applications.
    Description: Leibniz‐Institut für Agrarentwicklung in Transformationsökonomien
    Description: Volkswagen Foundation http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001663
    Keywords: ddc:551.6
    Language: English
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2022-10-06
    Description: Trade wind convection organises into a rich spectrum of spatial patterns, often in conjunction with precipitation development. Which role spatial organisation plays for precipitation and vice versa is not well understood. We analyse scenes of trade‐wind convection scanned by the C‐band radar Poldirad during the EUREC4A field campaign to investigate how trade‐wind precipitation fields are spatially organised, quantified by the cells' number, mean size, and spatial arrangement, and how this matters for precipitation characteristics. We find that the mean rain rate (i.e., the amount of precipitation in a scene) and the intensity of precipitation (mean conditional rain rate) relate differently to the spatial pattern of precipitation. Whereas the amount of precipitation increases with mean cell size or number, as it scales well with the precipitation fraction, the intensity increases predominantly with mean cell size. In dry scenes, the increase of precipitation intensity with mean cell size is stronger than in moist scenes. Dry scenes usually contain fewer cells with a higher degree of clustering than moist scenes do. High precipitation intensities hence typically occur in dry scenes with rather large, few, and strongly clustered cells, whereas high precipitation amounts typically occur in moist scenes with rather large, numerous, and weakly clustered cells. As cell size influences both the intensity and amount of precipitation, its importance is highlighted. Our analyses suggest that the cells' spatial arrangement, correlating mainly weakly with precipitation characteristics, is of second‐order importance for precipitation across all regimes, but it could be important for high precipitation intensities and to maintain precipitation amounts in dry environments.
    Description: We analyse scenes of trade‐wind convection scanned by the C‐band radar Poldirad during the EUREC4A field campaign to investigate how trade‐wind precipitation fields are spatially organised, quantified by the cells' number, mean size, and spatial arrangement, and how this matters for precipitation characteristics. We conclude that the cells' size is important for both the amount and intensity of precipitation, whereas the cells' spatial arrangement is of second‐order importance for precipitation across all regimes, but possibly important for precipitation in dry environments.
    Description: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy—EXC 2037 'CLICCS—Climate, Climatic Change, and Society'
    Description: https://doi.org/10.25326/217
    Description: https://doi.org/10.25326/79
    Keywords: ddc:551.5
    Language: English
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2022-10-06
    Description: The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is the dominant component of tropical intraseasonal variability, with wide‐reaching impacts even on extratropical weather and climate patterns. However, predicting the MJO is challenging. One reason is the suboptimal state estimates obtained with standard data assimilation (DA) approaches. These are typically based on filtering methods with Gaussian approximations and do not take into account physical properties that are important specifically for the MJO. In this article, a constrained ensemble DA method is applied to study the impact of different physical constraints on the state estimation and prediction of the MJO. The quadratic programming ensemble (QPEns) algorithm utilized extends the standard stochastic ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with specifiable constraints on the updates of all ensemble members. This allows us to recover physically more consistent states and to respect possible associated non‐Gaussian statistics. The study is based on identical twin experiments with an adopted nonlinear model for tropical intraseasonal variability. This so‐called skeleton model succeeds in reproducing the main large‐scale features of the MJO and closely related tropical waves, while keeping adequate simplicity for fast experiments on intraseasonal time‐scales. Conservation laws and other crucial physical properties from the model are examined as constraints in the QPEns. Our results demonstrate an overall improvement in the filtering and forecast skill when the model's total energy is conserved in the initial conditions. The degree of benefit is found to be dependent on the observational setup and the strength of the model's nonlinear dynamics. It is also shown that, even in cases where the statistical error in some waves remains comparable with the stochastic EnKF during the DA stage, their prediction is improved remarkably when using the initial state resulting from the QPEns.
    Description: Unsatisfactory predictions of the MJO are partly due to DA methods that do not respect non‐Gaussian PDFs and the physical properties of the tropical atmosphere. Therefore the QPEns, an algorithm extending a stochastic EnKF with state constraints, is tested here on a simplified model for the MJO and associated tropical waves. Our series of identical twin experiments shows, in particular, that a constraint on the truth's nonlinear total energy improves forecasts statistically and can, in certain situations, even prevent filter divergence. image
    Description: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft : Heisenberg Award (DFG JA1077/4‐1); Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB / TRR 165 “Waves to Weather” http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659
    Description: Office of Naval Research (ONR) http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000006
    Keywords: ddc:551.6
    Language: English
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2022-10-06
    Description: The stochastically perturbed parametrisation tendency (SPPT) scheme is a well‐established technique in ensemble forecasting to address model uncertainty by introducing perturbations into the tendencies provided by the physics parametrisations. The magnitude of the perturbations scales with the local net parametrisation tendency, resulting in large perturbations where diabatic processes are active. Rapidly ascending air streams, such as warm conveyor belts (WCBs) and organized tropical convection, are often driven by cloud diabatic processes and are therefore prone to such perturbations. This study investigates the effects of SPPT and initial condition perturbations on rapidly ascending air streams by computing trajectories in sensitivity experiments with the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble prediction system, which are set up to disentangle the effects of initial conditions and physics perturbations. The results demonstrate that SPPT systematically increases the frequency of rapidly ascending air streams. The effect is observed globally, but is enhanced in regions where the latent heating along the trajectories is larger. Despite the frequency changes, there are only minor modifications to the physical properties of the trajectories due to SPPT. In contrast to SPPT, initial condition perturbations do not affect WCBs and tropical convection systematically. An Eulerian perspective on vertical velocities reveals that SPPT increases the frequency of strong upward motions compared with experiments with unperturbed model physics. Consistent with the altered vertical motions, precipitation rates are also affected by the model physics perturbations. The unperturbed control member shows the same characteristics as the experiments without SPPT regarding rapidly ascending air streams. We make use of this to corroborate the findings from the sensitivity experiments by analyzing the differences between perturbed and unperturbed members in operational ensemble forecasts of ECMWF. Finally, we give an explanation of how symmetric, zero‐mean perturbations can lead to a unidirectional response when applied in a nonlinear system.
    Description: The stochastically perturbed parametrisation tendencies (SPPT) scheme is used at ECMWF to perturb the model physics and introduces state‐dependent perturbations into the parametrisation tendencies. The frequency of rapidly ascending air streams is systematically enhanced when SPPT is active. This effect is stronger when the latent heating is large (panel a), and is therefore more pronounced in the Tropics than in the Extratropics. In contrast, the impact of SPPT on the physical properties of the air streams, such as the latent heat release, is very small (panel b).
    Description: Helmholtz Young Investigator Group ‘Sub‐ Seasonal Predictability: Understanding the Role of Diabatic Outflow’
    Keywords: ddc:551.5
    Language: English
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2022-10-04
    Description: We review the widely used concepts of “buoyancy” and “convective available potential energy” (CAPE) in relation to deep convection in tropical cyclones and discuss their limitations. A fact easily forgotten in applying these concepts is that the buoyancy force of an air parcel, as often defined, is non‐unique because it depends on the arbitrary definition of a reference density field. However, when calculating CAPE, the buoyancy of a lifted air parcel is related to the specific reference density field along a vertical column passing through that parcel. Both concepts can be generalized for a vortical flow and to slantwise ascent of a lifted air parcel in such a flow. In all cases, the air parcel is assumed to have infinitely small dimensions. In this article, we explore the consequences of generalizing buoyancy and CAPE for buoyant regions of finite size that perturb the pressure field in their immediate environment. Quantitative calculations of effective buoyancy, defined as the sum of the conventional buoyancy and the static vertical perturbation pressure gradient force induced by it, are shown for buoyant regions of finite width. For a judicious choice of reference density, the effective buoyancy per unit mass is essentially a unique force, independent of the reference density, but its distribution depends on the horizontal scale of the buoyant region. A corresponding concept of “effective CAPE” is introduced and its relevance to deep convection in tropical cyclones is discussed. The study is conceived as a first step to understanding the decreasing ability of inner‐core deep convection in tropical cyclones to ventilate the mass of air converging in the frictional boundary layer as the vortex matures and decays.
    Description: The buoyancy force of an infinitesimally small air parcel is non‐unique, depending on the arbitrary definition of a reference density field. When calculating the “convective available potential energy” (CAPE), the buoyancy of a lifted air parcel is related to the reference density field along a vertical column passing through that parcel. We generalize buoyancy and CAPE for buoyant regions of finite size that perturb the pressure field in their immediate environment and discuss the relevance to deep convection in tropical cyclones.
    Keywords: ddc:551.5
    Language: English
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  • 8
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    John Wiley & Sons, Ltd | Chichester, UK
    Publication Date: 2022-10-04
    Description: New cross‐validation diagnostics have been derived by further partitioning well‐established impact diagnostics. They are related to consistency relations, the most prominent of which indicates whether the first‐guess departures of a given observation type pull the model state into the direction of the verifying data (when processed with the ensemble estimated model error covariances). Alternatively, this can be regarded as cross‐validation between model error covariance estimates from the ensemble (which are used in the data assimilation system) and estimates diagnosed directly from the observations. A statistical cross‐validation tool has been developed that includes an indicator of statistical significance as well as a normalization that makes the statistical comparison largely independent from the total number of data and the closeness of their collocation. We also present a version of these diagnostics related to single‐observation experiments that exploits the same consistency relations but is easier to compute. Diagnostics computed within the Deutscher Wetterdienst's localized ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) are presented for various kinds of bins. Results from well‐established in‐situ measurements are taken as a benchmark for more complex observations. Good agreement is found for radio‐occultation bending angle measurements, whereas atmospheric motion vectors are generally also beneficial but substantially less optimal than the corresponding in‐situ measurements. This is consistent with reported atmospheric motion vector height assignment problems. To illustrate its potential, a recent example is given where the method allowed identifying bias problems of a subgroup of aircraft measurements. Another diagnostic relationship compares the information content of the analysis increments with a theoretical optimum. From this, the information content of the LETKF increments is found to be considerably lower than those of the deterministic hybrid ensemble–variational system, which is consistent with the LETKF's limitation to the comparably low‐dimensional ensemble space for finding the optimal analysis.
    Description: New cross‐validation diagnostics are presented, allowing to test the consistent use of different observation types in the data assimilation system. The figure gives an example in which these new diagnostics allowed identification of the detrimental impact of a group of aircraft measurements (which as a consequence has now been blacklisted in the Deutscher Wetterdienst's operational system). More precisely, brown colors in this plot indicate regions where these aircraft measurements pulled the analysis state away from radiosonde observations.
    Keywords: ddc:551.5
    Language: English
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  • 9
    Publication Date: 2022-09-27
    Description: While the evidence for anthropogenic climate change continues to strengthen, and concerns about severe weather events are increasing, global projections of regional climate change are still uncertain due to model‐dependent changes in large‐scale atmospheric circulation, including over North Atlantic and Europe. Here, the Jenkinson–Collison classification of daily circulation patterns is used to evaluate past and future changes in their seasonal frequencies over Central Europe for the 1900–2100 period. Three reanalyses and eight global climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6, were used based on daily mean sea‐level pressure data. Best agreement in deriving relative frequencies of the synoptic types was found between the reanalyses. Global models can generally capture the interannual variability of circulation patterns and their climatological state, especially for the less frequent synoptic types. Based on historical data and the shared socioeconomic pathway 5 scenario, the evaluated trends show more robust signals during summer, given their lesser internal variability. Increasing frequencies were found for circulation types characterized by weak pressure gradients, mainly at the expense of decreasing frequencies of westerlies. Our findings indicate that given a high‐emission scenario, these signals will likely emerge from past climate variability towards the mid‐21st century for most altered circulation patterns.
    Description: Daily synoptic circulation patterns are derived using the Jenkinson–Collinson automated classification over Central Europe to evaluate past and future changes in their temporal frequencies. Reanalyses and eight global climate models from the CMIP6 were used based on the historical experiment and a high‐emission scenario. More robust signals were found during the summer season leading to emerging changes towards the mid‐21st century.
    Description: H2020 Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Actions http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010665
    Description: EU International Training Network (ITN) Climate Advanced Forecasting of sub‐seasonal Extremes (CAFE)
    Keywords: ddc:551.6
    Language: English
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  • 10
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    John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. | Chichester, UK
    Publication Date: 2022-09-22
    Description: This note is framed as an open question to the community regarding parameterisation schemes using the blocking layer depth to reduce the orographic gravity wave drag. It is the purpose of this note to argue that the current orographic gravity wave drag parameterisation in the vicinity of blocking is inadequate. Reducing the gravity wave amplitude (and thereby reducing the gravity wave drag) by assuming an effective mountain height dependent on the blocking depth is not realistic. The arguments given here will hopefully spark a debate and new considerations, ultimately leading to improvements in current orographic gravity wave drag parameterisations. This note illustrates that low‐level blocking can induce more gravity waves or gravity waves with a higher momentum flux (compared to the current parameterisation schemes). More realistic parameterisation schemes are likely to improve the models' performance. However, the fact is complex theories are needed to describe gravity wave excitation by orography so that it is difficult to represent gravity wave nature by a ‘too simple’ parameterisation scheme.
    Description: The purpose of this letter is to provide arguments that the current gravity wave drag parameterisation in the vicinity of blocking is inadequate. Reducing the gravity wave drag depending on the blocking depth is not a realistic representation. The letter lists five ways in which the blocking layer can result in a greater amount of gravity wave drag.
    Keywords: ddc:551.5
    Language: English
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