Evaluation of the DEMETER performance for seasonal hindcasts of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall

Abstract

On the basis of the observed all-India rainfall (AIR), Climate Prediction Center (CPC) merged analysis of precipitation (CMAP), and the multimodel rainfall simulated in the Development of a European multimodel ensemble system for seasonal to interannual prediction (DEMETER) project, the model performance in terms of forecast quality of the seasonal mean Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) was evaluated. The approach used included the individual model (single-model ensemble) comparison as well as its comparison with the multimodel ensemble (MME). The results obtained reveal that systematic biases are the main source of the low skill in predicting the ISMR, while improved reproduction of interannual variability may increase the overall forecast quality for the ISMR. The MME shows superior performance in reproducing AIR features than the single-model ensembles. This improved forecast quality achieved by the MME with respect to the ISMR variations primarily depends on model performance and secondly on ensemble size. The MME has improved capability of simulating the ISMR variations during 1972–1990 decades, whereas it exhibits a lower performance in the 1990s. The reason of this decadal varying forecast quality clearly deserves more investigation. In summary, these results suggest that the MME's increase in skill absolutely depends on enhancing the individual model quality. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society