Heat waves related to Quasi-Biweekly variability over Southern China in the FGOALS-g3 model

Abstract

In the present study, we focused on the heat waves (HW) associated with the quasi-biweekly (QBW, 10–20-day period) variability (QBW-HW) over Southern China (SC, 102º–120ºE, 21º–30ºN) in the Flexible Global Ocean–Atmosphere–Land System Model, GridPoint version 3 (FGOALS-g3), and the HW-associated structures and surface air temperature budget investigated by using model outputs from historical experiment of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). We found that the anomalous circulations related to the QBW-HW events over SC are closely linked to the southeastward propagation of the wave train from mid-high latitudes and the northwestward-propagating disturbances from the tropics. The results also showed that adiabatic and diabatic heating play a key role in the QBW-HW over SC. These results are in good agreement with observations from previous studies. In addition, QBW-HWs are dry in the FGOALS-g3 model, while observed humid HWs occur over SC. The difference is mainly due to the new boundary layer scheme incorporated in the FGOALS-g3 model, which overestimates the entrainment process at the top of the boundary layer during the QBW-HW over SC, resulting in more and drier air into the boundary layer, and thus less moisture. It implies that the entrainment equation at the top of the boundary layer in the FGOALS-g3 model does need to be improved to be suitable for humid HW processes, although the boundary layer scheme can improve the model precipitation and radiative forcing.