Simulation of the South Asian Monsoon in a Coupled Model with an Embedded Cloud-Resolving Model

Abstract

Abstract The simulation of the South Asian monsoon by a coupled ocean–atmosphere model with an embedded cloud-resolving model is analyzed on intraseasonal and interannual time scales. The daily modes of variability in the superparameterized Community Climate System Model, version 3 (SP-CCSM), are compared with those in observation, the superparameterized Community Atmospheric Model, version 3 (SP-CAM3), and the control simulation of CCSM (CT-CCSM) with conventional parameterization of convection. The CT-CCSM fails to simulate the observed intraseasonal oscillations but is able to generate the atmospheric El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mode, although with regular biennial variability. The dominant modes of variability extracted from daily anomalies of outgoing longwave radiation, precipitation, and low-level horizontal wind in SP-CCSM consist of two intraseasonal oscillations and two seasonally persisting modes, in good agreement with observation. The most significant observed features of the intraseasonal oscillations correctly simulated by the SP-CCSM are the northward propagation of convection, precipitation, and circulation as well as the eastward and westward propagations. The observed spatial structure and the periods of the oscillations are also well captured by the SP-CCSM, although with lesser magnitude. The SP-CCSM is able to simulate the chaotic variability and spatial structure of the seasonally persisting atmospheric ENSO mode, while the evidence for the Indian Ocean dipole mode is inconclusive. The SP-CAM3 simulates two intraseasonal oscillations and the atmospheric ENSO mode. However, the intraseasonal oscillations in SP-CAM3 do not show northward propagation while their periods and spatial structures are not comparable to observation. The results of this study indicate the necessity of coupled models with sufficiently realistic cloud parameterizations.