Spectral nudging sensitivity experiments in a regional climate model

Abstract

In this study, the scale selective bias correction (SSBC) method described by Kanamitsu et al. (2010) is further examined by considering the full wind nudging and the vertically weighted damping coefficient. The 2001 June–July–August RSM simulation over a relatively large domain covering much of the Asian continent, the northern part of Australia, and the Indian and western Pacific oceans was the main focus. The full wind nudging shows wind fields closer to the driving global analysis. However, it leads to significantly distorted fields (e.g., temperature and geopotential height) aloft, accompanying excessive precipitation over the western Pacific. The gradual reduction of vorticity nudging from the model top to the ground surface improves rainfall patterns without a discernible distortion of large-scale fields. Further evaluation of a 10-year-summer simulation over East Asia confirmed that this revised SSBC method improves the monsoonal rainfall against the method of Kanamitsu et al. It is therefore concluded that vorticity nudging alleviates largescale errors by maintaining the near geostrophic balance between mass and winds. The reduction of this nudging factor in the lower troposphere allows the ageostrophic component of wind to develop as in nature, which leads to the improvement of precipitation.