Abstract
Abstract. Ten Coupled General Circulation Models (CGCMs) participated in the third phase of Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP3) are assessed for the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) in both the pre-Industrial (PI, 0 ka) and mid-Holocene (MH, 6 ka) simulations. Results show that the PMIP3 model median captures well the large-scale characteristics of the EASM, including the two distinct features of the Meiyu rainbelt and the stepwise meridional displacement of the monsoonal rainbelt. At mid-Holocene, the PMIP3 model median shows significant warming (cooling) during boreal summer (winter) over Eurasia continent that are dominated by the changes of insolation. However, the PMIP3 models fail to simulate a warmer annual mean and winter surface air temperature (TAS) over eastern China as derived from proxy records. The EASM at MH are featured by the changes of large-scale circulation over Eastern China while the changes of precipitation are not significant over its sub-domains of the Southern China and the lower reaches of Yangzi River. The inter-model differences for the monsoon precipitation can be associated with different configurations of the changes in large-scale circulation and the water vapour content, of which the former determines the sign of precipitation changes. The large model spread for the TAS over Tibetan Plateau has a positive relationship with the precipitation in the lower reaches of Yangzi River, yet this relationship does not apply to those PMIP3 models in which the monsoonal precipitation is more sensitive to the changes of large-scale circulation. Except that the PMIP3 model median captured the warming of annual mean TAS over Tibetan Plateau, no significant improvements can be concluded when compared with the PMIP2 models results.
Highlights
The model sensitivity to the changes of insolation at MH is different among models, for example, the changes of water vapour content are related to large-scale circulation and the local hydrology
To better demonstrate the model spread in Eastern China for the change of precipitation, we plotted the changes of ω500 and the water vapour content in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively, from which the changes of East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) precipitation in Eastern China can be qualitatively derived from the configuration of the changes of ω500 and water vapour content
Regional features can be identified from the changes of ω500, e.g., the CSIRO show a maximal change of ω500 over the lower reaches of Yangzi River (Fig. 6, CSIRO) that favour a larger change of precipitation in this region when compared with Northern and Southern China (Fig. 5b)
Summary
The mid-Holocene (MH,EapaprrothximSatyelsyt6e0m00 yr BP (before present) is one of the widely sStucdiieednpcereiosds in the Quaternary, which was characterised by a warmer period than present that is known as Holocene Megathermal. W. Zheng et al.: The East Asian Summer Monsoon at mid-Holocene: results from PMIP3 simulations shows a warmer climate at MH that generally agreed with the pollen records over China (Wang et al, 2010). Evaluation shows that the PMIP2 models reproduced warmer and wetter summer climate conditions in East Asia at MH, in which the precipitation was 5.8 % higher (Wang et al, 2010). The objective of this study is firstly to document basic features of the EASM from the PI simulations of PMIP3 models and compared with the present climate observations. 4 discusses the inter-model differences in changes of monsoonal precipitation over eastern China and the main findings are concluded in Sect.
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