Monsoon
Lead Research Organisation:
Natural Environment Research Council
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Johnson S
(2015)
The resolution sensitivity of the South Asian monsoon and Indo-Pacific in a global 0.35° AGCM
in Climate Dynamics
Bush S
(2014)
The effect of increased convective entrainment on Asian monsoon biases in the MetUM general circulation model
in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
| Description | The work under the JWCRP Modelling Monsoons programme has two major findings. They both work towards understanding and improving errors in the simulation of the Asian monsoon in weather and climate models. Most weather and climate models (including the UK Met Office model) fail to properly simulate the Asian monsoon, in particular by showing far too little rainfall over India. Firstly, we examined the role played by a key piece of the convection scheme, the part of the model the controls rainfall in the tropics. We found that rainfall over India and in nearby regions is very sensitive to a particular parameter in the convection scheme that controls the mixing between moist and dry air. Altering this parameter could improve and increase the rainfall over India. However some rainfall errors elsewhere get worse, and there is little observational basis for setting the parameter at a particular level. More information can be read here: https://ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/2320-changes-in-simulated-tropical-rainfall-due-to-increased-resolution%20and%20https://ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/2090-understanding-errors-in-simulations-of-tropical-rainfall Secondly, the JWCRP Modelling Monsoon Systems project assessed the impact of increasing the horizontal resolution of a climate model (the spacing of the gridsquares). We compared global models with resolutions of approximately 125km, 60km and 30km grid spacing. At higher resolutions, the locations of rainfall over India and Southeast Asia are improved, particularly nearby to mountain ranges. This is because the mountains are more noticeable when a higher resolution is used. The rainfall over the islands of Indonesia is also displayed better. More about this work can be read at: https://ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/2320-changes-in-simulated-tropical-rainfall-due-to-increased-resolution |
| Exploitation Route | These findings might be used by public sector organisations such as the UK Met Office or their equivalents in other countries, to improve the models they use for forecasting of the weather and climate. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/2320-changes-in-simulated-tropical-rainfall-due-to-increased-resolution |
| Description | JWCRP partnership between NERC (University of Reading) and Met Office |
| Organisation | Meteorological Office UK |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This was one of the initial JWCRP projects between NERC-funded research in universities and the Met Office. Since the position was based in University of Reading, the University and its team led by Dr Andy Turner led the research, and the PDRA was based at University of Reading. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Met Office provided desk space for visits by the PDRA in addition to supervisory support and informal collaboration. |
| Impact | Two joint journal papers between University of Reading and Met Office co-authors on monsoon modelling. |
| Start Year | 2010 |