Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem
This study investigates the causes of the double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) bias, characterized by too northward northern Pacific ITCZ, too dry equatorial Pacific, and too zonally elongated southern Pacific rainband. While the biases within one fully coupled model GFDL CM2.1 are examined,...
Published in: | Climate Dynamics |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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2022
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_25487 2024-04-28T08:39:29+00:00 Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem Lee, Jiheun (author) Kang, Sarah M. (author) Kim, Hanjun (author) Xiang, Baoqiang (author) 2022-06-21 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x en eng Climate Dynamics--Clim Dyn--0930-7575--1432-0894 articles:25487 doi:10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x ark:/85065/d7c53qkq Copyright 2022 Springer Nature article Text 2022 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x 2024-04-04T17:35:13Z This study investigates the causes of the double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) bias, characterized by too northward northern Pacific ITCZ, too dry equatorial Pacific, and too zonally elongated southern Pacific rainband. While the biases within one fully coupled model GFDL CM2.1 are examined, the large-scale bias patterns are broadly common to CMIP5/6 models. We disentangle the individual contribution of regional sea surface temperature (SST) biases to the double-ITCZ bias pattern using a series of slab ocean model experiments. A previously suggested Southern Ocean warm bias effect in displacing the zonal-mean ITCZ southward is manifested in the northern Pacific ITCZ while having little contribution to the zonally elongated wet bias south of the equatorial Pacific. The excessive southern Pacific precipitation is instead induced by the warm bias along the west coast of South America. The Southern Ocean bias effect on the zonal-mean ITCZ position is diminished by the neighboring midlatitude bias of opposite sign in GFDL CM2.1. As a result, the northern extratropical cold bias turns out to be most responsible for a southward-displaced zonal-mean ITCZ. However, this southward ITCZ displacement results from the northern Pacific branch, so ironically fixing the extratropical biases only deteriorates the northern Pacific precipitation bias. Thus, we emphasize that the zonal-mean diagnostics poorly represent the spatial pattern of the tropical Pacific response. Examination of longitude-latitude structure indicates that the overall tropical precipitation bias is mostly locally driven from the tropical SST bias. While our model experiments are idealized with no ocean dynamics, the results shed light on where preferential foci should be applied in model development to improve particular features of tropical precipitation bias. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Climate Dynamics 58 11-12 3441 3453 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
This study investigates the causes of the double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) bias, characterized by too northward northern Pacific ITCZ, too dry equatorial Pacific, and too zonally elongated southern Pacific rainband. While the biases within one fully coupled model GFDL CM2.1 are examined, the large-scale bias patterns are broadly common to CMIP5/6 models. We disentangle the individual contribution of regional sea surface temperature (SST) biases to the double-ITCZ bias pattern using a series of slab ocean model experiments. A previously suggested Southern Ocean warm bias effect in displacing the zonal-mean ITCZ southward is manifested in the northern Pacific ITCZ while having little contribution to the zonally elongated wet bias south of the equatorial Pacific. The excessive southern Pacific precipitation is instead induced by the warm bias along the west coast of South America. The Southern Ocean bias effect on the zonal-mean ITCZ position is diminished by the neighboring midlatitude bias of opposite sign in GFDL CM2.1. As a result, the northern extratropical cold bias turns out to be most responsible for a southward-displaced zonal-mean ITCZ. However, this southward ITCZ displacement results from the northern Pacific branch, so ironically fixing the extratropical biases only deteriorates the northern Pacific precipitation bias. Thus, we emphasize that the zonal-mean diagnostics poorly represent the spatial pattern of the tropical Pacific response. Examination of longitude-latitude structure indicates that the overall tropical precipitation bias is mostly locally driven from the tropical SST bias. While our model experiments are idealized with no ocean dynamics, the results shed light on where preferential foci should be applied in model development to improve particular features of tropical precipitation bias. |
author2 |
Lee, Jiheun (author) Kang, Sarah M. (author) Kim, Hanjun (author) Xiang, Baoqiang (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
spellingShingle |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
title_short |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
title_full |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
title_fullStr |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
title_full_unstemmed |
Disentangling the effect of regional SST bias on the double-ITCZ problem |
title_sort |
disentangling the effect of regional sst bias on the double-itcz problem |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
Climate Dynamics--Clim Dyn--0930-7575--1432-0894 articles:25487 doi:10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x ark:/85065/d7c53qkq |
op_rights |
Copyright 2022 Springer Nature |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06107-x |
container_title |
Climate Dynamics |
container_volume |
58 |
container_issue |
11-12 |
container_start_page |
3441 |
op_container_end_page |
3453 |
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1797570486183395328 |