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Performance of Regional Climate Model in Simulating Monsoon Onset Over Indian Subcontinent

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Abstract

The performance of various Convective Parameterization Schemes (CPSs) of Regional Climate Model version 4.3 (RegCM-4.3) for simulation of onset phase of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) over Kerala was studied for the period of 2001–2010. The onset date and its associated spatial variation were simulated using RegCM-4.3 four core CPS, namely Kuo, Tiedtke, Emanuel and Grell; and with two mixed convection schemes Mix98 (Emanuel over land and Grell over ocean) and Mix99 (Grell over land and Emanuel over ocean) on the basis of criteria given by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) (Pai and Rajeevan in Indian summer monsoon onset: variability and prediction. National Climate Centre, India Meteorological Department, 2007). It has been found that out of six CPS, two schemes, namely Tiedtke and Mix99 simulated the onset date properly. The onset phase is characterized with several transition phases of atmosphere. Therefore, to study the thermal response or the effect of different sea surface temperature (SST), namely ERA interim (ERSST) and weekly optimal interpolation (OI_WK SST) on Indian summer monsoon, the role of two different types of SST has been used to investigate the simulated onset date. In addition, spatial atmospheric circulation pattern during onset phase were analyzed using reanalyze dataset of ERA Interim (EIN15) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), respectively, for wind and outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) pattern. Among the six convective schemes of RegCM-4.3 model, Tiedtke is in good agreement with actual onset dates and OI_WK SST forcing is better for simulating onset of ISM over Kerala.

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of R&D project funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. Author BM thankfully acknowledge to the University Grants Commission (UGC), India for providing the Research Fellowship for continuing his Doctoral study. The authors wish to extend their thanks to India Meteorological Department (IMD), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for providing necessary data. Special thanks to International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy for providing the RegCM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    R. Bhatla, B. Mandal, Shruti Verma & Soumik Ghosh

  2. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    R. K. Mall

  3. Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    R. Bhatla, Shruti Verma & R. K. Mall

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  1. R. Bhatla
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Correspondence to R. Bhatla.

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Bhatla, R., Mandal, B., Verma, S. et al. Performance of Regional Climate Model in Simulating Monsoon Onset Over Indian Subcontinent. Pure Appl. Geophys. 176, 409–420 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1910-1

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