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Simulation of the Indian monsoon using the RegCM3–ROMS regional coupled model

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Abstract

A regional coupled atmosphere–ocean model was developed to study the role of air–sea interactions in the simulation of the Indian summer monsoon. The coupled model includes the regional climate model (RegCM3) as atmospheric component and the regional ocean modeling system (ROMS) as oceanic component. The two-way coupled model system exchanges sea surface temperature (SST) from the ocean to the atmospheric model and surface wind stress and energy fluxes from the atmosphere to the ocean model. The coupled model is run for four years 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003 and the results are compared with observations and atmosphere-only model runs employing Reynolds SSTs as lower boundary condition. It is found that the coupled model captures the main features of the Indian monsoon and simulates a substantially more realistic spatial and temporal distribution of monsoon rainfall compared to the uncoupled atmosphere-only model. The intraseasonal oscillations are also better simulated in the coupled model compared to the atmosphere-only model. These improvements are due to a better representation of the feedbacks between the SST and convection and highlight the importance of air–sea coupling in the simulation of the Indian monsoon.

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Acknowledgments

This work was carried out under the EuIndia grid project. The first author visited the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy during the project. He wishes to acknowledge the management of Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, India and ICTP for the encouragement and support. EuIndia gird project is funded by the European Union. The authors wish to thank the agency for funding the research. The NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis data, the Reynolds Sea surface temperature and Xie–Arkin precipitation data were all obtained from NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, through their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/. The authors wish to thank Climate Diagnostic Center for the data. The surface currents data was downloaded from the site http://www.oscar.noaa.gov/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, India

    J. Venkata Ratnam & Akshara Kaginalkar

  2. International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy

    Filippo Giorgi & Stefano Cozzini

  3. Democritos National Simulation Center, Trieste, Italy

    Stefano Cozzini

Authors
  1. J. Venkata Ratnam
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  2. Filippo Giorgi
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  3. Akshara Kaginalkar
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  4. Stefano Cozzini
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Correspondence to J. Venkata Ratnam.

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Ratnam, J.V., Giorgi, F., Kaginalkar, A. et al. Simulation of the Indian monsoon using the RegCM3–ROMS regional coupled model. Clim Dyn 33, 119–139 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0433-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0433-3

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