Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Sensitivity of convective parameterization schemes in regional climate model: precipitation extremes over India

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Climatology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An effort is made to identify a suitable convective parameterization scheme (CPS) in a regional climate model (RegCM4.5) for simulating the spatiotemporal variability of precipitation extremes over India. In this regard, a set of seven sensitivity experiments are conducted using different CPS. The performance of the mixed scheme, MIT over land and Grell over ocean (MLGO), bears a considerable resemblance to observations in the spatial distribution of mean extreme precipitation compared to other schemes. All schemes underestimate the mean precipitation due to heavy and extreme events, particularly over central India. However, this underestimation is considerably reduced in MLGO. The overestimation of the rainy days and underestimation of the dry days is one of the possible regions of higher mean rainfall in MLGO. Despite having considerable performance in simulating mean rainfall, MLGO fails to correctly simulate rainy days, dry days, and the frequency of events for very low intensities. However, Grell simulates the intensity and frequency of events closer to observation. In general, the Grell has the highest performance in simulating extreme events, dry/wet days, and daily precipitation intensity. The better performance of Grell and MLGO in simulating the precipitation extremes is due to the stronger south-westerly wind from the Arabian Sea (AS), and convergent flow from the northern Bay of Bengal (BoB) to central India (CI) facilitates the moisture pulling mechanisms enhancing moisture availability and hence precipitation. In addition, the higher atmospheric instability in MLGO enhances the moist convection, strengthening convective activity, leading to enhanced precipitation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The observational datasets used in this study are derived from public resources, and model data would be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Code availability

The analysis code is available on request from the corresponding author.

References

  • Aldrian E, Dümenil-Gates L, Jacob D, Podzun R, Gunawan D (2004) Long-term simulation of Indonesian rainfall with the MPI regional model. Clim Dyn 22:795–814

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander LV, Zhang X, Peterso TC, Caesar J, Gleason B, Klein Tank AMG, Haylock M et al (2006) Global observed changes in daily climate extremes of temperature and precipitation. J Geophys Res 111:D05109. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ali S, Dan L, Fu C, Yang Y (2015) Performance of convective parameterization schemes in Asia using RegCM: simulations in three typical regions for the period 1998–2002. Adv Atmos Sci 32(5):715–730

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatla R, Ghosh S (2015) Study of break phase of Indian summer monsoon using different parameterization schemes of RegCM-4.3. Int J Earth Atmos Sci 2(3):109–115.

  • Bhatla R, Ghosh S, Mall RK, Sinha P, Sarkar A (2018)Regional climate model performance in simulating intra-seasonal and interannual variability of Indian summer monsoon. Pure Appl Geophys 1–22.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1886-x

  • Bhatla R, Ghosh S, Shruti V, Mall RK, Gharde GR (2019) Variability of monsoon over homogeneous regions of India using regional climate model and impact on crop production. Agric Res 8(3):331–346

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatla R, Verma S, Ghosh S, Mall RK (2020) Performance of regional climate model in simulating Indian summer monsoon over Indian homogeneous region. Theor Appl Climatol 139(3):1121–1135

    Google Scholar 

  • De US, Dube RK, Prakasa Rao GS (2005) Extreme weather events over India in the last 100 years. J Ind Geophys Union 9(3):173–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Dee DP, Uppala SM, Simmons AJ, Berrisford P, Poli P, Kobayashi S, Andrae U, Balmaseda MA, Balsamo G, Bauer P, Bechtold P, Beljaars ACM, van de Berg L, Bidlot J, Bormann N, Delsol C, Dragani R, Fuentes M, Geer AJ, Haimberger L, Healy SB, Hersbach H, Holm EV, Isaksen L, Kallberg P, Köhler M, Matricardi M, McNally AP, Monge-Sanz BM, Morcette JJ, Park BK, Peubey C, de Rosnay P, Tavolato C, Thepaut JN, Vitart F (2011) The ERA-interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q J R Meteorol Soc 137:553–597

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson RE, Henderson-Sellers A, Kennedy PJ (1993) Biosphere-atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS) version 1e as coupled to the NCAR community climate model. NCAR technical note NCAR/TN-387+STR, NCAR, Boulder, 72 p

  • Di Sante F, Coppola E, Farneti R, Giorgi F (2019) Indian summer monsoon as simulated by the regional earth system model RegCM-ES: the role of local air-sea interaction. Clim Dyn 53(1):759–778

    Google Scholar 

  • Elguindi N, Bi X, Giorgi F, Nagarajan B, Pal J, Solmon F, Rauscher S, Zakey A, O’Brien T, Nogherotto R, Giuliani G (2014) Regional climatic model RegCM Reference Manual version 4.5. ITCP, Trieste, 37p

  • Emanuel KA, Zivkovic-Rothman M (1999) Development and evaluation of a convection scheme for use in climate models. J Atmos Sci 56:1766–1782

    Google Scholar 

  • Emori S, Brown SJ (2005) Dynamic and thermodynamic changes in mean and extreme precipitation under changed climate. Geophys Res Lett 32:L17706

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher JK, Parker DJ, Turner AG, Menon A, Martin GM, Birch CE, Mitra AK, Mrudula G, Hunt KM, Taylor CM, Houze RA (2020) The dynamic and thermodynamic structure of the monsoon over southern India: new observations from the INCOMPASS IOP. Q J R Meteorol Soc 146:2867–2890

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritsch JM, Chappell CF (1980) Numerical prediction of convectively driven mesoscale pressure systems. Part I: convective parameterization. J Atmos Sci 37:1722–1733

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadgil S, Gadgil S (2006) The Indian monsoon, GDP and agriculture. Econ Polit Wkly 25:4887–4895

    Google Scholar 

  • Gao XJ, Shi Y, Giorgi F (2016) Comparison of convective parameterizations in RegCM4 experiments over China with CLM as the land surface model. Atmos Ocean Sci Lett 9(4):246–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F, Shields C (1999) Tests of precipitation parameterizations available in latest version of NCAR regional climate model (RegCM) over continental United States. J Geophys Res: Atmos 104:6353–6375

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F, Jones C, Asrar GR (2009) Addressing climate information needs at the regional level: the cordex framework. WMO Bull 58(3):175p

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi F, Coppola E, Raffaele F, Tefera Diro G, Fuentes-Franco R, Giuliani G, Mamgain A, Llopart MP, Mariotti L, Torma C (2014) Changes in extremes and hydroclimatic regimes in the CREMA ensemble projections. Clim Chang 125(1):39–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Gochis DJ, Shuttleworth WJ, Yang ZL (2002) Sensitivity of the modeled North American monsoon regional climate to convective parameterization. Mon Weather Rev 130(5):1282–1298

    Google Scholar 

  • Goswami BN (2005) South Asian monsoon. In: Lau WKM, Waliser DE (eds) Intraseasonal variability of the atmosphere-ocean climate system. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 19–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Grell GA (1993) Prognostic evaluation of assumptions used by cumulus parameterizations. Mon Weather Rev 121(3):764–787

    Google Scholar 

  • Halenka T, Kalvová J, Chládová Z, Demeterová A, Zemánková K, Belda M (2006) On the capability of RegCM to capture extremes in long term regional climate simulation-comparison with the observations for Czech Republic. Theor Appl Climatol 86(1–4):125–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrera S, Fita L, Fernández J, Gutiérre JM (2010) Evaluation of the mean and extreme precipitation regimes from the ENSEMBLES regional climate multimodel simulations over Spain. J Geophys Res 115:D21117. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD013936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holtslag AAM, de Bruijn EIF, Pan HL (1990) A high resolution air mass transformation model for short-range weather forecasting. Mon Weather Rev 118:1561–1575

    Google Scholar 

  • Kang I-S, Jin K, Wang B, Lau K-M, Shukla J, Krishnamurthy V, Schubert S, Wailser D, Stern W, Meehl KA, G, (2002) Intercomparison of the climatological variations of Asian summer monsoon precipitation simulated by 10 GCMs. Clim Dyn 19(5–6):383–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Kang S, Im ES, Ahn JB (2014) The impact of two land-surface schemes on the characteristics of summer precipitation over East Asia from the RegCM4 simulations. Int J Climatol 34(15):3986–3997

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl TR, Easterling DR (1999) Climate extremes: selected review and future research directions. Clim Chang 42(1):309–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiehl JT, Hack JJ, Bonan GB, Boville BA, Briegleb BP, Williamson DL, Rasch PJ (1996) Description of the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM3), NCAR Tech. note/TN-420+STR, 152pp. Natl. Cent. For Atmos. Res., Boulder, CO, USA. Clim. and Global Dyn. Div

  • Klein Tank AMG, Peterson TC, Quadir DA, Dorji S, Zou X, Tang H, Santhosh K et al (2006) Changes in daily temperature and precipitation extremes in central and south Asia. J Geophys Res: Atmos 111:D16105. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krishnan R, Sabin TP, Vellore R, Mujumdar M, Sanjay J, Goswami BN, Hourdin F, Dufresne JL, Terray P (2016) Deciphering the desiccation trend of the South Asian monsoon hydroclimate in a warming world. Clim Dyn 47(3–4):1007–1027

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Dimri AP (2020a) Sensitivity of convective and land surface parameterization in the simulation of contrasting monsoons over CORDEX-South Asia domain using RegCM-4.4.5.5. Theor Appl Climatol 139:297–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar D, Dimri AP (2020b) Context of the added value in coupled atmosphere-land RegCM4–CLM4.5 in the simulation of Indian summer monsoon. Clim Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05481-2

  • Melsen L, Teuling A, Torfs P, Zappa M, Mizukami N, Clark M, Uijlenhoet R (2016) Representation of spatial and temporal variability in large-domain hydrological models: case study for a mesoscale pre-Alpine basin. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 20:2207–2226

    Google Scholar 

  • Miao C, Ashouri H, Hsu KL, Sorooshian S, Duan Q (2015) Evaluation of the PERSIANN-CDR daily rainfall estimates in capturing the behavior of extreme precipitation events over China. J Hydrometeorol 16(3):1387–1396

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra AK, Dwivedi S (2019) Assessment of convective parametrization schemes over the Indian subcontinent using a regional climate model. Theor Appl Climatol 137(3–4):1747–1764

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra AK, Dwivedi S, Das S (2020a) Role of Arabian Sea warming on the Indian summer monsoon rainfall in a regional climate model. Int J Climatol 40(4):2226–2238

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra AK, Dwivedi S, Di Sante F, Coppola E (2020b) Thermodynamical properties associated with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall using a regional climate model. Theor Appl Climatol 141:587–599

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra AK, Dwivedi S, Di Sante F (2021a) Performance of the RegCM-MITgcm coupled regional model in simulating the Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Pure Appl Geophys 178(2):603–617

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra AK, Kumar P, Dubey AK, Javed A, Saharwardi MS, Sein DV, Martyanov S, Jacob D (2021b) Impact of horizontal resolution on monsoon precipitation for CORDEX-South Asia: a regional earth system model assessment. Atmos Res. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105681

  • Mukhopadhyay P, Taraphdar S, Goswami BN, Krishna Kumar K (2010) Indian summer monsoon precipitation climatology in a high resolution regional climate model: impact of convective parameterization on systematic biases. Weather Forecast 25:369–387

    Google Scholar 

  • Mukhopadhyay P, Taraphdar S, Goswami BN (2011) Influence of moist processes on track and intensity forecast of cyclones over the north Indian Ocean. J Geophys Res: Atmos 116:D05116. https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014700

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pokhrel S, Hazra A, Saha SK, Chaudhari HS, Metya A, Ghude SD, Konwar M (2018) Contrast in monsoon precipitation over oceanic region of north Bay of Bengal and east equatorial Indian Ocean. Int J Climatol 38:1061–1075

    Google Scholar 

  • Rai PK, Singh GP, Dash SK (2020) Projected changes in extreme precipitation events over various subdivisions of India using RegCM4. Clim Dyn 1–2:247–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajeevan M, Bhate J, Jaswal AK (2008) Analysis of variability and trends of extreme rainfall events over India using 104 years of gridded daily rainfall data. Geophys Res Lett 35(18):L18707. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revadekar JV, Kulkarni A (2008) The El Nino-Southern oscillation and winter precipitation extremes over India. Int J Climatol 28(11):1445–1452

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds RW, Rayner NA, Smith TM, Stokes DC, Wang W (2002) An improved in situ and satellite SST analysis for climate. J Clim 15(13):1609–1625

    Google Scholar 

  • Roxy MK, Ghosh S, Pathak A, Athulya R, Mujumdar M, Murtugudde R, Terray P, Rajeevan M (2017) A threefold rise in widespread extreme rain events over central India. Nat Commun 8(1):708. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00744-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saha SK, Pokhrel S, Chaudhari HS, Dhakate A, Shewale S, Sabeerali CT, Salunke K, Hazra A, Mahapatra S, Rao AS (2014) Improved simulation of Indian summer monsoon in latest NCEP climate forecast system free run. Int J Climatol 34(5):1628–1641

    Google Scholar 

  • Sahany S, Mishra SK, Pathak R, Rajagopalan B (2018) Spatiotemporal variability of seasonality of rainfall over India. Geophys Res Lett 45:7140–7147. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shashikanth K, Ghosh S, Vittal H, Karmakar S (2018) Future projections of Indian summer monsoon rainfall extremes over India with statistical downscaling and its consistency with observed characteristics. Clim Dyn 51:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd TG (2014) Atmospheric circulation as a source of uncertainty in climate change projections. Nat Geosci 7:703–708

    Google Scholar 

  • Sillmann J, Kharin VV, Zwiers FW, Zhang X, Bronaugh D (2013) Climate extremes indices in the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble: Part 2. Future climate projections. J Geophys Res: Atmos 118(6):2473–2493

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinha P, Maurya RKS, Mohanty MR, Mohanty UC (2019) Inter-comparison and evaluation of mixed-convection schemes in RegCM4 for Indian summer monsoon simulation. Atmos Res 215:239–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Srinivas CV, Hariprasad D, Bhaskar RDV, Anjaneyulu Y, Baskaran R, Venkatraman B (2013) Simulation of the Indian summer monsoon regional climate using advanced research WRF mode. Int J Climatol 33:1195–1210

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiedtke M (1989) A comprehensive mass flux scheme for cumulus parameterization in large-scale models. Mon Weather Rev 117:1779–1800

    Google Scholar 

  • Torma C, Giorgi F, Coppola E (2015) Added value of regional climate modeling over areas characterized by complex terrain-Precipitation over the Alps. J Geophys Res: Atmos 120(9):3957–3972

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner AG, Annamalai H (2012) Climate change and the South Asian summer monsoon. Nat Clim Chang 2(8):587. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unnikrishnan CK, Rajeevan M, Rao SVB, Kumar M (2013) Development of a high resolution land surface dataset for the South Asian monsoon region. Curr Sci 105(9):1235–1246

    Google Scholar 

  • Vellore RK, Krishnan R, Pendharkar J, Choudhur AD, Sabin TP (2014) On the anomalous precipitation enhancement over the Himalayan foothills during monsoon breaks. Clim Dyn 43(7–8):2009–2031

    Google Scholar 

  • Vittal H, Ghosh S, Karmakar S, Pathak A, Murtugudde R (2016) Revisiting the dependence of precipitation extremes on temperature with the observed long-term dataset over India. Sci Rep 7:1228

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Sen OL, Wang B (2003) A highly resolved regional climate model (IPRC-RegCM) and its simulation of the 1998 severe precipitation event over China. Part I: Model description and verification of simulation. J Clim. 16(11):1721–1738

    Google Scholar 

  • York JG (2018) Its getting better all the time (can’t get any worse): the why, how, and when of environmental entrepreneurship. Int J Entrep Ventur 10(1):17–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Zanis P, Douvis C, Kapsomenakis I, Kioutsioukis I, Melas D, Pal JS (2009) A sensitivity study of the regional climate model (RegCM3) to the convective scheme with an emphasis in central-eastern and southeastern Europe. Theor Appl Climatol 97(3):327–337

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments and suggestions helped us to improve the overall quality of the paper. The authors thankfully acknowledge the ICTP for providing the regional climate model RegCM4.5. The computing facility in K. Banerjee Centre of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies, University of Allahabad, was used to carry out the simulations. Thanks are also due to respective agencies of the IMD, CRU, and ECMWF ERA-Interim data products for making available these datasets.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. K Banerjee Centre of Atmospheric and Ocean Studies, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, UP, 211002, India

    Alok Kumar Mishra

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, India

    Aditya Kumar Dubey

Authors
  1. Alok Kumar Mishra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Aditya Kumar Dubey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A K Mishra designed the study and model experiment and performed the model simulations. A K Mishra and A K Dubey processed and analyzed model data and created the figures. All authors contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the results. A K Mishra wrote the paper. All the authors read the paper and accepted the authors’ agreement.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alok Kumar Mishra.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

We do not need any ethics approval.

Consent to participate

All the authors read the paper and accepted the authors’ agreement.

Consent for publication

The authors declared that the contents of the manuscript are novel and neither published nor under consideration anywhere else.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 1681 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mishra, A.K., Dubey, A.K. Sensitivity of convective parameterization schemes in regional climate model: precipitation extremes over India. Theor Appl Climatol 146, 293–309 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03714-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03714-w

Search

Navigation