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The coherent interdecadal changes of East Asia climate in mid-summer simulated by BCC_AGCM 2.0.1

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Abstract

This study proposes primary diagnostic metrics to evaluate the integrated structure of interdecadal changes of East Asian climate in mid-summer (July–August) over the recent half-century (1955–2000) in numerical models. The metrics are applied to comprehensively examine the performance of BCC_AGCM (Beijing Climate Center atmospheric general circulation model) version 2.0.1. When forced by historical sea surface temperatures (SST), the ensemble simulation with the BCC_AGCM reasonably reproduced the coherent interdecadal changes of rainfall, temperature and circulation. The main feature of the “southern-flooding-and-northern-drought” rainfall change is captured by the model. Correspondingly, the tropospheric cooling in the upper and middle troposphere, the southward shift of upper level westerly jet and weakening of the low-level southwesterly monsoon flow are also reproduced, as well as their relationships with rainfall changes. One of the main deficiencies of the simulation is that the amplitudes of the changes of tropospheric cooling and large-scale circulation are both much weaker than those in reanalysis, and they are consistent with the rainfall deficiency. Also, the upper and middle troposphere cooling center and decreasing of upper-level westerly jet axis shift westward in the model simulations compared with that in the observations. Overall, although BCC_AGCM shows problems in simulating the interdecadal changes of East Asia climate, especially the amplitude and locations of change centers, it reasonably represents the observed configuration of rainfall variation and the associated coherent temperature and circulation changes. Therefore, it could be further used to discuss the mechanisms of the interdecadal variation in East Asia. Meanwhile, the reasonably reproduced configuration of rainfall and its associated large-scale circulation by SST-forced runs indicate that the interdecadal variations in East Asia could mostly arise from the regional response to the global climate change.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful detailed comments. This work was jointly supported by the Major National Basic Research Program of China on Global Change under Grant 2010CB951902 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 40625014 and 40921003.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China

    Haoming Chen & Jian Li

  2. National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, No 46 Zhongguancun South Street, Beijing, 100081, China

    Rucong Yu, Xiaoge Xin, Zaizhi Wang & Tongwen Wu

  3. LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Rucong Yu

  4. Dali National Climate Observatory, Dali, China

    Jian Li

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  1. Haoming Chen
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  2. Rucong Yu
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  3. Jian Li
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  4. Xiaoge Xin
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  5. Zaizhi Wang
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  6. Tongwen Wu
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Correspondence to Rucong Yu.

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Chen, H., Yu, R., Li, J. et al. The coherent interdecadal changes of East Asia climate in mid-summer simulated by BCC_AGCM 2.0.1. Clim Dyn 39, 155–163 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1154-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1154-6

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