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Impact of domain size on the simulation of Indian summer monsoon in RegCM4 using mixed convection scheme and driven by HadGEM2

Impact of domain size on ISM simulations

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An Erratum to this article was published on 03 February 2015

Abstract

In this study, a smaller domain over India alone and a larger South Asia (SA) domain have been used in the Regional Climate Model version 4.2 (RegCM4.2) to examine the effect of the domain size on the Indian summer monsoon simulations. These simulations were carried out over a period of 36 years at 50 km horizontal resolution with the lateral boundary forcings of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre Global Circulation Model Version 2.0. Results show that the Indian summer monsoon rainfall is significantly reduced when the domain size for the model integration is reduced from SA to the Indian domain. In case of SA domain simulation, the Equitable Threat Scores have higher values in case of very light, light and moderate rainfall events than those in case of the Indian domain simulation. It is also found that the domain size of model integration has dominant impact on the simulated convective precipitation. The cross-equatorial flow and the Somali Jet are better represented in the SA simulation than those in the Indian domain simulation. The vertically integrated moisture flux over the Arabian Sea in the SA domain simulation is close to that in the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis while it is underestimated in the Indian domain simulation. It is important to note that when RegCM4.2 is integrated over the smaller Indian domain, the effects of the Himalayas and the moisture advection from the Indian seas are not properly represented in the model simulation and hence the monsoon circulation and associated rainfall are underestimated over India.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the organizations from which datasets are obtained for conducting this study. The initial and boundary conditions to integrate RegCM4.2 are obtained from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) website http://clima-dods.ictp.it/data/d8/cordex/HadGEM2/. The gridded rainfall data have been obtained from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The atmospheric fields are obtained from the NCEP/NCAR reanalyzed dataset. Thanks are due to Dr. Erika Coppola, Mr. Graziano Giuliani and Mr. Ivan Girotto for providing the computing facility at ICTP to conduct the additional simulations suggested by the reviewer. The authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. This study has been undertaken as part of a research project sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

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  1. Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110 016, India

    S. K. Dash, K. C. Pattnayak, S. K. Panda, Deepika Vaddi & Ashu Mamgain

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  1. S. K. Dash
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  2. K. C. Pattnayak
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  3. S. K. Panda
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Correspondence to K. C. Pattnayak.

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Dash, S.K., Pattnayak, K.C., Panda, S.K. et al. Impact of domain size on the simulation of Indian summer monsoon in RegCM4 using mixed convection scheme and driven by HadGEM2. Clim Dyn 44, 961–975 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2420-1

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