Mechanisms of improved rainfall simulation over the Maritime Continent due to increased horizontal resolution in an AGCM

Abstract

The General Circulation Models experience a significant challenge in realistically simulating rainfall over the tropical Maritime Continent (hereafter, MC). Here, we investigate the mechanisms of an improvement in monthly rainfall simulation over the MC region in the UK Met Office Unified Model (version Global Atmosphere 6.0), which occurs when the horizontal resolution is increased from N96 (grid spacing ~135 km) to N216 (~60 km). The increased resolution enhances the area-averaged rainfall rate over the MC, thereby reducing the dry rainfall bias seen in the model at the N96 resolution. We find that the enhanced area-averaged rainfall is mostly due to an increase in the medium rainfall rates that occurs over the MC islands in the N216 experiment. The rainfall change is predominantly associated with changes in the atmospheric convective circulation and the related horizontal moisture flux convergence. The vertical profiles of convective circulation show a strong sensitivity to the increased horizontal resolution over the MC islands, but not over the surrounding oceans. It is shown that a significant underestimation of the deep convection (as opposed to the shallow convection) in the N96 experiment is primarily responsible for the stronger dry bias in this experiment. We present evidence that the dry bias, and the associated weaker deep convection, are in part caused by the strongly smoothed orography used in the N96 experiment, which provides a weaker orographic lifting of the moist surface air (in a conditionally unstable atmosphere) than that in the N216 experiment.