A regional ocean–atmosphere coupled model developed for CORDEX East Asia: assessment of Asian summer monsoon simulation

Abstract

In this study, a developed regional ocean–atmosphere coupled model FROALS was applied to the CORDEX East Asia domain. The performance of FROALS in the simulation of Asian summer monsoon during 1989–2010 was assessed using the metrics developed by the CLIVAR Asian–Australian Monsoon Panel Diagnostics Task Team. The results indicated that FROALS exhibited good performance in simulating Asian summer monsoon climatology. The simulated JJA mean SST biases were weaker than those of the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble mean (MMEM). The skill of FROALS approached that of CMIP5 MMEM in terms of the annual cycle of Asian summer monsoon. The simulated monsoon duration matched the observed counterpart well (with a spatial pattern correlation coefficient of 0.59). Some biases of CMIP5 MMEM were also found in FROALS, highlighting the importance of local forcing and model physics within the Asian monsoon domain. Corresponding to a strong East Asian summer monsoon, an anomalous anticyclone was found over western North Pacific in both observation and simulation. However, the simulated strength was weaker than the observed due to the responses to incorrect sea surface anomalies over the key regions. The model also accurately captured the spatial pattern of the intraseasonal variability variance and the extreme climate indices of Asian summer monsoons, although with larger amplitude. The results suggest that FROALS could be used as a dynamical downscaling tool nested within the global climate model with coarse resolution to develop high-resolution regional climate change projections over the CORDEX East Asia domain.