rectification of the diurnal cycle and the impact of islands on the tropical climate
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Poster # A51C-0070. Rectification of the Diurnal Cycle and the Impact of Islands on the Tropical Climate. Timothy W. Cronin*, Kerry A. Emanuel Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Rectification of the Diurnal Cycle and the Impact of Islands on the Tropical Climate
Timothy W. Cronin*, Kerry A. EmanuelProgram in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge 02139; (*[email protected])
Motivation• Tropical islands and continents are rainier than nearby ocean areas (figure below; Sobel et al., 2011)
• Convection is more vigorous over islands and continents (e.g., Williams et al., 2004)
• Why? Is the enhancement of island rainfall and greater convective intensity over land related to the diurnal cycle?
AcknowledgmentsThanks to Marat Khairoutdinov for supplying me with the model code, and to Allison Wing for teaching me how to use it. This work has been supported by NSF Grant #1136480, “The Effect of Near-Equatorial Islands on Climate,” which is a collaboration with Peter Molnar.
References• Dayem, K.E., and David C. Noone, and Peter Molnar, 2007. Tropical western Pacific warm pool and maritime continent
precipitation rates and their contrasting relationships with the Walker Circulation. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D06101.• Khairoutdinov, M.F., and D.A. Randall, 2003. Cloud Resolving Modeling of the ARM Summer 1997 IOP: Model Formulation,
Results, Uncertainties, and Sensitivities. J. Atmos. Sci., 60, pp. 607-625.• Mulligan, M., 2006. Global Gridded 1km TRMM Rainfall Climatology and Derivatives. Version 1.0. Database: http://
www.ambiotek.com/1kmrainfall• Sobel, A.H., C.D. Burleyson, and S.E. Yuter, 2011. Rain on Small Tropical Islands. J. Geophys. Res., 116, D08102.• Williams, E., T. Chan, and D. Boccipio, 2004. Islands as Miniature Continents: Another Look at the Land-Ocean Lightning
Contrast. J. Geophys. Res., 109, D16206.
Future Work• Further sensitivity experiments on island size, wetness, and treatment of the surface heat capacity
• Comparison of radiative and dynamical mechanisms: role of advection of moist static energy in the subcloud layer
• Simulations of an equatorial beta channel with embedded island or islands
• Exploration of effects of diurnal cycle and land/sea breeze dynamics on soil moisture-precipitation feedback
Experimental Design
The islands of the Maritime Continent (MC) are substantially rainier than nearby ocean areas
Rainfall data: Mulligan (2006) database: http://www.ambiotek.com/1kmrainfall land mask: https://www.ghrsst.org/data/ghrsst-data-tools/navo-ghrsst-pp-land-sea-mask/
Poster # A51C-0070
• Walker Circulation strength correlates better with MC precipitation than warm pool precipitation (Dayem et al., 2007)
• 3-5 million years ago: permanent El Nino, and substantially less island area in the West Pacific?
• Could the interaction of islands and the diurnal cycle strongly affect the Walker Circulation?
• 384 x 384 km, 3 km resolution; 64 vertical levels • Non-rotating; no background wind • Top-of-atmosphere insolation: March 20, 45 N• Diurnal average insolation: 310.3 W m-2
• Varied Island Size and Surface Wetness• Results are averaged over simulation days 125-250
Island = 5 cm slabOcean = 1 m slab
Interactive Surface
Temperatures Everywhere
Doubly-periodic domain
Simulate Radiative-Convective Equilibrium with a mixed lower boundary using the SAM Cloud-Permitting Model
See Khairoutdinov and Randall (2003) for details on SAM
Results: Precipitation
-1 0 1 2 30
5
10
15
r = 48km r = 48km; dry
r = 24km r = 96km
Temperature Deviation from All-Ocean Simulation (K)
Hei
ght (
km)
x, km
y, k
m
Precipitation ( mm/day):Island Run, h=5 cm, r=48 km
Island mean = 6.17 mm/day Domain mean = 2.94 mm/day0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
2
4
6
8
10
x, km
y, k
m
Precipitation ( mm/day):Dry Island Run, h=5 cm, r=48 km, =0.0
Island mean = 11.4 mm/day Domain mean = 2.87 mm/day0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
2
4
6
8
10
x, km
y, k
m
Precipitation ( mm/day):Island Run, h=5 cm, r=24 km, =1.0
Island mean = 6.77 mm/day Domain mean = 2.9 mm/day0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
2
4
6
8
10 x, km
y, k
m
Precipitation ( mm/day):Island Run, h=5 cm, r=96 km, =1.0
Island mean = 5.48 mm/day Domain mean = 3.08 mm/day0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
2
4
6
8
10
x, km
y, k
m
Precipitation ( mm/day):Island Run, h=5 cm, r=48 km
Island mean = 6.17 mm/day Domain mean = 2.94 mm/day0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0
2
4
6
8
10
r = 48 km r = 96 km
r = 24 km r = 48 km; dry
mm/day
• Simulated islands are rainier than the surrounding ocean• Island size and surface wetness affect the rainfall enhancement
• Dry-island results suggest a strongly negative soil moisture-precipitation feedback
Results: Temperature
• Islands warm the troposphere relative to an all-ocean simulation• Vertical structure of warming is roughly moist –adiabatic with
increased stability near the surface (nocturnal BL)• Dry island has larger impact than wet island
Discussion• Cloud radiative effects cause most of the island-induced warming: in these simulations, clouds have a warming effect due to their timing, height, and fractional cover
• Diurnal timing of clouds (figure below) is extremely important for net cloud radiative effect
• Cloud radiative forcing affects the magnitude of island rainfall enhancement, but dynamics (e.g., land-sea breezes) are more important
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 240
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Local Solar Time (hours)
Clo
ud F
ract
ion(
)
Cloud Fraction Diurnal Composite:Island Run, h=5 cm, r=48 km
sunr
ise
noon
suns
et
Domain (mean=0.222)Ocean (mean=0.22)Island (mean=0.27)