Diurnal Cycle of Summer Precipitation over Subtropical East Asia in CAM5

Abstract

Abstract The simulations of summertime diurnal cycle of precipitation and low-level winds by the Community Atmosphere Model, version 5, are evaluated over subtropical East Asia. The evaluation reveals the physical cause of the observed diurnal rainfall variation in East Asia and points to the source of model strengths and weaknesses. Two model versions with horizontal resolutions of 2.8° and 0.5° are used. The models can reproduce the diurnal phase of large-scale winds over East Asia, with an enhanced low-level southwesterly in early morning. Correspondingly, models successfully simulated the diurnal variation of stratiform rainfall with a maximum in early morning. However, the simulated convective rainfall occurs at local noontime, earlier than observations and with larger amplitude (normalized by the daily mean). As a result, models simulated a weaker diurnal cycle in total rainfall over the western plain of China due to an out-of-phase cancellation between convective and stratiform rainfalls and a noontime maximum of total rainfall over the eastern plain of China. Over the East China Sea, models simulated the early-morning maximum of convective precipitation and, together with the correct phase of the stratiform rainfall, they captured the diurnal cycle of total precipitation. The superposition of the stratiform and convective rainfalls also explains the observed diurnal cycle in total rainfall in East Asia. Relative to the coarse-resolution model, the high-resolution model simulated slight improvement in diurnal rainfall amplitudes, due to the larger amplitude of stratiform rainfall. The two models, however, suffer from the same major biases in rainfall diurnal cycles due to the convection parameterization.