Multiscale Diagnosis of the North American Monsoon System Using a Variable-Resolution GCM

Abstract

The onset and evolution of the North American monsoon system during the summer of 1993 were examined from regional to large scales using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) stretched-grid GCM. The model's grid spacing for the dynamical core ranges from 0.4° ? 0.5° in latitude?longitude over the United States to about 2.5° ? 3.5° at the antipode, and the physical package is solved on an intermediate 1° ? 1° uniform grid. A diagnostic analysis of the monsoon's onset reveals the development of a positive potential temperature (?) anomaly at the surface that favors a lower-level cyclonic circulation, while a negative potential vorticity (PV) anomaly below the tropopause induces an upper-level anticyclonic circulation. Ignoring diabatic effects, this pattern is consistent with the superimposition of idealized PV and ? anomalies as previously discussed in the literature. The inclusion of the smaller-scale features of the core monsoon in the model simulation helps represent the continental out-of-phase relationship between the monsoon and the southern Great Plains precipitation, giving additional support to earlier results that highlight the strong nature of the link. A pattern of increased precipitation over the core monsoon is consistently associated with increases of moisture flux convergence and ascending motions, and the development of upper-level wind divergence. On the other hand, the southern Great Plains have a simultaneous decrease of precipitation associated with a change from convergence to divergence of moisture flux, decreased ascending motions, and a development of upper-level wind convergence. The Gulf of California low-level jet (LLJ) was inspected with a multitaper method spectral analysis, showing significant peaks for both the diurnal cycle and synoptic-scale modes, the latter resulting from the recurrent passage of Gulf surges. Those modes were then separated with a singular spectrum analysis decomposition. Compared with the Great Plains LLJ, the Gulf of California LLJ has a weaker diurnal cycle amplitude and a smaller ratio of diurnal cycle to synoptic-scale amplitudes. Additionally, the 1993 southwestern U.S. monsoon was analyzed by constructing composites of surge and no-surge cases. Given the particular characteristics of 1993 that include the effect of Hurricane Hilary, the extension of these results to other years needs to be assessed. Surges are associated with a strong Gulf of California LLJ and increased moisture flux from the Gulf into Arizona, and they accounted for 80%?100% of the simulated precipitation over Arizona, western New Mexico, and southern Utah. As distance from the Gulf is increased, there is a rapid decay of this percentage so that northern Utah and eastern New Mexico precipitation is almost unrelated to the surges. The results from this research show that the model's regional downscaling results in a realistic representation of the monsoon-related circulations at multiple scales.