Effects of Diurnal Cycle on a Simulated Asian Summer Monsoon

Abstract

his study investigates the effects of the diurnal cycle on monsoonal circulations over Asia in summer with a focus on precipitation. To this end, two sets of experiments are designed in a regional climate modeling framework forced by reanalysis data. The control experiment is a normal integration in which radiation is computed hourly, whereas the no-diurnal experiment is an experimental integration in which the daily averaged solar flux is computed once a day. Analysis of the results from the two experiments reveals that the diurnal cycle enhances the daily averaged sensible heat flux over land and the latent flux over oceans, which means that daytime net solar heating exceeds nighttime cooling in terms of the effects in surface climate and monsoonal circulations. Seasonal precipitation increased by about 3% over land and 11% over oceans. The surface hydroclimate over land is strongly influenced by the interaction between land and the atmosphere, and results in cooler surface temperatures except over the Tibetan Plateau. Over oceans, a robust increase in precipitation results from enhanced planetary boundary layer mixing. The diurnal cycle over the Tibetan Plateau region is found to decrease surface albedo by melting snow during the daytime, which contributes to the formation of the thermal low near the surface and the Tibetan high in the upper troposphere. The resultant monsoonal precipitation is modulated by an increase (decrease) in precipitation over northern (southern) India. This modulation results in the summer monsoon over East Asia being shifted northward.