Midlatitude Jet Position Spread Linked to Atmospheric Convective Types

Midlatitude weather is largely governed by bands of strong westerly winds known as the midlatitude jets, but what controls the jet properties, particularly their latitudes, remains poorly understood. Climate models show a spread of about 108 in their simulated present-day latitude of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) jet, and a related spread in its predicted poleward shift under global warming. We find that models with more poleward jets simulate more low-level moisture, a warmer upper troposphere, and different precipitation patterns than those with equatorward jets, potentially implicating intermodel differences in moist convection and microphysics. Accordingly, a suite of atmospheric model runs is performed where the deep or shallow convective parameterizations are individually turned off either globally or in specific latitude bands. These experiments suggest that models that produce more shallow convection in the midlatitudes tend to position the jet relatively poleward in SH summer, whereas those that favor deep convection tend to position it equatorward. This accounts for a spread 60% as large as that of the AMIP ensemble during the austral summer. Our results suggest that, in the boreal summer, similar biases appear in the Northern Hemisphere. The presence of shallow convection in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes reduces SH jet shift in a warmer climate in accordance to the correlation between jet positions and shift seen in this season. These results can help explain intermodel differences in the position and shift of the jet, and point to an unexpected role for atmospheric moist convection in the midlatitude circulation

Characterizing Convection Schemes Using Their Responses to Imposed Tendency Perturbations

Convection is usually parameterized in global climate models, and there are often large discrepancies between results obtained with different convection schemes. Conventional methods of comparing convection schemes using observational cases or directly in three-dimensional (3D) models do not always clearly identify parameterization strengths and weaknesses. In this paper we evaluate the response of parameterizations to various perturbations rather than their behavior under particular strong forcing. We use the linear response function method proposed by Kuang (2010) to compare 12 physical packages in five atmospheric models using single-column model (SCM) simulations under idealized radiative-convective equilibrium conditions. The models are forced with anomalous temperature and moisture tendencies. The temperature and moisture departures from equilibrium are compared with published results from a cloud-resolving model (CRM). Results show that the procedure is capable of isolating the behavior of a convection scheme from other physics schemes. We identify areas of agreement but also substantial differences between convection schemes, some of which can be related to scheme design. Some aspects of the model linear responses are related to their RCE profiles (the relative humidity profile in particular), while others constitute independent diagnostics. All the SCMs show irregularities or discontinuities in behavior that are likely related to threshold-related mechanisms used in the convection schemes, and which do not appear in the CRM. Our results highlight potential flaws in convection schemes and suggest possible new directions to explore for parameterization evaluation