Improving the Short-Range Precipitation Forecast of Numerical Weather Prediction through a Deep Learning-Based Mask Approach

Due to various technical issues,existing numerical weather prediction(NWP)models often perform poorly at forecasting rainfall in the first several hours.To correct the bias of an NWP model and improve the accuracy of short-range precipitation forecasting,we propose a deep learning-based approach called UNet Mask,which combines NWP forecasts with the output of a convolutional neural network called UNet.The UNet Mask involves training the UNet on historical data from the NWP model and gridded rainfall observations for 6-hour precipitation forecasting.The overlap of the UNet output and the NWP forecasts at the same rainfall threshold yields a mask.The UNet Mask blends the UNet output and the NWP forecasts by taking the maximum between them and passing through the mask,which provides the corrected 6-hour rainfall forecasts.We evaluated UNet Mask on a test set and in real-time verification.The results showed that UNet Mask outperforms the NWP model in 6-hour precipitation prediction by reducing the FAR and improving CSI scores.Sensitivity tests also showed that different small rainfall thresholds applied to the UNet and the NWP model have different effects on UNet Mask's forecast performance.This study shows that UNet Mask is a promising approach for improving rainfall forecasting of NWP models.

Dynamic Downscaling of Summer Precipitation Prediction over China in 1998 Using WRF and CCSM4

To study the prediction of the anomalous precipitation and general circulation for the summer（June–July–August） of1998, the Community Climate System Model Version 4.0（CCSM4.0） integrations were used to drive version 3.2 of the Weather Research and Forecasting（WRF3.2） regional climate model to produce hindcasts at 60 km resolution. The results showed that the WRF model produced improved summer precipitation simulations. The systematic errors in the east of the Tibetan Plateau were removed, while in North China and Northeast China the systematic errors still existed. The improvements in summer precipitation interannual increment prediction also had regional characteristics. There was a marked improvement over the south of the Yangtze River basin and South China, but no obvious improvement over North China and Northeast China. Further analysis showed that the improvement was present not only for the seasonal mean precipitation, but also on a sub-seasonal timescale. The two occurrences of the Mei-yu rainfall agreed better with the observations in the WRF model,but were not resolved in CCSM. These improvements resulted from both the higher resolution and better topography of the WRF model.

A skillful method for precipitation prediction over eastern China

Precipitation prediction is essential for disaster prevention,yet it still remains a challenging issue in weather and climate studies.This paper proposes an effective prediction method for summer precipitation over eastern China(PEC) by combining empirical orthogonal function(EOF) analysis with the interannual increment approach.Three statistical prediction models are individually developed for respective predictions of the three principal components(PCs) corresponding to the three leading EOF modes for the interannual increment of PEC(hereafter DY;EC).Each model is run for the month of March with two previous predictors derived from sea-ice concentration/soil moisture/sea surface temperature/snow depth/sea level pressure over specific regions.The predicted PCs are projected to the EOF modes derived from observations of DY;EC to produce a new DY;EC.This new DY;EC is then added to the observed PEC of the previous year to obtain the final predicted PEC.The spatial features of the predicted PEC are highly consistent with observations,with the anomaly correlation coefficient skill ranging from 0.32 to 0.64 during 2012-2020.The method is applied for real-time prediction of PEC in 2021.And the results indicate two rain belts located over northeastern China and the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley,respectively,although the chance for the occurrence of a "super" mei-yu with a similar intensity to that in 2020 would be rare in 2021.

Prediction of Precipitation during Summer Monsoon with Self-memorial Model

In view of the fact that the atmospheric motion is an irreversible process, a memory function which can recall the observation data in the past is introduced, moreover, a special concept of self-memorization of the atmospheric motion is proposed, and a so-called self-memorization equation of the atmospheric motion has been derived. Based on the self-memorization principle, a numerical model for decadal forecast is established by means of the thermodynamic equation and the precipitation equation. The verification scores of the hindcasts of the model in the period from 1 to 12 years are much higher than that of monthly weather forecasts at present.

A Strategy for Merging Objective Estimates of Global Daily Precipitation from Gauge Observations, Satellite Estimates, and Numerical Predictions

This paper describes a strategy for merging daily precipitation information from gauge observations, satellite estimates （SEs）, and numerical predictions at the global scale. The strategy is designed to remove systemic bias and random error from each individual daily precipitation source to produce a better gridded global daily precipitation product through three steps. First, a cumulative distribution function matching procedure is performed to remove systemic bias over gauge-located land areas. Then, the overall biases in SEs and model predictions （MPs） over ocean areas are corrected using a rescaled strategy based on monthly precipitation. Third, an optimal interpolation （OI）-based merging scheme （referred as the HL-OI scheme） is used to combine unbiased gahge observations, SEs, and MPs to reduce random error from each source and to produce a gauge--satellite-model merged daily precipitation analysis, called BMEP-d （Beijing Climate Center Merged Estimation of Precipitation with daily resolution）, with complete global coverage. The BMEP-d data from a four-year period （2011- 14） demonstrate the ability of the merging strategy to provide global daily precipitation of substantially improved quality. Benefiting from the advantages of the HL-OI scheme for quantitative error estimates, the better source data can obtain more weights during the merging processes. The BMEP-d data exhibit higher consistency with satellite and gauge source data at middle and low latitudes, and with model source data at high latitudes. Overall, independent validations against GPCP-1DD （GPCP one-degree daily） show that the consistencies between B MEP-d and GPCP-1DD are higher than those of each source dataset in terms of spatial pattern, temporal variability, probability distribution, and statistical precipitation events.

Seasonal Prediction of Summer Precipitation over East Africa Using NUIST-CFS1.0

East Africa is particularly vulnerable to precipitation variability, as the livelihood of much of the population depends on rainfed agriculture. Seasonal forecasts of the precipitation anomalies, when skillful, can therefore improve implementation of coping mechanisms with respect to food security and water management. This study assesses the performance of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Climate Forecast System version 1.0(NUISTCFS1.0) on forecasting June–September(JJAS) seasonal precipitation anomalies over East Africa. The skill in predicting the JJAS mean precipitation initiated from 1 May for the period of 1982–2019 is evaluated using both deterministic and probabilistic verification metrics on grid cell and over six distinct clusters. The results show that NUIST-CFS1.0 captures the spatial pattern of observed seasonal precipitation climatology, albeit with dry and wet biases in a few parts of the region. The model has positive skill across a majority of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, whereas it doesn’t exceed the skill of climatological forecasts in parts of Sudan and southeastern Ethiopia. Positive forecast skill is found over regions where the model shows better performance in reproducing teleconnections related to oceanic SST. The prediction performance of NUIST-CFS1.0 is found to be on a level that is potentially useful over a majority of East Africa.

Seasonal and Extraseasonal Predictions of Summer Monsoon Precipitation by Gcms

A semi-operational real time short-term climate prediction system has been developed in the Center of Climate and Environment Prediction Research (CCEPRE), Institute of Atmospheric Physics/Chinese Academy of Sciences. The system consists of the following components: the AGCM and OGCM and their coupling, initial conditions and initialization, practical schemes of anomaly prediction, ensemble prediction and its standard deviation, correction of GCM output, and verification of prediction. The experiences of semi-operational real-time prediction by using this system for six years (1989-1994) and of hindcasting for 1980-1989 are reported. It is shown that in most cases large positive and negative anomalies of summer precipitation resulting in disastrous climate events such as severe flood or drought over East Asia can be well predicted for two seasons in advance, although the quantitatively statistical skill scores are only satisfactory due to the difficulty in correctly predicting the signs of small anomalies. Some methods for removing the systematic errors and introducing corrections to the GCM output are suggested. The sensitivity of prediction to the initial conditions and the problem of ensemble prediction are also discussed in the paper.

Assessing the Impacts of Initial Snow Conditions over the Tibetan Plateau on China Precipitation Prediction Using a Global Climate Model

Two ensemble experiments were conducted using a general atmospheric circulation model. These experiments were used to investigate the impacts of initial snow anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau(TP) on China precipitation prediction. In one of the experiments, the initial snow conditions over the TP were climatological values; while in the other experiment, the initial snow anomalies were snow depth estimates derived from the passive microwave remote-sensing data. In the current study, the difference between these two experiments was assessed to evaluate the impact of initial snow anomalies over the TP on simulated precipitation. The results indicated that the model simulation for precipitation over eastern China had certain improvements while applying a more realistic initial snow anomaly, especially for spring precipitation over Northeast China and North China and for summer precipitation over North China and Southeast China. The results suggest that seasonal prediction could be enhanced by using more realistic initial snow conditions over TP, and microwave remote-sensing snow data could be used to initialize climate models and improve the simulation of eastern China precipitation during spring and summer. Further analyses showed that higher snow anomalies over TP cooled the surface, resulting in lower near- surface air temperature over the TP in spring and summer. The surface cooling over TP weakened the Asian summer monsoon and brought more precipitation in South China in spring and more precipitation to Southeast China during summer.

Establishment of Statistical Model for Precipitation Prediction in the Flood Season in China

[Objective] The research aimed to establish the regression model which was used to predict the precipitation in the flood season in China.[Method] Based on statistical model,North Atlantic oscillation index and the sea surface temperature index in development and declining stages of ENSO were used to predict East Asian summer monsoon index.After the stations were divided into 16 zones,the same factors were used to establish the regression model predicting the station precipitation in the flood season in China.Moreover,it was compared with the model that predicted firstly the monsoon index and estimated the precipitation.[Result] The prediction results of summer precipitation during 2005-2009 by every model were contrasted.It was found that the model that the factor predicted indirectly the regional precipitation was better than that predicted indirectly the station precipitation.Meanwhile,the model that the factor predicted directly the regional precipitation was better than that predicted indirectly the regional precipitation.The prediction score P of optimum model that three factors predicted directly the regional precipitation reached averagely 74.2,and the anomaly correlation coefficient ACC was averagely 0.219.Seen from the comparison situation of positive and negative zone distribution of precipitation anomaly percentage between the predicted and observed values in 5 years,the prediction effects in the south and east of Northeast China,some areas in the south of Yangtze River,the coast of South China and most areas of Xinjiang were good.The predicted positive/negative distribution of precipitation anomaly percentage tallied with that of observation.[Conclusion] The model could predict well summer precipitation in China.

Prediction of wax precipitation region in wellbore during deep water oil well testing

During deep water oil well testing, the low temperature environment is easy to cause wax precipitation, which affects the normal operation of the test and increases operating costs and risks. Therefore, a numerical method for predicting the wax precipitation region in oil strings was proposed based on the temperature and pressure fields of deep water test string and the wax precipitation calculation model. And the factors affecting the wax precipitation region were analyzed. The results show that: the wax precipitation region decreases with the increase of production rate, and increases with the decrease of geothermal gradient, increase of water depth and drop of water-cut of produced fluid, and increases slightly with the increase of formation pressure. Due to the effect of temperature and pressure fields, wax precipitation region is large in test strings at the beginning of well production. Wax precipitation region gradually increases with the increase of shut-in time. These conclusions can guide wax prevention during the testing of deep water oil well, to ensure the success of the test.

Statistical Downscaling Prediction of Summer Precipitation in Southeastern China

A statistical downscaling approach based on multiple-linear-regression(MLR) for the prediction of summer precipitation anomaly in southeastern China was established,which was based on the outputs of seven operational dynamical models of Development of a European Multi-model Ensemble System for Seasonal to Interannual Prediction(DEMETER) and observed data.It was found that the anomaly correlation coefficients(ACCs) spatial pattern of June-July-August(JJA) precipitation over southeastern China between the seven models and the observation were increased significantly;especially in the central and the northeastern areas,the ACCs were all larger than 0.42(above 95% level) and 0.53(above 99% level).Meanwhile,the root-mean-square errors(RMSE) were reduced in each model along with the multi-model ensemble(MME) for some of the stations in the northeastern area;additionally,the value of RMSE difference between before and after downscaling at some stations were larger than 1 mm d-1.Regionally averaged JJA rainfall anomaly temporal series of the downscaling scheme can capture the main characteristics of observation,while the correlation coefficients(CCs) between the temporal variations of the observation and downscaling results varied from 0.52 to 0.69 with corresponding variations from-0.27 to 0.22 for CCs between the observation and outputs of the models.

From China’s Heavy Precipitation in 2020 to a “Glocal” Hydrometeorological Solution for Flood Risk Prediction

The prolonged mei-yu/baiu system with anomalous precipitation in the year 2020 has swollen many rivers and lakes,caused flash flooding,urban flooding and landslides,and consistently wreaked havoc across large swathes of China,particularly in the Yangtze River basin.Significant precipitation and flooding anomalies have already been seen in magnitude and extension so far this year,which have been exerting much higher pressure on emergency responses in flood control and mitigation than in other years,even though a rainy season with multiple ongoing serious flood events in different provinces is not that uncommon in China.Instead of delving into the causes of the uniqueness of this year’s extreme precipitation-flooding situation,which certainly warrants in-depth exploration,in this article we provide a short view toward a more general hydrometeorological solution to this annual nationwide problem.A“glocal”(global to local)hydrometeorological solution for floods(GHS-F)is considered to be critical for better preparedness,mitigation,and management of different types of significant precipitation-caused flooding,which happen extensively almost every year in many countries such as China,India and the United States.Such a GHS-F model is necessary from both scientific and operational perspectives,with the strength in providing spatially consistent flood definitions and spatially distributed flood risk classification considering the heterogeneity in vulnerability and resilience across the entire domain.Priorities in the development of such a GHS-F are suggested,emphasizing the user’s requirements and needs according to practical experiences with various flood response agencies.

PREDICTION OF FLOOD SEASON PRECIPITATION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA BASED ON IMPROVED PSO-PLS

In order to achieve the best predictive effect of the Partial Least Squares(PLS) regression model, Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) algorithm is applied to automatically filter the optimal subset of a set of candidate factors of PLS regression model in this study. An improved version of the Particle Swarm Optimization-Partial Least Squares(PSO-PLS) regression model is applied to the station data of precipitation in Southwest China during flood season.Using the PSO-PLS regression method, the prediction of flood season precipitation in Southwest China has been studied. By introducing the precipitation period series of the mean generating function(MGF) extension as an alternative factor, the MGF improved PSO-PLS regression model was also built up to improve the prediction results.Randomly selected 10%, 20%, 30% of the modeling samples were used as a test trial; random cross validation was conducted on the MGF improved PSO-PLS regression model. The results show that the accuracy of PSO-PLS regression model and the MGF improved PSO-PLS regression model are better than that of the traditional PLS regression model.The training results of the three prediction models with regard to the regional and single station precipitation are considerable, whereas the forecast results indicate that the PSO-PLS regression method and the MGF improved PSO-PLS regression method are much better than the traditional PLS regression method. The MGF improved PSO-PLS regression model has the best forecast performance on precipitation anomaly during the flood season in the southwest of China among three models. The average precipitation(PS score) of 36 stations is 74.7. With the increase of the number of modeling samples, the PS score remained stable. This shows that the PSO algorithm is objective and stable. The MGF improved PSO-PLS regression prediction model is also showed to have good prediction stability and ability.

Seasonal prediction skills of FIO-ESM for North Pacific sea surface temperature and precipitation

The seasonal prediction of sea surface temperature(SST) and precipitation in the North Pacific based on the hindcast results of The First Institute of Oceanography Earth System Model(FIO-ESM) is assessed in this study.The Ensemble Adjusted Kalman Filter assimilation scheme is used to generate initial conditions, which are shown to be reliable by comparison with the observations. Based on this comparison, we analyze the FIO-ESM 6-month hindcast results starting from each month of 1993–2013. The model exhibits high SST prediction skills over most of the North Pacific for two seasons in advance. Furthermore, it remains skillful at long lead times for midlatitudes. The reliable prediction of SST can transfer fairly well to precipitation prediction via air-sea interactions.The average skill of the North Pacific variability(NPV) index from 1 to 6 months lead is as high as 0.72(0.55) when El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation and NPV are in phase(out of phase) at initial conditions. The prediction skill of the NPV index of FIO-ESM is improved by 11.6%(23.6%) over the Climate Forecast System, Version 2. For seasonal dependence, the skill of FIO-ESM is higher than the skill of persistence prediction in the later period of prediction.

Seasonal Prediction of Monthly Precipitation in China Using Large-Scale Climate Indices

In this study, seasonal predictions were applied to precipitation in China on a monthly basis based on a multivariate linear regression with an adaptive choice of predictors drawn from regularly updated climate indices with a two to twelve month lead time. A leave-one-out cross validation was applied to obtain hindcast skill at a 1% significance level. The skill of forecast models at a monthly scale and their significance levels were evaluated using Anomaly Correlation Coefficients （ACC） and Coefficients Of Determination （COD）. The monthly ACC skill ranged between 0.43 and 0.50 in Central China, 0.41-0.57 in East China, and 0.41 0.60 in South China. The dynamic link between large-scale climate indices with lead time and the precipitation in China is also discussed based on Singular Value Decomposition Analysis （SVDA） and Correlation Analysis （CA）.

The Application of Superimposed Marcov Chain for Prediction of Annual Precipitation

[Objective] The aim was to predict the annual precipitation using the method of Superimposed Marcov Chain.[Method] Based on annual precipitation in Xiaojin station on western Sichuan Plateau during 1961-2010,the Superimposed Marcov Chain method was applied to predict annual precipitation from 2001 to 2010.The prediction based on the Superimposed Marcov Chain method was compared with the observed data.[Result] For the ten years (2001-2010),the relative error in 7 years was less than 10%,even less than 5% in 4 years,which proved that Superimposed Marcov Chain can predict annual precipitation.But this method had certain defect in prediction in the extreme dry or extreme wet years,and that needs to be improved in the following study.[Conclusion] The Superimposed Marcov Chain method had clear concept,was convenient to calculate,and provided a way to explore the improvement of precipitation prediction.

Prediction and mechanistic analysis of May precipitation in North China based on April Indian Ocean SST and the Northwest Pacific Dipole

North China May precipitation(NCMP)accounts for a relatively small percentage of annual total precipitation in North China,but its climate variability is large and it has an important impact on the regional climate and agricultural production in North China.Based on observed and reanalysis data from 1979 to 2021,a significant relationship between NCMP and both the April Indian Ocean sea surface temperature(IOSST)and Northwest Pacific Dipole(NWPD)was found,indicating that there may be a link between them.This link,and the possible physical mechanisms by which the IOSST and NWPD in April affect NCMP anomalies,are discussed.Results show that positive(negative)IOSST and NWPD anomalies in April can enhance(weaken)the water vapor transport from the Indian Ocean and Northwest Pacific to North China by influencing the related atmospheric circulation,and thus enhance(weaken)the May precipitation in North China.Accordingly,an NCMP prediction model based on April IOSST and NWPD is established.The model can predict the annual NCMP anomalies effectively,indicating it has the potential to be applied in operational climate prediction.

Case Study: ENSO Events, Rainfall Variability and the Potential of SOI for the Seasonal Precipitation Predictions in Iran

The studies in recent decades show that many natural disasters such as tropical severe storms, hurricanes development, torrential rain, river flooding, and landslides in some regions of the world and severe droughts and wildfires in other areas are due to El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This research aims to contribute to an improved definition of the relation between ENSO and seasonal (autumn and winter) variability of rainfall over Iran. The results show that during autumn, the positive phase of SOI is associated with decrease in the rainfall amount in most part of the country;negative phase of SOI is associated with a significant increase in the rainfall amount. It is also found that, during the winter time when positive phase of SOI is dominant, winter precipitation increases in most areas of the eastern part of the country while at the same time the decreases in the amount of rainfall in other parts is not significant. Moreover, with negative phase of SOI in winter season the amount of rainfall in most areas except south shores of Caspian Sea in the north decreases, so that the decrease of rainfall amount in the eastern part is statistically significant.

Spatial-temporal Analysis and Prediction of Precipitation Extremes: A Case Study in the Weihe River Basin, China

Extreme precipitation events bring considerable risks to the natural ecosystem and human life.Investigating the spatial-temporal characteristics of extreme precipitation and predicting it quantitatively are critical for the flood prevention and water resources planning and management.In this study,daily precipitation data(1957–2019)were collected from 24 meteorological stations in the Weihe River Basin(WRB),Northwest China and its surrounding areas.We first analyzed the spatial-temporal change of precipitation extremes in the WRB based on space-time cube(STC),and then predicted precipitation extremes using long short-term memory(LSTM)network,auto-regressive integrated moving average(ARIMA),and hybrid ensemble empirical mode decomposition(EEMD)-LSTM-ARIMA models.The precipitation extremes increased as the spatial variation from northwest to southeast of the WRB.There were two clusters for each extreme precipitation index,which were distributed in the northwestern and southeastern or northern and southern of the WRB.The precipitation extremes in the WRB present a strong clustering pattern.Spatially,the pattern of only high-high cluster and only low-low cluster were primarily located in lower reaches and upper reaches of the WRB,respectively.Hot spots(25.00%–50.00%)were more than cold spots(4.17%–25.00%)in the WRB.Cold spots were mainly concentrated in the northwestern part,while hot spots were mostly located in the eastern and southern parts.For different extreme precipitation indices,the performances of the different models were different.The accuracy ranking was EEMD-LSTM-ARIMA>LSTM>ARIMA in predicting simple daily intensity index(SDII)and consecutive wet days(CWD),while the accuracy ranking was LSTM>EEMD-LSTM-ARIMA>ARIMA in predicting very wet days(R95 P).The hybrid EEMD-LSTM-ARIMA model proposed was generally superior to single models in the prediction of precipitation extremes.

Analysis of Precipitation Anomaly and a Failed Prediction During the Dragon-boat Rain Period in 2022

This study investigates the possible causes for the precipitation of Guangdong during dragon-boat rain period(DBRP) in 2022 that is remarkably more than the climate state and reviews the successes and failures of the prediction in2022. Features of atmospheric circulation and sea surface temperature(SST) are analyzed based on several observational datasets for nearly 60 years from meteorological stations and the NCEP/NCAR Global Reanalysis Data. Results show that fluctuation of the 200-h Pa westerly wind as well as the westerly jet is strengthened due to the propagation of wave energy, leading to strong updraft over southern China. Activities of a subtropical high and a shear line provide favorable conditions for the transport of moisture to Guangdong. With the support of powerful southwest winds, extreme precipitation is induced. ENSO is a good indicator of atmospheric circulation at mid-and high-levels during the DBRP in2022 but it performs badly at low levels. During recent years, the influence of ENSO on precipitation during the DBRP has decreased obviously. The SSTA of tropical southeast Atlantic(SEA) in spring may become the key indicator. During the years with warm SEA, wave trains propagate from northwest to southeast over Eurasia with energy enhancing the westerly jet, conducive to updraft over southern China and the occurrence of heavy precipitation. Meanwhile, the Rossby wave is triggered over Maritime Continent by heat sources of southern Atlantic-western Indian Ocean through the Gill response. Thus, strong transport of moisture and heavy rainfall occur.