ENSO hindcast skill of the IAP-DecPreS near-term climate prediction system:comparison of full-field and anomaly initialization

Model initialization is a key process of climate predictions using dynamical models. In this study, the authors evaluated the performances of two distinct initialization approaches--anomaly and full-field initializations--in ENSO predictions conducted using the IAP-DecPreS near-term climate prediction system developed by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics （lAP）. IAP-DecPreS is composed of the FGOALS-s2 coupled general circulation model and a newly developed ocean data assimilation scheme called＇ensemble optimal interpolation-incremental analysis update＇ （EnOI-IAU）. It was found that, for IAP-DecPreS, the hindcast runs using the anomaly initialization have higher predictive skills for both conventional ENSO and El Nino Modoki, as compared to using the full-field initialization. The anomaly hindcasts can predict super El Nino/La Nina 10 months in advance and have good skill for most moderate and weak ENSO events about 4-7 months in advance.The predictive skill of the anomaly hindcasts for El Nino Modoki is close to that for conventional ENSO. On the other hand, the anomaly hindcasts at 1- and 4-month lead time can reproduce the major features of large-scale patterns of sea surface temperature, precipitation and atmospheric circulation anomalies during conventional ENSO and El Nino Modoki winter.

Multi-Year Simulations and Experimental Seasonal Predictions for Rainy Seasons in China by Using a Nested Regional Climate Model (RegCM_NCC) Part Ⅱ:The Experimental Seasonal Prediction

A nested regional climate model has been experimentally used in the seasonal prediction at the China National Climate Center （NCC） since 2001. The NCC/IAP （Institute of Atmospheric Physics） T63 coupled GCM （CGCM） provides the boundary and initial conditions for driving the regional climate model （RegCM_NCC）. The latter has a 60-km horizontal resolution and improved physical parameterization schemes including the mass flux cumulus parameterization scheme, the turbulent kinetic energy closure scheme （TKE） and an improved land process model （LPM）. The large-scale terrain features such as the Tibetan Plateau are included in the larger domain to produce the topographic forcing on the rain-producing systems. A sensitivity study of the East Asian climate with regard to the above physical processes has been presented in the first part of the present paper. This is the second part, as a continuation of Part Ⅰ. In order to verify the performance of the nested regional climate model, a ten-year simulation driven by NCEP reanalysis datasets has been made to explore the performance of the East Asian climate simulation and to identify the model＇s systematic errors. At the same time, comparative simulation experiments for 5 years between the RegCM2 and RegCM_NCC have been done to further understand their differences in simulation performance. Also, a ten-year hindcast （1991-2000） for summer （June-August）, the rainy season in China, has been undertaken. The preliminary results have shown that the RegCM_NCC is capable of predicting the major seasonal rain belts. The best predicted regions with high anomaly correlation coefficient （ACC） are located in the eastern part of West China, in Northeast China and in North China, where the CGCM has maximum prediction skill as well. This fact may reflect the importance of the largescale forcing. One significant improvement of the prediction derived from RegCM_NCC is the increase of ACC in the Yangtze River valley where the CGCM has a very low, even a negative, ACC. The reason behind this improvement is likely to be related to the more realistic representation of the large-scale terrain features of the Tibetan Plateau. Presumably, many rain-producing systems may be generated over or near the Tibetan Plateau and may then move eastward along the Yangtze River basin steered by upper-level westerly airflow, thus leading to enhancement of rainfalls in the mid and lower basins of the Yangtze River. The real-time experimental predictions for summer in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 by using this nested RegCM-NCC were made. The results are basically reasonable compared with the observations.

EXPERIMENTS WITH SHORT-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTION MODELS ON SSTA OVER THE NINO OCEANIC REGION

Predictions of averaged SST monthly anomalous series for Nino 1-4 regions in the context of auto-adaptive filter are made using a model combining the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and auto-regression (AR). The results have shown that the scheme is efticient in forward forecaning of the strong ENSO event in 1997- 1998, it is of high reliability in retrospective forecasting of three corresponding historical strong ENSO events. It is seen that the scheme has stable skill and large accuracy for experiments of both independent samples and real cases.With modifications, the SSA-AR scheme is expected to become an efficient model in routine predictions of ENSO.

A TIME FILTERING SCHEME FOR THE SHORT RANGE CLIMATE PREDICTION MODEL PRODUCTS AND ITS REAL CASE ANALYSIS

A filtering / extracting scheme for various timescale processes in short range climate model out-put is established by using the scale scattering method. And the climatological meanings as well as the impor-tance of the filtered series are discussed. In the latter part of work, the effectiveness of the filtering method and the performance of the prediction model are analyzed through a real case.

A new nudging scheme for the current operational climate prediction system of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center of China

A new nudging scheme is proposed for the operational prediction system of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center(NMEFC)of China,mainly aimed at improving El Niño–Southern Oscillation(ENSO)and Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD)predictions.Compared with the origin nudging scheme of NMEFC,the new scheme adds a nudge assimilation for wind components,and increases the nudging weight at the subsurface.Increasing the nudging weight at the subsurface directly improved the simulation performance of the ocean component,while assimilating low-level wind components not only affected the atmospheric component but also benefited the oceanic simulation.Hindcast experiments showed that the new scheme remarkably improved both ENSO and IOD prediction skills.The skillful prediction lead time of ENSO was up to 11 months,1 month longer than a hindcast using the original nudging scheme.Skillful prediction of IOD could be made 4–5 months ahead by the new scheme,with a 0.2 higher correlation at a 3-month lead time.These prediction skills approach the level of some of the best state-of-the-art coupled general circulation models.Improved ENSO and IOD predictions occurred across all seasons,but mainly for target months in the boreal spring for the ENSO and the boreal spring and summer for the IOD.

Assessing the Impacts of Eurasian Snow Conditions on Climate Predictability with a Global Climate Model

On the basis of two ensemble experiments conducted by a general atmospheric circulation model(Institute of Atmospheric Physics nine-level atmospheric general circulation model coupled with land surface model,hereinafter referred to as IAP9L_CoLM),the impacts of realistic Eurasian snow conditions on summer climate predictability were investigated.The predictive skill of sea level pressures(SLP)and middle and upper tropospheric geopotential heights at mid-high latitudes of Eurasia was enhanced when improved Eurasian snow conditions were introduced into the model.Furthermore,the model skill in reproducing the interannual variation and spatial distribution of the surface air temperature(SAT)anomalies over China was improved by applying realistic(prescribed)Eurasian snow conditions.The predictive skill of the summer precipitation in China was low;however,when realistic snow conditions were employed,the predictability increased,illustrating the effectiveness of the application of realistic Eurasian snow conditions.Overall,the results of the present study suggested that Eurasian snow conditions have a significant effect on dynamical seasonal prediction in China.When Eurasian snow conditions in the global climate model(GCM)can be more realistically represented,the predictability of summer climate over China increases.

Recent Researches on the Short-Term Climate Prediction at IAP-A Brief Review

Studies on the seasonal to extraseasonal climate prediction at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) in recent years were reviewed. The first short-term climate prediction experiment was carried out based on the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled to a tropical Pacific oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) In 1997, an ENSO prediction system including an oceanic initialization scheme was set up. At the same time, researches on the SST-induced climate predictability over East Asia were made. Based on the blennial signal in the interannual climate variability, an effective method was proposed for correcting the model predicted results recently In order to consider the impacts of the initial soil mois- ture anomalies, an empirical scheme was designed to compute the soil moisture by use of the atmospheric quantities like temperature, precipitation, and so on. Sets of prediction experiments were carried out to study the impacts of SST and the initial atmospheric conditinns on the flood occurring over China in 1998.

Investigating the ENSO prediction skills of the Beijing Climate Center climate prediction system version 2

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)ensemble prediction skills of the Beijing Climate Center(BCC)climate prediction system version 2(BCC-CPS2)are examined for the period from 1991 to 2018.The upper-limit ENSO predictability of this system is quantified by measuring its“potential”predictability using information-based metrics,whereas the actual prediction skill is evaluated using deterministic and probabilistic skill measures.Results show that:(1)In general,the current operational BCC model achieves an effective 10-month lead predictability for ENSO.Moreover,prediction skills are up to 10–11 months for the warm and cold ENSO phases,while the normal phase has a prediction skill of just 6 months.(2)Similar to previous results of the intermediate coupled models,the relative entropy(RE)with a dominating ENSO signal component can more effectively quantify correlation-based prediction skills compared to the predictive information(PI)and the predictive power(PP).(3)An evaluation of the signal-dependent feature of the prediction skill scores suggests the relationship between the“Spring predictability barrier(SPB)”of ENSO prediction and the weak ENSO signal phase during boreal spring and early summer.

The Predictability Problems in Numerical Weather and Climate Prediction

The uncertainties caused by the errors of the initial states and the parameters in the numerical model are investigated. Three problems of predictability in numerical weather and climate prediction are proposed, which are related to the maximum predictable time, the maximum prediction error, and the maximum admissible errors of the initial values and the parameters in the model respectively. The three problems are then formulated into nonlinear optimization problems. Effective approaches to deal with these nonlinear optimization problems are provided. The Lorenz’ model is employed to demonstrate how to use these ideas in dealing with these three problems.

Design and testing of a global climate prediction system based on a coupled climate model

A global climate prediction system （PCCSM4） was developed based on the Community Climate System Model, version 4.0, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research （NCAR）, and an initialization scheme was designed by our group. Thirty-year （1981-2010） one-month-lead retrospective summer climate ensemble predictions were carded out and analyzed. The results showed that PCCSM4 can efficiently capture the main characteristics of JJA mean sea surface temperature （SST）, sea level pressure （SLP）, and precipitation. The prediction skill for SST is high, especially over the central and eastern Pacific where the influence of E1 Nino-Southem Oscillation （ENSO） is dominant. Temporal correlation coefficients between the pre- dicted Nino3.4 index and observed Nino3.4 index over the 30 years reach 0.7, exceeding the 99% statistical significance level. The prediction of 500-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa zonal wind and SLP shows greater skill than for precipitation. Overall, the predictability in PCCSM4 is much higher in the tropics than in global terms, or over East Asia. Furthermore, PCCSM4 can simulate the summer climate in typical ENSO years and the interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon well. These preliminary results suggest that PCCSM4 can be applied to real-time prediction after further testing and improvement.

MJO ensemble prediction in BCC-CSM1.1(m)using different initialization schemes

The Madden–Julian Oscillation（MJO）is a dominant mode of tropical intraseasonal variability（ISV）and has prominent impacts on the climate of the tropics and extratropics.Predicting the MJO using fully coupled climate system models is an interesting and important topic.This paper reports upon a recent progress in MJO ensemble prediction using the climate system model of the Beijing Climate Center,BCC-CSM1.1（m）;specifically,the development of three different initialization schemes in the BCC ISV/MJO prediction system,IMPRESS.Three sets of 10-yr hindcasts were separately conducted with the three initialization schemes.The results showed that the IMPRESS is able to usefully predict the MJO,but is sensitive to the initialization scheme used and becomes better with the initialization of moisture.In addition,a new ensemble approach was developed by averaging the predictions generated from the different initialization schemes,helping to address the uncertainty in the initial values of the MJO.The ensemble-mean MJO prediction showed significant improvement,with a valid prediction length of about 20 days in terms of the different criteria,i.e.,a correlation score beyond 0.5,a RMSE lower than 1.414,or a mean square skill score beyond 0.This study indicates that utilizing the different initialization schemes of this climate model may be an efficient approach when forming ensemble predictions of the MJO.

Application of Predictive Model for Efficient Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Yield in the Face of Climate Variability in Enugu State, Nigeria

Climate variability as occasioned by conditions such as extreme rainfall and temperature, rainfall cessation, and irregular temperatures has considerable impact on crop yield and food security. This study develops a predictive model for cassava yield (Manihot esculenta Crantz) amidst climate variability in rainfed zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. This study utilized data of climate variables and tonnage of cassava yield spanning from 1971 to 2012;as well as information from a questionnaire and focus group discussion from farmers across two seasons in 2023 respectively. Regression analysis was employed to develop the predictive model equation for seasonal climate variability and cassava yield. The rainfall and temperature anomalies, decadal change in trend of cassava yield and opinion of farmers on changes in rainfall season were also computed in the study. The result shows the following relationship between cassava and all the climatic variables: R2 = 0.939;P = 0.00514;Cassava and key climatic variables: R2 = 0.560;P = 0.007. The result implies that seasonal rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours and radiation parameters are key climatic variables in cassava production. This is supported by computed rainfall and temperature anomalies which range from −478.5 to 517.8 mm as well as −1.2˚C to 2.3˚C over the years. The questionnaire and focus group identified that farmers experienced at one time or another, late onset of rain, early onset of rain or rainfall cessation over the years. The farmers are not particularly sure of rainfall and temperature characteristics at any point in time. The implication of the result of this study is that rainfall and temperature parameters determine the farming season and quantity of productivity. Hence, there is urgent need to address the situation through effective and quality weather forecasting network which will help stem food insecurity in the study area and Nigeria at large. The study made recommendations such as a comprehensive early warning system on climate variability incidence which can be communicated to local farmers by agro-meteorological extension officers, research on crops that can grow with little or no rain, planning irrigation scheme, and improving tree planting culture in the study area.

Advancing Malaria Prediction in Uganda through AI and Geospatial Analysis Models

The resurgence of locally acquired malaria cases in the USA and the persistent global challenge of malaria transmission highlight the urgent need for research to prevent this disease. Despite significant eradication efforts, malaria remains a serious threat, particularly in regions like Africa. This study explores how integrating Gregor’s Type IV theory with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) improves our understanding of disease dynamics, especially Malaria transmission patterns in Uganda. By combining data-driven algorithms, artificial intelligence, and geospatial analysis, the research aims to determine the most reliable predictors of Malaria incident rates and assess the impact of different factors on transmission. Using diverse predictive modeling techniques including Linear Regression, K-Nearest Neighbor, Neural Network, and Random Forest, the study found that;Random Forest model outperformed the others, demonstrating superior predictive accuracy with an R2 of approximately 0.88 and a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.0534, Antimalarial treatment was identified as the most influential factor, with mosquito net access associated with a significant reduction in incident rates, while higher temperatures correlated with increased rates. Our study concluded that the Random Forest model was effective in predicting malaria incident rates in Uganda and highlighted the significance of climate factors and preventive measures such as mosquito nets and antimalarial drugs. We recommended that districts with malaria hotspots lacking Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) coverage prioritize its implementation to mitigate incident rates, while those with high malaria rates in 2020 require immediate attention. By advocating for the use of appropriate predictive models, our research emphasized the importance of evidence-based decision-making in malaria control strategies, aiming to reduce transmission rates and save lives.

A New Hybrid Machine Learning Model for Short-Term Climate Prediction by Performing Classification Prediction and Regression Prediction Simultaneously

Machine learning methods are effective tools for improving short-term climate prediction.However,commonly used methods often carry out classification and regression prediction modeling separately and independently.Such a single modeling approach may obtain inconsistent prediction results in classification and regression and thus may not meet the needs of practical applications well.To address this issue,this study proposes a selective Naive Bayes ensemble model(SENB-EM)by introducing causal effect and voting strategy on Naive Bayes.The new model can not only screen effective predictors but also perform classification and regression prediction simultaneously.After being applied to the area prediction of summer western North Pacific subtropical high(WNPSH)from 2008 to 2021,it is found that the accuracy classification score(a metric to assess the overall classification prediction accuracy)and the time correlation coefficient(TCC)of SENB-EM can reach 1.0 and 0.81,respectively.After integrating the results of different models[including multiple linear regression ensemble model(MLR-EM),SENB-EM,and Chinese Multimodel Ensemble Prediction System(CMME)used by National Climate Center(NCC)]for 2017-2021,the TCC of the ensemble results of SENB-EM and CMME can reach 0.92(the highest result among them).This indicates that the prediction results of the summer WNPSH area provided by SENB-EM have a high reference value for the real-time prediction.It is worth noting that,except for the numerical prediction results,the SENB-EM model can also give the range of numerical prediction intervals and predictions for anomalous degrees of the WNPSH area,thus providing more reference information for meteorological forecasters.Overall,as a new hybrid machine learning model,the SENB-EM has a good prediction ability;the approach of performing classification prediction and regression prediction simultaneously through integration is informative to short-term climate prediction.

EXTRA-SEASONAL PREDICTIONS OF SUMMER RAINFALL IN CHINA AND ENSO IN 2001 BY CLIMATE MODELS

China is a monsoon country.The most rainfalls in China concentrate on the summer seasons. More frequent floods or droughts occur in some parts of China.Therefore,the prediction of summer rainfall in China is a significant issue.As we know,the obvious impacts of the sea surface temperature anomalies(SSTA)on the summer rainfall over China have been noticed.The predictions of the SSTA have been involved in the research. The key project on short-term climate modeling prediction system has been finished in 2000. The system included an atmospheric general circulation model named AGCM95,a coupled atmospheric-oceanic general circulation model named AOGCM95,a regional climate model over China named RegCM95,a high-resolution Indian-Pacific OGCM named IPOGCM95,and a simplified atmosphere-ocean dynamic model system named SAOMS95.They became the operational prediction models of National Climate Center(NCC). Extra-seasonal predictions in 2001 have been conducted by several climate models,which were the AGCM95,AOGCM95,RegCM95,IPOGCM95,AIPOGCM95,OSU/NCC,SAOMS95,IAP APOGCM and CAMS/ZS.All of those models predicted the summer precipitation over China and/ or the annual SSTA over the tropical Pacific Ocean in the Modeling Prediction Workshop held in March 2001. The assessments have shown that the most models predicted the distributions of main rain belt over Huanan and parts of Jiangnan and droughts over Huabei-Hetao and Huaihe River Valley reasonably.The most models predicted successfully that a weaker cold phase of the SSTA over the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean would continue in 2001. The evaluations of extra-seasonal predictions have also indicated that the models had a certain capability of predicting the SSTA over the tropical Pacific Ocean and the summer rainfall over China.The assessment also showed that multi-model ensemble(super ensembles)predictions provided the better forecasts for both SSTA and summer rainfall in 2001,compared with the single model. It is a preliminary assessment for the extra-seasonal predictions by the climate models.The further investigations will be carried out.The model system should be developed and improved.

Hindcast Experiment of Extraseasonal Short-Term Summer Climate Prediction over China with RegCM3_IAP9L-AGCM

The regional climate model RegCM3 has been one-way nested into IAP9L-AGCM, the nine-level atmospheric general circulation model of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, to perform a 20-yr （1982-2001） hindcast experiment on extraseaonal short-term prediction of China summer climate. The nested prediction system is referred to as RegCM3_IAP9L-AGCM in this paper. The results show that hindeasted climate fields such as 500-hPa geopotential height, 200- and 850-hPa zonal winds from RegCM3_IAP9L-AGCM have positive anomaly correlation coefficients （ACCs） with the observations, and are better than those from the stand-alone IAP9L-AGCM. Except for the 850-hPa wind field, the positive ACCs of the other two fields with observations both pass the 90% confidence level and display a zonal distribution. The results indicate that the positive correlation of summer precipitation anomaly percentage between the nested prediction system and observations covers most parts of China except for downstream of the Yangtze River and north of Northeast and Northwest China. The nested prediction system and the IAP9L-AGCM exhibit different hindcast skills over different regions of China, and the former demonstrates a higher skill over South China than the latter in predicting the summer precipitation.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS BY NESTING HYDROLOGY MODEL DHSVM WITH REGIONAL CLIMATE MODEL RegCM2/CHINA

Based on improvement of a distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM for short) and its application to North China,a nested regional climatic-hydrologic model system is developed by connecting DHSVM with RegCM2/China.The simulated climate scenarios,including control and 2×CO_2 outputs,are downscaled to 8 stations in Luanhe River and Sanggan River Basins to drive the hydrology model.According to simulation results,under double CO_2 scenarios,annual mean temperature and evapotranspiration will increase 2.8C and 29 mm,respectively; precipitation also increase but with different value for each basin,6 mm for Luanhe River Basin while 46 mm for Sanggan River Basin;runoff change for the two basins is different too,27 mm decrease for Luanhe River Basin while 26 mm increase for Sanggan River Basin.As a result,the runoff in future for Luanhe River Basin and Sanggan River Basin will be 74 mm and 71 mm, respectively,which is approximately a quarter of annual mean runoff(284 mm)of the whole country.Total streamflow for the two basins will decrease about 2.5×10~8m^3.All these indicate that the warm and dry trend will continue in the two river basins under double CO_2 scenarios.The nested model system,with both climatic and hydrologic prediction ability,could also be applied to other basins in China by parameter adjustment.

INVESTIGATIONS ON SHORT-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTION BY GCMs IN CHINA

Investigations on the short-term climate predictions by general circulation models(GCMs)in China have been summarized and reviewed in this paper.The research shows that GCMs have the capability to predict the seasonal and annual characteristics of atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere and the patterns of temperature and precipitation over China.It is inspiring to notice that the GCMs have the ability to predict the summer rainfall over China before two seasons.Several issues for the short-term climate prediction by the GCMs have been discussed in this paper.

Evaluation of East Asian Summer Climate Prediction from the CESM Large-Ensemble Initialized Decadal Prediction Project

Based on surface air temperature and precipitation observation data and NCEP/NCAR atmospheric reanalysis data,this study evaluates the prediction of East Asian summer climate during 1959–2016 undertaken by the CESM(Community Earth System Model)large-ensemble initialized decadal prediction(CESM-DPLE)project.The results demonstrate that CESM-DPLE can reasonably capture the basic features of the East Asian summer climate and associated main atmospheric circulation patterns.In general,the prediction skill is quite high for surface air temperature,but less so for precipitation,on the interannual timescale.CESM-DPLE reproduces the anomalies of mid-and highlatitude atmospheric circulation and the East Asian monsoon and climate reasonably well,all of which are attributed to the teleconnection wave train driven by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation(AMO).A transition into the warm phase of the AMO after the late 1990s decreased the geopotential height and enhanced the strength of the monsoon in East Asia via the teleconnection wave train during summer,leading to excessive precipitation and warming over East Asia.Altogether,CESM-DPLE is capable of predicting the summer temperature in East Asia on the interannual timescale,as well as the interdecadal variations of East Asian summer climate associated with the transition of AMO phases in the late 1990s,albeit with certain inadequacies remaining.The CESM-DPLE project provides an important resource for investigating and predicting the East Asian climate on the interannual and decadal timescales.

PREDICTION AND UNCERTAINTY OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN CHINA DURING 21ST CENTURY UNDER RCPS

Based on integrated simulations of 26 global climate models provided by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP), this study predicts changes in temperature and precipitation across China in the 21 st century under different representative concentration pathways(RCPs), and analyzes uncertainties of the predictions using Taylor diagrams. Results show that increases of average annual temperature in China using three RCPs(RCP2.6, RCP4.5,RCP8.5) are 1.87 ℃, 2.88 ℃ and 5.51 ℃, respectively. Increases in average annual precipitation are 0.124, 0.214, and 0.323 mm/day, respectively. The increased temperature and precipitation in the 21 st century are mainly contributed by the Tibetan Plateau and Northeast China. Uncertainty analysis shows that most CMIP5 models could predict temperature well, but had a relatively large deviation in predicting precipitation in China in the 21 st century. Deviation analysis shows that more than 80% of the area of China had stronger signals than noise for temperature prediction;however, the area proportion that had meaningful signals for precipitation prediction was less than 20%. Thus, the multi-model ensemble was more reliable in predicting temperature than precipitation because of large uncertainties of precipitation.