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Predicting the temporal and spatial patterns of South Asian monsoon rainfall within a season is of critical importance due to its impact on agriculture, water availability, and flooding. The monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) is a robust northward-propagating mode that determines the active and break phases of the monsoon and much of the regional distribution of rainfall. However, dynamical atmospheric forecast models predict this mode poorly. Data-driven methods for MISO prediction have shown more skill, but only predict the portion of the rainfall corresponding to MISO rather than the full rainfall signal. Here, we combine state-of-the-art ensemble precipitation forecasts from a high-resolution atmospheric model with data-driven forecasts of MISO. The ensemble members of the detailed atmospheric model are projected onto a lower-dimensional subspace corresponding to the MISO dynamics and are then weighted according to their distance from the data-driven MISO forecast in this subspace. We thereby achieve improvements in rainfall forecasts over India, as well as the broader monsoon region, at 10- to 30-d lead times, an interval that is generally considered to be a predictability gap. The temporal correlation of rainfall forecasts is improved by up to 0.28 in this time range. Our results demonstrate the potential of leveraging the predictability of intraseasonal oscillations to improve extended-range forecasts; more generally, they point toward a future of combining dynamical and data-driven forecasts for Earth system prediction.

The second West African Monsoon Modeling and Evaluation Project Experiment (WAMME II) is designed to improve understanding of the possible roles and feedbacks of sea surface temperature (SST), land use land cover change (LULCC), and aerosols forcings in the Sahel climate system at seasonal to decadal scales. The project's strategy is to apply prescribed observationally based anomaly forcing, i.e., "idealized but realistic" forcing, in simulations by climate models. The goal is to assess these forcings' effects in producing/amplifying seasonal and decadal climate variability in the Sahel between the 1950s and the 1980s, which is selected to characterize the great drought period of the last century. This is the first multi-model experiment specifically designed to simultaneously evaluate such relative contributions. The WAMME II models have consistently demonstrated that SST forcing is a major contributor to the 20th century Sahel drought. Under the influence of the maximum possible SST forcing, the ensemble mean of WAMME II models can produce up to 60% of the precipitation difference during the period. The present paper also addresses the role of SSTs in triggering and maintaining the Sahel drought. In this regard, the consensus of WAMME II models is that both Indian and Pacific Ocean SSTs greatly contributed to the drought, with the former producing an anomalous displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) before the WAM onset, and the latter mainly contributes to the summer WAM drought. The WAMME II models also show that the impact of LULCC forcing on the Sahel climate system is weaker than that of SST forcing, but still of first order magnitude. According to the results, under LULCC forcing the ensemble mean of WAMME II models can produces about 40% of the precipitation difference between the 1980s and the 1950s. The role of land surface processes in responding to and amplifying the drought is also identified. The results suggest that catastrophic consequences are likely to occur in the regional Sahel climate when SST anomalies in individual ocean basins and in land conditions combine synergistically to favor drought.

An observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) is a modeling experiment used to evaluate the value of a new observing system. when actual observational data are not available. An OSSE system [...]

We examined the net terrestrial carbon flux to the atmosphere (FTA) simulated by nine models from the TRENDY dynamic global vegetation model project for its seasonal cycle and amplitude trend during 1961-2012. While some models exhibit similar phase and amplitude compared to atmospheric inversions, with spring drawdown and autumn rebound, others tend to rebound early in summer. The model ensemble mean underestimates the magnitude of the seasonal cycle by 40g% compared to atmospheric inversions. Global FTA amplitude increase (19g±g8g%) and its decadal variability from the model ensemble are generally consistent with constraints from surface atmosphere observations. However, models disagree on attribution of this long-term amplitude increase, with factorial experiments attributing 83g±g56g%, ĝ'3g±g74 and 20g±g30g% to rising CO2, climate change and land use/cover change, respectively. Seven out of the nine models suggest that CO2 fertilization is the strongest control - with the notable exception of VEGAS, which attributes approximately equally to the three factors. Generally, all models display an enhanced seasonality over the boreal region in response to high-latitude warming, but a negative climate contribution from part of the Northern Hemisphere temperate region, and the net result is a divergence over climate change effect. Six of the nine models show that land use/cover change amplifies the seasonal cycle of global FTA: some are due to forest regrowth, while others are caused by crop expansion or agricultural intensification, as revealed by their divergent spatial patterns. We also discovered a moderate cross-model correlation between FTA amplitude increase and increase in land carbon sink (R2 Combining double low line g0.61). Our results suggest that models can show similar results in some benchmarks with different underlying mechanisms; therefore, the spatial traits of CO2 fertilization, climate change and land use/cover changes are crucial in determining the right mechanisms in seasonal carbon cycle change as well as mean sink change.

Satellite observations are indispensable for weather forecasting, climate change monitoring, and environmental studies. Understanding and quantifying errors and uncertainties associated with satellite observations are essential for hardware calibration, data assimilation, and developing environmental and climate data records. Satellite observation errors can be classified into four categories: measurement, observation operator, representativeness, and preprocessing errors. Current methods for diagnosing observation errors still yield large uncertainties due to these complex errors. When simulating satellite errors, empirical errors are usually used, which do not always accurately represent the truth. We address these challenges by developing an error inventory simulator, the Satellite Error Representation and Realization (SatERR). SatERR can simulate a wide range of observation errors, from instrument measurement errors to model assimilation errors. Most of these errors are based on physical models, including existing and newly developed algorithms. SatERR takes a bottom-up approach: errors are generated from root sources and forward propagate through radiance and science products. This is different from, but complementary to, the top-down approach of current diagnostics, which inversely solves unknown errors. The impact of different errors can be quantified and partitioned, and a ground-truth testbed can be produced to test and refine diagnostic methods. SatERR is a community error inventory, open-source on GitHub, which can be expanded and refined with input from engineers, scientists, and modelers. This debut version of SatERR is centered on microwave sensors, covering traditional large satellites and small satellites operated by NOAA, NASA, and EUMETSAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric inversion of high spatiotemporal surface CO2 fllux without dynamic constraints and sufficient observations is an ill-posed problem, and a priori flux from a "bottom-up" estimation is commonly used in "top-down" inversion systems for regularization purposes. Ensemble Kalman filter-based inversion algorithms usually weigh a priori flux to the background or directly replace the background with the a priori flux. However, the "bottom-up" flux estimations, especially the simulated terrestrial-atmosphere CO2 exchange, are usually systematically biased at different spatiotemporal scales because of the deficiencies in understanding of some underlying processes. Here, we introduced a novel regularization algorithm into the Carbon in Ocean--Land--Atmosphere (COLA) data assimilation system, which assimilates a priori information as a unique observation (AAPO). The a priori information is not limited to "bottom-up" flux estimation. With the comprehensive assimilation regularization approach, COLA can apply the spatial gradient of the "bottom-up" flux estimation as a priori information to reduce the bias impact and enhance the dynamic information concerning the a priori "bottom-up" flux estimation. Benefiting from the enhanced signal-to-noise ratio in the spatial gradient, the global, regional, and grided flux estimations using the AAPO algorithm are significantly better than those obtained by the traditional regularization approach, especially over highly uncertain tropical regions in the context of observing simulation system experiments (OSSEs). We suggest that the AAPO algorithm can be applied to other greenhouse gas (e.g., CH4, NO2) and pollutant data assimilation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in amplitude of the atmospheric carbon dioxide cycle over the past fifty years can be attributed in part to the intensification of agriculture in the Northern Hemisphere. Agricultural advance increases atmospheric CO.sub.2 seasonality The atmospheric CO.sub.2 record displays a seasonal cycle reflecting seasonal variations in CO.sub.2 uptake by terrestrial vegetation. An increase in the amplitude of this seasonal cycle over the past five decades cannot be fully explained at present. Two groups now report that the intensification of agriculture may have been a key contributor to the increase in atmospheric CO.sub.2 seasonal amplitude. Ning Zeng et al. used the VEGAS terrestrial biosphere model to show that enhanced mid-latitude agricultural productivity contributed 45% of the increasing amplitude of global net surface carbon fluxes for the period 1961 to 2010, compared to 29% from climate change and 26% from CO.sub.2 fertilization. Josh Gray et al. used crop production statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and a carbon accounting model to demonstrate that as much as a quarter of the observed change in atmospheric CO.sub.2 seasonality can be explained by elevated crop productivity, with maize, wheat, rice and soybean major contributors. These studies will contribute to a better understanding of the global carbon cycle, and highlight the extent to which human actions are changing large-scale biosphere-atmosphere interactions. The atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) record displays a prominent seasonal cycle that arises mainly from changes in vegetation growth and the corresponding CO.sub.2 uptake during the boreal spring and summer growing seasons and CO.sub.2 release during the autumn and winter seasons.sup.1,2,3,4. The CO.sub.2 seasonal amplitude has increased over the past five decades, suggesting an increase in Northern Hemisphere biospheric activity.sup.2,5,6. It has been proposed that vegetation growth may have been stimulated by higher concentrations of CO.sub.2 as well as by warming in recent decades, but such mechanisms have been unable to explain the full range and magnitude of the observed increase in CO.sub.2 seasonal amplitude.sup.2,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. Here we suggest that the intensification of agriculture (the Green Revolution, in which much greater crop yield per unit area was achieved by hybridization, irrigation and fertilization) during the past five decades is a driver of changes in the seasonal characteristics of the global carbon cycle. Our analysis of CO.sub.2 data and atmospheric inversions shows a robust 15 per cent long-term increase in CO.sub.2 seasonal amplitude from 1961 to 2010, punctuated by large decadal and interannual variations. Using a terrestrial carbon cycle model that takes into account high-yield cultivars, fertilizer use and irrigation, we find that the long-term increase in CO.sub.2 seasonal amplitude arises from two major regions: the mid-latitude cropland between 25° N and 60° N and the high-latitude natural vegetation between 50° N and 70° N. The long-term trend of seasonal amplitude increase is 0.311 [plus or minus] 0.027 per cent per year, of which sensitivity experiments attribute 45, 29 and 26 per cent to land-use change, climate variability and change, and increased productivity due to CO.sub.2 fertilization, respectively. Vegetation growth was earlier by one to two weeks, as measured by the mid-point of vegetation carbon uptake, and took up 0.5 petagrams more carbon in July, the height of the growing season, during 2001-2010 than in 1961-1970, suggesting that human land use and management contribute to seasonal changes in the CO.sub.2 exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere., Author(s): Ning Zeng [sup.1] , Fang Zhao [sup.1] , George J. Collatz [sup.2] , Eugenia Kalnay [sup.1] , Ross J. Salawitch [sup.1] , Tristram O. West [sup.3] , Luis Guanter [...]