ENSO Diversity and the Simulation of Its Teleconnections to Winter Precipitation Extremes Over the US in High Resolution Earth System Models

Salil Mahajan, Linsey S. Passarella, Qi Tang, Noel D. Keen, Peter M. Caldwell, Luke P. van Roekel, Jean Christophe Golaz

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Accounting for the diversity in El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)'s spatial pattern, with the novel ENSO longitudinal index (ELI), we evaluate the simulation of its teleconnections to US winter precipitation extremes by seven global high-resolution (HR) Earth System Models (ESM). Six (four) HR ESMs simulate the observed increase in precipitation extremes over Southwest US (Southeast US) during ELI-defined El Niño events better than their low-resolution counterparts, which are low-biased. The stronger ENSO-dependence over the Southwest US and Southeast US in those models is associated with an improved simulation of moisture flux into the regions and/or storm track activity there. HR ESMs, however, generally overestimate the increase in precipitation extremes over the Pacific-Northwest during La Niña events. Model bias there is associated with bias in moisture transport into the region during La Niña events, which is amplified by the enhanced vertical mass fluxes in HR.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2022GL102657
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume50
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 16 2023

Funding

This research was supported as part of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (US-DOE) Office of Science's (SC) Office of Biological and Environmental Research. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC which is supported by SC under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. Work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was performed under the auspices of the US-DOE under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. This research used the resources of the Oak Ridge and Argonne Leadership Computing Facilities at the Oak Ridge and Argonne National Laboratories, respectively, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which are supported by the SC under Contracts DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC02-06CH11357, and DE-AC02-05CH11231, respectively. This research was supported as part of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (US\u2010DOE) Office of Science's (SC) Office of Biological and Environmental Research. This manuscript has been authored by UT\u2010Battelle, LLC which is supported by SC under Contract DE\u2010AC05\u201000OR22725. Work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was performed under the auspices of the US\u2010DOE under Contract DE\u2010AC52\u201007NA27344. This research used the resources of the Oak Ridge and Argonne Leadership Computing Facilities at the Oak Ridge and Argonne National Laboratories, respectively, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which are supported by the SC under Contracts DE\u2010AC05\u201000OR22725, DE\u2010AC02\u201006CH11357, and DE\u2010AC02\u201005CH11231, respectively.

Keywords

  • ENSO diversity
  • ENSO teleconnections
  • high resolution Earth System Models
  • precipitation extremes

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