1. Coupling Strength between Soil Moisture and Precipitation Tunings and the Land-Surface Database Ecoclimap Experiment design: Two 10-member ensembles - Period November 1992 – March 1993 Ensemble W: the soil moisture is calculated by the model at each time step - the soil is interactive with the atmosphere Ensemble S: All ensemble members are forced, at each time step, to maintain the same space-time varying series of soil moisture. The soil moisture field is a boundary condition for the atmosphere - the atmosphere does not feed back upon the soil moisture. Coupling Strength CS: Since soil moisture is a boundary condition for ensemble S but not for ensemble W, the difference Ω(S) – Ω(W) isolates the fraction of atmospheric variability that is explained by the soil moisture and is used as a measure of the coupling strength. Similarity parameter Ω v : Variance of the mean time series of all ensemble members ensemble inter- member variance Number of ensemble members Ω is the ratio of the variance of the variable v that is explained by (all) boundary conditions in relation to total variance. Results: We present the coupling strength between soil moisture and evaporation and soil moisture and precipitation. The precipitation coupling strength depends to some (unknown) degree on the evapotranspiration coupling strength but also on e.g. model parameterizations of boundary layer and moist convection. The precipitation coupling strength is proposed by various authors (e.g. GLACE project) to be highest in transition zones – regions that are neither arid nor humid. SWA Evaporation coupling strength binned according to Soil Water Availability (SWA) CS In arid regions the atmosphere is dry and rainfall easily evaporates to the atmosphere. High coupling strength “HOT SPOTS” Coupling Strength Soil Moisture – Evapotranspiration January -93 Coupling Strength Soil Moisture – Precipitation January -93 SWA Precipitation coupling strength binned according to Soil Water Availability (SWA) CS In transition zones, the coupling to evapotranspiration is intermediate AND the atmosphere can get unstable by a less amount of added water vapor. Higher coupling strength In humid regions, the air is wet and the soil is close to field capacity, and 1. rainfall will not change the soil moisture to such a high degree. 2. The evapotranspiration will be limited by the wet atmosphere Low coupling strength In arid regions the atmosphere is too dry to get unstable. Lower coupling strength t t Initialization dates SOIL MOISTURE ENSEMBLE S SOIL MOISTURE ENSEMBLE W Annual cycle of Precipitation, Amazon region 2001-2002 Annual cycle of T2m, Amazon region 2001-2002 Annual cycle of Precipitation, La Plata Basin 2001-2002 To increase the RCA3 performance in simulating the South American climate, the land-surface database Ecoclimap was incorporated and a set of tunings were performed. The monsoon precipitation was improved for the Amazon and Plata Basin regions although large negative winter bias prevails. Anna A. Sörensson (1), Claudio G. Menéndez (1), Ulf Hansson (2), Patrick Samuelsson (2), Ulrika Willén (2) (1) Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera, CONICET/UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2) Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden Anna A. Sörensson (1), Claudio G. Menéndez (1), Ulf Hansson (2), Patrick Samuelsson (2), Ulrika Willén (2) (1) Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera, CONICET/UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2) Rossby Centre, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping, Sweden Soil Moisture - Atmosphere Coupling in the Rossby Centre Regional Atmospheric Model during the South American Monsoon Soil Moisture - Atmosphere Coupling in the Rossby Centre Regional Atmospheric Model during the South American Monsoon Initial Soil Moisture – the effect of a dry/wet winter on SAMS Initial soil moisture of ensemble “DRY” Initial soil moisture of ensemble “WET” Sm(x i,y j ) The soil moisture memory could influence on the intraseasonal variability of precipitation during the development of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS) and potentially contributes to atmospheric variability and seasonal predictability. We explore the interaction between soil moisture and atmosphere during the SAMS of 92-93 through a) calculating the coupling strength and b) studying the effect of initial dry and wet soil moisture conditions, using the Rossby Centre regional atmospheric climate model (RCA3). The model has been adapted to the South American region through a series of tunings and by incorporating the surface database Ecoclimap. Introduction We explored the influence of anomalous soil moisture initial conditions on the intraseasonal development of the 1992-93 SAMS on a monthly timescale. Two ensembles of five members each were realized, one with anomalously dry and the other with anomalously wet land surface initial conditions over the whole domain. The simulated period is August 1992 – March 1993. PrecipitationWinds and temperature 850hPa The choice of land surface database and parameters like soil depth and leaf area index is important for the for the performance of RCA3 over South America. With the database Ecoclimap and a set of tunings to the atmosphere, the surface temperature and the summer precipitation was improved for important South American regions, including La Plata Basin. La Plata Basin seems to be a region where the precipitation is partly controlled by the soil moisture in January. Results were similar for other months. The coupling strength of evapotanspiration is very high for la Plata Region, which indicates that the soil probably is too dry in RCA3 in this region, perhaps due to the winter precipitation deficit. A very dry winter with a very dry soil in August, induced continental scale circulation changes through changed Bowen Ratio and deep convective areas. Moisture fluxes from the Atlantic increased and initiated the monsoon earlier than for a simulation with wet initial conditions. Conclusions The spring T2m bias of Amazon region was removed by Ecoclimap.