Authors: Jun Li Guoxiong Wu
Publish Date: 2010/08/17
Volume: 27, Issue: 5, Pages: 1183-1192
Abstract
NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and the spectral atmospheric general circulation Model AGCM of IAP/LASG SAMIL are employed to investigate the transport and balance of atmospheric angular momentum AAM It is demonstrated that SAMIL depicts the general features of the AAM transport and balance reasonably well The AAM sources are in the tropics and sinks are in the midlatitudes The strongest meridional transport occurs in the upper troposphere The atmosphere gains westerly momentum and transports it upward in the areas of surface easterlies and downward into the areas of surface westerlies Consequently AAM balance is maintained Systematic biases of the model compared to the reanalysis and observations are revealed Possible mechanisms for these biases are investigated In SAMIL the friction torque in the tropics is stronger compared to the observations which is probably due to the excessive precipitation along the Intertropical convergence zone ITCZ in the model since the simulated Hadley circulation is much stronger than observed In the winter half of the year the transport center is in the lower troposphere in the SAMIL model but it is in the upper troposphere in the reanalysis and observations These discrepancies also suggest that simulations of convection and tropical precipitation need to be improved and that higher resolution is necessary for a quantitative simulation of AAM transport and balance Results also demonstrate that the analysis of the transport and balance of atmospheric angular momentum is a powerful tool in diagnosing climate models for potential improvement
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