Simulation of maximum surface air temperature over India using the UK met office global seasonal (GloSea) model

Abstract

A comparative study was performed to evaluate the performance of the UK Met Office’s Global Seasonal (GloSea) prediction General Circulation Model (GCM) for the forecast of maximum surface air temperature (T_max) over the Indian region using the model generated hindcast of 15-members ensemble for 16 years (1987–2002). Each hindcast starts from 1st January and extends for a period of six months in each year. The model hindcast T_max is compared with T_max obtained from verification analysis during the hot weather season on monthly and seasonal scales from March to June. The monthly and seasonal model hindcast climatology of T_max from 240 members during March to June and the corresponding observed climatology show highly significant (above 99.9% level) correlation coefficients (CC) although the hindcast T_max is over-estimated (warm bias) over most parts of the Indian region. At the station level over New Delhi, although the forecast error (forecast-observed) at the monthly scale gradually increases from March to June, the forecast error at the seasonal scale during March to May (MAM) is found to be just 1.67 °C. The GloSea model also simulates well T_max anomalies on monthly and seasonal scales during March to June with the lower Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of bias corrected forecast (less than 1.2 °C), which is much less than the corresponding RMSE of climatology (reference) forecast. The anomaly CCs (ACCs) over the station in New Delhi are also highly significant (above 95% level) on monthly to seasonal time scales from March to June, except for April. The skill of the GloSea model for the seasonal forecast of T_max as measured from the ACC map and the bias corrected RMSE map is reasonably good during MAM and April to June (AMJ) with higher ACC (significant at 95% level) and lower RMSE (less than 1.5 °C) found over many parts of the Indian regions.