Sub-seasonal to seasonal Prediction Project An element of the WWRP
Index Background Implementation Plan : Applications Scientific and modelling issues Database Demonstration projects Linkages Recommendations
Background There is a need to fill the gap between medium-range and seasonal forecasting and link the activities of WCRP and WWRP. The WMO Commission of Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) requested at its 15 th session (Nov. 2009) that WCRP, WWRP and THORPEX set up an appropriate collaborative structure for sub-seasonal prediction. A WCRP/WWRP/THORPEX workshop was held at Exeter (1-3 December 2010). www.wcrp-climate.org/documents/capabilities-in-sub-seasonal-to- SEASONAL PREDICTION-FINAL.pdf
Planning Group The creation of this group follows a main recommendation from the WWRP/THORPEX/WCRP workshop at the UK Met Office (1-3 December 2010). The planning group was established in 2011 Sponsors: WCRP-WWRP-THORPEX Kick-off meeting: 2-3 December 2011 An Implementation plan has been written
Main Goals The first task of the group will be to prepare an implementation plan which should give high priority to: The establishment of collaboration and co-ordination between operational centres undertaking sub-seasonal prediction to ensure when possible consistency between operational approaches to enable the production of data bases of operational sub-seasonal predictions to support the application of standard verification procedures and a wide-ranging program of research. Facilitating the wide-spread research use of the data collected for the CHFP (and its associate projects), TIGGE and YOTC for research. Sponsorship of a few international research activities The establishment of a series of regular workshops on sub-seasonal prediction
Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction Planning group Co-Chairs: Frederic Vitart (ECMWF) Andrew Robertson (IRI) Members: Arun Kumar (NCEP) Harry Hendon (CAWCR) Yuhei Takaya (JMA) Hai Lin (EC) Alberto Arribas (UKMO) June-Yi Lee (U. Hawaii) Duane Waliser (JPL NASA) Ben Kirtman (UM RSMAS) Hyun-Kyung Kim (KMA) Liaison group: Carolina Vera (WCRP JSC Liaison) Richard Graham (UKMO, CBS) Jean-Pierre Ceron (Météo-France, CCL) Barbara Brown (JWVGR) Steve Woolnough (GEWEX/GASS) David Anderson (WMO consultant)
Use of sub-seasonal forecasts in applications Growing, and urgent, requirement for the employment of sub-seasonal predictions for a wide range of societal and economic applications which include: Warnings of the likelihood of severe high impact weather (droughts, flooding, wind storms etc.) to help protect life and property Humanitarian Planning and Response to disasters Agriculture particularly in developing countries e.g. wheat and rice production Disease planning/control e.g. malaria, dengue and meningitis River-flow for flood prediction, hydroelectric power generation and reservoir management for example
Use of sub-seasonal forecasts in applications Weather and climate span a continuum of time scales, and forecast information with different lead times are relevant to different sorts of decisions and early-warning In agriculture, for example, a seasonal forecast might inform a cropplanting choice, while sub-monthly forecasts could help irrigation scheduling, pesticide/fertilizer application: both can make a cropping calendar dynamic. In situations where seasonal forecasts are already in use, sub-seasonal ones could be used as updates, such as for end-of-season crop yields. Sub-seasonal forecasts may play an especially important role where initial conditions and intraseasonal oscillation is strong, while seasonal predictability is weak, such as the Indian summer monsoon.
Opportunity to use information on multiple time scales Red Cross - IRI example
Rainfall (mm) Monsoon Onset and Rice Planting in Java, Indonesia Calendars: Rice-planting area in Indramayu, Java Planting Area (ha) Source: Boer et al. (2004) R ice -p la nting are a in Indra ma yu, Ja va So urce : Bo er et al. (2 004) Start of planting changes from time to time, in planting season 97/98, start of planting delayed 1 month due to delay onset of rainfall, increasing drought risk for the second crop, except in La- Start of pl ant ing change s from time to t ime, i n pl ant ing season 97/ 98, s tart of pl ant ing de layed 1 m ont h due to delay ons et of rainfa Nina ll, i ncreasing years drought ri sk for t he second c rop, exc ept i n L a-n ina years ri ce rice Fallow C ro pping Pa ttern
Application aspects of SSI prediction: User-relevant needs Availability of long hindcast histories are needed to develop and test regression-based MOS and tailoring models, and for skill estimation which is critical to applications. Daily data is needed, especially for a few key variables including precipitation and near-surface temperature and windspeed. Issues of open data access to enable uptake
Bridging the gap between Climate prediction and NWP A particularly difficult time range: Is it an atmospheric initial condition problem as medium-range forecasting or is it a boundary condition problem as seasonal forecasting? Some sources of predictability in the sub-seasonal time scale: The Madden Julian Oscillation Sea surface temperature/sea ice Snow cover Soil moisture Stratospheric Initial conditions
Impact of the MJO on weather regimes Cassou (2008)
Impact of soil moisture Koster et al, GRL 2010 14
Stratospheric influence on the troposphere? Baldwin and Dunkerton, 2001
Implementation plan: Scientific issues Identify sources of predictability at the sub-seasonal time-range Prediction of the MJO and its impacts in numerical models Teleconnections - forecasts of opportunity Monsoon prediction Rainfall predictability and extreme events Polar prediction and sea-ice Stratospheric processes
Implementation plan: Modelling issues Role of resolution Role of Ocean-atmosphere coupling Systematic errors Initialisation strategies for sub-seasonal prediction Ensemble generation Spread/skill relationship Design of forecast systems Verification
Research priorities The project will involve: evaluating the potential predictability of sub-seasonal events, including identifying windows of opportunity for increased forecast skill understanding systematic errors and biases in the subseasonal to seasonal forecast range comparing, verifying and testing multi-model combinations from these forecasts and quantifying their uncertainty focussing on some specific extreme event case studies, such as the Russian heat wave of 2010, the Pakistan floods in 2010, Australian floods of 2011, European cold spell in 2012, as demonstration projects
Sub-seasonal forecast database One of the main recommendations from the Exeter meeting in 2010 was the establishment of a data bases of operational sub-seasonal predictions. Over the past years, a few multimodel databases have been set up: TIGGE (WWRP/THORPEX) : Medium-range forecasts (day 0-14) from 10 operational centres are collected 2 days behind real-time. Servers: NCAR/ECMWF/CMA. CHFP (WCRP) data archive: Operational and non-operational seasonal forecast hindcasts from 18 centres. ET-ELRF (CBS): Real-time seasonal forecasts archived at KMA/NCEP. Available only to WMO members and only the multi-model combination is available. Limited number of fields available. Field experiments: real time data for a short period of time Multi-model operational seasonal forecasts: EUROSIP, APEC Climate Center (Busan) Hindcast experiments: ENSEMBLES, ISO experiment (APCC).
Sub-seasonal forecast database 10 years ago, only a couple of operational centres were producing sub-seasonal forecasts. Over the past years, a few GPCs have set sub-seasonal forecasting systems. Numerical models have shown significant improvements in subseasonal prediction over the past years (e.g. MJO).
Forecast Day Examples of improvements in MJO prediction MJO Bivariate Correlation 0.5 0.6 0.8 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 YEAR
Impact of the MJO on the N. Extratropics 2002 2011 Friday 27 March 1998 00UTC ECMWF Monthly Forecast t+636 VT: Wednesday 22 April 1998 12UTC 500hPa Geopotential System = 2 - Method = 1 - Ensemble number = 4 ERA Interim ECMWF Analysis VT:Thursday 23 April 2009 00UTC 500hPa Geopotential
Simulation of the impact of the MJO on the NAO Lin et al, 2010
Sub-seasonal real-time Operational Forecasts Timerange Resol. Ens. Size Freq. Hcsts Hcst length Hcst Freq Hcst Size ECMWF D 0-32 T639/319L62 51 2/week On the fly Past 18y weekly 5 UKMO D 0-60 N96L85 4 daily On the fly 1989-2003 4/month 3 NCEP D 0-60 N126L64 16 daily Fix 1999-2010 daily 4 EC D 0-35 0.6x0.6L40 21 weekly On the fly Past 15y weekly 4 CAWCR D 0-120 T47L17 33 weekly Fix 1989-2010 3/month 33 JMA D 0-34 T159L60 50 weekly Fix 1979-2009 3/month 5 KMA D 0-30 T106L21 20 3/month Fix 1979-2010 3/month 10 CMA D 0-45 T63L16 40 6/month Fix 1982-now monthly 48 CPTEC D 0-30 T126L28 1 daily No - - - Met.Fr D 0-60 T63L91 41 monthly Fix 1981-2005 monthly 11 SAWS D 0-60 T42L19 6 monthly Fix 1981-2001 monthly 6 HMCR D 0-60 1.1x1.4 L28 10 monthly Fix 1979-2003 monthly 10
Proposal for a sub-seasonal database Use TIGGE protocol (GRIB2) for archiving the data. The data should also be available in NETCDF for the WCRP community. Archive daily means of real-time forecasts + hindcasts. Real-time forecasts 3 or 4 weeks behind real-time Variables archived: most of TIGGE variables + ocean variables and stratospheric levels 1.5x1.5 degree grid or lower once a week. Use of the first 2 months of the CHFP seasonal and climate forecasting systems to compare with the archive (above). Need for daily or weekly/pentads archive.
Hypothesis: Data volume 1.5x1.5 degree or less 73 variables All centres are archiving all the fields. Total cost (real-time + hindcasts from the 12 GPCs) is estimated to: - 15TB for the first year - About 7 TB per year in the following years. This would represent less than 10% of the TIGGE archiving cost (about 180 TB/year at ECMWF). The fixed imposed resolution should keep the cost about constant from year to year. The choice of TIGGE protocols and the limited data volume should make it easier centres like ECMWF to access to host this dataset.
Demonstration projects A few case studies to demonstrate that using sub-seasonal predictions could be of benefit to society. Cases studies could include: Pakistan floods (2010) concurrent with the Russian heat wave Australian floods (2009 or 2011) European Cold spell (2011) At least one of the demonstration projects should be in real-time, which is often the best way to foster collaborations between the research and application communities. The models could be archived near real-time during a limited period of time with additional fields being archived. The period chosen could coincide with test bed studies from other projects (e.g. polar project).
Example : Pakistan Floods (2010) 28
30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 20 N ensemble size = 51,climate size = 90 20 N 20 N ensemble size = 51 Sub-seasonal Prediction 20 N of Shaded Pakistan areas significant at 10% 20 Nlevel Floods (2010) ensemble size = 51, Shaded areas signif Precip anomalies : 26 July 01 August 2010 40 E 60 E 80 E FORECAST 22-07-2010: ANALYSIS DAY 5-11 FORECAST FORECAST FORECAST 22-07-2010: 40 E 22-07-2010: 15-07-2010: DAY 5-11 FORECAST 15-07 60 E DAY DAY 80 E 5-11 12-18 40 E FORECAST 60 E 15-07 40 N 40 N 40 N Analysis 40 N and ECMWF VarEPS-Monthly Forecasting 40 N System 40 N 40 N 40 N 40 N 30 N 40 E 40 E60 E 60 E 80 E 30 N 80 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 40 E 60 E Contours at 1% level Analysis and ECMWF VarEPS-Monthly Forecasting 40 N System Precipitation anomaly <-90mm Precipitation anomaly 30 N 30 N 30 N Verification period: 26-07-2010/TO/01-08-2010 30 N Verification period: 26-07-2010/TO/01-08-2010 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N -90..-60 80 E 80 E 40 N Verification period: 26-07- Verification period: 26-07-2 Shaded areas signific Contours at Contours at 1 40 E 60 E 20 N 20 N 20 N ensemble size = 51,climate size = 90 20 N ensemble size = 51,climate size = 90 20 N 20 N 20 N Shaded areas significant at 10% level 20 N 20 N Shaded areas significant at 10% 20 N level Contours at 1% level Contours at 1% level 20 N 20 N -60..-30-30..-10 40 N 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E FORECAST FORECAST 15-07-2010: 22-07-2010: DAY 12-18 DAY 5-11 FORECAST 08-07-2010: FORECAST DAY 19-25 15-07-2010: DAY 12-18 FORECAST 01-07 -10.. 0 40 E 40 E 60 E 60 E 40 E 80 E 80 E 60 E 80 E FORECAST 40 E 08-07-2010: 60 E 40 E DAY 80 E 80 E 19-25 60 E 80 E 40 E FORECAST 60 E 01-07 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E FORECAST 08-07-2010: DAY 19-25 FORECAST 01-07-2010: DAY 26-32 40 N40 E 40 N60 E 80 E 40 N 40 N 40 N40 E 40 N 60 E 80 E 40 N 40 N 40 N <-90mm 40 N 40 N 40 N 0.. 10 <-90mm 40 N 40 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 40 N 40 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N -90..-60 30 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 10.. 30-90..-60 30 N 20 N 30 N 30 N 30 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N -60..-30 20 N 20 N 20 N 30.. 60-60..-30 20 N 20 N 20 N 20 N -30..-10 60.. 90-30..-10 40 E 40 E 60 E 80 E -10.. 40 E 0 40 E 60 E 80 E 60 E 80 E 60 E 80 E FORECAST 08-07-2010: DAY 19-25 40 E 60 E FORECAST 80 E 01-07-2010: DAY 26-32 FORECAST 01-07-2010: DAY 26-32 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 40 E 60 E 80 E 0.. 10 29 40 E > 90mm 40 E -10.. 0 60 E 60 E 0.. 10
Linkages Global Framework for Climate Services CLIVAR and GEWEX including regional panels and WGNE Year of Tropical Convection CBS Verification working groups (SVS-LRF and JWGFVR) World Bank
Main recommendations The establishment of a project Steering group The establishment of a project office The establishment of a multi-model data base consisting of ensembles of subseasonal (up to 60 days) forecasts and re-forecasts A major research activity on evaluating the potential predictability of subseasonal events, including identifying windows of opportunity for increased forecast skill. A series of science workshops on subseasonal to seasonal prediction. Appropriate demonstration projects based on some recent extreme events and their impacts This project will require 5 years, after which the opportunity for a 5 year extension will be considered.