2002 Annual

Monday, 14 January 2002: 11:15 AM
GCM Simulation of the Large-scale North American Monsoon including Water Vapor Tracer Diagnostics
Michael G. Bosilovich, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD; and G. K. Walker, S. D. Schubert, and Y. Sud
The geographic sources of water for the large-scale North American monsoon in a GCM are diagnosed using passive constituent tracers of regional water sources (Water Vapor Tracers, WVT). The NASA Data Assimilation Office Finite Volume (FV) GCM was used to produce a 10-year simulation (1984 through 1993) including observed sea surface temperature. Regional and global WVT sources were defined to delineate the surface origin of water for precipitation in and around the North American Monsoon. The evolution of the mean annual cycle and the interannual variations of the monsoonal circulation will be discussed. Of special concern are the relative contributions of the local source (precipitation recycling) and remote sources of water vapor to the annual cycle and the interannual variation of monsoonal precipitation. The relationships between soil water, surface evaporation, precipitation and precipitation recycling will be evaluated.

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