Upscale Effects of Deep Convection during the North American Monsoon

The ability of deep monsoon convection to influence the larger-scale circulation over North America is investigated for a 6-day-long case study during the 2006 North American monsoon. Results from Rossby wave ray tracing and numerical simulations using the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model indicate that North American monsoon convection provides a source region for stationary Rossby waves. Two wave trains are seen in the numerical model simulations, with behaviors that agree well with expectations from theory and ray tracing. The shorter and faster-moving wave train moves eastward from the source region in Mexico and reaches the western Atlantic within 4 days. The longer and slower-moving wave train travels northeastward and reaches the coastal New England region within 6 days. An upstream tail of anticyclonic vorticity extends westward from the source region into the central Pacific Ocean.The monsoon convection appears to help cut off the low-level anticyclonic flow by developing low-level southerly flow in the Gulf of Mexico and northerly flow in the eastern Pacific, as suggested in earlier global model studies. However, the stationary Rossby wave trains further alter the location and intensity of deep convection in locations remote from the monsoon. These results suggest that unless a numerical model can correctly predict monsoon convection, the ability of the model to produce accurate forecasts of the large-scale pattern and associated convective activity beyond a few days is in question. This result may be important for global climate modeling, since an inaccurate prediction of monsoon convection would lead to an inaccurate Rossby wave response.