@article{fdi:010072745,
  title = {{T}owards a realistic simulation of boreal summer tropical rainfall climatology in state-of-the-art coupled models : role of the background snow-free land albedo},
  author = {{T}erray, {P}ascal and {S}ooraj, {K}. {P}. and {M}asson, {S}. and {K}rishna, {R}. {P}. {M}. and {S}amson, {G}. and {P}rajeesh, {A}. {G}.},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{S}tate-of-the-art global coupled models used in seasonal prediction systems and climate projections still have important deficiencies in representing the boreal summer tropical rainfall climatology. {T}hese errors include prominently a severe dry bias over all the {N}orthern {H}emisphere monsoon regions, excessive rainfall over the ocean and an unrealistic double inter-tropical convergence zone ({ITCZ}) structure in the tropical {P}acific. {W}hile these systematic errors can be partly reduced by increasing the horizontal atmospheric resolution of the models, they also illustrate our incomplete understanding of the key mechanisms controlling the position of the {ITCZ} during boreal summer. {U}sing a large collection of coupled models and dedicated coupled experiments, we show that these tropical rainfall errors are partly associated with insufficient surface thermal forcing and incorrect representation of the surface albedo over the {N}orthern {H}emisphere continents. {I}mproving the parameterization of the land albedo in two global coupled models leads to a large reduction of these systematic errors and further demonstrates that the {N}orthern {H}emisphere subtropical deserts play a seminal role in these improvements through a heat low mechanism.},
  keywords = {{T}ropical rainfall climatology ; {M}onsoons ; {G}lobal coupled models ; {S}urface albedo ; {H}eat low ; {D}eserts},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{C}limate {D}ynamics},
  volume = {50},
  numero = {9-10},
  pages = {3413--3439},
  ISSN = {0930-7575},
  year = {2018},
  DOI = {10.1007/s00382-017-3812-9},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010072745},
}