Hydrometeorological Response of the Modeled North American Monsoon to Convective Parameterization

This paper describes the second part of a study to document the sensitivity of the modeled regional moisture flux patterns and hydrometeorological response of the North American monsoon system (NAMS) to convective parameterization. Use of the convective parameterization schemes of Betts–Miller–Janjic, Kain–Fritsch, and Grell was investigated during the initial phase of the 1999 NAMS using version 3.4 of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) running in a pseudoclimate mode. Substantial differences in both the stationary and transient components of the moisture flux fields were found between the simulations, resulting in differences in moisture convergence patterns, precipitation, and surface evapotranspiration. Basin-average calculations of hydrologic variables indicate that, in most of the basins for which calculations were made, the magnitude of the evaporation-minus-precipitation moisture source/sink differs substantially between simulations and, in some cases, even the sign of the source/ sink changed. There are substantial differences in rainfall–runoff processes because the basin-average rainfall intensities, proportion of rainfall from convective origin, and the runoff coefficients differ between simulations. The results indicate that, in regions of sustained, deep convection, the selection of the subgrid convective parameterization in a high-resolution atmospheric model can potentially have a hydrometeorological impact in regional analyses, which is at least as important as the effect of land surface forcing.