How well can a climate model simulate an extreme precipitation event: A case study using the Transpose-AMIP experiment

AbstractA high-impact extreme precipitation event over the Yangtze River valley (YRV) in the mid-summer of 2016 is simulated using the Climate System Model of Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS-CSM). After validation of the model’s capability in reproducing the climatological features of precipitation over the YRV, the Transpose-Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (T-AMIP)-type experiment, which runs the climate model in the weather forecast mode, is applied to investigate the performance of the climate model in simulating the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall and related synoptic circulation. Analyses of T-AMIP results indicate that the model realistically reproduces the heavy rainfall centers of accumulated precipitation amount along the YRV, indicating that the climate model has the ability to simulate the severity of the extreme event. However, the frequency-intensity structure shows similar biases as in the AMIP experiment, especially the underestimation of the maximum...