scholarly journals Deep Convection Triggering by Boundary Layer Thermals. Part II: Stochastic Triggering Parameterization for the LMDZ GCM

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Rochetin ◽  
Jean-Yves Grandpeix ◽  
Catherine Rio ◽  
Fleur Couvreux
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Single Column ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This paper presents a stochastic triggering parameterization for deep convection and its implementation in the latest standard version of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique–Zoom (LMDZ) general circulation model: LMDZ5B. The derivation of the formulation of this parameterization and the justification, based on large-eddy simulation results, for the main hypothesis was proposed in Part I of this study. Whereas the standard triggering formulation in LMDZ5B relies on the maximum vertical velocity within a mean bulk thermal, the new formulation presented here (i) considers a thermal size distribution instead of a bulk thermal, (ii) provides a statistical lifting energy at cloud base, (iii) proposes a three-step trigger (appearance of clouds, inhibition crossing, and exceeding of a cross-section threshold), and (iv) includes a stochastic component. Here the complete implementation is presented, with its coupling to the thermal model used to treat shallow convection in LMDZ5B. The parameterization is tested over various cases in a single-column model framework. A sensitivity study to each parameter introduced is also carried out. The impact of the new triggering is then evaluated in the single-column version of LMDZ on several case studies and in full 3D simulations. It is found that the new triggering (i) delays deep convection triggering, (ii) suppresses it over oceanic trade wind cumulus zones, (iii) increases the low-level cloudiness, and (iv) increases the convective variability. The scale-aware nature of this parameterization is also discussed.

scholarly journals Impact of a simple parameterization of convective gravity-wave drag in a stratosphere-troposphere general circulation model and its sensitivity to vertical resolution

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bossuet ◽  
M. Déqué ◽  
D. Cariolle
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Wave Drag ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Systematic westerly biases in the southern hemisphere wintertime flow and easterly equatorial biases are experienced in the Météo-France climate model. These biases are found to be much reduced when a simple parameterization is introduced to take into account the vertical momentum transfer through the gravity waves excited by deep convection. These waves are quasi-stationary in the frame of reference moving with convection and they propagate vertically to higher levels in the atmosphere, where they may exert a significant deceleration of the mean flow at levels where dissipation occurs. Sixty-day experiments have been performed from a multiyear simulation with the standard 31 levels for a summer and a winter month, and with a T42 horizontal resolution. The impact of this parameterization on the integration of the model is found to be generally positive, with a significant deceleration in the westerly stratospheric jet and with a reduction of the easterly equatorial bias. The sensitivity of the Météo-France climate model to vertical resolution is also investigated by increasing the number of vertical levels, without moving the top of the model. The vertical resolution is increased up to 41 levels, using two kinds of level distribution. For the first, the increase in vertical resolution concerns especially the troposphere (with 22 levels in the troposphere), and the second treats the whole atmosphere in a homogeneous way (with 15 levels in the troposphere); the standard version of 31 levels has 10 levels in the troposphere. A comparison is made between the dynamical aspects of the simulations. The zonal wind and precipitation are presented and compared for each resolution. A positive impact is found with the finer tropospheric resolution on the precipitation in the mid-latitudes and on the westerly stratospheric jet, but the general impact on the model climate is weak, the physical parameterizations used appear to be mostly independent to the vertical resolution.Key words. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics · Convective processes · Waves and tides

scholarly journals Deep Convection Triggering by Boundary Layer Thermals. Part I: LES Analysis and Stochastic Triggering Formulation

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 496-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Rochetin ◽  
Fleur Couvreux ◽  
Jean-Yves Grandpeix ◽  
Catherine Rio
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Maximum Size ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Distribution Law ◽  
Geometrical Properties ◽  
New Formulation

Abstract This paper proposes a new formulation of the deep convection triggering for general circulation model convective parameterizations. This triggering is driven by evolving properties of the strongest boundary layer thermals. To investigate this, a statistical analysis of large-eddy simulation cloud fields in a case of transition from shallow to deep convection over a semiarid land is carried out at different stages of the transition from shallow to deep convection. Based on the dynamical and geometrical properties at cloud base, a new computation of the triggering is first proposed. The analysis of the distribution law of the maximum size of the thermals suggests that, in addition to this necessary condition, another triggering condition is required, that is, that this maximum horizontal size should exceed a certain threshold. This is explicitly represented stochastically. Therefore, the new formulation integrates the whole transition process from the first cloud to the first deep convective cell and can be decomposed into three steps: (i) the appearance of clouds, (ii) crossing of the inhibition layer, and (iii) deep convection triggering.

scholarly journals Effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning in reducing biases of top-of-atmosphere radiation and clouds in MIROC version 5

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4647-4664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoo Ogura ◽  
Hideo Shiogama ◽  
Masahiro Watanabe ◽  
Masakazu Yoshimori ◽  
Tokuta Yokohata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Grid Point ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Parameter Tuning ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Cloud Radiative Effect

Abstract. This study discusses how much of the biases in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation and clouds can be removed by parameter tuning in the present-day simulation of a climate model in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) generation. We used output of a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) experiment conducted with an atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) without flux adjustment. The Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate version 5 (MIROC5) was used for the PPE experiment. Output of the PPE was compared with satellite observation data to evaluate the model biases and the parametric uncertainty of the biases with respect to TOA radiation and clouds. The results indicate that removing or changing the sign of the biases by parameter tuning alone is difficult. In particular, the cooling bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect at low latitudes could not be removed, neither in the zonal mean nor at each latitude–longitude grid point. The bias was related to the overestimation of both cloud amount and cloud optical thickness, which could not be removed by the parameter tuning either. However, they could be alleviated by tuning parameters such as the maximum cumulus updraft velocity at the cloud base. On the other hand, the bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect in the Arctic was sensitive to parameter tuning. It could be removed by tuning such parameters as albedo of ice and snow both in the zonal mean and at each grid point. The obtained results illustrate the benefit of PPE experiments which provide useful information regarding effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning. Implementing a shallow convection parameterization is suggested as a potential measure to alleviate the biases in radiation and clouds.

scholarly journals Explicit cloud-top entrainment parameterization in the global climate model ECHAM5-HAM

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1971-2023
Author(s):  
C. Siegenthaler-Le Drian ◽  
P. Spichtinger ◽  
U. Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Liquid Water Path ◽  
Production Term ◽  
Single Column ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. New developments in the turbulence parameterization in the general circulation model ECHAM5-HAM are presented. They consist mainly of an explicit entrainment closure at the top of stratocumulus-capped boundary layers and the addition of an explicit contribution of the radiative divergence in the buoyancy production term. The impact of the new implementations on a single column model study and on the global scale is presented here. The parameterization has a "smoothing" effect: the abnormally high values of turbulence kinetic energy are reduced, both in the single column and in the Californian stratocumulus region. A sensitivity study with prescribed droplet concentration shows a reduction in the sensitivity of liquid water path to increasing cloud aerosol optical depth. We also study the effect of the new implementation on a Pacific cross-section. The entrainment parameterization leads to an enhanced triggering of the convective activity.

scholarly journals Improvement and Implementation of a Parameterization for Shallow Cumulus in the Global Climate Model ECHAM5-HAM

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco A. Isotta ◽  
P. Spichtinger ◽  
U. Lohmann ◽  
K. von Salzen
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
Convection Scheme

Abstract A transient shallow-convection scheme is implemented into the general circulation model ECHAM5 and the coupled aerosol model HAM, developed at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. The shallow-convection scheme is extended to take the ice phase into account. In addition, a detailed double-moment microphysics approach has been added. In this approach, the freezing processes and precipitation formation are dependent on aerosols. Furthermore, in the scheme, tracers are transported and scavenged consistently as in the rest of the model. Results of a single-column model simulation for the Barbados Oceanography and Meteorology Experiment (BOMEX) campaign are compared with previously published large-eddy simulation (LES) results. Compared to the standard version, the global ECHAM5-HAM simulations with the newly implemented scheme show a decreased frequency of shallow convection in better agreement with LES. Less shallow convection is compensated by more stratus and stratocumulus. Deep and especially midlevel convection are markedly affected by those changes, which in turn influence high-level clouds. Generally, a better agreement with the observations can be obtained. For a better understanding of the scheme’s impact and to test different setting parameters, sensitivity analyses are performed. The mixing properties, cloud-base vertical velocity, and launching layer of the test parcel, respectively, are varied. In this context, results from simulations without shallow convection are also presented.

On the impact of sea ice in a global ocean circulation model

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 111-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achim Stössel
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Thermohaline Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Convective Activity ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the long-term impact of sea ice on global climate using a global sea-ice–ocean general circulation model (OGCM). The sea-ice component involves state-of-the-art dynamics; the ocean component consists of a 3.5° × 3.5° × 11 layer primitive-equation model. Depending on the physical description of sea ice, significant changes are detected in the convective activity, in the hydrographic properties and in the thermohaline circulation of the ocean model. Most of these changes originate in the Southern Ocean, emphasizing the crucial role of sea ice in this marginally stably stratified region of the world's oceans. Specifically, if the effect of brine release is neglected, the deep layers of the Southern Ocean warm up considerably; this is associated with a weakening of the Southern Hemisphere overturning cell. The removal of the commonly used “salinity enhancement” leads to a similar effect. The deep-ocean salinity is almost unaffected in both experiments. Introducing explicit new-ice thickness growth in partially ice-covered gridcells leads to a substantial increase in convective activity, especially in the Southern Ocean, with a concomitant significant cooling and salinification of the deep ocean. Possible mechanisms for the resulting interactions between sea-ice processes and deep-ocean characteristics are suggested.

scholarly journals The Rossby radius in the Arctic Ocean

Ocean Science ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 967-975 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. G. Nurser ◽  
S. Bacon
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Ocean Eddies ◽  
Shelf Seas ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The first (and second) baroclinic deformation (or Rossby) radii are presented north of ~60° N, focusing on deep basins and shelf seas in the high Arctic Ocean, the Nordic seas, Baffin Bay, Hudson Bay and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, derived from climatological ocean data. In the high Arctic Ocean, the first Rossby radius increases from ~5 km in the Nansen Basin to ~15 km in the central Canadian Basin. In the shelf seas and elsewhere, values are low (1–7 km), reflecting weak density stratification, shallow water, or both. Seasonality strongly impacts the Rossby radius only in shallow seas, where winter homogenization of the water column can reduce it to below 1 km. Greater detail is seen in the output from an ice–ocean general circulation model, of higher resolution than the climatology. To assess the impact of secular variability, 10 years (2003–2012) of hydrographic stations along 150° W in the Beaufort Gyre are also analysed. The first-mode Rossby radius increases over this period by ~20%. Finally, we review the observed scales of Arctic Ocean eddies.

scholarly journals Impact of precipitation intermittency on NAO-temperature signals in proxy records

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 871-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Casado ◽  
P. Ortega ◽  
V. Masson-Delmotte ◽  
C. Risi ◽  
D. Swingedouw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Stable Isotope Ratio ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Temporal Correlations ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In mid and high latitudes, the stable isotope ratio in precipitation is driven by changes in temperature, which control atmospheric distillation. This relationship forms the basis for many continental paleoclimatic reconstructions using direct (e.g. ice cores) or indirect (e.g. tree ring cellulose, speleothem calcite) archives of past precipitation. However, the archiving process is inherently biased by intermittency of precipitation. Here, we use two sets of atmospheric reanalyses (NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) and ERA-interim) to quantify this precipitation intermittency bias, by comparing seasonal (winter and summer) temperatures estimated with and without precipitation weighting. We show that this bias reaches up to 10 °C and has large interannual variability. We then assess the impact of precipitation intermittency on the strength and stability of temporal correlations between seasonal temperatures and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Precipitation weighting reduces the correlation between winter NAO and temperature in some areas (e.g. Québec, South-East USA, East Greenland, East Siberia, Mediterranean sector) but does not alter the main patterns of correlation. The correlations between NAO, δ18O in precipitation, temperature and precipitation weighted temperature are investigated using outputs of an atmospheric general circulation model enabled with stable isotopes and nudged using reanalyses (LMDZiso (Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique Zoom)). In winter, LMDZiso shows similar correlation values between the NAO and both the precipitation weighted temperature and δ18O in precipitation, thus suggesting limited impacts of moisture origin. Correlations of comparable magnitude are obtained for the available observational evidence (GNIP (Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation) and Greenland ice core data). Our findings support the use of archives of past δ18O for NAO reconstructions.

scholarly journals Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response to Seasonal Modulation of Ocean Color: Impact on Interannual Climate Simulations in the Tropical Pacific

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ballabrera-Poy ◽  
R. Murtugudde ◽  
R-H. Zhang ◽  
A. J. Busalacchi
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Ocean Color ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
Atmosphere Model ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The ability to use remotely sensed ocean color data to parameterize biogenic heating in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model is investigated. The model used is a hybrid coupled model recently developed at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) by coupling an ocean general circulation model with a statistical atmosphere model for wind stress anomalies. The impact of the seasonal cycle of water turbidity on the annual mean, seasonal cycle, and interannual variability of the coupled system is investigated using three simulations differing in the parameterization of the vertical attenuation of downwelling solar radiation: (i) a control simulation using a constant 17-m attenuation depth, (ii) a simulation with the spatially varying annual mean of the satellite-derived attenuation depth, and (iii) a simulation accounting for the seasonal cycle of the attenuation depth. The results indicate that a more realistic attenuation of solar radiation slightly reduces the cold bias of the model. While a realistic attenuation of solar radiation hardly affects the annual mean and the seasonal cycle due to anomaly coupling, it significantly affects the interannual variability, especially when the seasonal cycle of the attenuation depth is used. The seasonal cycle of the attenuation depth interacts with the low-frequency equatorial dynamics to enhance warm and cold anomalies, which are further amplified via positive air–sea feedbacks. These results also indicate that interannual variability of the attenuation depths is required to capture the asymmetric biological feedbacks during cold and warm ENSO events.

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