scholarly journals Parametrization of convective transport in the boundary layer and its impact on the representation of diurnal cycle of wind and dust emissions

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 27425-27458 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hourdin ◽  
M. Gueye ◽  
B. Diallo ◽  
J.-L. Dufresne ◽  
L. Menut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
Thermal Plumes ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. We investigate the impact of the representation of the boundary layer transport in a climate model on the representation of the near surface wind and dust emission, with a focus on the Sahel/Sahara region. We show that the combination of vertical turbulent diffusion with a representation of the thermal cells of the convective boundary layer by a mass flux scheme leads to a more realistic representation of the diurnal cycle of wind in spring, with a maximum near surface wind in the morning. This maximum occurs when the thermal plumes reach the low level jet that forms during the night at a few hundred meters above surface. The horizontal momentum in the jet is transported downward to the surface by compensating subsidences around thermal plumes in typically less than one hour. This leads to a rapid increase of wind speed at surface and therefore of dust emissions owing to the strong non linearity of emission laws. The numerical experiments are performed with a zoomed and nudged configuration of the LMDZ general circulation model, coupled to the emission module of the CHIMERE Chemistry Transport Model, in which winds are relaxed toward that of the ERAI reanalyzes. The new set of parameterizations leads to a strong improvement of the representation of the diurnal cycle of wind when compared to a previous version of LMDZ as well as to the reanalyzes used for nudging themselves. It also reinforces dust emissions in better agreement with observations, but the aerosol optical thickness is still significantly underestimated.

scholarly journals Parameterization of convective transport in the boundary layer and its impact on the representation of the diurnal cycle of wind and dust emissions

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 6775-6788 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Hourdin ◽  
M. Gueye ◽  
B. Diallo ◽  
J.-L. Dufresne ◽  
J. Escribano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
Strong Nonlinearity ◽  
Thermal Plumes ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Dust Emissions

Abstract. We investigate how the representation of the boundary layer in a climate model impacts the representation of the near-surface wind and dust emission, with a focus on the Sahel/Sahara region. We show that the combination of vertical turbulent diffusion with a representation of the thermal cells of the convective boundary layer by a mass flux scheme leads to realistic representation of the diurnal cycle of wind in spring, with a maximum near-surface wind in the morning. This maximum occurs when the thermal plumes reach the low-level jet that forms during the night at a few hundred meters above surface. The horizontal momentum in the jet is transported downward to the surface by compensating subsidence around thermal plumes in typically less than 1 h. This leads to a rapid increase of wind speed at surface and therefore of dust emissions owing to the strong nonlinearity of emission laws. The numerical experiments are performed with a zoomed and nudged configuration of the LMDZ general circulation model coupled to the emission module of the CHIMERE chemistry transport model, in which winds are relaxed toward that of the ERA-Interim reanalyses. The new set of parameterizations leads to a strong improvement of the representation of the diurnal cycle of wind when compared to a previous version of LMDZ as well as to the reanalyses used for nudging themselves. It also generates dust emissions in better agreement with current estimates, but the aerosol optical thickness is still significantly underestimated.

scholarly journals Modeling the present and future impact of aviation on climate: an AOGCM approach with online coupled chemistry

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10027-10048 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Huszar ◽  
H. Teyssèdre ◽  
M. Michou ◽  
A. Voldoire ◽  
D. J. L. Olivié ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Ozone Production ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Aviation Emissions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Our work is among the first that use an atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) with online chemistry to evaluate the impact of future aviation emissions on temperature. Other particularities of our study include non-scaling to the aviation emissions, and the analysis of models' transient response using ensemble simulations. The model we use is the Météo-France CNRM-CM5.1 earth system model extended with the REPROBUS chemistry scheme. The time horizon of our interest is 1940–2100, assuming the A1B SRES scenario. We investigate the present and future impact of aviation emissions of CO2, NOx and H2O on climate, taking into account changes in greenhouse gases, contrails and contrail-induced cirrus (CIC). As in many transport-related impact studies, we distinguish between the climate impacts of CO2 emissions and those of non-CO2 emissions. Aviation-produced aerosol is not considered in the study. Our modeling system simulated a notable sea-ice bias in the Arctic, and therefore results concerning the surface should be viewed with caution. The global averaged near-surface CO2 impact reaches around 0.1 K by the end of the 21st century, while the non-CO2 impact reaches 0.2 K in the second half of the century. The NOx emissions impact is almost negligible in our simulations, as our aviation-induced ozone production is small. As a consequence, the non-CO2 signal is very similar to the CIC signal. The seasonal analysis shows that the strongest warming due to aviation is modeled for the late summer and early autumn. In the stratosphere, a significant cooling is attributed to aviation CO2 emissions (−0.25 K by 2100). A −0.3 K temperature decrease is modeled when considering all the aviation emissions, but no significant signal appears from the CIC or NOx forcings in the stratosphere.

scholarly journals Fire emission heights in the climate system – Part 2: Impact on transport, black carbon concentrations and radiation

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (13) ◽  
pp. 7173-7193 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Veira ◽  
S. Kloster ◽  
N. A. J. Schutgens ◽  
J. W. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Atmospheric Radiation ◽  
Orthogonal Polarization ◽  
Plume Height ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Emission Height

Abstract. Wildfires represent a major source for aerosols impacting atmospheric radiation, atmospheric chemistry and cloud micro-physical properties. Previous case studies indicated that the height of the aerosol–radiation interaction may crucially affect atmospheric radiation, but the sensitivity to emission heights has been examined with only a few models and is still uncertain. In this study we use the general circulation model ECHAM6 extended by the aerosol module HAM2 to investigate the impact of wildfire emission heights on atmospheric long-range transport, black carbon (BC) concentrations and atmospheric radiation. We simulate the wildfire aerosol release using either various versions of a semi-empirical plume height parametrization or prescribed standard emission heights in ECHAM6-HAM2. Extreme scenarios of near-surface or free-tropospheric-only injections provide lower and upper constraints on the emission height climate impact. We find relative changes in mean global atmospheric BC burden of up to 7.9±4.4 % caused by average changes in emission heights of 1.5–3.5 km. Regionally, changes in BC burden exceed 30–40 % in the major biomass burning regions. The model evaluation of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) against Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and Cloud–Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) observations indicates that the implementation of a plume height parametrization slightly reduces the ECHAM6-HAM2 biases regionally, but on the global scale these improvements in model performance are small. For prescribed emission release at the surface, wildfire emissions entail a total sky top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiative forcing (RF) of −0.16±0.06 W m−2. The application of a plume height parametrization which agrees reasonably well with observations introduces a slightly stronger negative TOA RF of −0.20±0.07 W m−2. The standard ECHAM6-HAM2 model in which 25 % of the wildfire emissions are injected into the free troposphere (FT) and 75 % into the planetary boundary layer (PBL), leads to a TOA RF of −0.24±0.06 W m−2. Overall, we conclude that simple plume height parametrizations provide sufficient representations of emission heights for global climate modeling. Significant improvements in aerosol wildfire modeling likely depend on better emission inventories and aerosol process modeling rather than on improved emission height parametrizations.

scholarly journals Numerical simulation of tropospheric injection of biomass burning products by pyro-thermal plumes

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 3463-3478 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rio ◽  
F. Hourdin ◽  
A. Chédin
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Thermal Plume ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Boundary Layer Height ◽  
Convective Structures ◽  
Environmental Air

Abstract. The thermal plume model, a mass-flux scheme originally developed to represent the vertical transport by convective structures within the boundary layer, is adapted to the representation of plumes generated by fires, with the aim of estimating the height at which fire emissions are actually injected in the atmosphere. The parameterization, which takes into account the excess of near surface temperature induced by fires and the mixing between convective plumes and environmental air, is first evaluated on two well-documented fires. Simulations over Southern Africa performed with the general circulation model LMDZ over one month show that the CO2 can be injected far above the boundary layer height, leading to a daily excess of CO2 in the mid-troposphere of an order of 2 ppmv. These results agree with satellite retrievals of a diurnal cycle of CO2 in the free troposphere over regions affected by biomass burning in the Tropics.

Simulation of the Diurnal Cycle in Tropical Rainfall and Circulation during Boreal Summer with a High-Resolution GCM

2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (9) ◽  
pp. 3434-3453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey J. Ploshay ◽  
Ngar-Cheung Lau
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Tropical Rainfall ◽  
Early Afternoon ◽  
Seaward Migration

Abstract The simulation of the diurnal cycle (DC) of precipitation and surface wind pattern by a general circulation model (GCM) with a uniform horizontal resolution of 50 km over the global domain is evaluated. The model output is compared with observational counterparts based on datasets provided by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and reanalysis products of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The summertime diurnal characteristics over tropical regions in Asia, the Americas, and Africa are portrayed using the amplitude and phase of the first harmonic of the 24-h cycle, departures of data fields during selected hours from the daily mean, and differences between extreme phases of the DC. There is general agreement between the model and observations with respect to the large-scale land–sea contrasts in the DC. Maximum land precipitation, onshore flows, and landward migration of rainfall signals from the coasts occur in the afternoon, whereas peak maritime rainfall and offshore flows prevail in the morning. Seaward migration of precipitation is discernible over the western Bay of Bengal and South China Sea during nocturnal and morning hours. The evolution from low-intensity rainfall in the morning/early afternoon to heavier precipitation several hours later is also evident over selected continental sites. However, the observed incidence of rainfall with very high intensity in midafternoon is not reproduced in the model atmosphere. Although the model provides an adequate simulation of the daytime upslope and nighttime downslope winds in the vicinity of mountain ranges, valleys, and basins, there are notable discrepancies between model and observations in the DC of precipitation near some of these orographic features. The model does not reproduce the observed seaward migration of precipitation from the western coasts of Myanmar (Burma) and India, and from individual islands of the Indonesian Archipelago at nighttime.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Impact of Improvements in the Boundary Layer Parameterization on Hurricane Intensity and Structure Forecasts in HWRF

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (8) ◽  
pp. 3136-3155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun A. Zhang ◽  
David S. Nolan ◽  
Robert F. Rogers ◽  
Vijay Tallapragada
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Vertical Diffusion ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Warm Core ◽  
Aircraft Observations ◽  
Structural Metrics ◽  
The Impact

Abstract As part of the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP), recent boundary layer physics upgrades in the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) Model have benefited from analyses of in situ aircraft observations in the low-level eyewall region of major hurricanes. This study evaluates the impact of these improvements to the vertical diffusion in the boundary layer on the simulated track, intensity, and structure of four hurricanes using retrospective HWRF forecasts. Structural metrics developed from observational composites are used in the model evaluation process. The results show improvements in track and intensity forecasts in response to the improvement of the vertical diffusion. The results also demonstrate substantial improvements in the simulated storm size, surface inflow angle, near-surface wind profile, and kinematic boundary layer heights in simulations with the improved physics, while only minor improvements are found in the thermodynamic boundary layer height, eyewall slope, and the distributions of vertical velocities in the eyewall. Other structural metrics such as warm core anomaly and warm core height are also explored. Reasons for the structural differences between the two sets of forecasts with different physics are discussed. This work further emphasizes the importance of aircraft observations in model diagnostics and development, endorsing a developmental framework for improving physical parameterizations in hurricane models.

Impact Assessment of Satellite-Derived Leaf Area Index Datasets Using a General Circulation Model

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 993-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun-Suk Kang ◽  
Yongkang Xue ◽  
G. James Collatz
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
West African ◽  
Radiative Energy ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Surface Climate ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study assesses the impact of two different remote sensing–derived leaf area index (RSLAI) datasets retrieved from the same source (i.e., Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer measurements) on a general circulation model’s (GCM) seasonal climate simulations as well as the mechanisms that lead to the improvement in simulations over several regions. Based on the analysis of these two RSLAI datasets for 17 yr from 1982 to 1998, their spatial distribution patterns and characteristics are discussed. Despite some disagreements in the RSLAI magnitudes and the temporal variability between these two datasets over some areas, their effects on the simulation of near-surface climate and the regions with significant impact are generally similar to each other. Major disagreements in the simulated climate appear in a few limited regions. The GCM experiment using the RSLAI and other satellite-derived land surface products showed substantial improvements in the near-surface climate in the East Asian and West African summer monsoon areas and boreal forests of North America compared to the control experiment that used LAI extrapolated from limited ground surveys. For the East Asia and northwest U.S. regions, the major role of RSLAI changes is in partitioning the net radiative energy into latent and sensible heat fluxes, which results in discernable warming and decrease of precipitation due to the smaller RSLAI values compared to the control. Meanwhile, for the West African semiarid regions, where the LAI difference between RSLAI and control experiments is negligible, the decrease in surface albedo caused by the high vegetation cover fraction in the satellite-derived dataset plays an important role in altering local circulation that produces a positive feedback in land/atmosphere interaction.

scholarly journals Role of Diurnal Cycle in the Maritime Continent Barrier Effect on MJO Propagation in an AGCM

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 1545-1565
Author(s):  
R. S. Ajayamohan ◽  
Boualem Khouider ◽  
V. Praveen ◽  
Andrew J. Majda
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Barrier Effect ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Stochastic Case ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe barrier effect of the Maritime Continent (MC) in stalling or modifying the propagation characteristics of the MJO is widely accepted. The strong diurnal cycle of convection over the MC is believed to play a dominant role in this regard. This hypothesis is studied here, with the help of a coarse-resolution atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). The dry dynamical core of the AGCM is coupled to the multicloud parameterization piggybacked with a dynamical bulk boundary layer model. A set of sensitivity experiments is carried out by systematically varying the strength of the MC diurnal flux to assess the impact of the diurnal convective variability on the MJO propagation. The effects of deterministic and stochastic diurnal forcings on MJO characteristics are compared. It is found that the precipitation and zonal wind variance, on the intraseasonal time scales, over the western Pacific region decreases with the increase in diurnal forcing, indicating the blocking of MC precipitation. An increase in precipitation variance over the MC associated with the weakening of precipitation variance over the west Pacific is evident in all experiments. The striking difference between deterministic and stochastic diurnal forcing experiments is that the strength needed for the deterministic case to achieve the same degree of blocking is almost double that of stochastic case. The stochastic diurnal flux over the MC seems to be more detrimental in blocking the MJO propagation. This hints at the notion that the models with inadequate representation of organized convection tend to suffer from the MC-barrier effect.

scholarly journals Modeling the present and future impact of aviation on climate: an AOGCM approach with online coupled chemistry

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 3817-3858
Author(s):  
P. Huszar ◽  
H. Teyssèdre ◽  
D. Cariolle ◽  
D. J. L. Olivié ◽  
M. Michou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
21St Century ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ozone Production ◽  
Nox Emissions ◽  
Climate Signal ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Aviation Emissions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This work assesses the impact of emissions from global aviation on climate, while focus is given on the temperature response. Our work is among the first that use an Atmosphere Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM) online coupled with stratospheric chemistry and the chemistry of mid-troposphere relevant for aviation emissions. Compared to previous studies where either the chemical effects of aviation emissions were investigated using global chemistry transport models or the climate impact of aviation was under focus implementing prescribed perturbation fields or simplified chemistry schemes, our study uses emissions as inputs and provides the climate response as output. The model we use is the Météo-France CNRM-CM5.1 earth system model extended with the REPROBUS stratospheric scheme. The timehorizon of our interest is 1940–2100 assuming the A1B SRES scenario. We investigate the present and future impact of the most relevant aviation emissions (CO2, NOx, contrail and contrail induced cirrus – CIC) as well as the impact of the non-CO2 emissions and the "Total" aviation impact. Aviation produced aerosol is not considered in the study. The general conclusion is that the aviation emissions result in a less pronounced climate signal than previous studies suggest. Moreover this signal is more unique at higher altitudes (above the mid-troposphere) than near the surface. The global averaged near surface CO2 impact reaches around 0.1 °C by the end of the 21st century and can be even negative in the middle of the century. The non-CO2 impact remains positive during the whole 21st century reaching 0.2 °C in its second half. A similar warming is calculated for the CIC effect. The NOx emissions impact is almost negligible in our simulations, as the aviation induced ozone production was small in the model's chemical scheme. As a consequence the non-CO2 signal is very similar to the CIC signal. The seasonal analysis showed that the strongest warming due to aviation is modeled for the late summer and early autumn months. A much less significant warming is calculated for the winter months. In the stratosphere, significant cooling is attributed to aviation CO2 emissions which reaches −0.25 °C by the end of the 21st century. A −0.3 °C temperature decrease is modeled when considering all the aviation emissions as well, but no significant signal is coming with CIC and NOx emissions in the stratosphere.

scholarly journals Fire emission heights in the climate system – Part 2: Impact on transport, Black Carbon concentrations and radiation

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 6695-6744 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Veira ◽  
S. Kloster ◽  
N. A. J. Schutgens ◽  
J. W. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Atmospheric Radiation ◽  
Plume Height ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Emission Height

Abstract. Wildfires represent a major source for aerosols impacting atmospheric radiation, atmospheric chemistry and cloud micro-physical properties. Although former studies indicated that the height of the aerosol–radiation interaction crucially affects the overall climate impact, the importance of fire emission heights in particular remains to be quantified. In this study we use the general circulation model ECHAM6 extended by the aerosol module HAM2 to investigate the impact of wildfire emission heights on atmospheric long-range transport, Black Carbon (BC) concentrations and atmospheric radiation. We simulate the wildfire aerosol release using either various versions of a semi-empirical plume height parametrization or prescribed standard emission heights in ECHAM6-HAM2. Extreme scenarios of near-surface or free-tropospheric only injections provide lower and upper constraints on the emission height climate impact. We find relative changes in mean global atmospheric BC burden of up to 7.9±4.4% caused by average changes in emission heights of 1.5–3.5 km. Regionally, changes in BC burden exceed 30–40% in the major biomass burning regions. The model evaluation of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) against MODIS, AERONET and CALIOP observations indicates that the implementation of a plume height parametrization slightly reduces the ECHAM6-HAM2 biases regionally, but on the global scale these improvements in model performance are small. For prescribed emission release at the surface, wildfire emissions entail a total sky Top Of Atmosphere (TOA) Radiative Forcing (RF) of −0.16±0.06 W m−2. The application of a plume height parametrization which agrees reasonably well with observations introduces a slightly stronger negative TOA RF of −0.20±0.07 W m−2. The standard ECHAM6-HAM2 model in which 25% of the wildfire emissions are injected into the free troposphere and 75% into the planetary boundary layer, leads to a TOA RF of −0.24±0.06 W m−2. Overall, we conclude that simple plume height parametrizations provide sufficient representations of emission heights for global climate modeling. Significant improvements in aerosol wildfire modeling likely depend on better emission inventories and aerosol process modeling rather than on improved emission height parametrizations.

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