scholarly journals On the impact of recent developments of an atmospheric general circulation model on the simulation of CO<sub>2</sub> transport

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Remaud ◽  
Frédéric Chevallier ◽  
Anne Cozic ◽  
Xin Lin ◽  
Philippe Bousquet

Abstract. The quality of the representation of greenhouse gas (GHG) transport in atmospheric General Circulation Models (GCMs) drives the potential of inverse systems to retrieve GHG surface fluxes to a large extent. In this work, the transport of CO2 is evaluated in the latest version of the LMDz GCM, developed for the Climate Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) relative to the LMDz version developed for CMIP4. Several key changes have been implemented between the two versions; those include a more elaborate radiative scheme, new sub-grid scale parameterizations of convective and boundary layer processes, and a refined vertical resolution. We performed a set of simulations of LMDz with the different physical parameterizations, two different horizontal resolutions and different land surface schemes, in order to test the impact of those different configurations on the overall transport simulation. By modulating the intensity of vertical mixing, the physical parameterizations control the interhemispheric gradient and the amplitude of the seasonal cycle in the summer northern hemisphere, as emphasized by the comparison with observations at surface sites. However, the effect of the new parameterizations depends on the region considered, with a strong impact over South America (Brazil, Amazonian forest) but a smaller impact over Europe, Eastern Asia and North America. A finer horizontal resolution reduces the representation errors at observation sites near emission-hot spots or along the coastlines. In comparison, the sensitivities to the land surface model and to the increased vertical resolution are marginal.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4489-4513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Remaud ◽  
Frédéric Chevallier ◽  
Anne Cozic ◽  
Xin Lin ◽  
Philippe Bousquet

Abstract. The quality of the representation of greenhouse gas (GHG) transport in atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) drives the potential of inverse systems to retrieve GHG surface fluxes to a large extent. In this work, the transport of CO2 is evaluated in the latest version of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMDz) GCM, developed for the Climate Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) relative to the LMDz version developed for CMIP5. Several key changes have been implemented between the two versions, which include a more elaborate radiative scheme, new subgrid-scale parameterizations of convective and boundary layer processes and a refined vertical resolution. We performed a set of simulations of LMDz with different physical parameterizations, two different horizontal resolutions and different land surface schemes, in order to test the impact of those different configurations on the overall transport simulation. By modulating the intensity of vertical mixing, the physical parameterizations control the interhemispheric gradient and the amplitude of the seasonal cycle in the Northern Hemisphere, as emphasized by the comparison with observations at surface sites. However, the effect of the new parameterizations depends on the region considered, with a strong impact over South America (Brazil, Amazonian forest) but a smaller impact over Europe, East Asia and North America. A finer horizontal resolution reduces the representation errors at observation sites near emission hotspots or along the coastlines. In comparison, the sensitivities to the land surface model and to the increased vertical resolution are marginal.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 725
Author(s):  
Tomohito J. Yamada ◽  
Yadu Pokhrel

Irrigation can affect climate and weather patterns from regional to global scales through the alteration of surface water and energy balances. Here, we couple a land-surface model (LSM) that includes various human land-water management activities including irrigation with an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) to examine the impacts of irrigation-induced land disturbance on the subseasonal predictability of near-surface variables. Results indicate that the simulated global irrigation and groundwater withdrawals (circa 2000) are ~3600 and ~370 km3/year, respectively, which are in good agreement with previous estimates from country statistics and offline–LSMs. Subseasonal predictions for boreal summers during the 1986–1995 period suggest that the spread among ensemble simulations of air temperature can be substantially reduced by using realistic land initializations considering irrigation-induced changes in soil moisture. Additionally, it is found that the subseasonal forecast skill for near-surface temperature and sea level pressure significantly improves when human-induced land disturbance is accounted for in the AGCM. These results underscore the need to incorporate irrigation into weather forecast models, such as the global forecast system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 4223-4238 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M. Tsarouchi ◽  
W. Buytaert ◽  
A. Mijic

Abstract. Land-Surface Models (LSMs) are tools that represent energy and water flux exchanges between land and the atmosphere. Although much progress has been made in adding detailed physical processes into these models, there is much room left for improved estimates of evapotranspiration fluxes, by including a more reasonable and accurate representation of crop dynamics. Recent studies suggest a strong land-surface–atmosphere coupling over India and since this is one of the most intensively cultivated areas in the world, the strong impact of crops on the evaporative flux cannot be neglected. In this study we dynamically couple the LSM JULES with the crop growth model InfoCrop. JULES in its current version (v3.4) does not simulate crop growth. Instead, it treats crops as natural grass, while using prescribed vegetation parameters. Such simplification might lead to modelling errors. Therefore we developed a coupled modelling scheme that simulates dynamically crop development and parametrized it for the two main crops of the study area, wheat and rice. This setup is used to examine the impact of inter-seasonal land cover changes in evapotranspiration fluxes of the Upper Ganges River basin (India). The sensitivity of JULES with regard to the dynamics of the vegetation cover is evaluated. Our results show that the model is sensitive to the changes introduced after coupling it with the crop model. Evapotranspiration fluxes, which are significantly different between the original and the coupled model, are giving an approximation of the magnitude of error to be expected in LSMs that do not include dynamic crop growth. For the wet season, in the original model, the monthly Mean Error ranges from 7.5 to 24.4 mm month−1, depending on different precipitation forcing. For the same season, in the coupled model, the monthly Mean Error's range is reduced to 5.4–11.6 mm month−1. For the dry season, in the original model, the monthly Mean Error ranges from 10 to 17 mm month−1, depending on different precipitation forcing. For the same season, in the coupled model, the monthly Mean Error's range is reduced to 2.2–3.4 mm month−1. The new modelling scheme, by offering increased accuracy of evapotranspiration estimations, is an important step towards a better understanding of the two-way crops–atmosphere interactions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 7575-7617 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Molod ◽  
L. Takacs ◽  
M. Suarez ◽  
J. Bacmeister

Abstract. The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications-2 (MERRA2) version of the GEOS-5 Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) is currently in use in the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at a wide range of resolutions for a variety of applications. Details of the changes in parameterizations subsequent to the version in the original MERRA reanalysis are presented here. Results of a series of atmosphere-only sensitivity studies are shown to demonstrate changes in simulated climate associated with specific changes in physical parameterizations, and the impact of the newly implemented resolution-aware behavior on simulations at different resolutions is demonstrated. The GEOS-5 AGCM presented here is the model used as part of the GMAO's MERRA2 reanalysis, the global mesoscale "nature run", the real-time numerical weather prediction system, and for atmosphere-only, coupled ocean–atmosphere and coupled atmosphere–chemistry simulations. The seasonal mean climate of the MERRA2 version of the GEOS-5 AGCM represents a substantial improvement over the simulated climate of the MERRA version at all resolutions and for all applications. Fundamental improvements in simulated climate are associated with the increased re-evaporation of frozen precipitation and cloud condensate, resulting in a wetter atmosphere. Improvements in simulated climate are also shown to be attributable to changes in the background gravity wave drag, and to upgrades in the relationship between the ocean surface stress and the ocean roughness. The series of "resolution aware" parameters related to the moist physics were shown to result in improvements at higher resolutions, and result in AGCM simulations that exhibit seamless behavior across different resolutions and applications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 7559-7573
Author(s):  
S. Watanabe ◽  
K. Sato ◽  
Y. Kawatani ◽  
M. Takahashi

Abstract. The dependence of the gravity wave spectra of energy and momentum flux on the horizontal resolution and time step of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) has been thoroughly investigated in the past. In contrast, much less attention has been given to the dependence of these gravity wave parameters on models' vertical resolutions. The present study demonstrates the dependence of gravity wave momentum flux in the stratosphere and mesosphere on the model's vertical resolution, which is evaluated using an AGCM with a horizontal resolution of about 0.56°. We performed a series of sensitivity test simulations changing only the model's vertical resolution above a height of 8 km, and found that inertial gravity waves with short vertical wavelengths simulated at higher vertical resolutions likely play an important role in determining the gravity wave momentum flux in the stratosphere and mesosphere.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 12895-12950
Author(s):  
M.-N. Woillez ◽  
M. Kageyama ◽  
N. Combourieu-Nebout ◽  
G. Krinner

Abstract. The last glacial period has been punctuated by two types of abrupt climatic events, the Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) and Heinrich (HE) events. These events, recorded in Greenland ice and in marine sediments, involved changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and led to major changes in the terrestrial biosphere. Here we use the dynamical global vegetation model ORCHIDEE to simulate the response of vegetation to abrupt changes in the AMOC strength. To do so, we force ORCHIDEE off-line with outputs from the IPSL_CM4 general circulation model, in which we have forced the AMOC to change by adding freshwater fluxes in the North Atlantic. We investigate the impact of a collapse and recovery of the AMOC, at different rates, and focus on Western Europe, where many pollen records are available to compare with. The impact of an AMOC collapse on the European mean temperatures and precipitations simulated by the GCM is relatively small but sufficient to drive an important regression of forests and expansion of grasses in ORCHIDEE, in qualitative agreement with pollen data for an HE event. On the contrary, a run with a rapid shift of the AMOC to an hyperactive state of 30 Sv, mimicking the warming phase of a DO event, does not exhibit a strong impact on the European vegetation compared to the glacial control state. For our model, simulating the impact of an HE event thus appears easier than simulating the abrupt transition towards the interstadial phase of a DO. For both a collapse or a recovery of the AMOC the vegetation starts to respond to climatic changes immediately but reaches equilibrium about 200 yr after the climate equilibrates, suggesting a possible bias in the climatic reconstructions based on pollen records, which assume equilibrium between climate and vegetation. However, our study does not take into account vegetation feedbacks on the atmosphere.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document