scholarly journals The multi-scale aerosol-climate model PNNL-MMF: model description and evaluation

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
S. Ghan ◽  
R. Easter ◽  
M. Ovchinnikov ◽  
X. Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Anthropogenic aerosol effects on climate produce one of the largest uncertainties in estimates of radiative forcing of past and future climate change. Much of this uncertainty arises from the multi-scale nature of the interactions between aerosols, clouds and large-scale dynamics, which are difficult to represent in conventional general circulation models (GCMs). In this study, we develop a multi-scale aerosol-climate model that treats aerosols and clouds across different scales, and evaluate the model performance, with a focus on aerosol treatment. This new model is an extension of a multi-scale modeling framework (MMF) model that embeds a cloud-resolving model (CRM) within each grid column of a GCM. In this extension, the effects of clouds on aerosols are treated by using an explicit-cloud parameterized-pollutant (ECPP) approach that links aerosol and chemical processes on the large-scale grid with statistics of cloud properties and processes resolved by the CRM. A two-moment cloud microphysics scheme replaces the simple bulk microphysics scheme in the CRM, and a modal aerosol treatment is included in the GCM. With these extensions, this multi-scale aerosol-climate model allows the explicit simulation of aerosol and chemical processes in both stratiform and convective clouds on a global scale. Simulated aerosol budgets in this new model are in the ranges of other model studies. Simulated gas and aerosol concentrations are in reasonable agreement with observations (within a factor of 2 in most cases), although the model underestimates black carbon concentrations at the surface by a factor of 2–4. Simulated aerosol size distributions are in reasonable agreement with observations in the marine boundary layer and in the free troposphere, while the model underestimates the accumulation mode number concentrations near the surface, and overestimates the accumulation mode number concentrations in the middle and upper free troposphere by a factor of about 2. The overestimation of accumulation model number concentrations in the middle and upper free troposphere is consistent with large aerosol mass fraction above 5 km in the MMF model compared with other models. Simulated cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations are within the observational variations. Simulated aerosol optical depths (AOD) are in reasonable agreement with observations (within a factor of 2), and the spatial distribution of AOD is consistent with observations, while the model underestimates AOD over regions with strong fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions. Overall, this multi-scale aerosol-climate model simulates aerosol fields as well as conventional aerosol models.

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1625-1695 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
S. Ghan ◽  
R. Easter ◽  
M. Ovchinnikov ◽  
X. Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Anthropogenic aerosol effects on climate produce one of the largest uncertainties in estimates of radiative forcing of past and future climate change. Much of this uncertainty arises from the multi-scale nature of the interactions between aerosols, clouds and large-scale dynamics, which are difficult to represent in conventional global climate models (GCMs). In this study, we develop a multi-scale aerosol climate model that treats aerosols and clouds across different scales, and evaluate the model performance, with a focus on aerosol treatment. This new model is an extension of a multi-scale modeling framework (MMF) model that embeds a cloud-resolving model (CRM) within each grid column of a GCM. In this extension, the effects of clouds on aerosols are treated by using an explicit-cloud parameterized-pollutant (ECPP) approach that links aerosol and chemical processes on the large-scale grid with statistics of cloud properties and processes resolved by the CRM. A two-moment cloud microphysics scheme replaces the simple bulk microphysics scheme in the CRM, and a modal aerosol treatment is included in the GCM. With these extensions, this multi-scale aerosol-climate model allows the explicit simulation of aerosol and chemical processes in both stratiform and convective clouds on a global scale. Simulated aerosol budgets in this new model are in the ranges of other model studies. Simulated gas and aerosol concentrations are in reasonable agreement with observations, although the model underestimates black carbon concentrations at the surface. Simulated aerosol size distributions are in reasonable agreement with observations in the marine boundary layer and in the free troposphere, while the model underestimates the accumulation mode number concentrations near the surface, and overestimates the accumulation number concentrations in the free troposphere. Simulated cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations are within the observational variations. Simulated aerosol optical depth (AOD) and single scattering albedo (SSA) are in reasonable agreement with observations, and the spatial distribution of AOD is consistent with observations, while the model underestimates AOD over regions with strong fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions, and overestimates AOD over regions with strong dust emissions. Overall, this multi-scale aerosol climate model simulates aerosol fields as well as conventional aerosol models.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 2047-2061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiano Piccolroaz ◽  
Michele Di Lazzaro ◽  
Antonio Zarlenga ◽  
Bruno Majone ◽  
Alberto Bellin ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present HYPERstream, an innovative streamflow routing scheme based on the width function instantaneous unit hydrograph (WFIUH) theory, which is specifically designed to facilitate coupling with weather forecasting and climate models. The proposed routing scheme preserves geomorphological dispersion of the river network when dealing with horizontal hydrological fluxes, irrespective of the computational grid size inherited from the overlaying climate model providing the meteorological forcing. This is achieved by simulating routing within the river network through suitable transfer functions obtained by applying the WFIUH theory to the desired level of detail. The underlying principle is similar to the block-effective dispersion employed in groundwater hydrology, with the transfer functions used to represent the effect on streamflow of morphological heterogeneity at scales smaller than the computational grid. Transfer functions are constructed for each grid cell with respect to the nodes of the network where streamflow is simulated, by taking advantage of the detailed morphological information contained in the digital elevation model (DEM) of the zone of interest. These characteristics make HYPERstream well suited for multi-scale applications, ranging from catchment up to continental scale, and to investigate extreme events (e.g., floods) that require an accurate description of routing through the river network. The routing scheme enjoys parsimony in the adopted parametrization and computational efficiency, leading to a dramatic reduction of the computational effort with respect to full-gridded models at comparable level of accuracy. HYPERstream is designed with a simple and flexible modular structure that allows for the selection of any rainfall-runoff model to be coupled with the routing scheme and the choice of different hillslope processes to be represented, and it makes the framework particularly suitable to massive parallelization, customization according to the specific user needs and preferences, and continuous development and improvements.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Kvale ◽  
David P. Keller ◽  
Wolfgang Koeve ◽  
Katrin J. Meissner ◽  
Chris Somes ◽  
...  

Abstract. We describe and test a new model of biological marine silicate cycling, implemented in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM) version 2.9. This new model adds diatoms, which are a key aspect of the biological carbon pump, to an existing ecosystem model. The new model performs well against important ocean biogeochemical indicators and captures the large-scale features of the marine silica cycle. Furthermore it is computationally efficient, allowing both fully-coupled, long-timescale transient simulations, as well as "offline" transport matrix spinups. We assess the fully-coupled model against modern ocean observations, the historical record since 1960, and a business-as-usual atmospheric CO2 forcing to the year 2300. The model simulates a global decline in net primary production (NPP) of 1.3 % having occurred since the 1960s, with the strongest declines in the tropics, northern mid-latitudes, and Southern Ocean. The simulated global decline in NPP reverses after the year 2100 (forced by the extended RCP CO2 concentration scenario), and NPP returns to pre-industrial rates by 2300. This recovery is dominated by increasing primary production in the Southern Ocean, mostly by calcifying phytoplankton. Large increases in calcifying phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean offset a decline in the low latitudes, producing a global net calcite export in 2300 that varies only slightly from pre-industrial rates. Diatoms migrate southward in our simulations, following the receding Antarctic ice front, but are out-competed by calcifiers across most of their pre-industrial Southern Ocean habitat. Global opal export production thus drops to 50 % of its pre-industrial value by 2300. Model nutrients phosphate, silicate, and nitrate build up along the Southern Ocean particle export pathway, but dissolved iron (for which ocean sources are held constant) increases in the upper ocean. This different behaviour of iron is attributed to a reduction of low-latitude NPP (and consequently, a reduction in both uptake and export and particle, including calcite, scavenging), an increase in seawater temperatures (raising the solubility of particle forms), and stratification that "traps" the iron near the surface. These results are meant to serve as a baseline for sensitivity assessments to be undertaken with this model in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 7255-7285
Author(s):  
Karin Kvale ◽  
David P. Keller ◽  
Wolfgang Koeve ◽  
Katrin J. Meissner ◽  
Christopher J. Somes ◽  
...  

Abstract. We describe and test a new model of biological marine silicate cycling, implemented in the Kiel Marine Biogeochemical Model version 3 (KMBM3), embedded in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM) version 2.9. This new model adds diatoms, which are a key component of the biological carbon pump, to an existing ecosystem model. This new model combines previously published parameterizations of a diatom functional type, opal production and export with a novel, temperature-dependent dissolution scheme. Modelled steady-state biogeochemical rates, carbon and nutrient distributions are similar to those found in previous model versions. The new model performs well against independent ocean biogeochemical indicators and captures the large-scale features of the marine silica cycle to a degree comparable to similar Earth system models. Furthermore, it is computationally efficient, allowing both fully coupled, long-timescale transient simulations and “offline” transport matrix spinups. We assess the fully coupled model against modern ocean observations, the historical record starting from 1960 and a business-as-usual atmospheric CO2 forcing to the year 2300. The model simulates a global decline in net primary production (NPP) of 1.4 % having occurred since the 1960s, with the strongest declines in the tropics, northern midlatitudes and Southern Ocean. The simulated global decline in NPP reverses after the year 2100 (forced by the extended RCP8.5 CO2 concentration scenario), and NPP returns to 98 % of the pre-industrial rate by 2300. This recovery is dominated by increasing primary production in the Southern Ocean, mostly by calcifying phytoplankton. Large increases in calcifying phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean offset a decline in the low latitudes, producing a global net calcite export in 2300 that varies only slightly from pre-industrial rates. Diatom distribution moves southward in our simulations, following the receding Antarctic ice front, but diatoms are outcompeted by calcifiers across most of their pre-industrial Southern Ocean habitat. Global opal export production thus drops to 75 % of its pre-industrial value by 2300. Model nutrients such as phosphate, silicate and nitrate build up along the Southern Ocean particle export pathway, but dissolved iron (for which ocean sources are held constant) increases in the upper ocean. This different behaviour of iron is attributed to a reduction of low-latitude NPP (and consequently, a reduction in both uptake and export and particle, including calcite scavenging), an increase in seawater temperatures (raising the solubility of particulate iron) and stratification that “traps” the iron near the surface. These results are meant to serve as a baseline for sensitivity assessments to be undertaken with this model in the future.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3399-3459 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Wang ◽  
S. Ghan ◽  
M. Ovchinnikov ◽  
X. Liu ◽  
R. Easter ◽  
...  

Abstract. Much of the large uncertainty in estimates of anthropogenic aerosol effects on climate arises from the multi-scale nature of the interactions between aerosols, clouds and large-scale dynamics, which are difficult to represent in conventional global climate models (GCMs). In this study, we use a multi-scale aerosol-climate model that treats aerosols and clouds across multiple scales to study aerosol indirect effects. This multi-scale aerosol-climate model is an extension of a multi-scale modeling framework (MMF) model that embeds a cloud-resolving model (CRM) within each grid cell of a GCM. The extension allows the explicit simulation of aerosol/cloud interactions in both stratiform and convective clouds on the global scale in a computationally feasible way. Simulated model fields, including liquid water path (LWP), ice water path, cloud fraction, shortwave and longwave cloud forcing, precipitation, water vapor, and cloud droplet number concentration are in agreement with observations. The new model performs quantitatively similar to the previous version of the MMF model in terms of simulated cloud fraction and precipitation. The simulated change in shortwave cloud forcing from anthropogenic aerosols is −0.77 W m−2, which is less than half of that in the host GCM (NCAR CAM5) (−1.79 W m−2) and is also at the low end of the estimates of most other conventional global aerosol-climate models. The smaller forcing in the MMF model is attributed to its smaller increase in LWP from preindustrial conditions (PI) to present day (PD): 3.9% in the MMF, compared with 15.6% increase in LWP in large-scale clouds in CAM5. The much smaller increase in LWP in the MMF is caused by a much smaller response in LWP to a given perturbation in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations from PI to PD in the MMF (about one-third of that in CAM5), and, to a lesser extent, by a smaller relative increase in CCN concentrations from PI to PD in the MMF (about 26% smaller than that in CAM5). The smaller relative increase in CCN concentrations in the MMF is caused in part by a smaller increase in aerosol lifetime from PI to PD in the MMF, a positive feedback in aerosol indirect effects induced by cloud lifetime effects. The smaller response in LWP to anthropogenic aerosols in the MMF model is consistent with observations and with high resolution model studies, which may indicate that aerosol indirect effects simulated in conventional global climate models are overestimated and point to the need to use global high resolution models, such as MMF models or global CRMs, to study aerosol indirect effects. The simulated total anthropogenic aerosol effect in the MMF is −1.05 W m−2, which is close to the Murphy et al. (2009) inverse estimate of −1.1 ± 0.4 W m−2 (1σ) based on the examination of the Earth's energy balance. Further improvements in the representation of ice nucleation and low clouds are needed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra K. Weisenstein ◽  
Daniele Visioni ◽  
Henning Franke ◽  
Ulrike Niemeier ◽  
Sandro Vattioni ◽  
...  

Abstract. Analyses of stratospheric solar geoengineering have focused on sulfate aerosol, and almost all climate model experiments on sulfate aerosol have assumed injection of SO2. Yet continuous injection of SO2 may produce overly large aerosols. Injection of SO3 or H2SO4 from an aircraft in stratospheric flight is expected to produce new accumulation-mode particles (AM-H2SO4), and such injection may allow the sulfate aerosol size distribution to be nudged towards higher radiative efficacy. We report the first multi-model intercomparison of AM-H2SO4 injection. We compare three models: CESM2(WACCM), MAECHAM5-HAM, and SOCOL-AER coordinated as a testbed experiment within the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). The intercomparison explores how the injection of new accumulation-mode particles changes the large-scale particle size distribution and thus the overall radiative and dynamical response to sulfate aerosol injection. Each model used the same injection scenarios testing AM-H2SO4 and SO2 injections at 5 and 25 Tg(S) yr−1 to test linearity and climate response sensitivity. All three models find that AM-H2SO4 injection increases the radiative efficacy, defined as the radiative forcing per unit of sulfur injection, relative to SO2 injection. Increased radiative efficacy means that when compared to the use of SO2 to produce the same radiative forcing, AM-H2SO4 emissions could reduce some side-effects of sulfate aerosol geoengineering such as stratospheric heating. We explore the sensitivity to injection pattern by comparing injection at two points at 30° N and 30° S to injection in a belt along the equator between 30° S and 30° N, and find opposite impacts on radiative efficacy for AM-H2SO4 and SO2, suggesting that prior model results for concentrated injection of SO2 may be strongly dependent on model resolution. Model differences arise from differences in aerosol formulation and differences in model transport and resolution, factors whose interplay cannot be easily untangled by this intercomparison.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Yongjun Tan

Localized corrosion is usually resulted from nonuniform electrochemical and chemical processes occurring on metal surfaces at different spatial and temporal scales, frequently influenced by large scale environmental complexities such as stray currents and nano- or micro-scale heterogeneous metallurgical structures/defects such as porosities in materials. In order to predict the corrosion of large infrastructure such as buried pipelines and to develop alloys with superior corrosion resistance, it is necessary to probe and understand multi-scale electrochemical and chemical processes. Unfortunately conventional electrochemical and surface analytical techniques have difficulties in doing so due to the lack of either spatial or temporal resolution. This paper provides an overview of recent approaches to facilitating the probing of spatial and temporal scale localized corrosion processes by means of the combined used of advanced electrochemical and surface analytical techniques. Cases that the authors have firsthand experiences are briefly described to illustrate these applications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 9055-9090 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Piccolroaz ◽  
M. Di Lazzaro ◽  
A. Zarlenga ◽  
B. Majone ◽  
A. Bellin ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present HydroSCAPE, a large scale hydrological model with an innovative streamflow routing scheme based on the Width Function Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (WFIUH) theory, which is designed to facilitate coupling with weather forecasting and climate models. HydroSCAPE preserves geomorphological dispersion of the river network when dealing with horizontal hydrological fluxes, irrespective of the adopted grid size, which is typically inherited from the overlaying weather forecast or climate model. This is achieved through a separate treatment of hillslope processes and routing within the river network, with the latter simulated by suitable transfer functions constructed by applying the WFIUH theory to the desired level of detail. Transfer functions are constructed for each grid cell and nodes of the network where water discharge is desired by taking advantage of the detailed morphological information contained in the Digital Elevation Model of the zone of interest. These characteristics render HydroSCAPE well suited for multi-scale applications, ranging from catchment up to continental scale, and to investigate extreme events (e.g. floods) that require an accurate description of routing through the river network. The model enjoys reliability and robustness, united to parsimony in the adopted parametrization and computational efficiency, leading to a dramatic reduction of the computational effort with respect to full-gridded models at comparable level of accuracy of routing. Additionally, HydroSCAPE is designed with a simple and flexible modular structure, which makes it particularly suitable to massive parallelization, customization according to the specific user needs and preferences (e.g. choice of rainfall-runoff model), and continuous development and improvements.


2020 ◽  
Vol 125 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Orbe ◽  
David Rind ◽  
Jeffrey Jonas ◽  
Larissa Nazarenko ◽  
Greg Faluvegi ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8369
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahimi

In this Opinion, the importance of public awareness to design solutions to mitigate climate change issues is highlighted. A large-scale acknowledgment of the climate change consequences has great potential to build social momentum. Momentum, in turn, builds motivation and demand, which can be leveraged to develop a multi-scale strategy to tackle the issue. The pursuit of public awareness is a valuable addition to the scientific approach to addressing climate change issues. The Opinion is concluded by providing strategies on how to effectively raise public awareness on climate change-related topics through an integrated, well-connected network of mavens (e.g., scientists) and connectors (e.g., social media influencers).


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