scholarly journals Modelling oxygen isotopes in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 2545-2576
Author(s):  
C. E. Brennan ◽  
A. J. Weaver ◽  
M. Eby ◽  
K. J. Meissner
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotopes ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Coupled Climate Models ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University ◽  
Isotope Content

Abstract. Implementing oxygen isotopes (H218O, H216O) in coupled climate models provides both an important test of the individual model's hydrological cycle, and a powerful tool to mechanistically explore past climate changes while producing results directly comparable to isotope proxy records. Here we describe the addition of oxygen isotopes in the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM). Equilibrium simulations are performed for preindustrial and Last Glacial Maximum conditions. The oxygen isotope content in the model preindustrial climate is compared against observations for precipitation and seawater. The distribution of oxygen isotopes during the LGM is compared against available paleo-reconstructions.

scholarly journals A new marine ecosystem model for the University of Victoria Earth System Climate Model

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 1195-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. P. Keller ◽  
A. Oschlies ◽  
M. Eby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Ecosystem Model ◽  
Light Limitation ◽  
Earth System ◽  
New Model ◽  
Previous Version ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Model ◽  
The University

Abstract. Earth System Climate Models (ESCMs) are valuable tools that can be used to gain a better understanding of the climate system, global biogeochemical cycles and how anthropogenically-driven changes may affect them. Here we describe improvements made to the marine biogeochemical ecosystem component of the University of Victoria's ESCM (version 2.9). Major changes include corrections to the code and equations describing phytoplankton light limitation and zooplankton grazing, the implementation of a more realistic zooplankton growth and grazing model, and the implementation of an iron limitation scheme to constrain phytoplankton growth. The new model is evaluated after a 10 000-yr spin-up and compared to both the previous version and observations. For the majority of biogeochemical tracers and ecosystem processes the new model shows significant improvements when compared to the previous version and evaluated against observations. Many of the improvements are due to better simulation of seasonal changes in higher latitude ecosystems and the effect that this has on ocean biogeochemistry. This improved model is intended to provide a basic new ESCM model component, which can be used as is or expanded upon (i.e., the addition of new tracers), for climate change and biogeochemical cycling research.

scholarly journals A new marine ecosystem model for the University of Victoria Earth system climate model

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1135-1201 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. P. Keller ◽  
A. Oschlies ◽  
M. Eby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Ecosystem Model ◽  
Light Limitation ◽  
Earth System ◽  
New Model ◽  
Previous Version ◽  
Marine Ecosystem Model ◽  
The University

Abstract. Earth system climate models (ESCMs) are valuable tools that can be used to gain a better understanding of the climate system, global biogeochemical cycles, and how anthropogenically-driven changes may affect them. Here we describe improvements made to the marine biogeochemical ecosystem component of the University of Victoria's ESCM (version 2.9). Major changes include corrections to the code and equations describing phytoplankton light limitation and zooplankton grazing, the implementation of a more realistic zooplankton growth and grazing model, and the implementation of an iron limitation scheme to constrain phytoplankton growth. The new model is evaluated after a 10 000-yr spin-up and compared to both the previous version and observations. For the majority of biogeochemical tracers and ecosystem processes the new model shows significant improvements when compared to the previous version and evaluated against observations. Many of the improvements are due to better simulation of seasonal changes in higher latitude ecosystems and the effect that this has on ocean biogeochemistry. This improved model is intended to provide a basic new ESCM model component, which can be used as is or expanded upon (i.e., the addition of new tracers), for climate change and biogeochemical cycling research.

scholarly journals Simulations of the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period using the NASA/GISS ModelE2-R Earth System Model

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 2811-2842 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Chandler ◽  
L. E. Sohl ◽  
J. A. Jonas ◽  
H. J. Dowsett
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
Warm Period ◽  
System Model ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Future Global Warming

Abstract. Climate reconstructions of the mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP) bear many similarities to aspects of future global warming as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In particular, marine and terrestrial paleoclimate data point to high latitude temperature amplification, with associated decreases in sea ice and land ice and altered vegetation distributions that show expansion of warmer climate biomes into higher latitudes. NASA GISS climate models have been used to study the Pliocene climate since the USGS PRISM project first identified that the mid-Pliocene North Atlantic sea surface temperatures were anomalously warm. Here we present the most recent simulations of the Pliocene using the AR5/CMIP5 version of the GISS Earth System Model known as ModelE2-R. These simulations constitute the NASA contribution to the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) Experiment 2. Many findings presented here corroborate results from other PlioMIP multi-model ensemble papers, but we also emphasize features in the ModelE2-R simulations that are unlike the ensemble means. We provide discussion of features that show considerable improvement compared with simulations from previous versions of the NASA GISS models, improvement defined here as simulation results that more closely resemble the ocean core data as well as the PRISM3D reconstructions of the mid-Pliocene climate. In some regions even qualitative agreement between model results and paleodata are an improvement over past studies, but the dramatic warming in the North Atlantic and Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Sea in these new simulations is by far the most accurate portrayal ever of this key geographic region by the GISS climate model. Our belief is that continued development of key physical routines in the atmospheric model, along with higher resolution and recent corrections to mixing parameterizations in the ocean model, have led to an Earth System Model that will produce more accurate projections of future climate.

scholarly journals Aerosol–Ice Formation Closure: A Southern Great Plains Field Campaign

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
D. A. Knopf ◽  
K. R. Barry ◽  
T. A. Brubaker ◽  
L. G. Jahl ◽  
K. A., L. Jankowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Great Plains ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Ice Formation ◽  
Crystal Formation ◽  
Atmospheric Sciences ◽  
Immersion Freezing ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

AbstractPrediction of ice formation in clouds presents one of the grand challenges in the atmospheric sciences. Immersion freezing initiated by ice-nucleating particles (INPs) is the dominant pathway of primary ice crystal formation in mixed-phase clouds, where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coexist, with important implications for the hydrological cycle and climate. However, derivation of INP number concentrations from an ambient aerosol population in cloud-resolving and climate models remains highly uncertain. We conducted an aerosol-ice formation closure pilot study using a field-observational approach to evaluate the predictive capability of immersion freezing INPs. The closure study relies on co-located measurements of the ambient size-resolved and single-particle composition and INP number concentrations. The acquired particle data serve as input in several immersion freezing parameterizations, that are employed in cloud-resolving and climate models, for prediction of INP number concentrations. We discuss in detail one closure case study in which a front passed through the measurement site, resulting in a change of ambient particle and INP populations. We achieved closure in some circumstances within uncertainties, but we emphasize the need for freezing parameterization of potentially missing INP types and evaluation of the choice of parameterization to be employed. Overall, this closure pilot study aims to assess the level of parameter details and measurement strategies needed to achieve aerosol-ice formation closure. The closure approach is designed to accurately guide immersion freezing schemes in models, and ultimately identify the leading causes for climate model bias in INP predictions.

scholarly journals Improving climate model coupling through a complete mesh representation: a case study with E3SM (v1) and MOAB (v5.x)

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2355-2377
Author(s):  
Vijay S. Mahadevan ◽  
Iulian Grindeanu ◽  
Robert Jacob ◽  
Jason Sarich
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Climate Modeling ◽  
System Modeling ◽  
Spectral Element ◽  
Scientific Workflow ◽  
Model Coupling ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Modeling Framework

Abstract. One of the fundamental factors contributing to the spatiotemporal inaccuracy in climate modeling is the mapping of solution field data between different discretizations and numerical grids used in the coupled component models. The typical climate computational workflow involves evaluation and serialization of the remapping weights during the preprocessing step, which is then consumed by the coupled driver infrastructure during simulation to compute field projections. Tools like Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) (Hill et al., 2004) and TempestRemap (Ullrich et al., 2013) offer capability to generate conservative remapping weights, while the Model Coupling Toolkit (MCT) (Larson et al., 2001) that is utilized in many production climate models exposes functionality to make use of the operators to solve the coupled problem. However, such multistep processes present several hurdles in terms of the scientific workflow and impede research productivity. In order to overcome these limitations, we present a fully integrated infrastructure based on the Mesh Oriented datABase (MOAB) (Tautges et al., 2004; Mahadevan et al., 2015) library, which allows for a complete description of the numerical grids and solution data used in each submodel. Through a scalable advancing-front intersection algorithm, the supermesh of the source and target grids are computed, which is then used to assemble the high-order, conservative, and monotonicity-preserving remapping weights between discretization specifications. The Fortran-compatible interfaces in MOAB are utilized to directly link the submodels in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) to enable online remapping strategies in order to simplify the coupled workflow process. We demonstrate the superior computational efficiency of the remapping algorithms in comparison with other state-of-the-science tools and present strong scaling results on large-scale machines for computing remapping weights between the spectral element atmosphere and finite volume discretizations on the polygonal ocean grids.

scholarly journals The challenge of simulating warmth of the mid-Miocene Climate Optimum in CESM1

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 3489-3518 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Goldner ◽  
N. Herold ◽  
M. Huber
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Gradient ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Mean Annual Temperature ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Equatorial Pacific Ocean ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Co2 Concentrations ◽  
Eastern Equatorial Pacific ◽  
Climatic Period

Abstract. The mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO) is an intriguing climatic period due to its above-modern temperatures in mid-to-high latitudes in the presence of close-to-modern CO2 concentrations. We use the recently released Community Earth System Model (CESM1.0) with a slab ocean to simulate this warm period, incorporating recent Miocene CO2 reconstructions of 400 ppm. We simulate a global mean annual temperature (MAT) of 18 °C, ~4 °C above the pre-industrial value, but 4 °C colder than the global Miocene MAT we calculate from climate proxies. Sensitivity tests reveal that the inclusion of a reduced Antarctic ice sheet, eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean temperature anomalies, increased CO2 to 560 ppm, and variations in obliquity only marginally improve model-data agreement. All MMCO simulations have an equator to pole temperature gradient which is at least ~ 10 °C larger than the reconstruction from proxies. The MMCO simulation most comparable to the proxy records requires a CO2 concentration of 800 ppm. Our results illustrate that MMCO warmth is not reproducible using the CESM1.0 forced with CO2 concentrations reconstructed for the Miocene or including various proposed Earth system feedbacks; the remaining discrepancy in the MAT is comparable to that introduced by a CO2 doubling. The models tendency to underestimate proxy derived global MAT and overestimate the equator to pole temperature gradient suggests a major climate problem in the MMCO akin to those in the Eocene. Our results imply that this latest model, as with previous generations of climate models, is either not sensitive enough or additional forcings remain missing that explain half of the anomalous warmth and pronounced polar amplification of the MMCO.

scholarly journals Empirical estimate of the signal content of Holocene temperature proxy records

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Reschke ◽  
Kira Rehfeld ◽  
Thomas Laepple
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Correlation Structure ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
Time Uncertainty ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Spatial Correlation Structure ◽  
Temperature Proxy

Abstract. Proxy records from climate archives provide evidence about past climate changes, but the recorded signal is affected by non-climate-related effects as well as time uncertainty. As proxy-based climate reconstructions are frequently used to test climate models and to quantitatively infer past climate, we need to improve our understanding of the proxy record signal content as well as the uncertainties involved. In this study, we empirically estimate signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of temperature proxy records used in global compilations of the middle to late Holocene (last 6000 years). This is achieved through a comparison of the correlation of proxy time series from nearby sites of three compilations and model time series extracted at the proxy sites from two transient climate model simulations: a Holocene simulation of the ECHAM5/MPI-OM model and the Holocene part of the TraCE-21ka simulation. In all comparisons, we found the mean correlations of the proxy time series on centennial to millennial timescales to be low (R<0.2), even for nearby sites, which resulted in low SNR estimates. The estimated SNRs depend on the assumed time uncertainty of the proxy records, the timescale analysed, and the model simulation used. Using the spatial correlation structure of the ECHAM5/MPI-OM simulation, the estimated SNRs on centennial timescales ranged from 0.05 – assuming no time uncertainty – to 0.5 for a time uncertainty of 400 years. On millennial timescales, the estimated SNRs were generally higher. Use of the TraCE-21ka correlation structure generally resulted in lower SNR estimates than for ECHAM5/MPI-OM. As the number of available high-resolution proxy records continues to grow, a more detailed analysis of the signal content of specific proxy types should become feasible in the near future. The estimated low signal content of Holocene temperature compilations should caution against over-interpretation of these multi-proxy and multisite syntheses until further studies are able to facilitate a better characterisation of the signal content in paleoclimate records.

scholarly journals A comprehensive assessment of tropical stratospheric upwelling in the specified dynamics Community Earth System Model 1.2.2 – Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM (WACCM))

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 717-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Davis ◽  
Sean M. Davis ◽  
Robert W. Portmann ◽  
Eric Ray ◽  
Karen H. Rosenlof ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Earth System Model ◽  
System Model ◽  
Trace Gas ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Mean Meridional Circulation ◽  
Community Earth System Model ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Wave Momentum

Abstract. Specified dynamics (SD) schemes relax the circulation in climate models toward a reference meteorology to simulate historical variability. These simulations are widely used to isolate the dynamical contributions to variability and trends in trace gas species. However, it is not clear if trends in the stratospheric overturning circulation are properly reproduced by SD schemes. This study assesses numerous SD schemes and modeling choices in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Whole Atmosphere Chemistry Climate Model (WACCM) to determine a set of best practices for reproducing interannual variability and trends in tropical stratospheric upwelling estimated by reanalyses. Nudging toward the reanalysis meteorology as is typically done in SD simulations does not accurately reproduce lower-stratospheric upwelling trends present in the underlying reanalysis. In contrast, nudging to anomalies from the climatological winds or anomalies from the zonal-mean winds and temperatures better reproduces trends in lower-stratospheric upwelling, possibly because these schemes do not disrupt WACCM's climatology. None of the schemes substantially alter the structure of upwelling trends – instead, they make the trends more or less AMIP-like. An SD scheme's performance in simulating the acceleration of the shallow branch of the mean meridional circulation from 1980 to 2017 hinges on its ability to simulate the downward shift of subtropical lower-stratospheric wave momentum forcing. Key to this is not nudging the zonal-mean temperature field. Gravity wave momentum forcing, which drives a substantial fraction of the upwelling in WACCM, cannot be constrained by nudging and presents an upper limit on the performance of these schemes.

scholarly journals Evaluating Climate Model Simulations of the Radiative Forcing and Radiative Response at Earth’s Surface

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (13) ◽  
pp. 4089-4102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Kramer ◽  
Brian J. Soden ◽  
Angeline G. Pendergrass
Keyword(s):  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

Abstract We analyze the radiative forcing and radiative response at Earth’s surface, where perturbations in the radiation budget regulate the atmospheric hydrological cycle. By applying a radiative kernel-regression technique to CMIP5 climate model simulations where CO2 is instantaneously quadrupled, we evaluate the intermodel spread in surface instantaneous radiative forcing, radiative adjustments to this forcing, and radiative responses to surface warming. The cloud radiative adjustment to CO2 forcing and the temperature-mediated cloud radiative response exhibit significant intermodel spread. In contrast to its counterpart at the top of the atmosphere, the temperature-mediated cloud radiative response at the surface is found to be positive in some models and negative in others. Also, the compensation between the temperature-mediated lapse rate and water vapor radiative responses found in top-of-atmosphere calculations is not present for surface radiative flux changes. Instantaneous radiative forcing at the surface is rarely reported for model simulations; as a result, intermodel differences have not previously been evaluated in global climate models. We demonstrate that the instantaneous radiative forcing is the largest contributor to intermodel spread in effective radiative forcing at the surface. We also find evidence of differences in radiative parameterizations in current models and argue that this is a significant, but largely overlooked, source of bias in climate change simulations.

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