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Title: Simulations of arctic mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with CAM3 and AM2 for M-PACE

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009225· OSTI ID:1281698
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
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[1] Simulations of mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with the NCAR Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) and the GFDL Atmospheric Model version 2 (AM2) for the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) are performed using analysis data from numerical weather prediction centers. CAM3 significantly underestimates the observed boundary layer mixed-phase cloud fraction and cannot realistically simulate the variations of liquid water fraction with temperature and cloud height due to its oversimplified cloud microphysical scheme. In contrast, AM2 reasonably reproduces the observed boundary layer cloud fraction while its clouds contain much less cloud condensate than CAM3 and the observations. The simulation of the boundary layer mixed-phase clouds and their microphysical properties is considerably improved in CAM3 when a new physically based cloud microphysical scheme is used (CAM3LIU). The new scheme also leads to an improved simulation of the surface and top of the atmosphere longwave radiative fluxes. Sensitivity tests show that these results are not sensitive to the analysis data used for model initialization. Increasing model horizontal resolution helps capture the subgrid-scale features in Arctic frontal clouds but does not help improve the simulation of the single-layer boundary layer clouds. AM2 simulated cloud fraction and LWP are sensitive to the change in cloud ice number concentrations used in the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process while CAM3LIU only shows moderate sensitivity in its cloud fields to this change. Furthermore, this paper shows that the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process is important for these models to correctly simulate the observed features of mixed-phase clouds.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1281698
Report Number(s):
UCRL-JRNL-233107; JGREA2
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, Issue D4; ISSN 0148-0227
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

An improved hindcast approach for evaluation and diagnosis of physical processes in global climate models: AN IMPROVED HINDCAST APPROACH journal November 2015
Influence of anthropogenic sulfate and black carbon on upper tropospheric clouds in the NCAR CAM3 model coupled to the IMPACT global aerosol model journal January 2009
Different contact angle distributions for heterogeneous ice nucleation in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 journal January 2014
Different contact angle distributions for heterogeneous ice nucleation in the community atmospheric model version 5 text January 2014

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