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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
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 924674
Report Number(s):
UCRL-JRNL--233107
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: D4 Vol. 113; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (11)

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
Evaluation of tropical cloud and precipitation statistics of Community Atmosphere Model version 3 using CloudSat and CALIPSO data journal January 2010
Global simulations of ice nucleation and ice supersaturation with an improved cloud scheme in the Community Atmosphere Model journal January 2010
Comparison of Arctic clouds between European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts simulations and Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility long-term observations at the North Slope of Alaska Barrow site journal January 2010
Testing cloud microphysics parameterizations in NCAR CAM5 with ISDAC and M-PACE observations journal January 2011
Evaluation of Clouds in Version 1 of the E3SM Atmosphere Model With Satellite Simulators journal May 2019
Impacts of Representing Heterogeneous Distribution of Cloud Liquid and Ice on Phase Partitioning of Arctic Mixed‐Phase Clouds with NCAR CAM5 journal December 2019
An Overview of the Atmospheric Component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model journal August 2019
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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