Exploring the impacts of physics and resolution on aqua-planet simulations from a nonhydrostatic global variable-resolution modeling framework
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Gwanju Inst. of Science and Technology, Gwangju (South Korea)
Advances in computing resources are gradually moving regional and global numerical forecasting simulations towards sub-10 km resolution, but global high resolution climate simulations remain a challenge. The non-hydrostatic Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) provides a global framework to achieve very high resolution using regional mesh refinement. Previous studies using the hydrostatic version of MPAS (H-MPAS) with the physics parameterizations of Community Atmosphere Model version 4 (CAM4) found notable resolution dependent behaviors. This study revisits the resolution sensitivity using the non-hydrostatic version of MPAS (NH-MPAS) with both CAM4 and CAM5 physics. A series of aqua-planet simulations at global quasi-uniform resolutions ranging from 240 km to 30 km and global variable resolution simulations with a regional mesh refinement of 30 km resolution over the tropics are analyzed, with a primary focus on the distinct characteristics of NH-MPAS in simulating precipitation, clouds, and large-scale circulation features compared to H-MPAS-CAM4. The resolution sensitivity of total precipitation and column integrated moisture in NH-MPAS is smaller than that in H-MPAS-CAM4. This contributes importantly to the reduced resolution sensitivity of large-scale circulation features such as the inter-tropical convergence zone and Hadley circulation in NH-MPAS compared to H-MPAS. In addition, NH-MPAS shows almost no resolution sensitivity in the simulated westerly jet, in contrast to the obvious poleward shift in H-MPAS with increasing resolution, which is partly explained by differences in the hyperdiffusion coefficients used in the two models that influence wave activity. With the reduced resolution sensitivity, simulations in the refined region of the NH-MPAS global variable resolution configuration exhibit zonally symmetric features that are more comparable to the quasi-uniform high-resolution simulations than those from H-MPAS that displays zonal asymmetry in simulations inside the refined region. Overall, NH-MPAS with CAM5 physics shows less resolution sensitivity compared to CAM4. These results provide a reference for future studies to further explore the use of NH-MPAS for high-resolution climate simulations in idealized and realistic configurations.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Korean Polar Research Inst.; Battelle Memorial Inst.
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830; AC02‐05CH11231; AC02‐06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1344061
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-118452; KP1703010
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 4; ISSN 1942-2466
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
ICON-ART 2.1: a flexible tracer framework and its application for composition studies in numerical weather forecasting and climate simulations
|
journal | January 2018 |
Modeling extreme precipitation over East China with a global variable-resolution modeling framework (MPASv5.2): impacts of resolution and physics
|
journal | January 2019 |
ICON-ART 2.1: a flexible tracer framework and its application for composition studies in numerical weather forecasting and climate simulations
|
text | January 2018 |
Similar Records
Effect of the Grell-Freitas Deep Convection Scheme in Quasi-Uniform and Variable-Resolution Aquaplanet CAM Simulations
Exploring the effects of a nonhydrostatic dynamical core in high-resolution aquaplanet simulations