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Title: Parametric behaviors of CLUBB in simulations of low clouds in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel ( CAM )

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of simulated low clouds to 14 selected tunable parameters of Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB), a higher order closure (HOC) scheme, and 4 parameters of the Zhang-McFarlane (ZM) deep convection scheme in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). A quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) sampling approach is adopted to effectively explore the high-dimensional parameter space and a generalized linear model is applied to study the responses of simulated cloud fields to tunable parameters. Our results show that the variance in simulated low-cloud properties (cloud fraction and liquid water path) can be explained by the selected tunable parameters in two different ways: macrophysics itself and its interaction with microphysics. First, the parameters related to dynamic and thermodynamic turbulent structure and double Gaussians closure are found to be the most influential parameters for simulating low clouds. The spatial distributions of the parameter contributions show clear cloud-regime dependence. Second, because of the coupling between cloud macrophysics and cloud microphysics, the coefficient of the dissipation term in the total water variance equation is influential. This parameter affects the variance of in-cloud cloud water, which further influences microphysical process rates, such as autoconversion, and eventually low-cloud fraction. Furthermore,more » this study improves understanding of HOC behavior associated with parameter uncertainties and provides valuable insights for the interaction of macrophysics and microphysics.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [5];  [5];  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA, State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China, Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University Nanjing China, Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change Jiangsu Province China
  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University Nanjing China, Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change Jiangsu Province China
  3. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland Washington USA
  4. University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee, Milwaukee Wisconsin USA
  5. National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder Colorado USA
  6. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1402218
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1244807; OSTI ID: 1785819
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-106629
Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Volume: 7 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Guo, Zhun, Wang, Minghuai, Qian, Yun, Larson, Vincent E., Ghan, Steven, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, A. Bogenschutz, Peter, Gettelman, Andrew, and Zhou, Tianjun. Parametric behaviors of CLUBB in simulations of low clouds in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel ( CAM ). United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1002/2014MS000405.
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Guo, Zhun, Wang, Minghuai, Qian, Yun, Larson, Vincent E., Ghan, Steven, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, A. Bogenschutz, Peter, Gettelman, Andrew, & Zhou, Tianjun. Parametric behaviors of CLUBB in simulations of low clouds in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel ( CAM ). United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014MS000405
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Guo, Zhun, Wang, Minghuai, Qian, Yun, Larson, Vincent E., Ghan, Steven, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, A. Bogenschutz, Peter, Gettelman, Andrew, and Zhou, Tianjun. 2015. "Parametric behaviors of CLUBB in simulations of low clouds in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel ( CAM )". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014MS000405.
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@article{osti_1402218,
title = {Parametric behaviors of CLUBB in simulations of low clouds in the C ommunity A tmosphere M odel ( CAM )},
author = {Guo, Zhun and Wang, Minghuai and Qian, Yun and Larson, Vincent E. and Ghan, Steven and Ovchinnikov, Mikhail and A. Bogenschutz, Peter and Gettelman, Andrew and Zhou, Tianjun},
abstractNote = {In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of simulated low clouds to 14 selected tunable parameters of Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB), a higher order closure (HOC) scheme, and 4 parameters of the Zhang-McFarlane (ZM) deep convection scheme in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). A quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) sampling approach is adopted to effectively explore the high-dimensional parameter space and a generalized linear model is applied to study the responses of simulated cloud fields to tunable parameters. Our results show that the variance in simulated low-cloud properties (cloud fraction and liquid water path) can be explained by the selected tunable parameters in two different ways: macrophysics itself and its interaction with microphysics. First, the parameters related to dynamic and thermodynamic turbulent structure and double Gaussians closure are found to be the most influential parameters for simulating low clouds. The spatial distributions of the parameter contributions show clear cloud-regime dependence. Second, because of the coupling between cloud macrophysics and cloud microphysics, the coefficient of the dissipation term in the total water variance equation is influential. This parameter affects the variance of in-cloud cloud water, which further influences microphysical process rates, such as autoconversion, and eventually low-cloud fraction. Furthermore, this study improves understanding of HOC behavior associated with parameter uncertainties and provides valuable insights for the interaction of macrophysics and microphysics.},
doi = {10.1002/2014MS000405},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1402218}, journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
issn = {1942-2466},
number = 3,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1002/2014MS000405
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Works referenced in this record:

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A multiscale modeling framework model (superparameterized CAM5) with a higher‐order turbulence closure: Model description and low‐cloud simulations
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