Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

“Super-parameterization”: A better way to simulate regional extreme precipitation?

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2011ms000106· OSTI ID:1671757
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Extreme precipitation is generally underestimated by current climate models relative to observations of present-day rainfall distributions. Possible causes of this systematic error include the convective parameterization in these models that have been designed to reproduce measurements of climatological mean precipitation. One possible approach to improve the interaction of subgrid-scale physical processes and large-scale climate is to replace the conventional convective parameterizations with a high-resolution cloud-system resolving model. A "super-parameterized" Community Atmosphere Model (SP-CAM) utilizing this approach is used in this study to investigate the distribution of extreme precipitation in the United States. Results show that SP-CAM better simulates the distributions of both light and intense precipitation compared to the standard version of CAM based upon conventional parameterizations. The improvements are mostly seen in regions dominated by convective precipitation, suggesting that super-parameterization provides a better representation of subgrid convective processes.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1671757
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 4; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (20)

A comparison of extreme European daily precipitation simulated by a global and a regional climate model for present and future climates journal April 2001
Effects of model resolution and subgrid-scale physics on the simulation of precipitation in the continental United States journal August 2004
Signal detectability in extreme precipitation changes assessed from twentieth century climate simulations journal February 2008
The effect of horizontal resolution on simulation of very extreme US precipitation events in a global atmosphere model journal September 2009
A cloud resolving model as a cloud parameterization in the NCAR Community Climate System Model: Preliminary results journal September 2001
Global observed changes in daily climate extremes of temperature and precipitation journal January 2006
Impact of horizontal resolution on climate model forecasts of tropical precipitation and diabatic heating for the TWP-ICE period journal January 2010
Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes journal February 2011
Convergence of aqua-planet simulations with increasing resolution in the Community Atmospheric Model, Version 3 journal January 2008
Response of precipitation extremes to idealized global warming in an aqua-planet climate model: towards a robust projection across different horizontal resolutions journal January 2011
Impact of horizontal resolution on simulation of precipitation extremes in an aqua-planet version of Community Atmospheric Model (CAM3) journal January 2011
A Dynamic and Thermodynamic Foundation for Modeling the Moist Atmosphere with Parameterized Microphysics journal August 2001
The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project journal March 1996
An Operational Objective Analysis System journal October 1959
On the Verification and Comparison of Extreme Rainfall Indices from Climate Models journal April 2008
Evaluation of the Simulated Interannual and Subseasonal Variability in an AMIP-Style Simulation Using the CSU Multiscale Modeling Framework journal February 2008
Simulations of the Atmospheric General Circulation Using a Cloud-Resolving Model as a Superparameterization of Physical Processes journal July 2005
The Formulation and Atmospheric Simulation of the Community Atmosphere Model Version 3 (CAM3) journal June 2006
Convective Precipitation Variability as a Tool for General Circulation Model Analysis journal January 2007
Observed coherent changes in climatic extremes during the second half of the twentieth century journal January 2002

Cited By (18)

Comparative analysis of CMIP3 and CMIP5 global climate models for simulating the daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures and daily precipitation over China: ASSESSMENT OF CMIP3 AND CMIP5 OVER CHINA journal May 2015
A review on regional convection‐permitting climate modeling: Demonstrations, prospects, and challenges journal May 2015
Resolution dependence of precipitation statistical fidelity in hindcast simulations: ILIAD SIMULATIONS OF PRECIPITATION journal June 2016
Representing subgrid convective initiation in the C ommunity E arth S ystem M odel journal July 2017
A multimodel intercomparison of resolution effects on precipitation: simulations and theory journal February 2016
On the range of future Sahel precipitation projections and the selection of a sub-sample of CMIP5 models for impact studies journal June 2016
Future precipitation in Portugal: high-resolution projections using WRF model and EURO-CORDEX multi-model ensembles journal November 2016
The diurnal cycle of East Asian summer monsoon precipitation simulated by the Met Office Unified Model at convection-permitting scales journal July 2018
Structural changes and variability of the ITCZ induced by radiation–cloud–convection–circulation interactions: inferences from the Goddard Multi-scale Modeling Framework (GMMF) experiments journal October 2019
Convection-permitting regional climate simulation of warm-season precipitation over Eastern China journal December 2019
Prognostic Power of Extreme Rainfall Scaling Formulas Across Space and Time Scales journal December 2018
Multiple‐Instance Superparameterization: 2. The Effects of Stochastic Convection on the Simulated Climate journal November 2019
Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity journal September 2017
Simulations of Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation Using Climate Forecast System Version 2: Insight for Horizontal Resolution and Moist Processes Parameterization journal July 2019
A review on regional convection‐permitting climate modeling: Demonstrations, prospects, and challenges text January 2015
Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity text January 2017
Convective response to large-scale forcing in the tropical western Pacific simulated by spCAM5 and CanAM4.3 journal January 2019
Convective response to large-scale forcing in the Tropical Western Pacific simulated by spCAM5 and CanAM4.3 posted_content October 2018

Similar Records

Rainfall From Resolved Rather Than Parameterized Processes Better Represents the Present‐Day and Climate Change Response of Moderate Rates in the Community Atmosphere Model
Journal Article · Thu Apr 12 20:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems · OSTI ID:1433035

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
cloud resolving model
extreme precipitation
super-parameterization