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Title: Combining regional mesh refinement with vertically enhanced physics to target marine stratocumulus biases as demonstrated in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1

Journal Article · · Geoscientific Model Development (Online)
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Abstract. In this paper we develop a novel framework aimed to significantly reduce biases related to marine stratocumulus clouds in general circulation models (GCMs) while circumventing excessive computational cost requirements. Our strategy is to increase the horizontal resolution using a regionally refined mesh (RRM) over our region of interest in addition to using the Framework for Improvement by Vertical Enhancement (FIVE) to increase the vertical resolution only for specific physical processes that are important for stratocumulus. We apply the RRM off the coast of Peru in the southeastern Pacific, a region that climatologically contains the most marine stratocumulus in the subtropics. We find that our new modeling framework is able to replicate the results of our high-resolution benchmark simulation with much fidelity, while reducing the computational cost by several orders of magnitude. In addition, this framework is able to greatly reduce the long-standing biases associated with marine stratocumulus in GCMs when compared to the standard-resolution control simulation.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0018650; AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1908833
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2006764
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-836836
Journal Information:
Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Journal Name: Geoscientific Model Development (Online) Vol. 16 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 1991-9603
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English

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