Modeling of clouds and radiation for developing parameterizations for general circulation models. Annual report, 1995

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/272192· OSTI ID:272192

Toon, O B; Westphal, D L

We have used a hierarchy of numerical models for cirrus and stratus clouds and for radiative transfer to improve the reliability of general circulation models. Our detailed cloud microphysical model includes all of the physical processes believed to control the lifecycles of liquid and ice clouds in the troposphere. We have worked on specific GCM parameterizations for the radiative properties of cirrus clouds, making use of a mesocale model as the test-bed for the parameterizations. We have also modeled cirrus cloud properties with a detailed cloud physics model to better understand how the radiatively important properties of cirrus are controlled by their environment. We have used another cloud microphysics model to investigate of the interactions between aerosols and clouds. This work is some of the first to follow the details of interactions between aerosols and cloud droplets and has shown some unexpected relations between clouds and aerosols. We have also used line-by- line radiative transfer results verified with ARM data, to derive a GCMS.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AI05-90ER61074
• OSTI ID: 272192
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER/61074--T1; ON: DE96013011
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOLS
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
CLIMATES
CLIMATIC CHANGE
CLOUDS
ENVIRONMENT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PROGRESS REPORT
SCALE MODELS
TROPOSPHERE
WEATHER
WIND POWER