DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Assessing the Resolution Adaptability of the Zhang-McFarlane Cumulus Parameterization With Spatial and Temporal Averaging

Abstract

Realistic modeling of cumulus convection at fine model resolutions (a few to a few tens of km) is problematic since it requires the cumulus scheme to adapt to higher resolution than they were originally designed for (~100 km). To solve this problem, we implement the spatial averaging method proposed in Xiao et al. (2015) and also propose a temporal averaging method for the large-scale convective available potential energy (CAPE) tendency in the Zhang-McFarlane (ZM) cumulus parameterization. The resolution adaptability of the original ZM scheme, the scheme with spatial averaging, and the scheme with both spatial and temporal averaging at 4-32 km resolution is assessed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, by comparing with Cloud Resolving Model (CRM) results. We find that the original ZM scheme has very poor resolution adaptability, with sub-grid convective transport and precipitation increasing significantly as the resolution increases. The spatial averaging method improves the resolution adaptability of the ZM scheme and better conserves the total transport of moist static energy and total precipitation. With the temporal averaging method, the resolution adaptability of the scheme is further improved, with sub-grid convective precipitation becoming smaller than resolved precipitation for resolution higher than 8 km, which ismore » consistent with the results from the CRM simulation. Both the spatial distribution and time series of precipitation are improved with the spatial and temporal averaging methods. The results may be helpful for developing resolution adaptability for other cumulus parameterizations that are based on quasi-equilibrium assumption.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA, State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing China
  2. Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA
  3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego CA USA
  4. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton VA USA
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Atmospheric System Research; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
OSTI Identifier:
1410703
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1410704; OSTI ID: 1415700
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-125729
Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830; 91437101
Resource Type:
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: 9 Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; cumulus convection; zhang-mcfarlane; cloud resolving model; CRM; resolution adaptability; convective parameterizations; Zhang‐McFarlane cumulus scheme; scale awareness; high‐resolution climate model; convective precipitation

Citation Formats

Yun, Yuxing, Fan, Jiwen, Xiao, Heng, Zhang, Guang J., Ghan, Steven J., Xu, Kuan-Man, Ma, Po-Lun, and Gustafson, Jr., William I. Assessing the Resolution Adaptability of the Zhang-McFarlane Cumulus Parameterization With Spatial and Temporal Averaging. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1002/2017MS001035.
Yun, Yuxing, Fan, Jiwen, Xiao, Heng, Zhang, Guang J., Ghan, Steven J., Xu, Kuan-Man, Ma, Po-Lun, & Gustafson, Jr., William I. Assessing the Resolution Adaptability of the Zhang-McFarlane Cumulus Parameterization With Spatial and Temporal Averaging. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS001035
Yun, Yuxing, Fan, Jiwen, Xiao, Heng, Zhang, Guang J., Ghan, Steven J., Xu, Kuan-Man, Ma, Po-Lun, and Gustafson, Jr., William I. Thu . "Assessing the Resolution Adaptability of the Zhang-McFarlane Cumulus Parameterization With Spatial and Temporal Averaging". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS001035.
@article{osti_1410703,
title = {Assessing the Resolution Adaptability of the Zhang-McFarlane Cumulus Parameterization With Spatial and Temporal Averaging},
author = {Yun, Yuxing and Fan, Jiwen and Xiao, Heng and Zhang, Guang J. and Ghan, Steven J. and Xu, Kuan-Man and Ma, Po-Lun and Gustafson, Jr., William I.},
abstractNote = {Realistic modeling of cumulus convection at fine model resolutions (a few to a few tens of km) is problematic since it requires the cumulus scheme to adapt to higher resolution than they were originally designed for (~100 km). To solve this problem, we implement the spatial averaging method proposed in Xiao et al. (2015) and also propose a temporal averaging method for the large-scale convective available potential energy (CAPE) tendency in the Zhang-McFarlane (ZM) cumulus parameterization. The resolution adaptability of the original ZM scheme, the scheme with spatial averaging, and the scheme with both spatial and temporal averaging at 4-32 km resolution is assessed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, by comparing with Cloud Resolving Model (CRM) results. We find that the original ZM scheme has very poor resolution adaptability, with sub-grid convective transport and precipitation increasing significantly as the resolution increases. The spatial averaging method improves the resolution adaptability of the ZM scheme and better conserves the total transport of moist static energy and total precipitation. With the temporal averaging method, the resolution adaptability of the scheme is further improved, with sub-grid convective precipitation becoming smaller than resolved precipitation for resolution higher than 8 km, which is consistent with the results from the CRM simulation. Both the spatial distribution and time series of precipitation are improved with the spatial and temporal averaging methods. The results may be helpful for developing resolution adaptability for other cumulus parameterizations that are based on quasi-equilibrium assumption.},
doi = {10.1002/2017MS001035},
journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
number = 7,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Thu Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS001035

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Believable Scales and Parameterizations in a Spectral Transform Model
journal, February 1997


A cumulus parameterization with a prognostic closure
journal, April 1998

  • Pan, Dzong-Ming; Randall, Davi D. A.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 124, Issue 547
  • DOI: 10.1002/qj.49712454714

Convective quasi-equilibrium
journal, January 2012


A One-Dimensional Entraining/Detraining Plume Model and Its Application in Convective Parameterization
journal, December 1990


A scale and aerosol aware stochastic convective parameterization for weather and air quality modeling
journal, January 2014


A Unified Convection Scheme (UNICON). Part I: Formulation
journal, November 2014


A Stochastic Parameterization for Deep Convection Based on Equilibrium Statistics
journal, January 2008

  • Plant, R. S.; Craig, G. C.
  • Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 65, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1175/2007JAS2263.1

Convective quasi-equilibrium reconsidered
journal, January 2011

  • Raymond, David J.; Herman, Michael J.
  • Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 3, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1029/2011MS000079

Cloud Resolving Modeling
journal, January 2007

  • Tao, Wei-Kuo
  • Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II, Vol. 85B, Issue 0
  • DOI: 10.2151/jmsj.85B.305

A New Double-Moment Microphysics Parameterization for Application in Cloud and Climate Models. Part I: Description
journal, June 2005

  • Morrison, H.; Curry, J. A.; Khvorostyanov, V. I.
  • Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 62, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1175/JAS3446.1

Convective quasi-equilibrium in midlatitude continental environment and its effect on convective parameterization
journal, January 2002


The Separate Physics and Dynamics Experiment (SPADE) framework for determining resolution awareness: A case study of microphysics: THE SPADE FRAMEWORK
journal, August 2013

  • Gustafson, William I.; Ma, Po-Lun; Xiao, Heng
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 118, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1002/jgrd.50711

Assessing the CAM5 physics suite in the WRF-Chem model: implementation, resolution sensitivity, and a first evaluation for a regional case study
journal, January 2014

  • Ma, P. -L.; Rasch, P. J.; Fast, J. D.
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 7, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-7-755-2014

Quantifying the limits of convective parameterizations
journal, January 2011

  • Jones, Todd R.; Randall, David A.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue D8
  • DOI: 10.1029/2010JD014913

Interaction of a Cumulus Cloud Ensemble with the Large-Scale Environment, Part I
journal, April 1974


Impact of an improved longwave radiation model, RRTM, on the energy budget and thermodynamic properties of the NCAR community climate model, CCM3
journal, June 2000

  • Iacono, Michael J.; Mlawer, Eli J.; Clough, Shepard A.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 105, Issue D11
  • DOI: 10.1029/2000JD900091

Cloud and Precipitation Parameterization in a Meso-Gamma-Scale Operational Weather Prediction Model
journal, November 2009

  • Gerard, Luc; Piriou, Jean-Marcel; Brožková, Radmila
  • Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 137, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1175/2009MWR2750.1

A Unified Representation of Deep Moist Convection in Numerical Modeling of the Atmosphere. Part I
journal, July 2013


Rethinking convective quasi-equilibrium: observational constraints for stochastic convective schemes in climate models
journal, May 2008

  • Neelin, J. David; Peters, Ole; Lin, Johnny W. -B
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 366, Issue 1875
  • DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2008.0056

Improving representation of convective transport for scale-aware parameterization: 2. Analysis of cloud-resolving model simulations: Improving Cumulus Parameterization
journal, April 2015

  • Liu, Yi-Chin; Fan, Jiwen; Zhang, Guang J.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014JD022145

Multiscale modeling of the moist-convective atmosphere — A review
journal, November 2011


Aerosol and thermodynamic effects on tropical cloud systems during TWPICE and ACTIVE
journal, January 2009

  • May, P. T.; Allen, G.; Vaughan, G.
  • Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 9, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.5194/acp-9-15-2009

Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert. A Parameterization of Moist Convection for General Circulation Models
journal, June 1992


Convective quasi-equilibrium in the tropical western Pacific: Comparison with midlatitude continental environment
journal, January 2003


Resolution‐dependent behavior of subgrid‐scale vertical transport in the Z hang‐ M c F arlane convection parameterization
journal, April 2015

  • Xiao, Heng; Gustafson, William I.; Hagos, Samson M.
  • Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 7, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014MS000356

A New Moist Turbulence Parameterization in the Community Atmosphere Model
journal, June 2009


Evaluating Mesoscale NWP Models Using Kinetic Energy Spectra
journal, December 2004

  • Skamarock, William C.
  • Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 132, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1175/MWR2830.1

The Cumulus Parameterization Problem: Past, Present, and Future
journal, July 2004


Modelling climate change: the role of unresolved processes
journal, October 2005

  • Williams, Paul D.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 363, Issue 1837
  • DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2005.1676

Climatological Characterization of Three-Dimensional Storm Structure from Operational Radar and Rain Gauge Data
journal, September 1995


Stochastic convective parameterization improving the simulation of tropical precipitation variability in the NCAR CAM5: STOCHASTIC CONVECTIVE PARAMETERIZATION
journal, June 2016

  • Wang, Yong; Zhang, Guang J.; Craig, George C.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069818

The dependence of aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation on cloud-system organization, shear and stability
journal, January 2008

  • Lee, Seoung Soo; Donner, Leo J.; Phillips, Vaughan T. J.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, Issue D16
  • DOI: 10.1029/2007JD009224

Comments on “A Unified Representation of Deep Moist Convection in Numerical Modeling of the Atmosphere. Part I”
journal, June 2015

  • Zhang, Guang J.; Fan, Jiwen; Xu, Kuan-Man
  • Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 72, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-14-0246.1