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Title: The Summertime Precipitation Bias in E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 over the Central United States

Abstract

This study analyzes the summertime precipitation bias over the Central United States and its relationship to the simulated large-scale environment and the convection scheme in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1. This relationship is mainly examined in a set of short-term hindcasts initialized with realistic large-scale conditions for the summer of 2011. Besides the uniform 1° model resolution, we adopt Regionally Refined Meshes to increase the model resolution to 0.25°over the contiguous United States. Additional five-year Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project simulations are conducted to confirm that the results from the hindcasts are consistent with the climate runs. We find that the summertime dry precipitation bias over the Great Plains and the wet bias over the Rockies cannot be reduced simultaneously by changing resolution or tuning parameters. As for the diurnal cycle, Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1 captures the general diurnal variation of the large-scale moisture transport and the large-scale upward motion over the Central United States. However, the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the Great Plains is out of phase with the diurnal variation of the large-scale environment because the convective precipitation dominates the total precipitation and its diurnal cycle, and itmore » does not directly respond to the local moisture convergence and the large-scale upward motion. These results reemphasize the importance of improving the coupling of the convection to the large-scale environment in reducing the summer precipitation bias over the Central United States in climate models with the resolution of ~0.25°.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States). School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
  4. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1561449
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-769840
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X; 961115
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: 16; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; GCM; E3SM; precipitation; convection parameterization

Citation Formats

Zheng, X., Golaz, J. ‐C., Xie, S., Tang, Q., Lin, W., Zhang, M., Ma, H. ‐Y., and Roesler, E. L. The Summertime Precipitation Bias in E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 over the Central United States. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1029/2019JD030662.
Zheng, X., Golaz, J. ‐C., Xie, S., Tang, Q., Lin, W., Zhang, M., Ma, H. ‐Y., & Roesler, E. L. The Summertime Precipitation Bias in E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 over the Central United States. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030662
Zheng, X., Golaz, J. ‐C., Xie, S., Tang, Q., Lin, W., Zhang, M., Ma, H. ‐Y., and Roesler, E. L. Thu . "The Summertime Precipitation Bias in E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 over the Central United States". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030662. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1561449.
@article{osti_1561449,
title = {The Summertime Precipitation Bias in E3SM Atmosphere Model Version 1 over the Central United States},
author = {Zheng, X. and Golaz, J. ‐C. and Xie, S. and Tang, Q. and Lin, W. and Zhang, M. and Ma, H. ‐Y. and Roesler, E. L.},
abstractNote = {This study analyzes the summertime precipitation bias over the Central United States and its relationship to the simulated large-scale environment and the convection scheme in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1. This relationship is mainly examined in a set of short-term hindcasts initialized with realistic large-scale conditions for the summer of 2011. Besides the uniform 1° model resolution, we adopt Regionally Refined Meshes to increase the model resolution to 0.25°over the contiguous United States. Additional five-year Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project simulations are conducted to confirm that the results from the hindcasts are consistent with the climate runs. We find that the summertime dry precipitation bias over the Great Plains and the wet bias over the Rockies cannot be reduced simultaneously by changing resolution or tuning parameters. As for the diurnal cycle, Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1 captures the general diurnal variation of the large-scale moisture transport and the large-scale upward motion over the Central United States. However, the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the Great Plains is out of phase with the diurnal variation of the large-scale environment because the convective precipitation dominates the total precipitation and its diurnal cycle, and it does not directly respond to the local moisture convergence and the large-scale upward motion. These results reemphasize the importance of improving the coupling of the convection to the large-scale environment in reducing the summer precipitation bias over the Central United States in climate models with the resolution of ~0.25°.},
doi = {10.1029/2019JD030662},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 16,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Table 1 Table 1: The summary of the EAM1 simulations

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