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Title: Evaluation of the aerosol vertical distribution in global aerosol models through comparison against CALIOP measurements: AeroCom phase II results

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024639· OSTI ID:1324897
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  1. European Commission, Ispra (Italy). Joint Research Centre, Inst. for Environment and Sustainability
  2. Norwegian Meteorological Inst., Oslo (Norway)
  3. Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  4. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
  5. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States)
  6. Univ. of Reading, Reading (United Kingdom)
  7. Univ. of Oslo (Norway); Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo (CICERO), Oslo (Norway)
  8. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States)
  9. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  10. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  11. Norwegian Meteorological Inst., Oslo (Norway); Univ. of Oslo (Norway)
  12. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
  13. ETH-Zentrum, Zürich (Switzerland)
  14. Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo (CICERO), Oslo (Norway)
  15. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  16. Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA (United States)
  17. Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan)
  18. Lab. des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); National Inst. for Agronomic Research, Thiverval-Grignon (France)
  19. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Gwangju Inst. of Science and Technology (Korea)
  20. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Max Planck Inst. for Meteorology, Hamburg (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The ability of 11 models in simulating the aerosol vertical distribution from regional to global scales, as part of the second phase of the AeroCom model intercomparison initiative (AeroCom II), is assessed herein and compared to results of the first phase. The evaluation is performed using a global monthly gridded data set of aerosol extinction profiles built for this purpose from the CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) Layer Product 3.01. Results over 12 subcontinental regions show that five models improved, whereas three degraded in reproducing the interregional variability in Zα0–6 km, the mean extinction height diagnostic, as computed from the CALIOP aerosol profiles over the 0–6 km altitude range for each studied region and season. While the models' performance remains highly variable, the simulation of the timing of the Zα0–6 km peak season has also improved for all but two models from AeroCom Phase I to Phase II. The biases in Zα0–6 km are smaller in all regions except Central Atlantic, East Asia, and North and South Africa. Most of the models now underestimate Zα0–6 km over land, notably in the dust and biomass burning regions in Asia and Africa. At global scale, the AeroCom II models better reproduce the Zα0–6 km latitudinal variability over ocean than over land. Hypotheses for the performance and evolution of the individual models and for the intermodel diversity are discussed. We also provide an analysis of the CALIOP limitations and uncertainties contributing to the differences between the simulations and observations.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Research Council of Norway; European Commission (EC); Norwegian Space Center
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; SLAC; AEROCOM-P3; ClimSense
OSTI ID:
1324897
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-114059; KP1703020
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 12; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 68 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (17)

Optimal Band Analysis of a Space-Based Multispectral Sensor for Urban Air Pollutant Detection journal October 2019
Profiling of Saharan dust from the Caribbean to western Africa – Part 2: Shipborne lidar measurements versus forecasts journal January 2017
Aerosol and physical atmosphere model parameters are both important sources of uncertainty in aerosol ERF journal January 2018
In situ constraints on the vertical distribution of global aerosol journal January 2019
Interrelations between surface, boundary layer, and columnar aerosol properties derived in summer and early autumn over a continental urban site in Warsaw, Poland journal January 2019
Interactions between the atmosphere, cryosphere, and ecosystems at northern high latitudes journal January 2019
Anthropogenic aerosol forcing – insights from multiple estimates from aerosol-climate models with reduced complexity journal January 2019
Aerosols at the Poles: An AeroCom Phase II multi-model evaluation posted_content February 2017
CALIPSO lidar level 3 aerosol profile product: version 3 algorithm design journal January 2018
The CALIPSO version 4 automated aerosol classification and lidar ratio selection algorithm journal January 2018
The impact of improved aerosol priors on near-infrared measurements of carbon dioxide journal January 2019
Novel aerosol extinction coefficients and lidar ratios over the ocean from CALIPSO–CloudSat: evaluation and global statistics journal January 2019
The impact of precipitation evaporation on the atmospheric aerosol distribution in EC-Earth v3.2.0 journal January 2018
A production-tagged aerosol module for Earth system models, OsloAero5.3 – extensions and updates for CAM5.3-Oslo journal January 2018
Aerosols at the poles: an AeroCom Phase II multi-model evaluation journal January 2017
Regional and seasonal radiative forcing by perturbations to aerosol and ozone precursor emissions journal January 2016
CALIPSO lidar level 3 aerosol profile product: version 3 algorithm design posted_content April 2018

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
aerosol vertical profile
global climate models
AeroCom
CALIOP global extinction product