skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A consistent prescription of stratospheric aerosol for both radiation and chemistry in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1)

Journal Article · · Geoscientific Model Development (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Leeds, Leeds (United Kingdom); National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
  2. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here we describe an updated parameterization for prescribing stratospheric aerosol in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Earth System Model (CESM1). The need for a new parameterization is motivated by the poor response of the CESM1 (formerly referred to as the Community Climate System Model, version 4, CCSM4) simulations contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) to colossal volcanic perturbations to the stratospheric aerosol layer (such as the 1991 Pinatubo eruption or the 1883 Krakatau eruption) in comparison to observations. In particular, the scheme used in the CMIP5 simulations by CESM1 simulated a global mean surface temperature decrease that was inconsistent with the GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP), NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, and the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office (HADCRUT4). The new parameterization takes advantage of recent improvements in historical stratospheric aerosol databases to allow for variations in both the mass loading and size of the prescribed aerosol. An ensemble of simulations utilizing the old and new schemes shows CESM1's improved response to the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. Most significantly, the new scheme more accurately simulates the temperature response of the stratosphere due to local aerosol heating. Here, results also indicate that the new scheme decreases the global mean temperature response to the 1991 Pinatubo eruption by half of the observed temperature change, and modelled climate variability precludes statements as to the significance of this change.

Research Organization:
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI ID:
1375719
Journal Information:
Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Vol. 9, Issue 7; ISSN 1991-9603
Publisher:
Copernicus Publications, EGUCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (40)

A new parameterization of H 2 SO 4 /H 2 O aerosol composition: Atmospheric implications journal August 1997
Impact of geoengineered aerosols on the troposphere and stratosphere journal January 2009
Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 years journal May 1999
Biases in southern hemisphere climate trends induced by coarsely specifying the temporal resolution of stratospheric ozone journal December 2014
A catalog of perturbing influences on stratospheric ozone, 1955–1975 journal January 1979
Climate Change Projections in CESM1(CAM5) Compared to CCSM4 journal September 2013
Radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases: Calculations with the AER radiative transfer models journal January 2008
Identifying Signatures of Natural Climate Variability in Time Series of Global-Mean Surface Temperature: Methodology and Insights journal November 2009
Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) simulations of climate following volcanic eruptions: VOLCANIC IMPACTS IN THE CMIP5 MODELS journal September 2012
Toward Elimination of the Warm Bias in Historic Radiosonde Temperature Records—Some New Results from a Comprehensive Intercomparison of Upper-Air Data journal September 2008
Absorption Spectra and Optical Constants of Binary and Ternary Solutions of H 2 SO 4 , HNO 3 , and H 2 O in the Mid Infrared at Atmospheric Temperatures journal February 2000
Climate System Response to External Forcings and Climate Change Projections in CCSM4 journal June 2012
An empirical model of global climate – Part 1: A critical evaluation of volcanic cooling journal January 2013
Sensitivity of chemical tracers to meteorological parameters in the MOZART-3 chemical transport model journal January 2007
An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Design journal April 2012
Global Surface Temperature Change journal January 2010
Volcanic Ash versus Mineral Dust: Atmospheric Processing and Environmental and Climate Impacts journal January 2013
Stratospheric sulfate geoengineering could enhance the terrestrial photosynthesis rate journal January 2016
Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave journal July 1997
Stratospheric aerosol-Observations, processes, and impact on climate: Stratospheric Aerosol journal May 2016
A coordinated modeling assessment of the climate response to volcanic forcing journal December 2015
Stratospheric aerosol optical depths, 1850–1990 journal January 1993
Quantifying uncertainties in global and regional temperature change using an ensemble of observational estimates: The HadCRUT4 data set: THE HADCRUT4 DATASET journal April 2012
Major optical depth perturbations to the stratosphere from volcanic eruptions: Stellar extinction period, 1961-1978 journal February 2001
Multimodel Assessment of Regional Surface Temperature Trends: CMIP3 and CMIP5 Twentieth-Century Simulations journal November 2013
Representation of the Community Earth System Model (CESM1) CAM4-chem within the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) journal January 2016
A monthly and latitudinally varying volcanic forcing dataset in simulations of 20th century climate: VOLCANIC FORCING DATASET OF 20TH CENTURY journal June 2003
Climate Change from 1850 to 2005 Simulated in CESM1(WACCM) journal October 2013
Multi-model assessment of stratospheric ozone return dates and ozone recovery in CCMVal-2 models journal January 2010
The Community Earth System Model (CESM) Large Ensemble Project: A Community Resource for Studying Climate Change in the Presence of Internal Climate Variability journal August 2015
Global chemistry-climate modeling and evaluation journal December 2012
The Persistently Variable "Background" Stratospheric Aerosol Layer and Global Climate Change journal July 2011
Modeling the stratospheric warming following the Mt. Pinatubo eruption: uncertainties in aerosol extinctions journal January 2013
CAM-chem: description and evaluation of interactive atmospheric chemistry in the Community Earth System Model journal January 2012
The Mean Climate of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM4) in Forced SST and Fully Coupled Experiments journal July 2013
Improvements to NOAA’s Historical Merged Land–Ocean Surface Temperature Analysis (1880–2006) journal May 2008
VolcanEESM: Global volcanic sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions database from 1850 to present - Version 1.0 dataset January 2016
Global volcanic aerosol properties derived from emissions, 1990-2014, using CESM1(WACCM): VOLCANIC AEROSOLS DERIVED FROM EMISSIONS journal March 2016
Radiative forcing from the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption journal June 1998
The volcanic explosivity index (VEI) an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism journal January 1982

Cited By (7)

The influence of the Calbuco eruption on the 2015 Antarctic ozone hole in a fully coupled chemistry‐climate model journal March 2017
Improving the representation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions in climate models: impact of a new parameterization for the Community Earth System Model (CESM) journal January 2018
The G4Foam Experiment: global climate impacts of regional ocean albedo modification journal January 2017
Sulfate geoengineering: a review of the factors controlling the needed injection of sulfur dioxide journal January 2017
An assessment of natural methane fluxes simulated by the CLASS-CTEM model journal January 2018
Stratospheric sulfate geoengineering could enhance the terrestrial photosynthesis rate journal January 2016
Representation of the Community Earth System Model (CESM1) CAM4-chem within the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) journal January 2016

Similar Records

Radiative and Chemical Response to Interactive Stratospheric Sulfate Aerosols in Fully Coupled CESM1(WACCM)
Journal Article · Mon Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · OSTI ID:1375719
+11 more
Climate Change Projections in CESM1(CAM5) Compared to CCSM4
Journal Article · Fri Aug 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Journal of Climate · OSTI ID:1375719
+7 more
Quantifying CanESM5 and EAMv1 sensitivities to Mt. Pinatubo volcanic forcing for the CMIP6 historical experiment
Journal Article · Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Geoscientific Model Development (Online) · OSTI ID:1375719
+5 more

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES