Engineering topics

Ghan, Steven J

Publications and source records attributed to Ghan, Steven J.

16 records

DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of Preindustrial to Present-day Black Carbon and its Albedo Forcing from Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP)

As a part of the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP), we evaluate the historical black carbon (BC) aerosols simulated by 8 ACCMIP models against the observations including 12 ice core records, a long-term surface mass concentrations and recent Arctic BC snowpack measurements. We also estimate BC albedo forcing by performing additional simulations using the NCAR Community Land and Sea-Ice model 4 with prescribed meteorology from 1996-2000, which includes the SNICAR BC-snow model. We evaluated the vertical profile of BC snow concentrations from these offline simulations to using recent BC snowpack measurements. Despite using the same BC emissions, global BC burden differs by approximately a factor of 3 among models due to the differences in aerosol removal parameterizations and simulated meteorology among models; 34 Gg to 103 Gg in 1850 and 82 Gg to 315 Gg in 2000. However,models agree well on 2.5~3 times increase in the global BC burden from preindustrial to present-day, which matches with the 2.5 times increase in BC emissions. We find a large model diversity at both NH and SH high latitude regions for BC burden and at SH high latitude regions for deposition fluxes. The ACCMIP simulations match the observed BC mass concentrations well in Europe and North America except at Jungfrauch and Ispra. However, the models fail to capture the Arctic BC seasonality due tosevere underestimations during winter and spring. Compared to recent snowpack measurements, the simulated vertically resolved BC snow concentrations are, on average, within a factor of 2-3 of observations except for Greenland and Arctic Ocean. However, model and observation differ widely due to missing interannual variations in emissions and possibly due to the choice of the prescribed meteorology period (i.e., 1996-2000).

ACCMIP↗

DOE OSTI2013

Black Carbon Vertical Profiles Strongly Affect its Radiative Forcing Uncertainty

The impact of black carbon (BC) aerosols on the global radiation balance is not well constrained. Here twelve global aerosol models are used to show that at least 20% of the present uncertainty in modeled BC direct radiative forcing (RF) is due to diversity in the simulated vertical profile of BC mass. Results are from phases 1 and 2 of the global aerosol model intercomparison project (AeroCom). Additionally, a significant fraction of the variability is shown to come from high altitudes, as, globally, more than 40% of the total BC RF is exerted above 5 km. BC emission regions and areas with transported BC are found to have differing characteristics. These insights into the importance of the vertical profile of BC lead us to suggest that observational studies are needed to better characterize the global distribution of BC, including in the upper troposphere.

black↗

DOE OSTI2013

Implementation of the chemistry module MECCA (v2.5) in the modal aerosol version of the Community Atmosphere Model component (v3.6.33) of the Community Earth System Model

A coupled atmospheric chemistry and climate system model was developed using the modal aerosol version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model (modal-CAM; v3.6.33) and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry’s Module Efficiently Calculating the Chemistry of the Atmosphere (MECCA; v2.5) to provide enhanced resolution of multiphase processes, particularly those involving inorganic halogens, and associated impacts on atmospheric composition and climate. Three Rosenbrock solvers (Ros-2, Ros-3, RODAS-3) were tested in conjunction with the basic load-balancing options available to modal-CAM (1) to establish an optimal configuration of the implicitly-solved multiphase chemistry module that maximizes both computational speed and repeatability of Ros- 2 and RODAS-3 results versus Ros-3, and (2) to identify potential implementation strategies for future versions of this and similar coupled systems. RODAS-3 was faster than Ros-2 and Ros-3 with good reproduction of Ros-3 results, while Ros-2 was both slower and substantially less reproducible relative to Ros-3 results. Modal-CAM with MECCA chemistry was a factor of 15 slower than modal-CAM using standard chemistry. MECCA chemistry integration times demonstrated a systematic frequency distribution for all three solvers, and revealed that the change in run-time performance was due to a change in the frequency distribution of chemical integration times; the peak frequency was similar for all solvers. This suggests that efficient chemistry-focused load-balancing schemes can be developed that rely on the parameters of this frequency distribution.

Long, M S↗

DOE OSTI2013

The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP): Overview and Description of Models, Simulations and Climate Diagnostics

The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) consists of a series of timeslice experiments targeting the long-term changes in atmospheric composition between 1850 and 2100, with the goal of documenting radiative forcing and the associated composition changes. Here we introduce the various simulations performed under ACCMIP and the associated model output. The ACCMIP models have a wide range of horizontal and vertical resolutions, vertical extent, chemistry schemes and interaction with radiation and clouds. While anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions were specified for all time slices in the ACCMIP protocol, it is found that the natural emissions lead to a significant range in emissions, mostly for ozone precursors. The analysis of selected present-day climate diagnostics (precipitation, temperature, specific humidity and zonal wind) reveals biases consistent with state-of-the-art climate models. The model-to-model comparison of changes in temperature, specific humidity and zonal wind between 1850 and 2000 and between 2000 and 2100 indicates mostly consistent results, but with outliers different enough to possibly affect their representation of climate impact on chemistry.

(ACCMIP)↗

DOE OSTI2012

Constraining the Influence of Natural Variability to Improve Estimates of Global Aerosol Indirect Effects in a Nudged Version of the Community Atmosphere Model 5

Natural modes of variability on many timescales influence aerosol particle distributions and cloud properties such that isolating statistically significant differences in cloud radiative forcing due to anthropogenic aerosol perturbations (indirect effects) typically requires integrating over long simulations. For state-of-the-art global climate models (GCM), especially those in which embedded cloud-resolving models replace conventional statistical parameterizations (i.e. multi-scale modeling framework, MMF), the required long integrations can be prohibitively expensive. Here an alternative approach is explored, which implements Newtonian relaxation (nudging) to constrain simulations with both pre-industrial and present-day aerosol emissions toward identical meteorological conditions, thus reducing differences in natural variability and dampening feedback responses in order to isolate radiative forcing. Ten-year GCM simulations with nudging provide a more stable estimate of the global-annual mean aerosol indirect radiative forcing than do conventional free-running simulations. The estimates have mean values and 95% confidence intervals of -1.54 ± 0.02 W/m2 and -1.63 ± 0.17 W/m2 for nudged and free-running simulations, respectively. Nudging also substantially increases the fraction of the world’s area in which a statistically significant aerosol indirect effect can be detected (68% and 25% of the Earth's surface for nudged and free-running simulations, respectively). One-year MMF simulations with and without nudging provide global-annual mean aerosol indirect radiative forcing estimates of -0.80 W/m2 and -0.56 W/m2, respectively. The one-year nudged results compare well with previous estimates from three-year free-running simulations (-0.77 W/m2), which showed the aerosol-cloud relationship to be in better agreement with observations and high-resolution models than in the results obtained with conventional parameterizations.

aerosol↗

DOE OSTI2012

Indirect radiative forcing by ion-mediated nucleation of aerosol

A clear understanding of particle formation mechanisms is critical for assessing aerosol indirect radiative forcing and associated climate feedback processes. Recent studies reveal the importance of ion-mediated nucleation (IMN) in generating new particles and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in the atmosphere. Here we implement for the first time a physically based treatment of IMN into the Community Atmosphere Model version 5. Our simulations show that, compared to globally averaged results based on binary homogeneous nucleation (BHN), the presence of ionization (i.e., IMN) halves H2SO4 column burden, but increases the column integrated nucleation rate by around one order of magnitude, total particle number burden by a factor of ~ 3, CCN burden by ~ 10% (at 0.2% supersaturation) to 65% (at 1.0% supersaturation), and cloud droplet number burden by ~ 18%. Compared to BHN, IMN increases cloud liquid water path by 7.5%, decreases precipitation by 1.1%, and increases total cloud cover by 1.9%. This leads to an increase of total shortwave cloud radiative forcing by 3.67 W/m2 (more negative) and longwave cloud forcing by 1.78 W/m2 (more positive), resulting in a -1.9 W/m2 net change in cloud radiative forcing associated with IMN. The significant impacts of ionization on global aerosol formation, CCN abundance, and cloud radiative forcing may provide an important physical mechanism linking the global energy balance to various processes affecting atmospheric ionization, which should be properly represented in climate models.

aerosol↗

DOE OSTI2012

Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Comparative Decomposition of Aerosol Direct, Semidirect, and Indirect Radiative Forcing

The authors have decomposed the anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing into direct contributions from each aerosol species to the planetary energy balance through absorption and scattering of solar radiation, indirect effects of anthropogenic aerosol on solar and infrared radiation through droplet and crystal nucleation on aerosol, and semidirect effects through the influence of solar absorption on the distribution of clouds. A three-mode representation of the aerosol in version 5.1 of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5.1) yields global annual mean radiative forcing estimates for each of these forcing mechanisms that are within 0.1 W m–2 of estimates using a more complex seven-mode representation that distinguishes between fresh and aged black carbon and primary organic matter. Simulating fresh black carbon particles separately from internally mixed accumulation mode particles is found to be important only near fossil fuel sources. In addition to the usual large indirect effect on solar radiation, this study finds an unexpectedly large positive longwave indirect effect (because of enhanced cirrus produced by homogenous nucleation of ice crystals on anthropogenic sulfate), small shortwave and longwave semidirect effects, and a small direct effect (because of cancelation and interactions of direct effects of black carbon and sulfate). Differences between the threemode and seven-mode versions are significantly larger (up to 0.2 W m–2) when the hygroscopicity of primary organic matter is decreased from 0.1 to 0 and transfer of the primary carbonaceous aerosol to the accumulation mode in the seven-mode version requires more hygroscopic material coating the primary particles. Radiative forcing by cloudborne anthropogenic black carbon is only 20.07 W m–2.

Aerosol Direct↗

DOE OSTI2012

Aerosol optical depth increase in partly cloudy conditions

Remote sensing observations of aerosol from surface and satellite instruments are extensively used for atmospheric and climate research. From passive sensors, the apparent cloud-free atmosphere in the vicinity of clouds often appears to be brighter then further away from the clouds, leading to an enhancement in the retrieved aerosol optical depth. Mechanisms contributing to this enhancement, including contamination by undetected clouds, hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles, and meteorological conditions, have been debated in recent literature, but an extent to which each of these factors influence the observed enhancement is poorly known. Here we used 11 years of daily global observations at 10x10 km2 resolution from the MODIS on the NASA Terra satellite to quantify as a function of cloud fraction (CF). Our analysis reveals that, averaged over the globe, the clear sky is enhanced by ? = 0.05 which corresponds to relative enhancements of 25% in cloudy conditions (CF=0.8-0.9) compared with relatively clear conditions (CF=0.1-0.2). Unlike the absolute enhancement ?, the relative increase in ? is rather consistent in all seasons and is 25-35% in the subtropics and 15-25% at mid and higher latitudes. Using a simple Gaussian probability density function model to connect cloud cover and the distribution of relative humidity, we argue that much of the enhancement is consistent with aerosol hygroscopic growth in the humid environment surrounding clouds. Consideration of these cloud-dependent effects will facilitate understanding aerosol-cloud interactions and reduce the uncertainty in estimates of aerosol radiative forcing by global climate models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Constraining cloud lifetime effects of aerosols using A-Train satellite observations

Aerosol indirect effects have remained the largest uncertainty in estimates of the radiative forcing of past and future climate change. Observational constraints on cloud lifetime effects are particularly challenging since it is difficult to separate aerosol effects from meteorological influences. Here we use three global climate models, including a multi-scale aerosol-climate model PNNL-MMF, to show that the dependence of the probability of precipitation on aerosol loading, termed the precipitation frequency susceptibility (S{sub pop}), is a good measure of the liquid water path response to aerosol perturbation ({lambda}), as both Spop and {lambda} strongly depend on the magnitude of autoconversion, a model representation of precipitation formation via collisions among cloud droplets. This provides a method to use satellite observations to constrain cloud lifetime effects in global climate models. S{sub pop} in marine clouds estimated from CloudSat, MODIS and AMSR-E observations is substantially lower than that from global climate models and suggests a liquid water path increase of less than 5% from doubled cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. This implies a substantially smaller impact on shortwave cloud radiative forcing (SWCF) over ocean due to aerosol indirect effects than simulated by current global climate models (a reduction by one-third for one of the conventional aerosol-climate models). Further work is needed to quantify the uncertainties in satellite-derived estimates of S{sub pop} and to examine S{sub pop} in high-resolution models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Global Distribution and Climate Forcing of Marine Organic Aerosol - Part 2: Effects on Cloud Properties and Radiative Forcing

A series of simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5) with a 7-mode Modal Aerosol Model were conducted to assess the changes in cloud microphysical properties and radiative forcing resulting from marine organic aerosols. Model simulations show that the anthropogenic aerosol indirect forcing (AIF) predicted by CAM5 is decreased in absolute magnitude by up to 0.09 Wm{sup -2} (7 %) when marine organic aerosols are included. Changes in the AIF from marine organic aerosols are associated with small global increases in low-level incloud droplet number concentration and liquid water path of 1.3 cm{sup -3} (1.5 %) and 0.22 gm{sup -2} (0.5 %), respectively. Areas especially sensitive to changes in cloud properties due to marine organic aerosol include the Southern Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, and North Atlantic Ocean, all of which are characterized by high marine organic emission rates. As climate models are particularly sensitive to the background aerosol concentration, this small but non-negligible change in the AIF due to marine organic aerosols provides a notable link for ocean-ecosystem marine low-level cloud interactions and may be a candidate for consideration in future earth system models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

A modal aerosol module (MAM) has been developed for the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), the atmospheric component of the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1). MAM is capable of simulating the aerosol size distribution and both internal and external mixing between aerosol components, treating numerous complicated aerosol processes and aerosol physical, chemical and optical properties in a physically based manner. Two MAM versions were developed: a more complete version with seven-lognormal modes (MAM7), and a three-lognormal mode version (MAM3) for the purpose of long-term (decades to centuries) simulations. Major approximations in MAM3 include assuming immediate mixing of primary organic matter (POM) and black carbon (BC) with other aerosol components, merging of the MAM7 fine dust and fine sea salt modes into the accumulation mode, merging of the MAM7 coarse dust and coarse sea salt modes into the single coarse mode, and neglecting the explicit treatment of ammonia and ammonium cycles. Simulated sulfate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass concentrations are remarkably similar between MAM3 and MAM7 as most ({approx}90%) of these aerosol species are in the accumulation mode. Differences of POM and BC concentrations between MAM3 and MAM7 are also small (mostly within 10%) because of the assumed hygroscopic nature of POM, so that freshly emitted POM and BC are wet-removed before mixing internally with soluble aerosol species. Sensitivity tests with the POM assumed to be hydrophobic and with slower aging process increase the POM and BC concentrations, especially at high latitudes (by several times). The mineral dust global burden differs by 10% and sea salt burden by 30-40% between MAM3 and MAM7 mainly due to the different size ranges for dust and sea salt modes and different standard deviations of log-normal size distribution for sea salt modes between MAM3 and MAM7. The model is able to qualitatively capture the observed geographical and temporal variations of aerosol mass and number concentrations, size distributions, and aerosol optical properties. However, there are noticeable biases, e.g., simulated sulfate and mineral dust concentrations at surface over the oceans are too low. Simulated BC concentrations are significant low in the Arctic. There is a low bias in modeled aerosol optical depth on the global scale, especially in the developing counties. There biases in aerosol simulations clearly indicate the need for improvements of aerosol processes (e.g., emission fluxes of anthropogenic aerosols and precursor gases in developing countries, boundary layer nucleation) and properties (e.g., primary aerosol emission size, POM hygroscopicity). In addition the critical role of cloud properties (e.g., liquid water content, cloud fraction) responsible for the wet scavenging of aerosol is highlighted.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2012

Application of the CALIOP Layer Product to Evaluate the Vertical Distribution of Aerosols Estimated by Global Models: AeroCom Phase I Results

The CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) layer product is used for a multimodel evaluation of the vertical distribution of aerosols. Annual and seasonal aerosol extinction profiles are analyzed over 13 sub-continental regions representative of industrial, dust, and biomass burning pollution, from CALIOP 2007-2009 observations and from AeroCom (Aerosol Comparisons between Observations and Models) 2000 simulations. An extinction mean height diagnostic (Z{sub a}) is defined to quantitatively assess the models performance. It is calculated over the 0-6 km and 0-10 km altitude ranges by weighting the altitude of each 100 m altitude layer by its aerosol extinction coefficient. The mean extinction profiles derived from CALIOP layer products provide consistent regional and seasonal specificities and a low inter-annual variability. While the outputs from most models are significantly correlated with the observed Z{sub a} climatologies, some do better than others, and 2 of the 12 models perform particularly well in all seasons. Over industrial and maritime regions, most models show higher Z{sub a} than observed by CALIOP, whereas over the African and Chinese dust source regions, Z{sub a} is underestimated during Northern Hemisphere Spring and Summer. The positive model bias in Z{sub a} is mainly due to an overestimate of the extinction above 6 km. Potential CALIOP and model limitations, and methodological factors that might contribute to the differences are discussed.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Testing Cloud Microphysics Parameterizations in NCAR CAM5 with ISDAC and M-PACE Observations

Arctic clouds simulated by the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) are evaluated with observations from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), which were conducted at its North Slope of Alaska site in April 2008 and October 2004, respectively. Model forecasts for the Arctic Spring and Fall seasons performed under the Cloud- Associated Parameterizations Testbed (CAPT) framework generally reproduce the spatial distributions of cloud fraction for single-layer boundary layer mixed-phase stratocumulus, and multilayer or deep frontal clouds. However, for low-level clouds, the model significantly underestimates the observed cloud liquid water content in both seasons and cloud fraction in the Spring season. As a result, CAM5 significantly underestimates the surface downward longwave (LW) radiative fluxes by 20-40 W m-2. The model with a new ice nucleation parameterization moderately improves the model simulations by increasing cloud liquid water content in mixed-phase clouds through the reduction of the conversion rate from cloud liquid to ice by the Wegener-Bergeron- Findeisen (WBF) process. The CAM5 single column model testing shows that change in the homogeneous freezing temperature of rain to form snow from -5 C to -40 C has a substantial impact on the modeled liquid water content through the slowing-down of liquid and rain-related processes. In contrast, collections of cloud ice by snow and cloud liquid by rain are of minor importance for single-layer boundary layer mixed-phase clouds in the Arctic.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2011

Global distribution and climate forcing of marine organic aerosol: 1. Model improvements and evaluation

Marine organic aerosol emissions have been implemented and evaluated within the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR)'s Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's 7-mode Modal Aerosol Module (MAM-7). Emissions of marine primary organic aerosols (POA), phytoplanktonproduced isoprene- and monoterpenes-derived secondary organic aerosols (SOA) and methane sulfonate (MS{sup -}) are shown to affect surface concentrations of organic aerosols in remote marine regions. Global emissions of submicron marine POA is estimated to be 7.9 and 9.4 Tg yr{sup -1}, for the Gantt et al. (2011) and Vignati et al. (2010) emission parameterizations, respectively. Marine sources of SOA and particulate MS{sup -} (containing both sulfur and carbon atoms) contribute an additional 0.2 and 5.1 Tg yr{sup -1}, respectively. Widespread areas over productive waters of the Northern Atlantic, Northern Pacific, and the Southern Ocean show marine-source submicron organic aerosol surface concentrations of 100 ngm{sup -3}, with values up to 400 ngm{sup -3} over biologically productive areas. Comparison of long-term surface observations of water insoluble organic matter (WIOM) with POA concentrations from the two emission parameterizations shows that despite revealed discrepancies (often more than a factor of 2), both Gantt et al. (2011) and Vignati et al. (2010) formulations are able to capture the magnitude of marine organic aerosol concentrations, with the Gantt et al. (2011) parameterization attaining better seasonality. Model simulations show that the mixing state of the marine POA can impact the surface number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The largest increases (up to 20 %) in CCN (at a supersaturation (S) of 0.2 %) number concentration are obtained over biologically productive ocean waters when marine organic aerosol is assumed to be externally mixed with sea-salt. Assuming marine organics are internally-mixed with sea-salt provides diverse results with increases and decreases in the concentration of CCN over different parts of the ocean. The sign of the CCN change due to the addition of marine organics to seasalt aerosol is determined by the relative significance of the increase in mean modal diameter due to addition of mass, and the decrease in particle hygroscopicity due to compositional changes in marine aerosol. Based on emerging evidence for increased CCN concentration over biologically active surface ocean areas/periods, our study suggests that treatment of sea spray in global climate models (GCMs) as an internal mixture of marine organic aerosols and sea-salt will likely lead to an underestimation in CCN number concentration.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Droplet Nucleation: Physically-Based Parameterization and Comparative Evaluation

One of the greatest sources of uncertainty in simulations of climate and climate change is the influence of aerosols on the optical properties of clouds. The root of this influence is the droplet nucleation process. Droplet nucleation involves the simultaneous condensational growth of an aerosol population until maximum supersaturation is achieved and a subset of the particles are large enough to grow spontaneously into cloud droplets. Numerical models of droplet nucleation are capable of representing much of the complexity of the process, but at a computational cost that limits their application to simulations of hours or days. Parameterizations of droplet nucleation are designed to quickly estimate the number nucleated as a function of the primary controlling parameters: the cooling rate and the size distribution of aerosol number and hygroscopicity. Here we compare and contrast the key assumptions used in developing each of the most popular parameterizations and compare the performance of each under a variety of conditions. In general we find that the more complex parameterizations perform well under a wider variety of conditions, but all parameterizations perform well under the most common conditions. We then discuss the various applications of the parameterizations to cloud-resolving, regional and global models to study aerosol effects on clouds at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. We conclude with a summary of the outstanding challenges remaining for further development.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2011

Representation of Arctic Mixed-Phase clouds and the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen Process in Climate Models: Perspectives from a Cloud-Resolving Study

Two types of Arctic mixed-phase clouds observed during the ISDAC and M-PACE field campaigns are simulated using a 3-dimensional cloud-resolving model (CRM) with size-resolved cloud microphysics. The modeled cloud properties agree reasonably well with aircraft measurements and surface-based retrievals. Cloud properties such as the probability density function (PDF) of vertical velocity (w), cloud liquid and ice, the regime of ice growth at the expense of liquid water (i.e., Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) process), and the inherent relationships among cloud properties/processes in the mixed-phase layers are examined to gain insights for improving the representation of the mixed-phase processes in General Circulation Models (GCMs). We find that, the WBF process only occurs in about 50% of the mixed-phase regime with the vast majority occurring in the downdrafts. In updrafts both liquid and ice grow simultaneously. But in GCMs, it is not necessary to treat the WBF process at the subgrid scale. Our CRM results produce a w distribution well represented by a Gaussian normal function, validating, at least for arctic clouds, the subgrid treatment used in GCMs. Our CRM results also support the assumption frequently used in GCMs that mixed phase clouds maintain water vapor very near liquid saturation. A Gamma function with a fixed variance does not accurately represent the subgrid variability of cloud liquid. The PDFs of cloud liquid and cloud ice can be fitted with Gamma functions, and a normal function can be used for total water, but the variance should not be fixed. The relationship between the ice depositional growth rate and cloud ice strongly depends on the capacitance of ice particles. The assumption for the capacitance of ice particles (e.g., 1.0 for spheres) used in GCMs could lead to a large deviation in ice depositional growth. At large sales, the maximum overlap assumption looks appropriate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗