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At least 1,225 records · Page 68

Internal variability of a dynamically downscaled climate over North America

This study investigates the internal variability (IV) of a regional climate model, and considers the impacts of horizontal resolution and spectral nudging on the IV. A 16-member simulation ensemble was conducted using the Weather Research Forecasting model for three model configurations. Ensemble members included simulations at spatial resolutions of 50 km and 12 km without spectral nudging and simulations at a spatial resolution of 12 km with spectral nudging. All the simulations were generated over the same domain, which covered much of North America. The degree of IV was measured as the spread between the individual members of the ensemble during the integration period. The IV of the 12 km simulation with spectral nudging was also compared with a future climate change simulation projected by the same model configuration. The variables investigated focus on precipitation and near-surface air temperature. While the IVs show a clear annual cycle with larger values in summer and smaller values in winter, the seasonal IV is smaller for a 50-km spatial resolution than for a 12-km resolution when nudging is not applied. Applying a nudging technique to the 12-km simulation reduces the IV by a factor of two, and produces smaller IV than the simulation at 50 km without nudging. Applying a nudging technique also changes the geographic distributions of IV in all examined variables. The IV is much smaller than the inter-annual variability at seasonal scales for regionally averaged temperature and precipitation. The IV is also smaller than the projected changes in air-temperature for the mid- and late 21st century. However, the IV is larger than the projected changes in precipitation for the mid- and late 21st century.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Regimes of Diurnal Variation of Summer Rainfall over Subtropical East Asia

Using hourly rain gauge records and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42 from 1998 to 2006, the authors present an analysis of the diurnal characteristics of summer rainfall over subtropical East Asia. The study shows that there are four different regimes of distinct diurnal variation of rainfall in both the rain gauge and the satellite data. They are located over the Tibetan Plateau with late-afternoon and midnight peaks, in the western China plain with midnight to early-morning peaks, in the eastern China plain with double peaks in late afternoon and early morning, and over the East China Sea with an early-morning peak. No propagation of diurnal phases is found from the land to the ocean across the coastlines. The different diurnal regimes are highly correlated with the inhomogeneous underlying surface, such as the plateau, plain, and ocean, with physical mechanisms consistent with the large-scale 'mountain-valley' and 'land-sea' breezes and convective instability. These diurnal characteristics over subtropical East Asia can be used as diagnostic metrics to evaluate the physical parameterization and hydrological cycle of climate models over East Asia.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Aerosol-Cloud Interactions From Aviation Soot Emissions

Current models estimate global aviation contributes approximately 5% to the total anthropogenic climate forcing, with aerosol-cloud interactions having the greatest effect. However, radiative forcing estimates from aviation aerosol-cloud interactions remain undetermined. There is an expected significant increase in aircraft emissions with aviation demand expected to rise by over 4% per year. Soot may play an important role in the ice nucleation of aircraft-induced cirrus formation due to a high emission rate, but the ice nucleating properties are poorly constrained. Understanding the microphysical processes leading to atmospheric ice crystal formation is crucial for the reliable parameterization of aerosol-cloud interactions in climate models due to their impact on precipitation and cloud radiative properties. Ice nucleation of aircraft-emitted soot is potentially affected by particle morphology with condensation of supercooled water occurring in pores followed by ice nucleation. However, soot has heterogeneous properties and undergoes atmospheric aging and oxidation that could change surface properties and contribute to complex ice nucleation processes. Further, this review synthesizes current knowledge of ice nucleation catalyzed by aviation in the cirrus regime and its effects on global radiative forcing. Further research is required to determine the ice nucleation and microphysical processes of cirrus cloud formation from aviation emissions in both controlled laboratory and field investigations to inform models for more accurate climate predictions and to provide efficient mitigation strategies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The relationship between interannual and long-term cloud feedbacks

The analyses of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 simulations suggest that climate models with more positive cloud feedback in response to interannual climate fluctuations also have more positive cloud feedback in response to long-term global warming. Ensemble mean vertical profiles of cloud change in response to interannual and long-term surface warming are similar, and the ensemble mean cloud feedback is positive on both timescales. However, the average long-term cloud feedback is smaller than the interannual cloud feedback, likely due to differences in surface warming pattern on the two timescales. Low cloud cover (LCC) change in response to interannual and long-term global surface warming is found to be well correlated across models and explains over half of the covariance between interannual and long-term cloud feedback. In conclusion, the intermodel correlation of LCC across timescales likely results from model-specific sensitivities of LCC to sea surface warming.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Statistical Treatment of Convolutional Neural Network Superresolution of Inland Surface Wind for Subgrid-Scale Variability Quantification

Abstract Machine learning models have been employed to perform either physics-free data-driven or hybrid dynamical downscaling of climate data. Most of these implementations operate over relatively small downscaling factors because of the challenge of recovering fine-scale information from coarse data. This limits their compatibility with many global climate model outputs, often available between ∼50- and 100-km resolution, to scales of interest such as cloud resolving or urban scales. This study systematically examines the capability of a type of superresolving convolutional neural network (SR-CNNs) to downscale surface wind speed data over land from different coarse resolutions (25-, 48-, and 100-km resolution) to 3 km. For each downscaling factor, we consider three convolutional neural network (CNN) configurations that generate superresolved predictions of fine-scale wind speed, which take between one and three input fields: coarse wind speed, fine-scale topography, and diurnal cycle. In addition to fine-scale wind speeds, probability density function parameters are generated through which sample wind speeds can be generated, accounting for the intrinsic stochasticity of wind speed. For assessing generalization to new data, CNN models are tested on regions with different topography and climate that are unseen during training. The evaluation of superresolved predictions focuses on subgrid-scale variability and the recovery of extremes. Models with coarse wind and fine topography as inputs exhibit the best performance when compared with other model configurations, operating across the same downscaling factor. Our diurnal cycle encoding results in lower out-of-sample generalizability when compared with other input configurations.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Simulation of Hurricane Katrina at 3km resolution

A regional climate model simulation of Hurricane Katrina at 3 km resolution, part of a study published in Nature titled, “Anthropogenic Influences on Major Tropical Cyclone Events,” by Berkeley Lab researchers Christina Patricola and Michael Wehner. The study found that climate change intensified the amount of rainfall in recent hurricanes such as Katrina, Irma, and Maria by 5 to 10 percent.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Modes of Variability in E3SM and CESM Large Ensembles

An adequate characterization of internal modes of climate variability (MoV) is a prerequisite for both accurate seasonal predictions and climate change detection and attribution. Assessing the fidelity of climate models in simulating MoV is therefore essential; however, doing so is complicated by the large intrinsic variations in MoV and the limited span of the observational record. Large ensembles (LEs) provide a unique opportunity to assess model fidelity in simulating MoV and quantify intermodel contrasts. Here, in this work, these goals are pursued in four recently produced LEs: the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) versions 1 and 2 LEs, and the Community Earth System Model (CESM) versions 1 and 2 LEs. In general, the representation of global coupled modes is found to improve across successive E3SM and CESM versions in conjunction with the fidelity of the base state climate while the patterns of extratropical modes are well simulated across the ensembles. Various persistent shortcomings for all MoV are however identified and discussed. The results both demonstrate the successes of these recent model versions and suggest the potential for continued improvement in the representation of MoV with advances in model physics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Insights on Simulating Summer Warming of the Great Lakes: Understanding the Behavior of a Newly Developed Coupled Lake-Atmosphere Modeling System

The Laurentian Great Lakes are the world's largest freshwater system and regulate the climate of the Great Lakes region, which has been increasingly experiencing climatic, hydrological, and ecological changes. An accurate mechanistic representation of the Great Lakes thermal structure in Regional Climate Models (RCMs) is paramount to studying the climate of this region. Currently, RCMs have primarily represented the Great Lakes through coupled one-dimensional (1D) column lake models; this approach works well for small inland lakes but is unable to resolve the realistic hydrodynamics of the Great Lakes and leads to inaccurate representations of lake surface temperature (LST) that influence regional climate and weather patterns. This work overcomes this limitation by developing a fully two-way coupled modeling system using the Weather Research and Forecasting model and a three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic model. The coupled model system resolves the interactive physical processes between the atmosphere, lake, and surrounding watersheds; and validated against a range of observational data. The model is then used to investigate the potential impacts of lake-atmosphere coupling on the simulated summer LST of Lake Superior. By evaluating the difference between our two-way coupled modeling system and our observation-driven modeling system, we find that coupled-lake atmosphere dynamics can lead to a higher LST during June-September through higher net surface heat flux entering the lake in June and July and a lower net surface heat flux entering the lake in August and September. The unstratified water in June distributes the entering surface heat flux throughout the water column leading to a minor LST increase, while the stratified waters of July create a conducive thermal structure for the water surface to warm rapidly under the higher incoming surface heat flux. This research provides insight into the coupled modeling system behavior, which is critical for enhancing our predictive understanding of the Great Lakes climate system.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Collaborative Research: Continuous Dynamic Grid Adaptation in a Global Atmospheric Model - Application and Refinement

This project had goals of advancing the performance capabilities of the numerical general circulation model EULAG and using it to produce a fully operational atmospheric global climate model (AGCM) that can employ either static or dynamic grid stretching for targeted phenomena. The resulting AGCM combined EULAG's advanced dynamics core with the "physics" of the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model (CAM). Effort discussed below shows how we improved model performance and tested both EULAG and the coupled CAM-EULAG in several ways to demonstrate the grid stretching and ability to simulate very well a wide range of scales, that is, multi-scale capability. We leveraged our effort through interaction with an international EULAG community that has collectively developed new features and applications of EULAG, which we exploited for our own work summarized here. Overall, the work contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed publications and over 70 conference/workshop/seminar presentations, many of them invited. 3a. EULAG Advances EULAG is a non-hydrostatic, parallel computational model for all-scale geophysical flows. EULAG's name derives from its two computational options: EULerian (flux form) or semi-LAGrangian (advective form). The model combines nonoscillatory forward-in-time (NFT) numerical algorithms with a robust elliptic Krylov solver. A signature feature of EULAG is that it is formulated in generalized time-dependent curvilinear coordinates. In particular, this enables grid adaptivity. In total, these features give EULAG novel advantages over many existing dynamical cores. For EULAG itself, numerical advances included refining boundary conditions and filters for optimizing model performance in polar regions. We also added flexibility to the model's underlying formulation, allowing it to work with the pseudo-compressible equation set of Durran in addition to EULAG's standard anelastic formulation. Work in collaboration with others also extended the demonstrated range of validity of soundproof models, showing that they are more broadly applicable than some had previously thought. Substantial testing of EULAG included application and extension of the Jablonowski-Williamson baroclinic wave test - an archetype of planetary weather - and further analysis of multi-scale interactions arising from collapse of temperature fronts in both the baroclinic wave test and simulations of the Held-Suarez idealized climate. These analyses revealed properties of atmospheric gravity waves not seen in previous work and further demonstrated the ability of EULAG to simulate realistic behavior over several orders of magnitude of length scales. Additional collaborative work enhanced capability for modeling atmospheric flows with adaptive moving meshes and demonstrated the ability of EULAG to move into petascale computing. 3b. CAM-EULAG Advances We have developed CAM-EULAG in collaboration with former project postdoc, now University of Cape Town Assistant Professor, Babatunde Abiodun. Initial study documented good model performance in aqua-planet simulations. In particular, we showed that the grid adaptivity (stretching) implemented in CAM-EULAG allows higher resolution in selected regions without causing anomalous behavior such as spurious wave reflection. We then used the stretched-grid version to analyze simulated extreme precipitation events in West Africa, comparing the precipitation and event environment with observed behavior. The model simulates fairly well the spatial scale and the interannual and intraseasonal variability of the extreme events, although its extreme precipitation intensity is weaker than observed. In addition, both observations and the simulations show possible forcing of extreme events by African easterly waves. 3c. Other Contributions Through our collaborations, we have made contributions to a wide range of outcomes. For research focused on terrestrial behavior, these have included (1) upwind schemes for gas dynamics, (2) a nonlinear perspective on the dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, (3) numerical realism of thermal convection, (4) extreme precipitation processes, (5) unstructured meshes, (6) porous-media analogies for simulating flow in urban environments, (7) Monge-Ampere enhancements of semi-Lagrangian methods and (8) further extensions of the generality of EULAG applications to geophysical problems. The generality of EULAG for multi-scale flow was also demonstrated through solar applications. Simulations of solar magnetohydrodynamics showed that EULAG produces the solar cycle fairly well. Although the model's solar cycle is significantly longer than observed, it shows remarkable agreement with observations in features of spatial evolution. These efforts in environments that are extreme from a geophysical perspective have helped to establish the robustness of EULAG as an all-scale code for geophysical applications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Global Teleconnections: Atmospheric Interactions Across Scales [Slides]

This project aims at an improved understanding of non-hydrostatic dynamics in atmospheric modeling using the DOE’s next generation climate model. One aspect that we have been focusing on is baroclinic instability which is closely related to mid-latitude cyclone genesis. The other aspect that we recently developed is E3SM simulations under Radiative-Convective Equilibrium (RCE), a prototype of tropical climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Laboratory Experiments and Instrument Intercomparison Studies of Carbonaceous Aerosol Particles

Aerosols containing black carbon (and some specific types of organic particulate matter) directly absorb incoming light, heating the atmosphere. In addition, all aerosol particles backscatter solar light, leading to a net-cooling effect. Indirect effects involve hydrophilic aerosols, which serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) that affect cloud cover and cloud stability, impacting both atmospheric radiation balance and precipitation patterns. At night, all clouds produce local warming, but overall clouds exert a net-cooling effect on the Earth. The effect of aerosol radiative forcing on climate may be as large as that of the greenhouse gases, but predominantly opposite in sign and much more uncertain. The uncertainties in the representation of aerosol interactions in climate models makes it problematic to use model projections to guide energy policy. The objective of our program is to reduce the uncertainties in the aerosol radiative forcing in the two areas highlighted in the ASR Science and Program Plan. That is, (1) addressing the direct effect by correlating particle chemistry and morphology with particle optical properties (i.e. absorption, scattering, extinction), and (2) addressing the indirect effect by correlating particle hygroscopicity and CCN activity with particle size, chemistry, and morphology. In this connection we are systematically studying particle formation, oxidation, and the effects of particle coating. The work is specifically focused on carbonaceous particles where the uncertainties in the climate relevant properties are the highest. The ongoing work consists of laboratory experiments and related instrument inter-comparison studies both coordinated with field and modeling studies, with the aim of providing reliable data to represent aerosol processes in climate models. The work is performed in the aerosol laboratory at Boston College. At the center of our laboratory setup are two main sources for the production of aerosol particles: (a) two well-characterized source of soot particles and (b) a flow reactor for controlled OH and/or O3 oxidation of relevant gas phase species to produce well-characterized SOA particles. After formation, the aerosol particles are subjected to physical and chemical processes that simulate aerosol growth and aging. A suite of instruments in our laboratory is used to characterize the physical and chemical properties of aerosol particles before and after processing. The Time of Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (ToF-AMS) together with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) measures particle mass, volume, density, composition (including black carbon content), dynamic shape factor, and fractal dimension. The–ToF-AMS was developed at ARI with Boston College participation. About 120 AMS instruments are now in service (including 5 built for DOE laboratories) performing field and laboratory studies world-wide. Other major instruments include a thermal denuder, two Differential Mobility Analyzers (DMA), a Cloud Condensation Nuclei Counter (CCN), a Thermal desorption Aerosol GC/MS (TAG) and the new Soot Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (SP-AMS). Optical instrumentation required for the studies have been brought to our laboratory as part of ongoing and planned collaborative projects with colleagues from DOE, NOAA and university laboratories. Optical instruments that will be utilized include a Photoacoustic Spectrometer (PAS), a Cavity Ring Down Aerosol Extinction Spectrometer (CRD-AES), a Photo Thermal Interferometer (PTI), a new 7-wavelength Aethalometer and a Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift Extinction Monitor (CAPS). These instruments are providing aerosol absorption, extinction and scattering coefficients at a range of atmospherically relevant wavelengths. During the past two years our work has continued along the lines of our original proposal. We report on 12 completed and/or continuing projects conducted during the period 08/14 to 0814/2015. These projects are described in 17 manuscripts published in refereed journals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Tropical High Cloud Feedback Relationships to Climate Sensitivity

Clouds constitute a large portion of uncertainty in predictions of equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). While low cloud feedbacks have been the focus of intermodel studies due to their high variability among global climate models, tropical high cloud feedbacks also exhibit considerable uncertainty. Here, we apply the cloud radiative kernel technique of Zelinka et al. to 22 models across the CMIP5 and CMIP6 ensembles to survey tropical high cloud feedbacks and analyze their relationship to ECS. We find that the net high cloud feedback and its altitude and optical depth feedback components are significantly positively correlated with ECS in the tropical mean. On the other hand, the tropical mean high cloud amount feedback is not correlated with ECS. These relationships are most pronounced outside of areas of strong climatological ascent, suggesting the importance of thin cirrus feedbacks. Finally, we explore connections between high cloud feedbacks, climate sensitivity, and mean state high cloud properties. In general, high ECS models are cloudier in the upper troposphere but have a thinner high cloud population. Furthermore, we find that having more thin cirrus in the mean state relates to more positive high cloud altitude and optical depth feedbacks, and it either amplifies or dampens the high cloud amount feedback depending on the large-scale dynamical regime (amplifying in descent and dampening in ascent). In summary, our analysis highlights the importance of tropical high cloud feedbacks for driving intermodel spread in ECS and suggests that mean state high cloud characteristics might provide a unique opportunity for observationally constraining high cloud feedbacks.

atmosphere↗

Middle to Late Holocene Sea Surface Temperature and Productivity Changes in the Northeast Pacific

Variations of the sea surface temperature (SST) and primary productivity in the northeast Pacific have far‐reaching implications. In addition to influencing the regional and global temperature and hydroclimate, these conditions also control marine ecosystems and their services, which subsequently impact regional economies. Yet, our understanding of the variability and controls of northeast Pacific SST and productivity on timescales exceeding observational records remains limited. Here, we use marine sediment records from seven locations, spanning 25.2°N–59.6°N, in the northeast Pacific to characterize the millennial‐scale variability of SST and productivity from 9,000 to 1,000 years BP. We explore the dynamics of their spatiotemporal evolution and compare these data with transient climate model outputs to identify potential drivers. Through a heat budget analysis and optimal fingerprinting analysis, we characterize the spatial pattern of forcings. We find that SST varied spatially in the northeast Pacific, with higher latitudes exhibiting greater magnitude changes than lower latitudes, which differs from previous work suggesting regional synchronicity and coherence during the Holocene. Our analysis did not find evidence for coherent variability of primary producer community nor carbon export, highlighting the difficulty of identifying the complex interactions between environmental conditions, producers, and carbon export. Model‐proxy disagreement demonstrates the need for higher resolution model frameworks, but shows nonetheless that observed variability in the proxy records can be explained by a combination of greenhouse gas and orbital forcing. Here we suggest that the complex SST variations and marine ecosystem responses to forced changes are important factors that can drive disagreements in model projections.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulations of ENSO Phase-locking in CMIP5 and CMIP6

The characteristics of El-Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase-locking in observations and CMIP5 and CMIP6 models are examined in this study. Two metrics based on the peaking month histogram for all El Niño and La Niña events are adopted to delineate the basic features of ENSO phase-locking in terms of the preferred calendar month and strength of this preference. It turns out that most models are poor at simulating the ENSO phase-locking, either showing little peak strengths or peaking at the wrong seasons. By deriving ENSO’s linear dynamics based on the conceptual recharge oscillator (RO) framework through the seasonal linear inverse model (sLIM) approach, various simulated phase-locking behaviors of CMIP models are systematically investigated in comparison with observations. In observations, phase-locking is mainly attributed to the seasonal modulation of ENSO’s SST growth rate. In contrast, in a significant portion of CMIP models, phase-locking is co-determined by the seasonal modulations of both SST growth and phase-transition rates. Further study of the joint effects of SST growth and phase-transition rates suggests that for simulating realistic winter peak ENSO phase-locking with the right dynamics, climate models need to have four key factors in the right combination: (1) correct phase of SST growth rate modulation peaking at the fall; (2) large enough amplitude for the annual cycle in growth rate; (3) amplitude of semi-annual cycle in growth rate needs to be small; and (4) amplitude of seasonal modulation in SST phase-transition rate needs to be small.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Ocean acidification over the next three centuries using a simple global climate carbon-cycle model: projections and sensitivities

Continued oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 is projected to significantly alter the chemistry of the upper oceans over the next three centuries, with potentially serious consequences for marine ecosystems. Relatively few models have the capability to make projections of ocean acidification, limiting our ability to assess the impacts and probabilities of ocean changes. In this study we examine the ability of Hector v1.1, a reduced-form global model, to project changes in the upper ocean carbonate system over the next three centuries, and quantify the model's sensitivity to parametric inputs. Hector is run under prescribed emission pathways from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and compared to both observations and a suite of Coupled Model Intercomparison (CMIP5) model outputs. Current observations confirm that ocean acidification is already taking place, and CMIP5 models project significant changes occurring to 2300. Hector is consistent with the observational record within both the high- (> 55°) and low-latitude oceans (< 55°). The model projects low-latitude surface ocean pH to decrease from preindustrial levels of 8.17 to 7.77 in 2100, and to 7.50 in 2300; aragonite saturation levels (Ω Ar ) decrease from 4.1 units to 2.2 in 2100 and 1.4 in 2300 under RCP 8.5. These magnitudes and trends of ocean acidification within Hector are largely consistent with the CMIP5 model outputs, although we identify some small biases within Hector's carbonate system. Of the parameters tested, changes in [H + ] are most sensitive to parameters that directly affect atmospheric CO 2 concentrations – Q 10 (terrestrial respiration temperature response) as well as changes in ocean circulation, while changes in Ω Ar saturation levels are sensitive to changes in ocean salinity and Q 10 . We conclude that Hector is a robust tool well suited for rapid ocean acidification projections and sensitivity analyses, and it is capable of emulating both current observations and large-scale climate models under multiple emission pathways.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

The impact of climate change on the U.S. wind energy resource

The growing need for low-carbon emitting electricity sources has resulted in rapid growth in the wind power industry. The size and steadiness of the offshore wind resource has attracted growing investment in the planning of offshore wind turbine installations. Decisions about the location and character of wind farms should be made with an eye not only to present but also future wind resource, which may change as increasing carbon dioxide forces reductions in the poleward temperature gradient, and thus potentially in the mean tropospheric westerly winds. I propose to use the new North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program climate projections to estimate the change of the wind power resource under various carbon dioxide loading scenarios and for a range of climate models. We will compare our assessment with both our assessment based on the IPCC AR4 model runs, to explore the extent to which improved model resolution changes the prediction for the wind power resource, and with present day estimates from reanalysis and scatterometer winds.

17 WIND ENERGY↗