Articles | Volume 12, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4551-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4551-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
tobac 1.2: towards a flexible framework for tracking and analysis of clouds in diverse datasets
Max Heikenfeld
Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Peter J. Marinescu
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
Matthew Christensen
Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Fabian Senf
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Susan C. van den Heever
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
Philip Stier
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Related authors
G. Alexander Sokolowsky, Sean W. Freeman, William K. Jones, Julia Kukulies, Fabian Senf, Peter J. Marinescu, Max Heikenfeld, Kelcy N. Brunner, Eric C. Bruning, Scott M. Collis, Robert C. Jackson, Gabrielle R. Leung, Nils Pfeifer, Bhupendra A. Raut, Stephen M. Saleeby, Philip Stier, and Susan C. van den Heever
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1722, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1722, 2023
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Building on previous analysis tools developed for atmospheric science, the original release of the Tracking and Object-Based Analysis (tobac) Python package, v1.2, was open-source, modular, and insensitive to the type of gridded input data. Here, we present the latest version of tobac, v1.5, which substantially improves scientific capabilities and computational efficiency from the previous version. These enhancements permit new uses for tobac in atmospheric science and potentially other fields.
Max Heikenfeld, Bethan White, Laurent Labbouz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2601–2627, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, 2019
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Aerosols can affect the evolution of deep convective clouds by controlling the cloud droplet number concentration. We perform a detailed analysis of the pathways of such aerosol perturbations through the cloud microphysics in numerical model simulations. By focussing on individually tracked convective cells, we can reveal consistent changes to individual process rates, such as a lifting of freezing and riming, but also major differences between the three different microphysics schemes used.
S. Westermann, M. Langer, J. Boike, M. Heikenfeld, M. Peter, B. Etzelmüller, and G. Krinner
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 523–546, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-523-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-523-2016, 2016
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Thawing of permafrost is governed by a complex interplay of different processes, of which only conductive heat transfer is taken into account in most model studies. We present a new land-surface scheme designed for permafrost applications, CryoGrid 3, which constitutes a flexible platform to explore new parameterizations for a range of permafrost processes.
S. E. Chadburn, E. J. Burke, R. L. H. Essery, J. Boike, M. Langer, M. Heikenfeld, P. M. Cox, and P. Friedlingstein
The Cryosphere, 9, 1505–1521, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1505-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1505-2015, 2015
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In this paper we use a global land-surface model to study the dynamics of Arctic permafrost. We examine the impact of new and improved processes in the model, namely soil depth and resolution, organic soils, moss and the representation of snow. These improvements make the simulated soil temperatures and thaw depth significantly more realistic. Simulations under future climate scenarios show that permafrost thaws more slowly in the new model version, but still a large amount is lost by 2100.
S. Chadburn, E. Burke, R. Essery, J. Boike, M. Langer, M. Heikenfeld, P. Cox, and P. Friedlingstein
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1493–1508, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1493-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1493-2015, 2015
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Permafrost, ground that is frozen for 2 or more years, is found extensively in the Arctic. It stores large quantities of carbon, which may be released under climate warming, so it is important to include it in climate models. Here we improve the representation of permafrost in a climate model land-surface scheme, both in the numerical representation of soil and snow, and by adding the effects of organic soils and moss. Site simulations show significantly improved soil temperature and thaw depth.
Johannes Mülmenstädt, Andrew S. Ackerman, Ann M. Fridlind, Meng Huang, Po-Lun Ma, Naser Mahfouz, Susanne E. Bauer, Susannah M. Burrows, Matthew W. Christensen, Sudhakar Dipu, Andrew Gettelman, L. Ruby Leung, Florian Tornow, Johannes Quaas, Adam C. Varble, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, and Youtong Zheng
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-778, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-778, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Stratocumulus clouds play a large role in Earth's climate by reflecting incoming solar energy back to space. Turbulence at stratocumulus cloud top mixes in drier, warmer air, which can lead to a reduction in cloud. This process is challenging for coarse-resolution global models to represent. We show that global models nevertheless agree well with our process understanding. Global models also think the process is less important for the climate than other lines of evidence had led us to conclude.
Stephanie Fiedler, Vaishali Naik, Fiona M. O'Connor, Christopher J. Smith, Paul Griffiths, Ryan J. Kramer, Toshihiko Takemura, Robert J. Allen, Ulas Im, Matthew Kasoar, Angshuman Modak, Steven Turnock, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Duncan Watson-Parris, Daniel M. Westervelt, Laura J. Wilcox, Alcide Zhao, William J. Collins, Michael Schulz, Gunnar Myhre, and Piers M. Forster
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2387–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2387-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2387-2024, 2024
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Climate scientists want to better understand modern climate change. Thus, climate model experiments are performed and compared. The results of climate model experiments differ, as assessed in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. This article gives insights into the challenges and outlines opportunities for further improving the understanding of climate change. It is based on views of a group of experts in atmospheric composition–climate interactions.
Yu Yao, Po-Lun Ma, Yi Qin, Matthew W. Christensen, Hui Wan, Kai Zhang, Balwinder Singh, Meng Huang, and Mikhail Ovchinnikov
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-523, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-523, 2024
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Giant aerosols have substantial effects on warm rain formation. However, it remains challenging to quantify the impact of giant particles at global scale. In this work, we applied earth system model to investigate its impacts by implementing new giant aerosol treatments to consider its physical process. We found this approach substantially affect liquid cloud and improved model's precipitation response to aerosols. Our findings demonstrate the significant impact of giant aerosols on climate.
George Jordan, Florent Malavelle, Ying Chen, Amy Peace, Eliza Duncan, Daniel G. Partridge, Paul Kim, Duncan Watson-Parris, Toshihiko Takemura, David Neubauer, Gunnar Myhre, Ragnhild Skeie, Anton Laakso, and James Haywood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1939–1960, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1939-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1939-2024, 2024
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The 2014–15 Holuhraun eruption caused a huge aerosol plume in an otherwise unpolluted region, providing a chance to study how aerosol alters cloud properties. This two-part study uses observations and models to quantify this relationship’s impact on the Earth’s energy budget. Part 1 suggests the models capture the observed spatial and chemical evolution of the plume, yet no model plume is exact. Understanding these differences is key for Part 2, where changes to cloud properties are explored.
Sarah Wilson Kemsley, Paulo Ceppi, Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Philip Stier, and Peer Nowack
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-226, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-226, 2024
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Aiming to inform parameter selection for future observational constraint analyses, we incorporate five candidate meteorological drivers specifically targeting high clouds, into a cloud controlling factor framework within a range of spatial domain sizes. We find a discrepancy between optimal domain size for predicting local and globally-aggregated cloud radiative anomalies, and identify upper tropospheric static stability as an important high-cloud controlling factor.
Karoline Block, Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, and Johannes Quaas
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 443–470, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-443-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-443-2024, 2024
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Aerosols being able to act as condensation nuclei for cloud droplets (CCNs) are a key element in cloud formation but very difficult to determine. In this study we present a new global vertically resolved CCN dataset for various humidity conditions and aerosols. It is obtained using an atmospheric model (CAMS reanalysis) that is fed by satellite observations of light extinction (AOD). We investigate and evaluate the abundance of CCNs in the atmosphere and their temporal and spatial occurrence.
Trude Eidhammer, Andrew Gettelman, Katherine Thayer-Calder, Duncan Watson-Parris, Gregory Elsaesser, Hugh Morrison, Marcus van Lier-Walqui, Ci Song, and Daniel McCoy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2165, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2165, 2024
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We describe a dataset where 45 parameters related to cloud processes in the Community Earth System Model v2 (CESM2) Community Atmosphere Model v6 (CAM6) are perturbed. Three sets of perturbed parameter ensembles (263 members) were created; current climate, pre-industrial aerosol loading and future climate with sea surface temperature increased by 4-degree K.
Johannes Mülmenstädt, Edward Gryspeerdt, Sudhakar Dipu, Johannes Quaas, Andrew S. Ackerman, Ann M. Fridlind, Florian Tornow, Susanne E. Bauer, Andrew Gettelman, Yi Ming, Youtong Zheng, Po-Lun Ma, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Varble, L. Ruby Leung, Xiaohong Liu, David Neubauer, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, and Toshihiko Takemura
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4, 2024
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Human activities release copious amounts of small particles, called aerosols, into the atmosphere. These particles change how much sunlight clouds reflect to space, an important human perturbation of the climate whose magnitude is highly uncertain. We found that the latest climate models show a negative correlation but a positive causal relationship between aerosols and cloud water. This means we need to be very careful when we interpret observational studies that can only see correlation.
Charlotte M. Beall, Po-Lun Ma, Matthew W. Christensen, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Adam Varble, Kentaroh Suzuki, and Takuro Michibata
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2161, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2161, 2023
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Single-layer warm liquid clouds cover nearly one-third of the earth's surface, and uncertainties regarding the impact of aerosols on their radiative properties pose a significant challenge to climate prediction. Here, we demonstrate how satellite observations can be used to constrain Earth Systems Model estimates of the radiative forcing due to the interactions of aerosols with clouds due to warm rain processes.
Matthew W. Christensen, Peng Wu, Adam C. Varble, Heng Xiao, and Jerome D. Fast
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2416, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2416, 2023
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Clouds are essential to keep Earth cooler by reflecting sunlight back to space. We show that an increase in aerosol concentration suppresses precipitation in clouds, causing them to accumulate water and expand in a polluted environment with stronger turbulence and radiative cooling. This process enhances their reflectance by 51 %. It’s therefore prudent to account for cloud fraction changes in assessments of aerosol-cloud interactions to improve predictions of climate change.
Adam C. Varble, Po-Lun Ma, Matthew W. Christensen, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Shuaiqi Tang, and Jerome Fast
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13523–13553, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13523-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13523-2023, 2023
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We evaluate how clouds change in response to changing atmospheric particle (aerosol) concentrations in a climate model and find that the model-predicted cloud brightness increases too much as aerosols increase because the cloud drop number increases too much. Excessive drizzle in the model mutes this difference. Many differences between observational and model estimates are explained by varying assumptions of how much liquid has been lost in clouds, which impacts the estimated cloud drop number.
Peter Manshausen, Duncan Watson-Parris, Matthew W. Christensen, Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12545–12555, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12545-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12545-2023, 2023
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Aerosol from burning fuel changes cloud properties, e.g., the number of droplets and the content of water. Here, we study how clouds respond to different amounts of shipping aerosol. Droplet numbers increase linearly with increasing aerosol over a broad range until they stop increasing, while the amount of liquid water always increases, independently of emission amount. These changes in cloud properties can make them reflect more or less sunlight, which is important for the earth's climate.
William K. Jones, Martin Stengel, and Philip Stier
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2059, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2059, 2023
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Storm clouds cover large areas of the tropics. These clouds both reflect incoming sunlight and trap heat from the atmosphere below, regulating the temperature of the tropics. Over land, storm clouds occur in the late afternoon and evening, and so exist both during the daytime and at night. Changes in this timing could upset the balance of the respective cooling and heating effects of these clouds. We find that isolated storms have a larger effect on this balance than their small size suggests.
Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Alyson Douglas, Timothy A. Myers, Peer Nowack, Philip Stier, Casey J. Wall, and Sarah Wilson Kemsley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10775–10794, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10775-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10775-2023, 2023
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This study uses an observation-based cloud-controlling factor framework to study near-global sensitivities of cloud radiative effects to a large number of meteorological and aerosol controls. We present near-global sensitivity patterns to selected thermodynamic, dynamic, and aerosol factors and discuss the physical mechanisms underlying the derived sensitivities. Our study hopes to guide future analyses aimed at constraining cloud feedbacks and aerosol–cloud interactions.
G. Alexander Sokolowsky, Sean W. Freeman, William K. Jones, Julia Kukulies, Fabian Senf, Peter J. Marinescu, Max Heikenfeld, Kelcy N. Brunner, Eric C. Bruning, Scott M. Collis, Robert C. Jackson, Gabrielle R. Leung, Nils Pfeifer, Bhupendra A. Raut, Stephen M. Saleeby, Philip Stier, and Susan C. van den Heever
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1722, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1722, 2023
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Building on previous analysis tools developed for atmospheric science, the original release of the Tracking and Object-Based Analysis (tobac) Python package, v1.2, was open-source, modular, and insensitive to the type of gridded input data. Here, we present the latest version of tobac, v1.5, which substantially improves scientific capabilities and computational efficiency from the previous version. These enhancements permit new uses for tobac in atmospheric science and potentially other fields.
Bjorn Stevens, Stefan Adami, Tariq Ali, Hartwig Anzt, Zafer Aslan, Sabine Attinger, Jaana Bäck, Johanna Baehr, Peter Bauer, Natacha Bernier, Bob Bishop, Hendryk Bockelmann, Sandrine Bony, Veronique Bouchet, Guy Brasseur, David N. Bresch, Sean Breyer, Gilbert Brunet, Pier Luigi Buttigieg, Junji Cao, Christelle Castet, Yafang Cheng, Ayantika Dey Choudhury, Deborah Coen, Susanne Crewell, Atish Dabholkar, Qing Dai, Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Dale Durran, Ayoub El Gaidi, Charlie Ewen, Eleftheria Exarchou, Veronika Eyring, Florencia Falkinhoff, David Farrell, Piers M. Forster, Ariane Frassoni, Claudia Frauen, Oliver Fuhrer, Shahzad Gani, Edwin Gerber, Debra Goldfarb, Jens Grieger, Nicolas Gruber, Wilco Hazeleger, Rolf Herken, Chris Hewitt, Torsten Hoefler, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Daniela Jacob, Alexandra Jahn, Christian Jakob, Thomas Jung, Christopher Kadow, In-Sik Kang, Sarah Kang, Karthik Kashinath, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Daniel Klocke, Uta Kloenne, Milan Klöwer, Chihiro Kodama, Stefan Kollet, Tobias Kölling, Jenni Kontkanen, Steve Kopp, Michal Koran, Markku Kulmala, Hanna Lappalainen, Fakhria Latifi, Bryan Lawrence, June Yi Lee, Quentin Lejeun, Christian Lessig, Chao Li, Thomas Lippert, Jürg Luterbacher, Pekka Manninen, Jochem Marotzke, Satoshi Matsouoka, Charlotte Merchant, Peter Messmer, Gero Michel, Kristel Michielsen, Tomoki Miyakawa, Jens Müller, Ramsha Munir, Sandeep Narayanasetti, Ousmane Ndiaye, Carlos Nobre, Achim Oberg, Riko Oki, Tuba Özkan-Haller, Tim Palmer, Stan Posey, Andreas Prein, Odessa Primus, Mike Pritchard, Julie Pullen, Dian Putrasahan, Johannes Quaas, Krishnan Raghavan, Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, Markus Rapp, Florian Rauser, Markus Reichstein, Aromar Revi, Sonakshi Saluja, Masaki Satoh, Vera Schemann, Sebastian Schemm, Christina Schnadt Poberaj, Thomas Schulthess, Cath Senior, Jagadish Shukla, Manmeet Singh, Julia Slingo, Adam Sobel, Silvina Solman, Jenna Spitzer, Detlef Stammer, Philip Stier, Thomas Stocker, Sarah Strock, Hang Su, Petteri Taalas, John Taylor, Susann Tegtmeier, Georg Teutsch, Adrian Tompkins, Uwe Ulbrich, Pier-Luigi Vidale, Chien-Ming Wu, Hao Xu, Najibullah Zaki, Laure Zanna, Tianjun Zhou, and Florian Ziemen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-376, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-376, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
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To manage Earth in the Anthropocene, new tools, new institutions, and new forms of international cooperation will be required. Earth Virtualization Engines are proposed as international federation of centers of excellence to empower all people to respond to the immense and urgent challenges posed by climate change.
Junghwa Lee, Patric Seifert, Tempei Hashino, Maximilian Maahn, Fabian Senf, and Oswald Knoth
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1887, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1887, 2023
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Spectral-bin model simulations of an idealized supercooled stratiform cloud were performed with the AMPS model for variable CCN and INP concentrations. We performed radar forward simulations with PAMTRA to transfer the simulations into radar observational space. The derived radar reflectivity factors were compared to observational studies of stratiform mixed-phase clouds. These studies report a similar response of the radar reflectivity factor to aerosol perturbations as we found in our study.
Fabian Senf, Bernd Heinold, Anne Kubin, Jason Müller, Roland Schrödner, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8939–8958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, 2023
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Wildfire smoke is a significant source of airborne atmospheric particles that can absorb sunlight. Extreme fires in particular, such as those during the 2019–2020 Australian wildfire season (Black Summer fires), can considerably affect our climate system. In the present study, we investigate the various effects of Australian smoke using a global climate model to clarify how the Earth's atmosphere, including its circulation systems, adjusted to the extraordinary amount of Australian smoke.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David M. H. Sexton, Christopher Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John W. Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8749–8768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, 2023
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Aerosol forcing of Earth’s energy balance has persisted as a major cause of uncertainty in climate simulations over generations of climate model development. We show that structural deficiencies in a climate model are exposed by comprehensively exploring parametric uncertainty and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. This provides a future pathway towards building models with greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Ross Herbert and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4595–4616, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, 2023
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We provide robust evidence from multiple sources showing that smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest significantly modifies the diurnal cycle of convection and cools the climate. Low to moderate amounts of smoke increase deep convective clouds and rain, whilst beyond a threshold amount, the smoke starts to suppress the convection and rain. We are currently at this threshold, suggesting increases in fires from agricultural practices or droughts will reduce cloudiness and rain over the region.
Kevin Ohneiser, Albert Ansmann, Jonas Witthuhn, Hartwig Deneke, Alexandra Chudnovsky, Gregor Walter, and Fabian Senf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2901–2925, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2901-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2901-2023, 2023
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This study shows that smoke layers can reach the tropopause via the self-lofting effect within 3–7 d in the absence of pyrocumulonimbus convection if the
aerosol optical thickness is larger than approximately 2 for a longer time period. When reaching the stratosphere, wildfire smoke can sensitively influence the stratospheric composition on a hemispheric scale and thus can affect the Earth’s climate and the ozone layer.
William K. Jones, Matthew W. Christensen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1043–1059, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, 2023
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Geostationary weather satellites have been used to detect storm clouds since their earliest applications. However, this task remains difficult as imaging satellites cannot observe the strong vertical winds that are characteristic of storm clouds. Here we introduce a new method that allows us to detect the early development of storms and continue to track them throughout their lifetime, allowing us to study how their early behaviour affects subsequent weather.
Matthew W. Christensen, Po-Lun Ma, Peng Wu, Adam C. Varble, Johannes Mülmenstädt, and Jerome D. Fast
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2789–2812, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2789-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2789-2023, 2023
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An increase in aerosol concentration (tiny airborne particles) is shown to suppress rainfall and increase the abundance of droplets in clouds passing over Graciosa Island in the Azores. Cloud drops remain affected by aerosol for several days across thousands of kilometers in satellite data. Simulations from an Earth system model show good agreement, but differences in the amount of cloud water and its extent remain despite modifications to model parameters that control the warm-rain process.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David Sexton, Christopher C. Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, 2022
Preprint archived
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We show that potential structural deficiencies in a climate model can be exposed by comprehensively exploring its parametric uncertainty, and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. Combined consideration of parametric and structural uncertainties provides a future pathway towards building models that have greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Johannes Quaas, Hailing Jia, Chris Smith, Anna Lea Albright, Wenche Aas, Nicolas Bellouin, Olivier Boucher, Marie Doutriaux-Boucher, Piers M. Forster, Daniel Grosvenor, Stuart Jenkins, Zbigniew Klimont, Norman G. Loeb, Xiaoyan Ma, Vaishali Naik, Fabien Paulot, Philip Stier, Martin Wild, Gunnar Myhre, and Michael Schulz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12221–12239, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, 2022
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Pollution particles cool climate and offset part of the global warming. However, they are washed out by rain and thus their effect responds quickly to changes in emissions. We show multiple datasets to demonstrate that aerosol emissions and their concentrations declined in many regions influenced by human emissions, as did the effects on clouds. Consequently, the cooling impact on the Earth energy budget became smaller. This change in trend implies a relative warming.
Mariko Oue, Stephen M. Saleeby, Peter J. Marinescu, Pavlos Kollias, and Susan C. van den Heever
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4931–4950, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4931-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4931-2022, 2022
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This study provides an optimization of radar observation strategies to better capture convective cell evolution in clean and polluted environments as well as a technique for the optimization. The suggested optimized radar observation strategy is to better capture updrafts at middle and upper altitudes and precipitation particle evolution of isolated deep convective clouds. This study sheds light on the challenge of designing remote sensing observation strategies in pre-field campaign periods.
Haochi Che, Philip Stier, Duncan Watson-Parris, Hamish Gordon, and Lucia Deaconu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10789–10807, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, 2022
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Extensive stratocumulus clouds over the south-eastern Atlantic (SEA) can lead to a cooling effect on the climate. A key pathway by which aerosols affect cloud properties is by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Here, we investigated the source attribution of CCN in the SEA as well as the cloud responses. Our results show that aerosol nucleation contributes most to CCN in the marine boundary layer. In terms of emissions, anthropogenic sources contribute most to the CCN and cloud droplets.
Bernd Heinold, Holger Baars, Boris Barja, Matthew Christensen, Anne Kubin, Kevin Ohneiser, Kerstin Schepanski, Nick Schutgens, Fabian Senf, Roland Schrödner, Diego Villanueva, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9969–9985, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, 2022
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The extreme 2019–2020 Australian wildfires produced massive smoke plumes lofted into the lower stratosphere by pyrocumulonimbus convection. Most climate models do not adequately simulate the injection height of such intense fires. By combining aerosol-climate modeling with prescribed pyroconvective smoke injection and lidar observations, this study shows the importance of the representation of the most extreme wildfire events for estimating the atmospheric energy budget.
Russell J. Perkins, Peter J. Marinescu, Ezra J. T. Levin, Don R. Collins, and Sonia M. Kreidenweis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6197–6215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6197-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6197-2022, 2022
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We used 5 years (2009–2013) of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) data from a total of seven instruments housed at the Southern Great Plains site, which were merged into a quality-controlled, continuous dataset of CCN spectra at ~45 min resolution. The data cover all seasons, are representative of a rural, agricultural mid-continental site, and are useful for model initialization and validation. Our analysis of this dataset focuses on seasonal and hourly variability.
Cynthia H. Whaley, Rashed Mahmood, Knut von Salzen, Barbara Winter, Sabine Eckhardt, Stephen Arnold, Stephen Beagley, Silvia Becagli, Rong-You Chien, Jesper Christensen, Sujay Manish Damani, Xinyi Dong, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Gregory Faluvegi, Mark Flanner, Joshua S. Fu, Michael Gauss, Fabio Giardi, Wanmin Gong, Jens Liengaard Hjorth, Lin Huang, Ulas Im, Yugo Kanaya, Srinath Krishnan, Zbigniew Klimont, Thomas Kühn, Joakim Langner, Kathy S. Law, Louis Marelle, Andreas Massling, Dirk Olivié, Tatsuo Onishi, Naga Oshima, Yiran Peng, David A. Plummer, Olga Popovicheva, Luca Pozzoli, Jean-Christophe Raut, Maria Sand, Laura N. Saunders, Julia Schmale, Sangeeta Sharma, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Henrik Skov, Fumikazu Taketani, Manu A. Thomas, Rita Traversi, Kostas Tsigaridis, Svetlana Tsyro, Steven Turnock, Vito Vitale, Kaley A. Walker, Minqi Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Tahya Weiss-Gibbons
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5775–5828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5775-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5775-2022, 2022
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Air pollutants, like ozone and soot, play a role in both global warming and air quality. Atmospheric models are often used to provide information to policy makers about current and future conditions under different emissions scenarios. In order to have confidence in those simulations, in this study we compare simulated air pollution from 18 state-of-the-art atmospheric models to measured air pollution in order to assess how well the models perform.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Andrew Williams, Lucia Deaconu, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 7659–7672, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, 2021
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The Earth System Emulator (ESEm) provides a fast and flexible framework for emulating a wide variety of Earth science datasets and tools for constraining (or tuning) models of any complexity. Three distinct use cases are presented that demonstrate the utility of ESEm and provide some insight into the use of machine learning for emulation in these different settings. The open-source Python package is freely available so that it might become a valuable tool for the community.
Maria Sand, Bjørn H. Samset, Gunnar Myhre, Jonas Gliß, Susanne E. Bauer, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, Paul Ginoux, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Philippe Le Sager, Marianne T. Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Twan van Noije, Dirk J. L. Olivié, Samuel Remy, Michael Schulz, Philip Stier, Camilla W. Stjern, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Svetlana G. Tsyro, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15929–15947, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, 2021
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Absorption of shortwave radiation by aerosols can modify precipitation and clouds but is poorly constrained in models. A total of 15 different aerosol models from AeroCom phase III have reported total aerosol absorption, and for the first time, 11 of these models have reported in a consistent experiment the contributions to absorption from black carbon, dust, and organic aerosol. Here, we document the model diversity in aerosol absorption.
Hartwig Deneke, Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Sebastian Bley, Anja Hünerbein, Stephan Lenk, Andreas Macke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Marion Schroedter-Homscheidt, Fabian Senf, Ping Wang, Frank Werner, and Jonas Witthuhn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5107–5126, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5107-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5107-2021, 2021
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The SEVIRI instrument flown on the European geostationary Meteosat satellites acquires multi-spectral images at a relatively coarse pixel resolution of 3 × 3 km2, but it also has a broadband high-resolution visible channel with 1 × 1 km2 spatial resolution. In this study, the modification of an existing cloud property and solar irradiance retrieval to use this channel to improve the spatial resolution of its output products as well as the resulting benefits for applications are described.
Shipeng Zhang, Philip Stier, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10179–10197, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10179-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10179-2021, 2021
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The relationship between aerosol-induced changes in atmospheric energetics and precipitation responses across different scales is studied in terms of fast (radiatively or microphysically mediated) and slow (temperature-mediated) responses. We introduced a method to decompose rainfall changes into contributions from clouds, aerosols, and clear–clean sky from an energetic perspective. It provides a way to better interpret and quantify the precipitation changes caused by aerosol perturbations.
Nick Schutgens, Oleg Dubovik, Otto Hasekamp, Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Peter J. T. Leonard, Pavel Litvinov, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Gerrit de Leeuw, Stefan Kinne, Thomas Popp, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6895–6917, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, 2021
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Absorptive aerosol has a potentially large impact on climate change. We evaluate and intercompare four global satellite datasets of absorptive aerosol optical depth (AAOD) and single-scattering albedo (SSA). We show that these datasets show reasonable correlations with the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) reference, although significant biases remain. In a follow-up paper we show that these observations nevertheless can be used for model evaluation.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
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Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
Jim M. Haywood, Steven J. Abel, Paul A. Barrett, Nicolas Bellouin, Alan Blyth, Keith N. Bower, Melissa Brooks, Ken Carslaw, Haochi Che, Hugh Coe, Michael I. Cotterell, Ian Crawford, Zhiqiang Cui, Nicholas Davies, Beth Dingley, Paul Field, Paola Formenti, Hamish Gordon, Martin de Graaf, Ross Herbert, Ben Johnson, Anthony C. Jones, Justin M. Langridge, Florent Malavelle, Daniel G. Partridge, Fanny Peers, Jens Redemann, Philip Stier, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1049–1084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021, 2021
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Every year, the seasonal cycle of biomass burning from agricultural practices in Africa creates a huge plume of smoke that travels many thousands of kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean. This study provides an overview of a measurement campaign called the cloud–aerosol–radiation interaction and forcing for year 2017 (CLARIFY-2017) and documents the rationale, deployment strategy, observations, and key results from the campaign which utilized the heavily equipped FAAM atmospheric research aircraft.
Haochi Che, Philip Stier, Hamish Gordon, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Lucia Deaconu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17–33, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17-2021, 2021
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The south-eastern Atlantic is semi-permanently covered by some of the largest stratocumulus clouds and is influenced by one-third of the biomass burning emissions from African fires. A UKEMS1 model simulation shows that the absorption effect of biomass burning aerosols is the most significant on clouds and radiation. The dominate cooling and rapid adjustments induced by the radiative effects of biomass burning aerosols result in an overall cooling in the south-eastern Atlantic.
Jane P. Mulcahy, Colin Johnson, Colin G. Jones, Adam C. Povey, Catherine E. Scott, Alistair Sellar, Steven T. Turnock, Matthew T. Woodhouse, Nathan Luke Abraham, Martin B. Andrews, Nicolas Bellouin, Jo Browse, Ken S. Carslaw, Mohit Dalvi, Gerd A. Folberth, Matthew Glover, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Catherine Hardacre, Richard Hill, Ben Johnson, Andy Jones, Zak Kipling, Graham Mann, James Mollard, Fiona M. O'Connor, Julien Palmiéri, Carly Reddington, Steven T. Rumbold, Mark Richardson, Nick A. J. Schutgens, Philip Stier, Marc Stringer, Yongming Tang, Jeremy Walton, Stephanie Woodward, and Andrew Yool
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 6383–6423, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6383-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6383-2020, 2020
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Aerosols are an important component of the Earth system. Here, we comprehensively document and evaluate the aerosol schemes as implemented in the physical and Earth system models, HadGEM3-GC3.1 and UKESM1. This study provides a useful characterisation of the aerosol climatology in both models, facilitating the understanding of the numerous aerosol–climate interaction studies that will be conducted for CMIP6 and beyond.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
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Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Nick Schutgens, Andrew M. Sayer, Andreas Heckel, Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Gerrit de Leeuw, Peter J. T. Leonard, Robert C. Levy, Antti Lipponen, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Thomas Popp, Caroline Poulsen, Virginia Sawyer, Larisa Sogacheva, Gareth Thomas, Omar Torres, Yujie Wang, Stefan Kinne, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12431–12457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, 2020
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We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
Caroline A. Poulsen, Gregory R. McGarragh, Gareth E. Thomas, Martin Stengel, Matthew W. Christensen, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, Elisa Carboni, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2121–2135, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2121-2020, 2020
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We have created a satellite cloud and radiation climatology from the ATSR-2 and AATSR on board ERS-2 and Envisat, respectively, which spans the period 1995–2012. The data set was created using a combination of optimal estimation and neural net techniques. The data set was created as part of the ESA Climate Change Initiative program. The data set has been compared with active CALIOP lidar measurements and compared with MAC-LWP AND CERES-EBAF measurements and is shown to have good performance.
Laura Palacios-Peña, Philip Stier, Raquel Lorente-Plazas, and Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9679–9700, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9679-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9679-2020, 2020
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It is widely known that the impact of aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions on the radiative forcing is subject to large uncertainties. This is mainly due to the lack of understanding of aerosol optical properties and vertical distribution, whose uncertainties come from different processes. This work attempts to quantify the sensitivity of aerosol optical properties and their vertical distribution to key physico-chemical processes.
Gunnar Myhre, Bjørn H. Samset, Christian W. Mohr, Kari Alterskjær, Yves Balkanski, Nicolas Bellouin, Mian Chin, James Haywood, Øivind Hodnebrog, Stefan Kinne, Guangxing Lin, Marianne T. Lund, Joyce E. Penner, Michael Schulz, Nick Schutgens, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8855–8865, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8855-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8855-2020, 2020
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The radiative forcing of the direct aerosol effects can be decomposed into clear-sky and cloudy-sky portions. In this study we use observational methods and two sets of multi-model global aerosol simulations over the industrial era to show that the contribution from cloudy-sky regions is likely weak.
Manuela van Pinxteren, Khanneh Wadinga Fomba, Nadja Triesch, Christian Stolle, Oliver Wurl, Enno Bahlmann, Xianda Gong, Jens Voigtländer, Heike Wex, Tiera-Brandy Robinson, Stefan Barthel, Sebastian Zeppenfeld, Erik Hans Hoffmann, Marie Roveretto, Chunlin Li, Benoit Grosselin, Veronique Daële, Fabian Senf, Dominik van Pinxteren, Malena Manzi, Nicolás Zabalegui, Sanja Frka, Blaženka Gašparović, Ryan Pereira, Tao Li, Liang Wen, Jiarong Li, Chao Zhu, Hui Chen, Jianmin Chen, Björn Fiedler, Wolf von Tümpling, Katie Alana Read, Shalini Punjabi, Alastair Charles Lewis, James Roland Hopkins, Lucy Jane Carpenter, Ilka Peeken, Tim Rixen, Detlef Schulz-Bull, María Eugenia Monge, Abdelwahid Mellouki, Christian George, Frank Stratmann, and Hartmut Herrmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6921–6951, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6921-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6921-2020, 2020
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An introduction to a comprehensive field campaign performed at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory regarding ocean–atmosphere interactions is given. Chemical, physical, biological and meteorological techniques were applied, and measurements of bulk water, the sea surface microlayer, cloud water and ambient aerosol particles took place. Oceanic compounds were found to be transferred to atmospheric aerosol and to the cloud level; however, sea spray contributions to CCN and INPs were limited.
Guy Dagan and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6291–6303, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6291-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6291-2020, 2020
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Ensemble daily simulations for two separate month-long periods over a region near Barbados were conducted to investigate aerosol effects on cloud properties and the atmospheric energy budget. For each day, two simulations were conducted with low and high cloud droplet number concentrations representing clean and polluted conditions, respectively. These simulations are used to distinguish between properties that are robustly affected by changes in aerosol concentrations and those that are not.
Montserrat Costa-Surós, Odran Sourdeval, Claudia Acquistapace, Holger Baars, Cintia Carbajal Henken, Christa Genz, Jonas Hesemann, Cristofer Jimenez, Marcel König, Jan Kretzschmar, Nils Madenach, Catrin I. Meyer, Roland Schrödner, Patric Seifert, Fabian Senf, Matthias Brueck, Guido Cioni, Jan Frederik Engels, Kerstin Fieg, Ksenia Gorges, Rieke Heinze, Pavan Kumar Siligam, Ulrike Burkhardt, Susanne Crewell, Corinna Hoose, Axel Seifert, Ina Tegen, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 5657–5678, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5657-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5657-2020, 2020
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The impact of anthropogenic aerosols on clouds is a key uncertainty in climate change. This study analyses large-domain simulations with a new high-resolution model to investigate the differences in clouds between 1985 and 2013 comparing multiple observational datasets. The differences in aerosol and in cloud droplet concentrations are clearly detectable. For other quantities, the detection and attribution proved difficult, despite a substantial impact on the Earth's energy budget.
Zak Kipling, Laurent Labbouz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4445–4460, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4445-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4445-2020, 2020
Guy Dagan, Philip Stier, Matthew Christensen, Guido Cioni, Daniel Klocke, and Axel Seifert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4523–4544, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4523-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4523-2020, 2020
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In order to better understand the physical processes behind aerosol effects on the atmospheric energy budget, we analyse numerical simulations of tropical cloud systems. Two sets of simulations, at different dates during the NARVAL 2 field campaign, are simulated with different dominant cloud modes. Our results demonstrate that under different environmental conditions, the response of the atmospheric energy budget to aerosol perturbation could be different.
Steven J. Abel, Paul A. Barrett, Paquita Zuidema, Jianhao Zhang, Matt Christensen, Fanny Peers, Jonathan W. Taylor, Ian Crawford, Keith N. Bower, and Michael Flynn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4059–4084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4059-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4059-2020, 2020
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In situ measurements of a free-tropospheric (FT) biomass burning aerosol plume in contact with the boundary layer inversion overriding a pocket of open cells (POC) and surrounding stratiform cloud are presented. The data highlight the contrasting thermodynamic, aerosol and cloud properties in the two cloud regimes and further demonstrate that the cloud regime plays a key role in regulating the flow of FT aerosols into the boundary layer, which has implications for the aerosol indirect effect.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Andrew Gettelman, Florent F. Malavelle, Hugh Morrison, David Neubauer, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Hailong Wang, Minghuai Wang, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 613–623, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-613-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-613-2020, 2020
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Aerosol radiative forcing is a key uncertainty in our understanding of the human forcing of the climate, with much of this uncertainty coming from aerosol impacts on clouds. Observation-based estimates of the radiative forcing are typically smaller than those from global models, but it is not clear if they are more reliable. This work shows how the forcing components in global climate models can be identified, highlighting similarities between the two methods and areas for future investigation.
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Stephan Finkensieper, Benjamin Würzler, Daniel Philipp, Rainer Hollmann, Caroline Poulsen, Matthew Christensen, and Gregory McGarragh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 41–60, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-41-2020, 2020
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The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset contains global, cloud and radiative flux properties covering the period of 1982 to 2016. The properties were retrieved from AVHRR measurements recorded by afternoon satellites of the NOAA POES missions. Validation against CALIOP, BSRN and CERES demonstrates the high quality of the data. The Cloud_cci AVHRR-PMv3 dataset allows for a large variety of climate applications that build on cloud properties, radiative flux properties and/or the link between them.
George Spill, Philip Stier, Paul R. Field, and Guy Dagan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13507–13517, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13507-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13507-2019, 2019
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Shallow convective clouds are among the most common and least understood clouds in the atmosphere. Here we present simulations of realistic, shallow cloud fields in a large domain, in contrast to typical idealised simulations, and find that in these simulations the response to aerosol perturbations is different.
Øivind Hodnebrog, Gunnar Myhre, Bjørn H. Samset, Kari Alterskjær, Timothy Andrews, Olivier Boucher, Gregory Faluvegi, Dagmar Fläschner, Piers M. Forster, Matthew Kasoar, Alf Kirkevåg, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Dirk Olivié, Thomas B. Richardson, Dilshad Shawki, Drew Shindell, Keith P. Shine, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Apostolos Voulgarakis, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12887–12899, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12887-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12887-2019, 2019
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Different greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) and aerosols (e.g. black carbon) impact the Earth’s water cycle differently. Here we investigate how various gases and particles impact atmospheric water vapour and its lifetime, i.e., the average number of days that water vapour stays in the atmosphere after evaporation and before precipitation. We find that this lifetime could increase substantially by the end of this century, indicating that important changes in precipitation patterns are excepted.
Peter J. Marinescu, Ezra J. T. Levin, Don Collins, Sonia M. Kreidenweis, and Susan C. van den Heever
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11985–12006, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11985-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11985-2019, 2019
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We characterized and provided fits for the seasonal aerosol size distributions (7 nm–14 µm diameter) at a North American, long–term surface site (SGP), which can be applied to models. Key cycles on timescales of several hours to weeks were also assessed using power spectra for various aerosol size ranges. One key finding is the consistent presence of diurnal cycles in the smallest particles in each season, providing insights into the formation and roles of new particle formation at SGP.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Nick Schutgens, Carly Reddington, Kirsty J. Pringle, Dantong Liu, James D. Allan, Hugh Coe, Ken S. Carslaw, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11765–11790, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11765-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11765-2019, 2019
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The vertical distribution of aerosol in the atmosphere affects its ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei and changes the amount of sunlight it absorbs or reflects. Common global measurements of aerosol provide no information about this vertical distribution. Using a global collection of in situ aircraft measurements to compare with an aerosol–climate model (ECHAM-HAM), we explore the key processes controlling this distribution and find that wet removal plays a key role.
David Neubauer, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Philip Stier, Daniel G. Partridge, Ina Tegen, Isabelle Bey, Tanja Stanelle, Harri Kokkola, and Ulrike Lohmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 3609–3639, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3609-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3609-2019, 2019
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The global aerosol–climate model ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3 as well as the previous model versions ECHAM5.5–HAM2.0 and ECHAM6.1–HAM2.2 are evaluated. The simulation of clouds has improved in ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3. This has an impact on effective radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions and equilibrium climate sensitivity, which are weaker in ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3 than in the previous model versions.
George S. Fanourgakis, Maria Kanakidou, Athanasios Nenes, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Ken S. Carslaw, Alf Grini, Douglas S. Hamilton, Jill S. Johnson, Vlassis A. Karydis, Alf Kirkevåg, John K. Kodros, Ulrike Lohmann, Gan Luo, Risto Makkonen, Hitoshi Matsui, David Neubauer, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Julia Schmale, Philip Stier, Kostas Tsigaridis, Twan van Noije, Hailong Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, Daniel M. Westervelt, Yang Yang, Masaru Yoshioka, Nikos Daskalakis, Stefano Decesari, Martin Gysel-Beer, Nikos Kalivitis, Xiaohong Liu, Natalie M. Mahowald, Stelios Myriokefalitakis, Roland Schrödner, Maria Sfakianaki, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Mingxuan Wu, and Fangqun Yu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8591–8617, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8591-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8591-2019, 2019
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Effects of aerosols on clouds are important for climate studies but are among the largest uncertainties in climate projections. This study evaluates the skill of global models to simulate aerosol, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNCs). Model results show reduced spread in CDNC compared to CCN due to the negative correlation between the sensitivities of CDNC to aerosol number concentration (air pollution) and updraft velocity (atmospheric dynamics).
Stephanie Fiedler, Stefan Kinne, Wan Ting Katty Huang, Petri Räisänen, Declan O'Donnell, Nicolas Bellouin, Philip Stier, Joonas Merikanto, Twan van Noije, Risto Makkonen, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6821–6841, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6821-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6821-2019, 2019
Ina Tegen, David Neubauer, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Isabelle Bey, Nick Schutgens, Philip Stier, Duncan Watson-Parris, Tanja Stanelle, Hauke Schmidt, Sebastian Rast, Harri Kokkola, Martin Schultz, Sabine Schroeder, Nikos Daskalakis, Stefan Barthel, Bernd Heinold, and Ulrike Lohmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 1643–1677, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1643-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1643-2019, 2019
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We describe a new version of the aerosol–climate model ECHAM–HAM and show tests of the model performance by comparing different aspects of the aerosol distribution with different datasets. The updated version of HAM contains improved descriptions of aerosol processes, including updated emission fields and cloud processes. While there are regional deviations between the model and observations, the model performs well overall.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Tom Goren, Odran Sourdeval, Johannes Quaas, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sudhakar Dipu, Claudia Unglaub, Andrew Gettelman, and Matthew Christensen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5331–5347, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5331-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5331-2019, 2019
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The liquid water path (LWP) is the strongest control on cloud albedo, such that a small change in LWP can have a large radiative impact. By changing the droplet number concentration (Nd) aerosols may be able to change the LWP, but the sign and magnitude of the effect is unclear. This work uses satellite data to investigate the relationship between Nd and LWP at a global scale and in response to large aerosol perturbations, suggesting that a strong decrease in LWP at high Nd may be overestimated.
Max Heikenfeld, Bethan White, Laurent Labbouz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2601–2627, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, 2019
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Aerosols can affect the evolution of deep convective clouds by controlling the cloud droplet number concentration. We perform a detailed analysis of the pathways of such aerosol perturbations through the cloud microphysics in numerical model simulations. By focussing on individually tracked convective cells, we can reveal consistent changes to individual process rates, such as a lifting of freezing and riming, but also major differences between the three different microphysics schemes used.
Michael Weger, Bernd Heinold, Christa Engler, Ulrich Schumann, Axel Seifert, Romy Fößig, Christiane Voigt, Holger Baars, Ulrich Blahak, Stephan Borrmann, Corinna Hoose, Stefan Kaufmann, Martina Krämer, Patric Seifert, Fabian Senf, Johannes Schneider, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17545–17572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, 2018
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The impact of desert dust on cloud formation is investigated for a major Saharan dust event over Europe by interactive regional dust modeling. Dust particles are very efficient ice-nucleating particles promoting the formation of ice crystals in clouds. The simulations show that the observed extensive cirrus development was likely related to the above-average dust load. The interactive dust–cloud feedback in the model significantly improves the agreement with aircraft and satellite observations.
Harri Kokkola, Thomas Kühn, Anton Laakso, Tommi Bergman, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Tero Mielonen, Antti Arola, Scarlet Stadtler, Hannele Korhonen, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Ulrike Lohmann, David Neubauer, Ina Tegen, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Martin G. Schultz, Isabelle Bey, Philip Stier, Nikos Daskalakis, Colette L. Heald, and Sami Romakkaniemi
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 3833–3863, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, 2018
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In this paper we present a global aerosol–chemistry–climate model with the focus on its representation for atmospheric aerosol particles. In the model, aerosols are simulated using the aerosol module SALSA2.0, which in this paper is compared to satellite, ground, and aircraft-based observations of the properties of atmospheric aerosol. Based on this study, the model simulated aerosol properties compare well with the observations.
Gregory R. McGarragh, Caroline A. Poulsen, Gareth E. Thomas, Adam C. Povey, Oliver Sus, Stefan Stapelberg, Cornelia Schlundt, Simon Proud, Matthew W. Christensen, Martin Stengel, Rainer Hollmann, and Roy G. Grainger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3397–3431, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3397-2018, 2018
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Satellites are vital for measuring cloud properties necessary for climate prediction studies. We present a method to retrieve cloud properties from satellite based radiometric measurements. The methodology employed is known as optimal estimation and belongs in the class of statistical inversion methods based on Bayes' theorem. We show, through theoretical retrieval simulations, that the solution is stable and accurate to within 10–20% depending on cloud thickness.
Oliver Sus, Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Gregory McGarragh, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Cornelia Schlundt, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Simon Proud, Matthias Jerg, Roy Grainger, and Rainer Hollmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3373–3396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3373-2018, 2018
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This paper presents a new cloud detection and classification framework, CC4CL. It applies a sophisticated optimal estimation method to derive cloud variables from satellite data of various polar-orbiting platforms and sensors (AVHRR, MODIS, AATSR). CC4CL provides explicit uncertainty quantification and long-term consistency for decadal timeseries at various spatial resolutions. We analysed 5 case studies to show that cloud height estimates are very realistic unless optically thin clouds overlap.
Martin G. Schultz, Scarlet Stadtler, Sabine Schröder, Domenico Taraborrelli, Bruno Franco, Jonathan Krefting, Alexandra Henrot, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Ulrike Lohmann, David Neubauer, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Sebastian Wahl, Harri Kokkola, Thomas Kühn, Sebastian Rast, Hauke Schmidt, Philip Stier, Doug Kinnison, Geoffrey S. Tyndall, John J. Orlando, and Catherine Wespes
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1695–1723, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1695-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1695-2018, 2018
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The chemistry–climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ contains a detailed representation of tropospheric and stratospheric reactive chemistry and state-of-the-art parameterizations of aerosols. It thus allows for detailed investigations of chemical processes in the climate system. Evaluation of the model with various observational data yields good results, but the model has a tendency to produce too much OH in the tropics. This highlights the important interplay between atmospheric chemistry and dynamics.
Albert Ansmann, Franziska Rittmeister, Ronny Engelmann, Sara Basart, Oriol Jorba, Christos Spyrou, Samuel Remy, Annett Skupin, Holger Baars, Patric Seifert, Fabian Senf, and Thomas Kanitz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14987–15006, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14987-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14987-2017, 2017
Martin Stengel, Stefan Stapelberg, Oliver Sus, Cornelia Schlundt, Caroline Poulsen, Gareth Thomas, Matthew Christensen, Cintia Carbajal Henken, Rene Preusker, Jürgen Fischer, Abhay Devasthale, Ulrika Willén, Karl-Göran Karlsson, Gregory R. McGarragh, Simon Proud, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Jan Fokke Meirink, Artem Feofilov, Ralf Bennartz, Jedrzej S. Bojanowski, and Rainer Hollmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 881–904, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-881-2017, 2017
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We present new cloud property datasets based on measurements from the passive imaging satellite sensors AVHRR, MODIS, ATSR2, AATSR and MERIS. Retrieval systems were developed that include cloud detection and cloud typing followed by optimal estimation retrievals of cloud properties (e.g. cloud-top pressure, effective radius, optical thickness, water path). Special features of all datasets are spectral consistency and rigorous uncertainty propagation from pixel-level data to monthly properties.
David Neubauer, Matthew W. Christensen, Caroline A. Poulsen, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13165–13185, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13165-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13165-2017, 2017
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When aerosol particles take up water their number may seem to be increased optically. However if aerosol particles are removed by precipitation (formation) their numbers will decrease. We applied methods to account for such effects in model and satellite data to analyse the change in cloud properties by changes in aerosol particle number. The agreement of model and satellite data improves when these effects are accounted for.
Matthew W. Christensen, David Neubauer, Caroline A. Poulsen, Gareth E. Thomas, Gregory R. McGarragh, Adam C. Povey, Simon R. Proud, and Roy G. Grainger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13151–13164, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13151-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13151-2017, 2017
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The cloud-aerosol pairing algorithm (CAPA) is developed to quantify the impact of near-cloud aerosol retrievals on satellite-based aerosol–cloud statistical relationships. We find that previous satellite-based radiative forcing estimates of aerosol–cloud interactions represented in key climate reports are likely exaggerated by up to 50 % due to including retrieval artefacts in the aerosols located near clouds. It is demonstrated that this retrieval artefact can be corrected in current products.
Maria Sand, Bjørn H. Samset, Yves Balkanski, Susanne Bauer, Nicolas Bellouin, Terje K. Berntsen, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Thomas Diehl, Richard Easter, Steven J. Ghan, Trond Iversen, Alf Kirkevåg, Jean-François Lamarque, Guangxing Lin, Xiaohong Liu, Gan Luo, Gunnar Myhre, Twan van Noije, Joyce E. Penner, Michael Schulz, Øyvind Seland, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Fangqun Yu, Kai Zhang, and Hua Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12197–12218, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12197-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12197-2017, 2017
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The role of aerosols in the changing polar climate is not well understood and the aerosols are poorly constrained in the models. In this study we have compared output from 16 different aerosol models with available observations at both poles. We show that the model median is representative of the observations, but the model spread is large. The Arctic direct aerosol radiative effect over the industrial area is positive during spring due to black carbon and negative during summer due to sulfate.
Bethan White, Edward Gryspeerdt, Philip Stier, Hugh Morrison, Gregory Thompson, and Zak Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12145–12175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12145-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12145-2017, 2017
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Aerosols influence cloud and precipitation by modifying cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNCs). We simulate three different types of convective cloud using two different cloud microphysics parameterisations. The simulated cloud and precipitation depends much more strongly on the choice of microphysics scheme than on CDNC. The uncertainty differs between types of convection. Our results highlight a large uncertainty in cloud and precipitation responses to aerosol in current models.
Nick Schutgens, Svetlana Tsyro, Edward Gryspeerdt, Daisuke Goto, Natalie Weigum, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9761–9780, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9761-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9761-2017, 2017
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We estimate representativeness errors in observations due to mismatching spatio-temporal sampling, on timescales of hours to a year and length scales of 50 to 200 km, for a variety of observing systems (in situ or remote sensing ground sites, satellites with imagers or lidar, etc.) and develop strategies to reduce them. This study is relevant to the use of observations in constructing satellite L3 products, observational intercomparison and model evaluation.
Sarah Taylor, Philip Stier, Bethan White, Stephan Finkensieper, and Martin Stengel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7035–7053, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, 2017
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Variability of convective cloud spans a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and is important for global weather and climate. This study uses satellite data from SEVIRI to quantify the diurnal cycle of cloud top temperatures over a large area. Results indicate that in some regions the diurnal cycle apparent in the observations may be significantly impacted by diurnal variability in the accuracy of the retrieval. These results may interest both the observation and modelling communities.
Adele L. Igel and Susan C. van den Heever
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4599–4609, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4599-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4599-2017, 2017
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We ran simulations of cumulus clouds with bin and bulk microphysics schemes and compared the predicted condensation rates. Differences are predominantly due to the use of a fixed
shapeparameter in bulk models. The shape parameter is poorly constrained by observations and requires further study.
Zak Kipling, Philip Stier, Laurent Labbouz, and Till Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 327–342, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-327-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-327-2017, 2017
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We present the first evaluation of the convective cloud field model (CCFM) in the context of a global climate model. CCFM attempts to address some of the shortcomings of commonly used representations of convection, in particular allowing for physically based aerosol effects on different types of convective cloud. We show that the model performs well overall in the context of the climate model and is thus well placed to study aerosol–convection–climate interactions at the global scale.
Natalie Weigum, Nick Schutgens, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 13619–13639, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13619-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13619-2016, 2016
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We introduce a novel technique to isolate the effect of aerosol variability in models from other sources of variability by varying the resolution of aerosol and trace gas fields while maintaining a constant resolution in the rest of the model.
Our results show that aerosol variability has a large impact on simulating aerosol climate effects, even when meteorology and dynamics are fixed. Processes most affected are gas-phase chemistry and aerosol uptake of water through equilibrium reactions.
Our results show that aerosol variability has a large impact on simulating aerosol climate effects, even when meteorology and dynamics are fixed. Processes most affected are gas-phase chemistry and aerosol uptake of water through equilibrium reactions.
Samuel Lowe, Daniel G. Partridge, David Topping, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10941–10963, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10941-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10941-2016, 2016
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A novel inverse modelling framework is developed for analysing the sensitivity of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to simultaneous perturbations in multiple model parameters at atmospherically relevant humidities. Many parameter interactions are identified and CCN concentrations are found to be relatively insensitive to bulk–surface partitioning, while aerosol concentration, surface tension, composition and solution ideality exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Nick Schutgens, Nicholas Cook, Zak Kipling, Philip Kershaw, Edward Gryspeerdt, Bryan Lawrence, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 3093–3110, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3093-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3093-2016, 2016
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In this paper we describe CIS, a new command line tool for the easy visualization, analysis and comparison of a wide variety of gridded and ungridded data sets used in Earth sciences. Users can now use a single tool to not only view plots of satellite, aircraft, station or model data, but also bring them onto the same spatio-temporal sampling. This allows robust, quantitative comparisons to be made easily. CIS is an open-source project and welcomes input from the community.
Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6595–6607, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6595-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6595-2016, 2016
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Cloud droplets form on suitable nuclei from aerosol emissions. Clouds with more droplets have higher reflectance so that aerosol emissions have a cooling climate effect. Numerous publications of these effects rely on passive satellite remote sensing. In this work I use a self consistent global aerosol model to show that a commonly used assumption (passively retrieved aerosol extinction is a suitable proxy for cloud condensation nuclei) is violated for a significant fraction of the Earth.
Nick A. J. Schutgens, Edward Gryspeerdt, Natalie Weigum, Svetlana Tsyro, Daisuke Goto, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6335–6353, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6335-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6335-2016, 2016
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We show that evaluating global aerosol model data with observations of very different spatial scales (200 vs. 10 km) can lead to large discrepancies, solely due to different spatial sampling. Strategies for reducing these sampling errors are developed and tested using a set of high-resolution model simulations.
Shipeng Zhang, Minghuai Wang, Steven J. Ghan, Aijun Ding, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, David Neubauer, Ulrike Lohmann, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Toshihiko Takeamura, Andrew Gettelman, Hugh Morrison, Yunha Lee, Drew T. Shindell, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, Zak Kipling, and Congbin Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2765–2783, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2765-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2765-2016, 2016
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The variation of aerosol indirect effects (AIE) in several climate models is investigated across different dynamical regimes. Regimes with strong large-scale ascent are shown to be as important as stratocumulus regimes in studying AIE. AIE over regions with high monthly large-scale surface precipitation rate contributes the most to the total aerosol indirect forcing. These results point to the need to reduce the uncertainty in AIE in different dynamical regimes.
Zak Kipling, Philip Stier, Colin E. Johnson, Graham W. Mann, Nicolas Bellouin, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Mian Chin, Thomas Diehl, Steven J. Ghan, Trond Iversen, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Xiaohong Liu, Gan Luo, Twan van Noije, Kirsty J. Pringle, Knut von Salzen, Michael Schulz, Øyvind Seland, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2221–2241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2221-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2221-2016, 2016
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The vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosol is an important factor in its effects on climate. In this study we use a sophisticated model of the many interacting processes affecting aerosol in the atmosphere to show that the vertical distribution is typically dominated by only a few of these processes. Constraining these physical processes may help to reduce the large differences between models. However, the important processes are not always the same for different types of aerosol.
S. Westermann, M. Langer, J. Boike, M. Heikenfeld, M. Peter, B. Etzelmüller, and G. Krinner
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 523–546, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-523-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-523-2016, 2016
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Thawing of permafrost is governed by a complex interplay of different processes, of which only conductive heat transfer is taken into account in most model studies. We present a new land-surface scheme designed for permafrost applications, CryoGrid 3, which constitutes a flexible platform to explore new parameterizations for a range of permafrost processes.
N. A. J. Schutgens, D. G. Partridge, and P. Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 1065–1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1065-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1065-2016, 2016
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When comparing models against observations, researchers often use long-term averages without due regard for the temporal sampling of the underlying data sets.
We study the errors introduced by this practice and show they are often larger than observational errors and comparable to model errors. We further analyse what causes these errors and suggest best practices for eliminating them.
S. E. Chadburn, E. J. Burke, R. L. H. Essery, J. Boike, M. Langer, M. Heikenfeld, P. M. Cox, and P. Friedlingstein
The Cryosphere, 9, 1505–1521, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1505-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1505-2015, 2015
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In this paper we use a global land-surface model to study the dynamics of Arctic permafrost. We examine the impact of new and improved processes in the model, namely soil depth and resolution, organic soils, moss and the representation of snow. These improvements make the simulated soil temperatures and thaw depth significantly more realistic. Simulations under future climate scenarios show that permafrost thaws more slowly in the new model version, but still a large amount is lost by 2100.
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, B. A. White, and Z. Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7557–7570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7557-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7557-2015, 2015
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Wet scavenging generates differences between the aerosol properties in clear-sky scenes (observed by satellites) and cloudy scenes, leading to different
aerosol-precipitation relationships in satellite data and global models. Convective systems usually draw in air from clear-sky regions, but global models have difficulty separating this aerosol from the aerosol in cloudy scenes within a model gridbox. This may prevent models from reproducing the observed aerosol-precipitation relationships.
M. R. Igel and S. C. van den Heever
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-15-15977-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-15-15977-2015, 2015
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Presented in this paper are further results from a recently developed CloudSat tropical deep convective cloud database first detailed in Igel et al (2014). Length scales of the "average" mature tropical deep convective cloud are discussed. These scales are then used to provide insight into the relationship between the upper and lower regions of the cloud. The width of cloud anvil is shown to grow proportionally slower than the width of the rest of the cloud.
S. Chadburn, E. Burke, R. Essery, J. Boike, M. Langer, M. Heikenfeld, P. Cox, and P. Friedlingstein
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1493–1508, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1493-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1493-2015, 2015
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Permafrost, ground that is frozen for 2 or more years, is found extensively in the Arctic. It stores large quantities of carbon, which may be released under climate warming, so it is important to include it in climate models. Here we improve the representation of permafrost in a climate model land-surface scheme, both in the numerical representation of soil and snow, and by adding the effects of organic soils and moss. Site simulations show significantly improved soil temperature and thaw depth.
B. H. Samset, G. Myhre, A. Herber, Y. Kondo, S.-M. Li, N. Moteki, M. Koike, N. Oshima, J. P. Schwarz, Y. Balkanski, S. E. Bauer, N. Bellouin, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, M. Chin, T. Diehl, R. C. Easter, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, A. Kirkevåg, J.-F. Lamarque, G. Lin, X. Liu, J. E. Penner, M. Schulz, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 12465–12477, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12465-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12465-2014, 2014
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Far from black carbon (BC) emission sources, present climate models are unable to reproduce flight measurements. By comparing recent models with data, we find that the atmospheric lifetime of BC may be overestimated in models. By adjusting modeled BC concentrations to measurements in remote regions - over oceans and at high altitudes - we arrive at a reduced estimate for BC radiative forcing over the industrial era.
N. A. J. Schutgens and P. Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11657–11686, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11657-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11657-2014, 2014
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The complexity of the physical and chemical processes effectively turns global aerosol models into black boxes. In an attempt to lift the veil, we present a detailed budget of process contributions (emissions, nucleation, sulfate condensation, coagulation, aging, deposition) in ECHAM5.5-HAM2 across varying length- and timescales. We show a clear hierarchy exists in process importance, that can be used in improving and simplifying the model and for understanding discrepancies with observation.
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, and D. G. Partridge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9677–9694, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9677-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9677-2014, 2014
R. E. L. West, P. Stier, A. Jones, C. E. Johnson, G. W. Mann, N. Bellouin, D. G. Partridge, and Z. Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6369–6393, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6369-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6369-2014, 2014
G. W. Mann, K. S. Carslaw, C. L. Reddington, K. J. Pringle, M. Schulz, A. Asmi, D. V. Spracklen, D. A. Ridley, M. T. Woodhouse, L. A. Lee, K. Zhang, S. J. Ghan, R. C. Easter, X. Liu, P. Stier, Y. H. Lee, P. J. Adams, H. Tost, J. Lelieveld, S. E. Bauer, K. Tsigaridis, T. P. C. van Noije, A. Strunk, E. Vignati, N. Bellouin, M. Dalvi, C. E. Johnson, T. Bergman, H. Kokkola, K. von Salzen, F. Yu, G. Luo, A. Petzold, J. Heintzenberg, A. Clarke, J. A. Ogren, J. Gras, U. Baltensperger, U. Kaminski, S. G. Jennings, C. D. O'Dowd, R. M. Harrison, D. C. S. Beddows, M. Kulmala, Y. Viisanen, V. Ulevicius, N. Mihalopoulos, V. Zdimal, M. Fiebig, H.-C. Hansson, E. Swietlicki, and J. S. Henzing
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 4679–4713, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4679-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4679-2014, 2014
C. Jiao, M. G. Flanner, Y. Balkanski, S. E. Bauer, N. Bellouin, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, K. S. Carslaw, M. Chin, N. De Luca, T. Diehl, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, A. Kirkevåg, D. Koch, X. Liu, G. W. Mann, J. E. Penner, G. Pitari, M. Schulz, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, S. D. Steenrod, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, T. van Noije, Y. Yun, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2399–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2399-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2399-2014, 2014
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, and D. G. Partridge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 1141–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1141-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1141-2014, 2014
B. S. Grandey, P. Stier, R. G. Grainger, and T. M. Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10689–10701, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10689-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10689-2013, 2013
L. A. Lee, K. J. Pringle, C. L. Reddington, G. W. Mann, P. Stier, D. V. Spracklen, J. R. Pierce, and K. S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 8879–8914, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8879-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8879-2013, 2013
Z. Kipling, P. Stier, J. P. Schwarz, A. E. Perring, J. R. Spackman, G. W. Mann, C. E. Johnson, and P. J. Telford
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5969–5986, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5969-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5969-2013, 2013
P. Stier, N. A. J. Schutgens, N. Bellouin, H. Bian, O. Boucher, M. Chin, S. Ghan, N. Huneeus, S. Kinne, G. Lin, X. Ma, G. Myhre, J. E. Penner, C. A. Randles, B. Samset, M. Schulz, T. Takemura, F. Yu, H. Yu, and C. Zhou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3245–3270, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3245-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3245-2013, 2013
B. S. Grandey, P. Stier, and T. M. Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3177–3184, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3177-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3177-2013, 2013
C. A. Randles, S. Kinne, G. Myhre, M. Schulz, P. Stier, J. Fischer, L. Doppler, E. Highwood, C. Ryder, B. Harris, J. Huttunen, Y. Ma, R. T. Pinker, B. Mayer, D. Neubauer, R. Hitzenberger, L. Oreopoulos, D. Lee, G. Pitari, G. Di Genova, J. Quaas, F. G. Rose, S. Kato, S. T. Rumbold, I. Vardavas, N. Hatzianastassiou, C. Matsoukas, H. Yu, F. Zhang, H. Zhang, and P. Lu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2347–2379, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2347-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2347-2013, 2013
B. H. Samset, G. Myhre, M. Schulz, Y. Balkanski, S. Bauer, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, N. Bellouin, T. Diehl, R. C. Easter, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, S. Kinne, A. Kirkevåg, J.-F. Lamarque, G. Lin, X. Liu, J. E. Penner, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2423–2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2423-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2423-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Atmospheric sciences
Modelling wind farm effects in HARMONIE–AROME (cycle 43.2.2) – Part 1: Implementation and evaluation
Analytical and adaptable initial conditions for dry and moist baroclinic waves in the global hydrostatic model OpenIFS (CY43R3)
Challenges of constructing and selecting the “perfect” boundary conditions for the large-eddy simulation model PALM
A machine learning approach for evaluating Southern Ocean cloud radiative biases in a global atmosphere model
Decision Support System version 1.0 (DSS v1.0) for air quality management in Delhi, India
How non-equilibrium aerosol chemistry impacts particle acidity: the GMXe AERosol CHEMistry (GMXe–AERCHEM, v1.0) sub-submodel of MESSy
A grid model for vertical correction of precipitable water vapor over the Chinese mainland and surrounding areas using random forest
MEXPLORER 1.0.0 – a mechanism explorer for analysis and visualization of chemical reaction pathways based on graph theory
Advances and prospects of deep learning for medium-range extreme weather forecasting
An overview of the Western United States Dynamically Downscaled Dataset (WUS-D3)
cloudbandPy 1.0: an automated algorithm for the detection of tropical–extratropical cloud bands
PyRTlib: an educational Python-based library for non-scattering atmospheric microwave radiative transfer computations
Deep learning applied to CO2 power plant emissions quantification using simulated satellite images
Sensitivity of the WRF-Chem v4.4 simulations of ozone and formaldehyde and their precursors to multiple bottom-up emission inventories over East Asia during the KORUS-AQ 2016 field campaign
Optimising urban measurement networks for CO2 flux estimation: a high-resolution observing system simulation experiment using GRAMM/GRAL
Assessment of climate biases in OpenIFS version 43r3 across model horizontal resolutions and time steps
High-resolution multi-scaling of outdoor human thermal comfort and its intra-urban variability based on machine learning
Effects of vertical grid spacing on the climate simulated in the ICON-Sapphire global storm-resolving model
Development of the tangent linear and adjoint models of the global online chemical transport model MPAS-CO2 v7.3
Impacts of updated reaction kinetics on the global GEOS-Chem simulation of atmospheric chemistry
Spatial spin-up of precipitation in limited-area convection-permitting simulations over North America using the CRCM6/GEM5.0 model
Sensitivity of atmospheric rivers to aerosol treatment in regional climate simulations: insights from the AIRA identification algorithm
The implementation of dust mineralogy in COSMO5.05-MUSCAT
Implementation of the ISORROPIA-lite aerosol thermodynamics model into the EMAC chemistry climate model (based on MESSy v2.55): implications for aerosol composition and acidity
Evaluation of surface shortwave downward radiation forecasts by the numerical weather prediction model AROME
GEO4PALM v1.1: an open-source geospatial data processing toolkit for the PALM model system
Modeling collision–coalescence in particle microphysics: numerical convergence of mean and variance of precipitation in cloud simulations using the University of Warsaw Lagrangian Cloud Model (UWLCM) 2.1
Modeling below-cloud scavenging of size-resolved particles in GEM-MACHv3.1
Impacts of a double-moment bulk cloud microphysics scheme (NDW6-G23) on aerosol fields in NICAM.19 with a global 14 km grid resolution
Sensitivity of air quality model responses to emission changes: comparison of results based on four EU inventories through FAIRMODE benchmarking methodology
A simple and realistic aerosol emission approach for use in the Thompson–Eidhammer microphysics scheme in the NOAA UFS Weather Model (version GSL global-24Feb2022)
Representing effects of surface heterogeneity in a multi-plume eddy diffusivity mass flux boundary layer parameterization
On the formation of biogenic secondary organic aerosol in chemical transport models: an evaluation of the WRF-CHIMERE (v2020r2) model with a focus over the Finnish boreal forest
The first application of a numerically exact, higher-order sensitivity analysis approach for atmospheric modelling: implementation of the hyperdual-step method in the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) version 5.3.2
The ddeq Python library for point source quantification from remote sensing images (Version 1.0)
GAN-argcPredNet v2.0: a radar echo extrapolation model based on spatiotemporal process enhancement
Analysis of the GEFS-Aerosols annual budget to better understand aerosol predictions simulated in the model
A model for rapid PM2.5 exposure estimates in wildfire conditions using routinely available data: rapidfire v0.1.3
BoundaryLayerDynamics.jl v1.0: a modern codebase for atmospheric boundary-layer simulations
Investigating Ground-Level Ozone Pollution in Semi-Arid and Arid Regions of Arizona Using WRF-Chem v4.4 Modeling
The wave-age-dependent stress parameterisation (WASP) for momentum and heat turbulent fluxes at sea in SURFEX v8.1
FUME 2.0 – Flexible Universal processor for Modeling Emissions
Assessment of tropospheric ozone products from downscaled CAMS reanalysis and CAMS daily forecast using urban air quality monitoring stations in Iran
Application of regional meteorology and air quality models based on MIPS CPU Platform
Spherical air mass factors in one and two dimensions with SASKTRAN 1.6.0
An improved version of the piecewise parabolic method advection scheme: description and performance assessment in a bidimensional test case with stiff chemistry in toyCTM v1.0.1
INCHEM-Py v1.2: a community box model for indoor air chemistry
Implementation and evaluation of updated photolysis rates in the EMEP MSC-W chemistry-transport model using Cloud-J v7.3e
Representation of atmosphere-induced heterogeneity in land–atmosphere interactions in E3SM–MMFv2
How the meteorological spectral nudging impacts on aerosol radiation clouds interactions?
Jana Fischereit, Henrik Vedel, Xiaoli Guo Larsén, Natalie E. Theeuwes, Gregor Giebel, and Eigil Kaas
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2855–2875, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2855-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2855-2024, 2024
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Wind farms impact local wind and turbulence. To incorporate these effects in weather forecasting, the explicit wake parameterization (EWP) is added to the forecasting model HARMONIE–AROME. We evaluate EWP using flight data above and downstream of wind farms, comparing it with an alternative wind farm parameterization and another weather model. Results affirm the correct implementation of EWP, emphasizing the necessity of accounting for wind farm effects in accurate weather forecasting.
Clément Bouvier, Daan van den Broek, Madeleine Ekblom, and Victoria A. Sinclair
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2961–2986, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2961-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2961-2024, 2024
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An analytical initial background state has been developed for moist baroclinic wave simulation on an aquaplanet and implemented into OpenIFS. Seven parameters can be controlled, which are used to generate the background states and the development of baroclinic waves. The meteorological and numerical stability has been assessed. Resulting baroclinic waves have proven to be realistic and sensitive to the jet's width.
Jelena Radović, Michal Belda, Jaroslav Resler, Kryštof Eben, Martin Bureš, Jan Geletič, Pavel Krč, Hynek Řezníček, and Vladimír Fuka
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2901–2927, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2901-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2901-2024, 2024
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Boundary conditions are of crucial importance for numerical model (e.g., PALM) validation studies and have a large influence on the model results, especially when studying the atmosphere of real, complex, and densely built urban environments. Our experiments with different driving conditions for the large-eddy simulation model PALM show its strong dependency on boundary conditions, which is important for the proper separation of errors coming from the boundary conditions and the model itself.
Sonya L. Fiddes, Marc D. Mallet, Alain Protat, Matthew T. Woodhouse, Simon P. Alexander, and Kalli Furtado
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2641–2662, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2641-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2641-2024, 2024
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In this study we present an evaluation that considers complex, non-linear systems in a holistic manner. This study uses XGBoost, a machine learning algorithm, to predict the simulated Southern Ocean shortwave radiation bias in the ACCESS model using cloud property biases as predictors. We then used a novel feature importance analysis to quantify the role that each cloud bias plays in predicting the radiative bias, laying the foundation for advanced Earth system model evaluation and development.
Gaurav Govardhan, Sachin D. Ghude, Rajesh Kumar, Sumit Sharma, Preeti Gunwani, Chinmay Jena, Prafull Yadav, Shubhangi Ingle, Sreyashi Debnath, Pooja Pawar, Prodip Acharja, Rajmal Jat, Gayatry Kalita, Rupal Ambulkar, Santosh Kulkarni, Akshara Kaginalkar, Vijay K. Soni, Ravi S. Nanjundiah, and Madhavan Rajeevan
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2617–2640, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2617-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2617-2024, 2024
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A newly developed air quality forecasting framework, Decision Support System (DSS), for air quality management in Delhi, India, provides source attribution with numerous emission reduction scenarios besides forecasts. DSS shows that during post-monsoon and winter seasons, Delhi and its neighboring districts contribute to 30 %–40 % each to pollution in Delhi. On average, a 40 % reduction in the emissions in Delhi and the surrounding districts would result in a 24 % reduction in Delhi's pollution.
Simon Rosanka, Holger Tost, Rolf Sander, Patrick Jöckel, Astrid Kerkweg, and Domenico Taraborrelli
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2597–2615, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2597-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2597-2024, 2024
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The capabilities of the Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) are extended to account for non-equilibrium aqueous-phase chemistry in the representation of deliquescent aerosols. When applying the new development in a global simulation, we find that MESSy's bias in modelling routinely observed reduced inorganic aerosol mass concentrations, especially in the United States. Furthermore, the representation of fine-aerosol pH is particularly improved in the marine boundary layer.
Junyu Li, Yuxin Wang, Lilong Liu, Yibin Yao, Liangke Huang, and Feijuan Li
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2569–2581, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2569-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2569-2024, 2024
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In this study, we have developed a model (RF-PWV) to characterize precipitable water vapor (PWV) variation with altitude in the study area. RF-PWV can significantly reduce errors in vertical correction, enhance PWV fusion product accuracy, and provide insights into PWV vertical distribution, thereby contributing to climate research.
Rolf Sander
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2419–2425, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2419-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2419-2024, 2024
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The open-source software MEXPLORER 1.0.0 is presented here. The program can be used to analyze, reduce, and visualize complex chemical reaction mechanisms. The mathematics behind the tool is based on graph theory: chemical species are represented as vertices, and reactions as edges. MEXPLORER is a community model published under the GNU General Public License.
Leonardo Olivetti and Gabriele Messori
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2347–2358, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2347-2024, 2024
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In the last decades, weather forecasting up to 15 d into the future has been dominated by physics-based numerical models. Recently, deep learning models have challenged this paradigm. However, the latter models may struggle when forecasting weather extremes. In this article, we argue for deep learning models specifically designed to handle extreme events, and we propose a foundational framework to develop such models.
Stefan Rahimi, Lei Huang, Jesse Norris, Alex Hall, Naomi Goldenson, Will Krantz, Benjamin Bass, Chad Thackeray, Henry Lin, Di Chen, Eli Dennis, Ethan Collins, Zachary J. Lebo, Emily Slinskey, Sara Graves, Surabhi Biyani, Bowen Wang, Stephen Cropper, and the UCLA Center for Climate Science Team
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2265–2286, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2265-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2265-2024, 2024
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Here, we project future climate across the western United States through the end of the 21st century using a regional climate model, embedded within 16 latest-generation global climate models, to provide the community with a high-resolution physically based ensemble of climate data for use at local scales. Strengths and weaknesses of the data are frankly discussed as we overview the downscaled dataset.
Romain Pilon and Daniela I. V. Domeisen
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2247–2264, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2247-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2247-2024, 2024
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This paper introduces a new method for detecting atmospheric cloud bands to identify long convective cloud bands that extend from the tropics to the midlatitudes. The algorithm allows for easy use and enables researchers to study the life cycle and climatology of cloud bands and associated rainfall. This method provides insights into the large-scale processes involved in cloud band formation and their connections between different regions, as well as differences across ocean basins.
Salvatore Larosa, Domenico Cimini, Donatello Gallucci, Saverio Teodosio Nilo, and Filomena Romano
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2053–2076, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2053-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2053-2024, 2024
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PyRTlib is an attractive educational tool because it provides a flexible and user-friendly way to broadly simulate how electromagnetic radiation travels through the atmosphere as it interacts with atmospheric constituents (such as gases, aerosols, and hydrometeors). PyRTlib is a so-called radiative transfer model; these are commonly used to simulate and understand remote sensing observations from ground-based, airborne, or satellite instruments.
Joffrey Dumont Le Brazidec, Pierre Vanderbecken, Alban Farchi, Grégoire Broquet, Gerrit Kuhlmann, and Marc Bocquet
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1995–2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1995-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1995-2024, 2024
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Our research presents an innovative approach to estimating power plant CO2 emissions from satellite images of the corresponding plumes such as those from the forthcoming CO2M satellite constellation. The exploitation of these images is challenging due to noise and meteorological uncertainties. To overcome these obstacles, we use a deep learning neural network trained on simulated CO2 images. Our method outperforms alternatives, providing a positive perspective for the analysis of CO2M images.
Kyoung-Min Kim, Si-Wan Kim, Seunghwan Seo, Donald R. Blake, Seogju Cho, James H. Crawford, Louisa K. Emmons, Alan Fried, Jay R. Herman, Jinkyu Hong, Jinsang Jung, Gabriele G. Pfister, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Jung-Hun Woo, and Qiang Zhang
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1931–1955, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1931-2024, 2024
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Three emission inventories were evaluated for East Asia using data acquired during a field campaign in 2016. The inventories successfully reproduced the daily variations of ozone and nitrogen dioxide. However, the spatial distributions of model ozone did not fully agree with the observations. Additionally, all simulations underestimated carbon monoxide and volatile organic compound (VOC) levels. Increasing VOC emissions over South Korea resulted in improved ozone simulations.
Sanam Noreen Vardag and Robert Maiwald
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1885–1902, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1885-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1885-2024, 2024
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We use the atmospheric transport model GRAMM/GRAL in a Bayesian inversion to estimate urban CO2 emissions on a neighbourhood scale. We analyse the effect of varying number, precision and location of CO2 sensors for CO2 flux estimation. We further test the inclusion of co-emitted species and correlation in the inversion. The study showcases the general usefulness of GRAMM/GRAL in measurement network design.
Abhishek Savita, Joakim Kjellsson, Robin Pilch Kedzierski, Mojib Latif, Tabea Rahm, Sebastian Wahl, and Wonsun Park
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1813–1829, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1813-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1813-2024, 2024
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The OpenIFS model is used to examine the impact of horizontal resolutions (HR) and model time steps. We find that the surface wind biases over the oceans, in particular the Southern Ocean, are sensitive to the model time step and HR, with the HR having the smallest biases. When using a coarse-resolution model with a shorter time step, a similar improvement is also found. Climate biases can be reduced in the OpenIFS model at a cheaper cost by reducing the time step rather than increasing the HR.
Ferdinand Briegel, Jonas Wehrle, Dirk Schindler, and Andreas Christen
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1667–1688, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1667-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1667-2024, 2024
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We present a new approach to model heat stress in cities using artificial intelligence (AI). We show that the AI model is fast in terms of prediction but accurate when evaluated with measurements. The fast-predictive AI model enables several new potential applications, including heat stress prediction and warning; downscaling of potential future climates; evaluation of adaptation effectiveness; and, more fundamentally, development of guidelines to support urban planning and policymaking.
Hauke Schmidt, Sebastian Rast, Jiawei Bao, Amrit Cassim, Shih-Wei Fang, Diego Jimenez-de la Cuesta, Paul Keil, Lukas Kluft, Clarissa Kroll, Theresa Lang, Ulrike Niemeier, Andrea Schneidereit, Andrew I. L. Williams, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1563–1584, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, 2024
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A recent development in numerical simulations of the global atmosphere is the increase in horizontal resolution to grid spacings of a few kilometers. However, the vertical grid spacing of these models has not been reduced at the same rate as the horizontal grid spacing. Here, we assess the effects of much finer vertical grid spacings, in particular the impacts on cloud quantities and the atmospheric energy balance.
Tao Zheng, Sha Feng, Jeffrey Steward, Xiaoxu Tian, David Baker, and Martin Baxter
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1543–1562, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1543-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1543-2024, 2024
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The tangent linear and adjoint models have been successfully implemented in the MPAS-CO2 system, which has undergone rigorous accuracy testing. This development lays the groundwork for a global carbon flux data assimilation system, which offers the flexibility of high-resolution focus on specific areas, while maintaining a coarser resolution elsewhere. This approach significantly reduces computational costs and is thus perfectly suited for future CO2 geostationery and imager satellites.
Kelvin H. Bates, Mathew J. Evans, Barron H. Henderson, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1511–1524, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1511-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1511-2024, 2024
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Accurate representation of rates and products of chemical reactions in atmospheric models is crucial for simulating concentrations of pollutants and climate forcers. We update the widely used GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model with reaction parameters from recent compilations of experimental data and demonstrate the implications for key atmospheric chemical species. The updates decrease tropospheric CO mixing ratios and increase stratospheric nitrogen oxide mixing ratios, among other changes.
François Roberge, Alejandro Di Luca, René Laprise, Philippe Lucas-Picher, and Julie Thériault
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1497–1510, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1497-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1497-2024, 2024
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Our study addresses a challenge in dynamical downscaling using regional climate models, focusing on the lack of small-scale features near the boundaries. We introduce a method to identify this “spatial spin-up” in precipitation simulations. Results show spin-up distances up to 300 km, varying by season and driving variable. Double nesting with comprehensive variables (e.g. microphysical variables) offers advantages. Findings will help optimize simulations for better climate projections.
Eloisa Raluy-López, Juan Pedro Montávez, and Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1469–1495, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1469-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1469-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric rivers (ARs) represent a significant source of water but are also related to extreme precipitation events. Here, we present a new regional-scale AR identification algorithm and apply it to three simulations that include aerosol interactions at different levels. The results show that aerosols modify the intensity and trajectory of ARs and redistribute the AR-related precipitation. Thus, the correct inclusion of aerosol effects is important in the simulation of AR behavior.
Sofía Gómez Maqueo Anaya, Dietrich Althausen, Matthias Faust, Holger Baars, Bernd Heinold, Julian Hofer, Ina Tegen, Albert Ansmann, Ronny Engelmann, Annett Skupin, Birgit Heese, and Kerstin Schepanski
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1271–1295, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1271-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1271-2024, 2024
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Mineral dust aerosol particles vary greatly in their composition depending on source region, which leads to different physicochemical properties. Most atmosphere–aerosol models consider mineral dust aerosols to be compositionally homogeneous, which ultimately increases model uncertainty. Here, we present an approach to explicitly consider the heterogeneity of the mineralogical composition for simulations of the Saharan atmospheric dust cycle with regard to dust transport towards the Atlantic.
Alexandros Milousis, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Holger Tost, Spyros N. Pandis, Athanasios Nenes, Astrid Kiendler-Scharr, and Vlassis A. Karydis
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1111–1131, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1111-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1111-2024, 2024
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This study aims to evaluate the newly developed ISORROPIA-lite aerosol thermodynamic module within the EMAC model and explore discrepancies in global atmospheric simulations of aerosol composition and acidity by utilizing different aerosol phase states. Even though local differences were found in regions where the RH ranged from 20 % to 60 %, on a global scale the results are similar. Therefore, ISORROPIA-lite can be a reliable and computationally effective alternative to ISORROPIA II in EMAC.
Marie-Adèle Magnaldo, Quentin Libois, Sébastien Riette, and Christine Lac
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1091–1109, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1091-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1091-2024, 2024
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With the worldwide development of the solar energy sector, the need for reliable solar radiation forecasts has significantly increased. However, meteorological models that predict, among others things, solar radiation have errors. Therefore, we wanted to know in which situtaions these errors are most significant. We found that errors mostly occur in cloudy situations, and different errors were highlighted depending on the cloud altitude. Several potential sources of errors were identified.
Dongqi Lin, Jiawei Zhang, Basit Khan, Marwan Katurji, and Laura E. Revell
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 815–845, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-815-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-815-2024, 2024
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GEO4PALM is an open-source tool to generate static input for the Parallelized Large-Eddy Simulation (PALM) model system. Geospatial static input is essential for realistic PALM simulations. However, existing tools fail to generate PALM's geospatial static input for most regions. GEO4PALM is compatible with diverse geospatial data sources and provides access to free data sets. In addition, this paper presents two application examples, which show successful PALM simulations using GEO4PALM.
Piotr Zmijewski, Piotr Dziekan, and Hanna Pawlowska
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 759–780, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-759-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-759-2024, 2024
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In computer simulations of clouds it is necessary to model the myriad of droplets that constitute a cloud. A popular method for this is to use so-called super-droplets (SDs), each representing many real droplets. It has remained a challenge to model collisions of SDs. We study how precipitation in a cumulus cloud depends on the number of SDs. Surprisingly, we do not find convergence in mean precipitation even for numbers of SDs much larger than typically used in simulations.
Roya Ghahreman, Wanmin Gong, Paul A. Makar, Alexandru Lupu, Amanda Cole, Kulbir Banwait, Colin Lee, and Ayodeji Akingunola
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 685–707, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-685-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-685-2024, 2024
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The article explores the impact of different representations of below-cloud scavenging on model biases. A new scavenging scheme and precipitation-phase partitioning improve the model's performance, with better SO42- scavenging and wet deposition of NO3- and NH4+.
Daisuke Goto, Tatsuya Seiki, Kentaroh Suzuki, Hisashi Yashiro, and Toshihiko Takemura
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 651–684, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-651-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-651-2024, 2024
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Global climate models with coarse grid sizes include uncertainties about the processes in aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions. To reduce these uncertainties, here we performed numerical simulations using a new version of our global aerosol transport model with a finer grid size over a longer period than in our previous study. As a result, we found that the cloud microphysics module influences the aerosol distributions through both aerosol wet deposition and aerosol–cloud interactions.
Alexander de Meij, Cornelis Cuvelier, Philippe Thunis, Enrico Pisoni, and Bertrand Bessagnet
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 587–606, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-587-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-587-2024, 2024
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In our study the robustness of the model responses to emission reductions in the EU is assessed when the emission data are changed. Our findings are particularly important to better understand the uncertainties associated to the emission inventories and how these uncertainties impact the level of accuracy of the resulting air quality modelling, which is a key for designing air quality plans. Also crucial is the choice of indicator to avoid misleading interpretations of the results.
Haiqin Li, Georg A. Grell, Ravan Ahmadov, Li Zhang, Shan Sun, Jordan Schnell, and Ning Wang
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 607–619, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-607-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-607-2024, 2024
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We developed a simple and realistic method to provide aerosol emissions for aerosol-aware microphysics in a numerical weather forecast model. The cloud-radiation differences between the experimental (EXP) and control (CTL) experiments responded to the aerosol differences. The strong positive precipitation biases over North America and Europe from the CTL run were significantly reduced in the EXP run. This study shows that a realistic representation of aerosol emissions should be considered.
Nathan Patrick Arnold
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-245, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-245, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
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Earth System Models often represent the land surface at smaller scales than the atmosphere, but surface-atmosphere coupling uses only aggregated surface properties. This study presents a method to allow heterogeneous surface properties to modify boundary layer updrafts. The method is tested in single column experiments. Updraft properties are found to reasonably covary with surface conditions, and simulated boundary layer variability is enhanced over more heterogeneous land surfaces.
Giancarlo Ciarelli, Sara Tahvonen, Arineh Cholakian, Manuel Bettineschi, Bruno Vitali, Tuukka Petäjä, and Federico Bianchi
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 545–565, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-545-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-545-2024, 2024
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The terrestrial ecosystem releases large quantities of biogenic gases in the Earth's Atmosphere. These gases can effectively be converted into so-called biogenic aerosol particles and, eventually, affect the Earth's climate. Climate prediction varies greatly depending on how these processes are represented in model simulations. In this study, we present a detailed model evaluation analysis aimed at understanding the main source of uncertainty in predicting the formation of biogenic aerosols.
Jiachen Liu, Eric Chen, and Shannon L. Capps
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 567–585, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-567-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-567-2024, 2024
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Air pollution harms human life and ecosystems, but its sources are complex. Scientists and policy makers use air pollution models to advance knowledge and inform control strategies. We implemented a recently developed numeral system to relate any set of model inputs, like pollutant emissions from a given activity, to all model outputs, like concentrations of pollutants harming human health. This approach will be straightforward to update when scientists discover new processes in the atmosphere.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Erik F. M. Koene, Sandro Meier, Diego Santaren, Grégoire Broquet, Frédéric Chevallier, Janne Hakkarainen, Janne Nurmela, Laia Amorós, Johanna Tamminen, and Dominik Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2936, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2936, 2024
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We present a Python software library for data-driven emission quantification (ddeq). It can be used to determine the emissions of hot spots (cities, power plants and industry) from remote sensing images using different methods. ddeq can be extended for new datasets and methods, providing a powerful community tool for users and developers. The application of the methods is shown using Jupyter Notebooks included in the library.
Kun Zheng, Qiya Tan, Huihua Ruan, Jinbiao Zhang, Cong Luo, Siyu Tang, Yunlei Yi, Yugang Tian, and Jianmei Cheng
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 399–413, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-399-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-399-2024, 2024
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Radar echo extrapolation is the common method in precipitation nowcasting. Deep learning has potential in extrapolation. However, the existing models have low prediction accuracy for heavy rainfall. In this study, the prediction accuracy is improved by suppressing the blurring effect of rain distribution and reducing the negative bias. The results show that our model has better performance, which is useful for urban operation and flood prevention.
Li Pan, Partha S. Bhattacharjee, Li Zhang, Raffaele Montuoro, Barry Baker, Jeff McQueen, Georg A. Grell, Stuart A. McKeen, Shobha Kondragunta, Xiaoyang Zhang, Gregory J. Frost, Fanglin Yang, and Ivanka Stajner
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 431–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-431-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-431-2024, 2024
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A GEFS-Aerosols simulation was conducted from 1 September 2019 to 30 September 2020 to evaluate the model performance of GEFS-Aerosols. The purpose of this study was to understand how aerosol chemical and physical processes affect ambient aerosol concentrations by placing aerosol wet deposition, dry deposition, reactions, gravitational deposition, and emissions into the aerosol mass balance equation.
Sean Raffuse, Susan O'Neill, and Rebecca Schmidt
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 381–397, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-381-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-381-2024, 2024
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Large wildfires are increasing throughout the western United States, and wildfire smoke is hazardous to public health. We developed a suite of tools called rapidfire for estimating particle pollution during wildfires using routinely available data sets. rapidfire uses official air monitoring, satellite data, meteorology, smoke modeling, and low-cost sensors. Estimates from rapidfire compare well with ground monitors and are being used in public health studies across California.
Manuel F. Schmid, Marco G. Giometto, Gregory A. Lawrence, and Marc B. Parlange
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 321–333, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-321-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-321-2024, 2024
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Turbulence-resolving flow models have strict performance requirements, as simulations often run for weeks using hundreds of processes. Many flow scenarios also require the flexibility to modify physical and numerical models for problem-specific requirements. With a new code written in Julia we hope to make such adaptations easier without compromising on performance. In this paper we discuss the modeling approach and present validation and performance results.
Yafang Guo, Chayan Roychoudhury, Mohammad Amin Mirrezaei, Rajesh Kumar, Armin Sorooshian, and Avelino F. Arellano
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-234, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-234, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
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This research focuses on surface ozone (O3) pollution in Arizona, a historically air quality-challenged arid/semi-arid region in the US. The unique characteristics of semi-arid/arid regions, e.g., intense heat, minimal moisture, persistent desert shrubs, play a vital role in comprehending O3 exceedances. Using the WRF-Chem model, we analyzed O3 levels in the pre-monsoon month, revealing the model's skill in capturing diurnal and MDA8 O3 levels.
Marie-Noëlle Bouin, Cindy Lebeaupin Brossier, Sylvie Malardel, Aurore Voldoire, and César Sauvage
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 117–141, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-117-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-117-2024, 2024
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In numerical models, the turbulent exchanges of heat and momentum at the air–sea interface are not represented explicitly but with parameterisations depending on the surface parameters. A new parameterisation of turbulent fluxes (WASP) has been implemented in the surface model SURFEX v8.1 and validated on four case studies. It combines a close fit to observations including cyclonic winds, a dependency on the wave growth rate, and the possibility of being used in atmosphere–wave coupled models.
Michal Belda, Nina Benešová, Jaroslav Resler, Peter Huszár, Ondřej Vlček, Pavel Krč, Jan Karlický, Pavel Juruš, and Kryštof Eben
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2740, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2740, 2024
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For modeling atmospheric chemistry, it is necessary to provide data on emissions of pollutants. These can come from various sources and in various forms and preprocessing of the data to be ingestible by chemistry models can be quite challenging. We developed the FUME processor to use a database layer that internally transforms all input data into a rigid structure facilitating further processing to allow emission processing from continental to street scale.
Najmeh Kaffashzadeh and Abbas Ali Aliakbari Bidokhti
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-226, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-226, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
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Reanalysis data have been widely used as an initial condition for the daily forecast of the atmosphere or boundary conditions in regional models, for the study of climate change, and as proxies to complement insufficient in situ measurements. This paper assesses the capability of two state-of-the-art global datasets in simulating surface ozone over Iran using a new methodology.
Zehua Bai, Qizhong Wu, Kai Cao, Yiming Sun, and Huaqiong Cheng
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2962, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2962, 2024
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There are relatively limited researches on the application of scientific computing on RISC CPU platforms. The MIPS architecture CPUs, a type of RISC CPU, have distinct advantages in energy efficiency and scalability. In this study, the air quality modeling system can run stably on MIPS CPU platform, and the experiment results verify the stability of scientific computing on the platform. The work provides a technical foundation for the scientific application based on MIPS CPU platforms.
Lukas Fehr, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Daniel Zawada, Doug Degenstein, and Adam Bourassa
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7491–7507, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, 2023
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This work highlights upgrades to SASKTRAN, a model that simulates sunlight interacting with the atmosphere to help measure trace gases. The upgrades were verified by detailed comparisons between different numerical methods. A case study was performed using SASKTRAN’s multidimensional capabilities, which found that ignoring horizontal variation in the atmosphere (a common practice in the field) can introduce non-negligible errors where there is snow or high pollution.
Sylvain Mailler, Romain Pennel, Laurent Menut, and Arineh Cholakian
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7509–7526, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7509-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7509-2023, 2023
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We show that a new advection scheme named PPM + W (piecewise parabolic method + Walcek) offers geoscientific modellers an alternative, high-performance scheme designed for Cartesian-grid advection, with improved performance over the classical PPM scheme. The computational cost of PPM + W is not higher than that of PPM. With improved accuracy and controlled computational cost, this new scheme may find applications in chemistry-transport models, ocean models or atmospheric circulation models.
David R. Shaw, Toby J. Carter, Helen L. Davies, Ellen Harding-Smith, Elliott C. Crocker, Georgia Beel, Zixu Wang, and Nicola Carslaw
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7411–7431, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7411-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7411-2023, 2023
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Exposure to air pollution is one of the greatest risks to human health, and it is indoors, where we spend upwards of 90 % of our time, that our exposure is greatest. The INdoor CHEMical model in Python (INCHEM-Py) is a new, community-led box model that tracks the evolution and fate of atmospheric chemical pollutants indoors. We have shown the processes simulated by INCHEM-Py, its ability to model experimental data and how it may be used to develop further understanding of indoor air chemistry.
Willem E. van Caspel, David Simpson, Jan Eiof Jonson, Anna M. K. Benedictow, Yao Ge, Alcide di Sarra, Giandomenico Pace, Massimo Vieno, Hannah L. Walker, and Mathew R. Heal
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7433–7459, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7433-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7433-2023, 2023
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Radiation coming from the sun is essential to atmospheric chemistry, driving the breakup, or photodissociation, of atmospheric molecules. This in turn affects the chemical composition and reactivity of the atmosphere. The representation of photodissociation effects is therefore essential in atmospheric chemistry modeling. One such model is the EMEP MSC-W model, for which a new way of calculating the photodissociation rates is tested and evaluated in this paper.
Jungmin Lee, Walter M. Hannah, and David C. Bader
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7275–7287, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7275-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7275-2023, 2023
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Representing accurate land–atmosphere interaction processes is overlooked in weather and climate models. In this study, we propose three methods to represent land–atmosphere coupling in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) with the Multi-scale Modeling Framework (MMF) approach. In this study, we introduce spatially homogeneous and heterogeneous land–atmosphere interaction processes within the cloud-resolving model domain. Our 5-year simulations reveal only small differences.
Laurent Menut, Bertrand Bessagnet, Arineh Cholakian, Guillaume Siour, Sylvain Mailler, and Romain Pennel
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-209, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-209, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for GMD
Short summary
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This study is about the modelling of the atmospheric composition in Europe and during the summer 2022, when massive wildfires were observed. It is a sensitivity study dedicated to the relative impact of two modelling processes able to modify the meteorology used for the calculation of the atmospheric chemistry and transport of pollutants.
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Short summary
We present tobac (Tracking and Object-Based Analysis of Clouds), a newly developed framework for tracking and analysing clouds in different types of datasets. It provides a flexible new way to include the evolution of individual clouds in a wide range of analyses. It is developed as a community project to provide a common basis for the inclusion of existing tracking algorithms and the development of new analyses that involve tracking clouds and other features in geoscientific research.
We present tobac (Tracking and Object-Based Analysis of Clouds), a newly developed framework for...