Understanding changes in cloud simulations from E3SM version 1 to version 2

Zhang, Yuying; Xie, Shaocheng; Qin, Yi; Lin, Wuyin; Golaz, Jean-Christophe; Zheng, Xue; Ma, Po-Lun; Qian, Yun; Tang, Qi; Terai, Christopher R.; Zhang, Meng

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-169-2024

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-169-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-169-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

Model evaluation paper

|

10 Jan 2024

Model evaluation paper |

| 10 Jan 2024

Understanding changes in cloud simulations from E3SM version 1 to version 2

Yuying Zhang, Shaocheng Xie, Yi Qin, Wuyin Lin, Jean-Christophe Golaz, Xue Zheng, Po-Lun Ma, Yun Qian, Qi Tang, Christopher R. Terai, and Meng Zhang

Data sets

E3SMv2 cloud evaluation with COSP Y. Zhang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8021851

CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) TOA and Surface Monthly means data in netCDF Edition 4.1 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/TERRA-AQUA/CERES/EBAF_L3B.004.1

Model code and software

Energy Exascale Earth System Model v1.0 E3SM Project, DOE https://doi.org/10.11578/E3SM/dc.20180418.36

Energy Exascale Earth System Model v2.0 E3SM Project, DOE https://doi.org/10.11578/E3SM/dc.20210927.1

Short summary

We performed systematic evaluation of clouds simulated in the Energy
Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv2) to document model performance and understand what updates in E3SMv2 have caused changes in clouds from E3SMv1 to E3SMv2. We find that stratocumulus clouds along the subtropical west coast of continents are dramatically improved, primarily due to the retuning done in CLUBB. This study offers additional insights into clouds simulated in E3SMv2 and will benefit future E3SM developments.