Articles | Volume 17, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-6319-2024
© Author(s) 2024. 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-17-6319-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Deep-learning-driven simulations of boundary layer clouds over the Southern Great Plains
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
Yunyan Zhang
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
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Planetary boundary layer height (PBLHT) is an important parameter in atmospheric process studies and numerical model simulations. We use machine learning methods to produce a best-estimate planetary boundary layer height (PBLHT-BE-ML) by integrating four PBLHT estimates derived from remote sensing measurements. We demonstrated that PBLHT-BE-ML greatly improved the comparisons against sounding-derived PBLHT.
Tianning Su and Yunyan Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6477–6493, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6477-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6477-2024, 2024
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The planetary boundary layer is critical to our climate system. This study uses a deep learning approach to estimate the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) from conventional meteorological measurements. By training data from comprehensive field observations, our model examines the influence of various meteorological factors on PBLH and demonstrates effectiveness across different scenarios, offering a reliable tool for understanding boundary layer dynamics.
Tianning Su, Youtong Zheng, and Zhanqing Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1453–1466, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, 2022
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To enrich our understanding of coupling of continental clouds, we developed a novel methodology to determine cloud coupling state from a lidar and a suite of surface meteorological instruments. This method is built upon advancement in our understanding of fundamental boundary layer processes and clouds. As the first remote sensing method for determining the coupling state of low clouds over land, this methodology paves a solid ground for further investigating the coupled land–atmosphere system.
Jianping Guo, Jian Zhang, Kun Yang, Hong Liao, Shaodong Zhang, Kaiming Huang, Yanmin Lv, Jia Shao, Tao Yu, Bing Tong, Jian Li, Tianning Su, Steve H. L. Yim, Ad Stoffelen, Panmao Zhai, and Xiaofeng Xu
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The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere, and boundary layer height (BLH) is the depth of the PBL and is of critical importance to the dispersion of air pollution. The study presents the first near-global BLH climatology by using high-resolution (5-10 m) radiosonde measurements. The variations in BLH exhibit large spatial and temporal dependence, with a peak at 17:00 local solar time. The most promising reanalysis product is ERA-5 in terms of modeling BLH.
Pratapaditya Ghosh, Xue Zheng, Hassan Beydoun, Peter Bogenschutz, and Yunyan Zhang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3700, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3700, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Marine low clouds play a crucial role in cooling Earth by reflecting sunlight, but storm-resolving models struggle to simulate them accurately. Using ship-based observations and machine learning, we identify which parameter combinations best reduce errors across different cloud types. We find that fixes effective for thick stratocumulus clouds do not work equally well for broken cumulus clouds, suggesting that improving these models requires different strategies for different cloud regimes.
Peter A. Bogenschutz, Yunyan Zhang, Hsi-Yen Ma, Cheng Tao, and Shaocheng Xie
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3667, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3667, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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Weather and climate models are often tested using simplified simulations that prescribe exchanges between the land and atmosphere. We developed a method that allows these interactions to evolve naturally and evaluated it using observations from field sites in the United States and Brazil. We found that realistic land-atmosphere interactions are important for reproducing temperature and cloud biases, while many rainfall errors originate within the atmosphere model itself.
Damao Zhang, Jennifer Comstock, Chitra Sivaraman, Kefei Mo, Raghavendra Krishnamurthy, Jingjing Tian, Tianning Su, Zhanqing Li, and Natalia Roldán-Henao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3453–3475, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3453-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3453-2025, 2025
Short summary
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Planetary boundary layer height (PBLHT) is an important parameter in atmospheric process studies and numerical model simulations. We use machine learning methods to produce a best-estimate planetary boundary layer height (PBLHT-BE-ML) by integrating four PBLHT estimates derived from remote sensing measurements. We demonstrated that PBLHT-BE-ML greatly improved the comparisons against sounding-derived PBLHT.
Tianning Su and Yunyan Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6477–6493, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6477-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6477-2024, 2024
Short summary
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The planetary boundary layer is critical to our climate system. This study uses a deep learning approach to estimate the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) from conventional meteorological measurements. By training data from comprehensive field observations, our model examines the influence of various meteorological factors on PBLH and demonstrates effectiveness across different scenarios, offering a reliable tool for understanding boundary layer dynamics.
Qi Tang, Jean-Christophe Golaz, Luke P. Van Roekel, Mark A. Taylor, Wuyin Lin, Benjamin R. Hillman, Paul A. Ullrich, Andrew M. Bradley, Oksana Guba, Jonathan D. Wolfe, Tian Zhou, Kai Zhang, Xue Zheng, Yunyan Zhang, Meng Zhang, Mingxuan Wu, Hailong Wang, Cheng Tao, Balwinder Singh, Alan M. Rhoades, Yi Qin, Hong-Yi Li, Yan Feng, Yuying Zhang, Chengzhu Zhang, Charles S. Zender, Shaocheng Xie, Erika L. Roesler, Andrew F. Roberts, Azamat Mametjanov, Mathew E. Maltrud, Noel D. Keen, Robert L. Jacob, Christiane Jablonowski, Owen K. Hughes, Ryan M. Forsyth, Alan V. Di Vittorio, Peter M. Caldwell, Gautam Bisht, Renata B. McCoy, L. Ruby Leung, and David C. Bader
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 3953–3995, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3953-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3953-2023, 2023
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High-resolution simulations are superior to low-resolution ones in capturing regional climate changes and climate extremes. However, uniformly reducing the grid size of a global Earth system model is too computationally expensive. We provide an overview of the fully coupled regionally refined model (RRM) of E3SMv2 and document a first-of-its-kind set of climate production simulations using RRM at an economic cost. The key to this success is our innovative hybrid time step method.
Aurore Voldoire, Romain Roehrig, Hervé Giordani, Robin Waldman, Yunyan Zhang, Shaocheng Xie, and Marie-Nöelle Bouin
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3347–3370, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3347-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3347-2022, 2022
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A single-column version of the global climate model CNRM-CM6-1 has been designed to ease development and validation of the model physics at the air–sea interface in a simplified environment. This model is then used to assess the ability to represent the sea surface temperature diurnal cycle. We conclude that the sea surface temperature diurnal variability is reasonably well represented in CNRM-CM6-1 with a 1 h coupling time step and the upper-ocean model resolution of 1 m.
Tianning Su, Youtong Zheng, and Zhanqing Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1453–1466, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1453-2022, 2022
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Short summary
To enrich our understanding of coupling of continental clouds, we developed a novel methodology to determine cloud coupling state from a lidar and a suite of surface meteorological instruments. This method is built upon advancement in our understanding of fundamental boundary layer processes and clouds. As the first remote sensing method for determining the coupling state of low clouds over land, this methodology paves a solid ground for further investigating the coupled land–atmosphere system.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17079–17097, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17079-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17079-2021, 2021
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The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere, and boundary layer height (BLH) is the depth of the PBL and is of critical importance to the dispersion of air pollution. The study presents the first near-global BLH climatology by using high-resolution (5-10 m) radiosonde measurements. The variations in BLH exhibit large spatial and temporal dependence, with a peak at 17:00 local solar time. The most promising reanalysis product is ERA-5 in terms of modeling BLH.
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Short summary
Using 2 decades of field observations over the Southern Great Plains, this study developed a deep-learning model to simulate the complex dynamics of boundary layer clouds. The deep-learning model can serve as the cloud parameterization within reanalysis frameworks, offering insights into improving the simulation of low clouds. By quantifying biases due to various meteorological factors and parameterizations, this deep-learning-driven approach helps bridge the observation–modeling divide.
Using 2 decades of field observations over the Southern Great Plains, this study developed a...