Completing the Single-Column Root of a Hierarchy of Configurations for the Community Atmosphere Model

University Of Miami, Coral Gables FL

Investigators

Abstract

Just as medicine learns from biology's studies of fruit flies and lab mice, atmospheric sciences rely on a "hierarchy" of models with various complexity that allow the processes under the consideration to interact with one another fully while keeping others simplified for improving our understanding and enhancing our ability of weather and climate simulations and predictions. The vertical dimension of the atmosphere is special, because temperature and pressure vary greatly in just a few kilometers. Modeling of atmospheric vertical profiles under various conditions, called single-column model, has been regarded the lowest "root" of the hierarchy of model complexity for atmospheric sciences. The goal of this project is to develop and demonstrate the utility of using single-column model platform for understanding and evaluating impacts of various physical parameterization schemes on the tropical climate and variability of a climate model. This project will contribute to relevant international model intercomparison projects, such as the Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Model Intercomparison Project and the Global Atmospheric Systems Study - Weak Temperature Gradient project. The project will support a graduate student to complete his degree and the training of the next generation of atmospheric scientists is also an important impact of this project. In this project, a PhD student will complete his multi-year work with the PI in devising a version of the Community Atmosphere Model that includes only the vertical interactions among radiation, surface energy exchanges, and turbulence and cloud processes. Specifically, they will configure the single-column model component of 4 versions of the Community Atmospheric Model in two different settings: one only considers interactions among radiative and convective processes and the other also includes large-scale dynamics effects, although highly idealized or parameterized, in the interaction loops. In the latter case, the large scale would be parameterized using either the weak temperature gradient approximation, or the damped-gravity wave limit. They will use this framework to explore the dependence of simulated column atmosphere on radiative heating rate, convective parameterizations, vertical resolution and forcing and its interactions with large-scale dynamics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.