SUMMARYA global shallow-water model based on the flux-form semi-lagrangian scheme is described. The massconserving flux-form semi-Lagrangian scheme is a multidimensional semi-lagrangian extension of the higher order Godunov-type finite-volume schemes (e.g., the piece-wise parabolic method). Unlike the piece-wise parabolic methodology, neither directional splitting nor a Riemann solver is involved. A reverse engineering procedure is introduced to achieve the goal of consistent transport of the absolute vorticity and the mass, and hence, the potential vorticity. Gravity waves are treated explicitly, in a manner that is consistent with the forward-in-time flux-form semi-Lagrangian transport scheme. Due to the finite-volume nature of the flux-form semi-lagrangian scheme and the application of the monotonicity constraint, which can be regarded as a subgrid-scale flux parametrization, essentially noise-free solutions are obtained without additional diffusion. Two selected shallow-water test cases proposed by Williamson et al. (1992) and a stratospheric vortex erosion simulation are presented. Discussions on the accuracy and computational efficiency are given based on the comparisons with a Eulerian spectral model and two advective-form semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian models.

Suppose you are a city planner, regional water manager, or wildlife conservation specialist who is asked to include the potential impacts of climate variability and change in your risk management and planning efforts. What climate information would you use? The choice is often regional or local climate projections downscaled from global climate models (GCMs; also known as general circulation models) to include detail at spatial and temporal scales that align with those of the decision problem. A few years ago this information was hard to come by. Now there is Web‐based access to a proliferation of high‐resolution climate projections derived with differing downscaling methods.

A global three‐dimensional ozone data assimilation system has been developed at the Data Assimilation Office of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) total ozone data and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet/2 (SBUV/2) partial ozone profile observations are assimilated. The assimilation, into an off‐line ozone transport model, is done using the global Physical‐space Statistical Analysis Scheme. This system became operational in December 1999. A detailed description of the statistical analysis scheme and, in particular, of the forecast‐ and observation‐error covariance models is given. A new global anisotropic horizontal forecast‐error correlation model accounts for a varying distribution of observations with latitude. Correlations are largest in the zonal direction in the tropics where data are sparse. Forecast‐error variance is assumed to be proportional to the ozone field. The forecast‐error covariance parameters were determined by maximum‐likelihood estimation. The error covariance models are validated using χ2 statistics. The analysed ozone fields in the winter 1992 are validated against independent observations from ozone sondes and the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE). The difference between the mean HALOE observations and the analysis fields is less than 10% at pressure levels between 70 and 0.2 hPa. The global root‐mean‐square difference between TOMS observed and forecast values is less than 4%. The global root‐mean‐square difference between SBUV observed and analysed ozone between 50 and 3 hPa is less than 15%.

An object-based evaluation method to quantify biases of general circulation models (GCMs) is introduced using the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). Idealized experiments with different topography are designed to reproduce the spatial characteristics of precipitation biases that were present in Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project simulations using the CAM finite volume (FV) and CAM Eulerian spectral dynamical cores. Precipitation features are identified as “objects” to understand the causes of the differences between CAM FV and CAM Eulerian spectral dynamical cores. Three different mechanisms of precipitation were simulated in idealized experiments: stable upslope ascent, local surface fluxes, and resolved downstream waves. The results indicated stronger sensitivity of the CAM Eulerian spectral dynamical core to resolution. The application of spectral filtering to topography is shown to have a large effect on the CAM Eulerian spectral model simulation. The removal of filtering improved the results when the scales of the topography were resolvable. However, it reduced the simulation capability of the CAM Eulerian spectral dynamical core because of Gibbs oscillations, leading to unusable results. A clear perspective about models biases is provided from the quantitative evaluation of objects extracted from these simulations and will be further discussed in part II of this study.

A description of the January 31, 1989, ozone minihole over Stavanger, Norway, is given on the basis of three‐dimensional model simulations. This minihole is typical (though of large magnitude) of many transient events in the lower stratosphere that arise because of cyclonic‐scale disturbances in the troposphere. The ozone reduction is a short‐lived reversible dynamical event. However, through heterogeneous chemical processes there can be a significant transfer of chlorine from reservoir molecules to active radicals. This chemically perturbed air is defined as processed air, and it is found that a single event can produce enough processed air to reduce the HCl in the entire polar vortex. Chemical processing on clouds associated with transient events is shown to be a major source of processed air in the polar vortex in December before background temperatures are cold enough for more uniform heterogeneous conversion. In the model, intense cyclonic scales propagating close to the vortex edge and large planetary wave events (especially stratospheric warmings) are the major mechanisms of extra‐vortex transport. Only a small amount of processed air is found outside of the polar vortex. The processed air is a strong function of longitude, and it is virtually excluded from the Pacific Basin.