Impacts of absorbing aerosol deposition on snowpack and hydrologic cycle in the Rocky Mountain region based on variable-resolution CESM (VR-CESM) simulations

Wu, Chenglai; Liu, Xiaohong; Lin, Zhaohui; Rahimi, Stefan; Lu, Zheng

doi:10.5194/acp-18-511-2018

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…This approach allows for high-resolution modeling over a user-specified domain of interest, while coarsening the grid spacing far away from this region (Zarzycki et al, 2013). CAM-SE has demonstrated good stability when simulations were performed using thousands of cores (Dennis et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2017Wu et al, , 2018Zarzycki et al, 2013), making this VR version of CESM ideal for global simulations performed over decadal time scales.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies have found their way around the resolution-computation conundrum by implementing variable resolution (VR) models to simulate climate phenomena (e.g., Fox-Rabinovitz et al, 2006;Harris & Lin, 2012, 2014Hourdin et al, 2006;McGregor, 1996;Sabin et al, 2013;Sakaguchi et al, 2015;Zhou & Li, 2002). Specifically, VR versions of CESM have been used to study tropical cyclones (Zarzycki et al, 2013;Zarzycki & Jablonowski, 2014), snowpack, and hydroclimate in the western United States Rhoades et al, 2016Rhoades et al, , 2018Wu et al, 2017Wu et al, , 2018Zarzycki et al, 2015) and to examine their capability for regional climate simulations (Gettelman et al, 2017). This process generally makes use of a "regional refinement" of the horizontal grid to very high horizontal resolutions of a domain of interest, which coarsens to large horizontal grid spacings away from the domain of interest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring a Variable‐Resolution Approach for Simulating Regional Climate Over the Tibetan Plateau Using VR‐CESM

Rahimi

Liu

et al. 2019

JGR Atmospheres

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This study implements a variable resolution version of Community Earth Systems Model (VR‐CESM; regionally refined at 1/8° resolution) to assess the improvement in simulating the seasonal climate across the Tibetan Plateau (TP) at higher horizontal resolutions compared to its uniform (UN) 1° counterpart (UN‐CESM). The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, run at 12‐km horizontal grid spacing, is compared to both CESM simulations. VR‐CESM and WRF are more comparable to satellite and surface‐based observations than UN‐CESM in simulating summertime (June to August) temperature across the TP and TP foothills, respectively. WRF and VR‐CESM also more accurately simulate precipitation than UN‐CESM across the region due to more accurate terrain treatment. The number of days in which effective (>2.5 mm/day) and heavy (>25 mm/day) precipitation events are generally better captured in VR‐CESM compared to UN‐CESM and WRF. Finally, snow cover fraction in VR‐CESM is better simulated for all months compared to UN‐CESM, with the largest improvements simulated from June to August, while WRF performs even better than VR‐CESM in simulating snow cover fraction. The improvements in simulated temperature, precipitation, and snow cover are due to WRF and VR‐CESM's ability to resolve more complex topographic features rather than time step differences between the UN‐CESM and VR‐CESM experiments. While it is fairly intuitive that improved topography accuracy should bring forth more accurate simulated meteorology, this evaluation suggests that VR‐CESM is competitive or may even be preferred over regional climate models (such as WRF) when examining internal and external climate variability, as it bypasses several drawbacks associated with regional climate models.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring a Variable‐Resolution Approach for Simulating Regional Climate Over the Tibetan Plateau Using VR‐CESM

Rahimi

Liu

et al. 2019

JGR Atmospheres

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“…Through darkening the bright snow surface, BC and dust impurities have been shown to account for a large portion of the total light absorption at visible wavelengths by surface snow near heavily polluted regions such as East Asia (e.g., Dang et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2013). Although the global mean radiative forcing of BC in snow and sea ice (best estimate) is about +0.04 W/m 2 (Bond et al, 2013;IPCC, 2013), depending on the location and season, the regional radiative forcing perturbation (with and without the presence of BC in snow) can be as high as 25 W/m 2 at lower latitudes during spring and summer (e.g., Flanner et al, 2007;Kopacz et al, 2011;Qian et al, 2011Qian et al, , 2015Wu et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2015). Physically accurate treatments of surface deposition of BC/dust particles and radiative transfer in snow and ice are important for models to represent particle impacts on snow/ice albedo and surface energy balance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerosols in the E3SM Version 1: New Developments and Their Impacts on Radiative Forcing

Wang

Easter

Zhang

et al. 2020

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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The new Energy Exascale Earth System Model Version 1 (E3SMv1) developed for the U.S. Department of Energy has significant new treatments of aerosols and light-absorbing snow impurities as well as their interactions with clouds and radiation. This study describes seven sets of new aerosol-related treatments (involving emissions, new particle formation, aerosol transport, wet scavenging and resuspension, and snow radiative transfer) and examines how they affect global aerosols and radiative forcing in E3SMv1. Altogether, they give a reduced total aerosol radiative forcing (−1.6 W/m 2 ) and sensitivity in cloud liquid water to aerosols, but an increased sensitivity in cloud droplet size to aerosols. A new approach for H 2 SO 4 production and loss largely reduces a low bias in small particles concentrations and leads to substantial increases in cloud condensation nuclei concentrations and cloud radiative cooling. Emitting secondary organic aerosol precursor gases from elevated sources increases the column burden of secondary organic aerosol, contributing substantially to global clear-sky aerosol radiative cooling (−0.15 out of −0.5 W/m 2 ). A new treatment of aerosol resuspension from evaporating precipitation, developed to remedy two shortcomings of the original treatment, produces a modest reduction in aerosols and cloud droplets; its impact depends strongly on the model physics and is much stronger in E3SM Version 0. New treatments of the mixing state and optical properties of snow impurities and snow grains introduce a positive present-day shortwave radiative forcing (0.26 W/m 2 ), but changes in aerosol transport and wet removal processes also affect the concentration and radiative forcing of light-absorbing impurities in snow/ice. Plain Language Summary Aerosol and aerosol-cloud interactions continue to be a major uncertainty in Earth system models, impeding their ability to reproduce the observed historical warming and to project changes in global climate and water cycle. The U.S. DOE Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1 (E3SMv1), a state-of-the-science Earth system model, was developed to use exascale computing to address the grand challenge of actionable predictions of variability and change in the Earth system critical to the energy sector. It has been publicly released with new treatments in many aspects, including substantial modifications to the physical treatments of aerosols in the atmosphere and light-absorbing impurities in snow/ice, aimed at reducing some known biases or correcting model deficiencies in representing aerosols, their life cycle, and their impacts in various components of the Earth system. Compared to its predecessors (without the new treatments) and observations, E3SMv1 shows improvements in characterizing global distributions of aerosols and their radiative effects. We conduct sensitivity experiments to understand the impact of individual changes and provide guidance for future development of E3SM and other Earth system models. Key Points: • A description and assessment of ne...

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“…Tanaka and Chiba (2006) and Wu et al (2018) also suggest that dust is emitted from localized sources in North America. There was 0.7 Tg of dust emitted across Arizona, Nevada, and the Sonoran Desert during 2-10 May 2017 according to WRF-Chem simulations.…”

Section: Atmospheric Dust Depositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

East Asian dust storm in May 2017: observations, modelling, and its influence on the Asia-Pacific region

et al. 2018

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Abstract. A severe dust storm event originated from the Gobi Desert in Central and East Asia during 2–7 May 2017. Based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite products, hourly environmental monitoring measurements from Chinese cities and East Asian meteorological observation stations, and numerical simulations, we analysed the spatial and temporal characteristics of this dust event as well as its associated impact on the Asia-Pacific region. The maximum observed hourly PM10 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 µm) concentration was above 1000 µg m−3 in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, and Langfang and above 2000 µg m−3 in Erdos, Hohhot, Baotou, and Alxa in northern China. This dust event affected over 8.35 million km2, or 87 % of the Chinese mainland, and significantly deteriorated air quality in 316 cities of the 367 cities examined across China. The maximum surface wind speed during the dust storm was 23–24 m s−1 in the Mongolian Gobi Desert and 20–22 m s−1 in central Inner Mongolia, indicating the potential source regions of this dust event. Lidar-derived vertical dust profiles in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo indicated dust aerosols were uplifted to an altitude of 1.5–3.5 km, whereas simulations by the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model indicated 20.4 and 5.3 Tg of aeolian dust being deposited respectively across continental Asia and the North Pacific Ocean. According to forward trajectory analysis by the FLEXible PARTicle dispersion (FLEXPART) model, the East Asian dust plume moved across the North Pacific within a week. Dust concentrations decreased from the East Asian continent across the Pacific Ocean from a magnitude of 103 to 10−5 µg m−3, while dust deposition intensity ranged from 104 to 10−1 mg m−2. This dust event was unusual due to its impact on continental China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the North Pacific Ocean. Asian dust storms such as those observed in early May 2017 may lead to wider climate forcing on a global scale.

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Impacts of absorbing aerosol deposition on snowpack and hydrologic cycle in the Rocky Mountain region based on variable-resolution CESM (VR-CESM) simulations

Cited by 33 publications

References 60 publications

Exploring a Variable‐Resolution Approach for Simulating Regional Climate Over the Tibetan Plateau Using VR‐CESM

Exploring a Variable‐Resolution Approach for Simulating Regional Climate Over the Tibetan Plateau Using VR‐CESM

Aerosols in the E3SM Version 1: New Developments and Their Impacts on Radiative Forcing

East Asian dust storm in May 2017: observations, modelling, and its influence on the Asia-Pacific region

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