Improved simulation of Antarctic sea ice due to the radiative effects of falling snow

Li, J. L.F.; Richardson, Mark; Hong, Yanping; Lee, Wei Liang; Wang, Yi Hui; Yu, Jingshan; Fetzer, Eric J.; Stephens, Graeme L.; Liu, Yinghui

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa7a17

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(47 reference statements)

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“…This may be mostly explained by the lack of appropriate atmospheric measurements to constrain the representation of the solid-phase processes in models (Tapiador et al, 2018), and particularly over remote regions like Antarctica. Besides surface mass balance issues, the representation of microphysical processes over the ice sheets is also critical for simulating the surface energy budget (King et al, 2015;Li et al, 2017;Vignon et al, 2018) and the water isotopic composition of the snow surface as well as for for interpreting the isotopic signatures in ice cores (Gedzelman & Arnold, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microphysics of Snowfall Over Coastal East Antarctica Simulated by Polar WRF and Observed by Radar

et al. 2019

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The current assessment of the Antarctic surface mass balance mostly relies on reanalysis products or climate model simulations. However, little is known about the ability of models to reliably represent the microphysical processes governing the precipitation. This study makes use of recent ground‐based precipitation measurements at Dumont d'Urville station in Adélie Land to evaluate the representation of the precipitation microphysics in the Polar version of the Weather Research Forecast (Polar WRF) atmospheric model. During two summertime snowfall events, high‐resolution simulations are compared to measurements from an X‐band polarimetric radar and from a Multi‐Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC). A radar simulator and a “MASC” simulator in Polar WRF make it possible to compare similar observed and simulated variables. Radiosoundings and surface‐meteorological observations were used to assess the representation of the regional dynamics in the model. Five different microphysical parameterizations are tested. The simulated temperature, wind, and humidity fields are in good agreement with the observations. However, the amount of simulated surface precipitation shows large discrepancies with respect to observations, and it strongly differs between the simulations themselves, evidencing the critical role of the microphysics. The inspection of vertical profiles of reflectivity and mixing ratios revealed that the representation of the sublimation process by the low‐level dry katabatic winds strongly influences the actual amount of precipitation at the ground surface. By comparing the simulated radar signal as well as MASC and model particle size distributions, it is also possible to identify the microphysical processes involved and to pinpoint shortcomings within the tested parameterizations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microphysics of Snowfall Over Coastal East Antarctica Simulated by Polar WRF and Observed by Radar

et al. 2019

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“…The extent that rain water enhances the optical properties of low clouds has not been systematically studied, although suggests the contribution of rain water to warm cloud optical depth is less than 5%. By contrast, the contribution of snow water to ice cloud radiative properties is significant (Li et al, 2017).…”

Section: Cloud Liquid Water Pathmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…() suggests the contribution of rain water to warm cloud optical depth is less than 5%. By contrast, the contribution of snow water to ice cloud radiative properties is significant (Li et al ., ).…”

Section: Warm‐cloud Physics From Space Ii: the A‐train Eramentioning

confidence: 99%

Cloud physics from space

Stephens

Christensen

Andrews

et al. 2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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A review of the progression of cloud physics from a subdiscipline of meteorology into the global science it is today is described. The discussion briefly touches on the important post‐war contributions of three key individuals who were instrumental in developing cloud physics into a global science. These contributions came on the heels of the post‐war weather modification efforts that influenced much of the early development of cloud physics. The review is centred on the properties of warm clouds primarily to limit the scope of the article and the connection between the early contributions to cloud physics and the current vexing problem of aerosol effects on cloud albedo is underlined. Progress toward estimating cloud properties from space and insights on warm cloud processes are described. Measurements of selected cloud properties, such as cloud liquid water path are now mature enough that multi‐decadal time series of these properties exist and this climatology is used to compare to analogous low‐cloud properties taken from global climate models. The too‐wet (and thus too bright) and the too‐dreary biases of models are called out underscoring the challenges we still face in representing warm clouds in Earth system models. We also provide strategies for using observations to constrain the indirect radiative forcing of the climate system.

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“…The radiative effect of falling snow is explicitly considered in CAM5. Some previous studies suggested the paramount importance of the snow radiative effect in reproducing the present-day radiative heating profiles and even polar sea ice in GCM (Li et al, 2016(Li et al, , 2017. Therefore, we repeat all the parameter perturbation experiments for the particle size of falling snow (R es ) in the same way with the those for R ei .…”

Section: Parameter-perturbation Experiments Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Cloud Ice Particle Size Uncertainty in a Climate Model and Implications for Future Satellite Missions

Wang

Jiang

et al. 2020

JGR Atmospheres

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Ice particle size is pivotal to determining ice cloud radiative effect and precipitating rate. However, there is a lack of accurate ice particle effective radius (Rei) observation on the global scale to constrain its representation in climate models. In support of future mission design, here we present a modeling assessment of the sensitivity of climate simulations to Rei and quantify the impact of the proposed mission concept on reducing the uncertainty in climate sensitivity. We perturb the parameters pertaining to ice fall speed parameter and Rei in radiation scheme, respectively, in National Center for Atmospheric Research CESM1 model with a slab ocean configuration. The model sensitivity experiments show that a settling velocity increase due to a larger Rei results in a longwave cooling dominating over a shortwave warming, a global mean surface temperature decrease, and precipitation suppression. A similar competition between longwave and shortwave cloud forcing changes also exists when perturbing Rei in the radiation scheme. Linearity generally holds for the climate response for Rei related parameters. When perturbing falling snow particle size (Res) in a similar way, we find much less sensitivity of climate responses. Our quadrupling CO2 experiments with different parameter settings reveal that Rei and Res can account for changes in climate sensitivity significantly from +12.3% to −6.2%. By reducing the uncertainty ranges of Rei and Res from a factor of 2 to ±25%, a future satellite mission under design is expected to improve the climate state simulations and reduce the climate sensitivity uncertainty pertaining to ice particle size by approximately 60%. Our results highlight the importance of better observational constraints on Rei by satellite missions.

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Improved simulation of Antarctic sea ice due to the radiative effects of falling snow

Cited by 10 publications

References 50 publications

Microphysics of Snowfall Over Coastal East Antarctica Simulated by Polar WRF and Observed by Radar

Microphysics of Snowfall Over Coastal East Antarctica Simulated by Polar WRF and Observed by Radar

Cloud physics from space

Impact of Cloud Ice Particle Size Uncertainty in a Climate Model and Implications for Future Satellite Missions

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