Multi-model evaluation of the sensitivity of the global energy budget and hydrological cycle to resolution

Vannière, Benoît; Demory, Marie-Estelle; Vidale, Pier Luigi; Schiemann, R.; Roberts, Malcolm; Roberts, Christopher D.; Matsueda, Mio; Terray, Laurent; Köenigk, Torben; Senan, Retish

doi:10.1007/s00382-018-4547-y

Cited by 76 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 90 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…Detailed descriptions of the atmospheric model differences, such as the impact of using MACv2-SP scheme, can be found in Vidale et al (2019a), and further assessments of ocean model differences up to 8 km resolution are described in Storkey et al (2018) and Mathiot et al (2019).…”

Section: Model Resolution Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For comparison, as shown in Vidale et al (2019a), the atmosphere-only simulations have a TOA which starts at around −1.5 W m −2 in 1950, with surface temperature of 288 K, OSR around 100-101 W m −2 and OLR around 240.5-241.5 W m −2 (which adjusts to around 239.5-240.5 W m −2 at 1980 when the TOA is closer to zero).…”

Section: Initial Spinup and Radiative Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This specifies the change of anthropogenic aerosol optical properties over time and hence enables easier comparison between different models, while retaining the model's own aerosol mean (non-varying) background natural climatology and hence requiring little or no additional tuning. It is used here in place of the prognostic GLOMAP-mode scheme, with model implementation de-scribed in Vidale et al (2019a). Simulations representative of 1950Simulations representative of (spinup-1950Simulations representative of , control-1950 use mean values over 1949-1958 of the time-varying dataset.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Description of the resolution hierarchy of the global coupled HadGEM3-GC3.1 model as used in CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments

et al. 2019

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Abstract. The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) HighResMIP is a new experimental design for global climate model simulations that aims to assess the impact of model horizontal resolution on climate simulation fidelity. We describe a hierarchy of global coupled model resolutions based on the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model 3 – Global Coupled vn 3.1 (HadGEM3-GC3.1) model that ranges from an atmosphere–ocean resolution of 130 km–1∘ to 25 km–1∕12∘, all using the same forcings and initial conditions. In order to make such high-resolution simulations possible, the experiments have a short 30-year spinup, followed by at least century-long simulations with constant forcing to assess drift. We assess the change in model biases as a function of both atmosphere and ocean resolution, together with the effectiveness and robustness of this new experimental design. We find reductions in the biases in top-of-atmosphere radiation components and cloud forcing. There are significant reductions in some common surface climate model biases as resolution is increased, particularly in the Atlantic for sea surface temperature and precipitation, primarily driven by increased ocean resolution. There is also a reduction in drift from the initial conditions both at the surface and in the deeper ocean at higher resolution. Using an eddy-present and eddy-rich ocean resolution enhances the strength of the North Atlantic ocean circulation (boundary currents, overturning circulation and heat transport), while an eddy-present ocean resolution has a considerably reduced Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength. All models have a reasonable representation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation. In general, the biases present after 30 years of simulations do not change character markedly over longer timescales, justifying the experimental design.

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Section: Model Resolution Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Initial Spinup and Radiative Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Description of the resolution hierarchy of the global coupled HadGEM3-GC3.1 model as used in CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments

et al. 2019

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“…The latest multi‐model evaluation by Vannière et al . () shows a strengthening of the global hydrological cycle with increased model resolution by an increase in surface latent‐heat flux driven by more outgoing long‐wave radiation and less outgoing short‐wave radiation at the top of the atmosphere. This is because, globally, evaporation and precipitation are more sensitive to net surface short‐wave radiation (Wu et al ., ; ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Demory et al (2014) have shown that increasing horizontal model resolution can significantly increase moisture convergence over land and, therefore, the local ratio of evaporation over precipitation. The latest multi-model evaluation by Vannière et al (2018) shows a strengthening of the global hydrological cycle with increased model resolution by an increase in surface latent-heat flux driven by more outgoing long-wave radiation and less outgoing short-wave radiation at the top of the atmosphere. This is because, globally, evaporation and precipitation are more sensitive to net surface short-wave radiation (Wu et al, 2010;2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of horizontal atmospheric resolution in modelling air–sea heat fluxes

Roberts

Martin

et al. 2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Climate modes as simulated by global climate models are often found to be considerably weaker than are observed. One possibility is that coarse‐resolution climate models do not capture turbulent air–sea fluxes sufficiently. Ensemble experiments with the same atmospheric configuration of the Met Office Hadley Centre climate model, forced with observed sea‐surface temperatures (SST) and at three different horizontal model resolutions (approximately 130, 60 and 25 km), are used to test the sensitivity of air–sea surface heat and moisture fluxes. We find that, although global mean budgets at the three resolutions are very similar, substantial differences appear in regional air–sea flux patterns. Increased model resolution consistently enhances zonal‐mean air–sea fluxes in the mid–high latitudes while suppressing heat fluxes in the low latitudes and weakening the Hadley Circulation. In the North Atlantic, annual mean surface heat fluxes into the atmosphere along the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Current and over the sub‐polar gyre can increase by up to 10 W/m2 when atmospheric model resolution increases from 130 to 60 km. In the Pacific, increased model resolution tends to weaken the Walker Circulation with increased heat fluxes from the east but markedly reduced fluxes from the western Pacific, leading to significantly improved precipitation over the tropical western Pacific and the Maritime Continent. Changes in air–sea heat fluxes come about mainly as a result of changed near‐surface ventilation. Generally, increasing resolution strengthens surface winds and reduces specific humidity in the mid–high latitudes while weakening surface winds over the Tropics and subtropics.

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Increasing resolution and resolving convection improves the simulation of cloud-radiative effects over the North Atlantic

Senf

Voigt

Clerbaux

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Clouds interact with atmospheric radiation and substantially modify the Earth's energy budget. Cloud formation processes occur over a vast range of spatial and temporal scales, which make their thorough numerical representation challenging. Therefore, the impact of parameter choices for simulations of cloud-radiative effects is assessed in the current study. Numerical experiments are carried out using the ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) model with varying grid spacings between 2.5 and 80 km and with different subgrid-scale parameterization approaches. Simulations are performed over the North Atlantic with either one-moment or two-moment microphysics and with convection being parameterized or explicitly resolved by grid-scale dynamics. Simulated cloud-radiative effects are compared to products derived from Meteosat measurements. Furthermore, a sophisticated cloud classification algorithm is applied to understand the differences and dependencies of simulated and observed cloud-radiative effects. The cloud classification algorithm developed for the satellite observations is also applied to the simulation output based on synthetic infrared brightness temperatures, a novel approach that is not impacted by changing insolation and guarantees a consistent and fair comparison. It is found that flux biases originate equally from clear-sky and cloudy parts of the radiation field. Simulated cloud amounts and cloud-radiative effects are dominated by marine, shallow clouds, and their behavior is highly resolution dependent. Bias compensation between shortwave and longwave flux biases, seen in the coarser simulations, is significantly diminished for higher resolutions. Based on the analysis results, it is argued that cloud-microphysical and cloud-radiative properties have to be adjusted to further improve agreement with observed cloud-radiative effects.Plain Language Summary Clouds are a major challenge for climate science, and their effects are difficult to quantify. Clouds scatter sunlight back into space and thus prevent the Earth from warming up. But clouds also hold back heat radiation upwelling from the surface. Both effects typically compensate each other and thus lead to the net cloud-radiative effect. Computer programs that are used to simulate the climate-so-called climate models-often use very coarse grid-box sizes in their computational mesh. Cloud processes and their effects are represented in them in a very simplified way, which leads to problems. For this reason, this study deals with the question to what extent the simulations of cloud-radiative effects can be improved by choosing more precise descriptions of the cloud processes. To investigate this, different configurations of more realistic models were taken to simulate cloud formation over the North Atlantic. The resulting simulation data were compared to satellite observations. It could be shown that problematic biases of the coarser climate models are reduced if, as is usual in weather models, one switches to smaller grid-box sizes and improved descriptio...

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Multi-model evaluation of the sensitivity of the global energy budget and hydrological cycle to resolution

Cited by 76 publications

References 90 publications

Description of the resolution hierarchy of the global coupled HadGEM3-GC3.1 model as used in CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments

Description of the resolution hierarchy of the global coupled HadGEM3-GC3.1 model as used in CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments

The impact of horizontal atmospheric resolution in modelling air–sea heat fluxes

Increasing resolution and resolving convection improves the simulation of cloud-radiative effects over the North Atlantic

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