Intercomparisons of CAM physics with WRF physics options
 
Poster PDF
Author
Jimy Dudhia — National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Description
Collaboration with PNNL, with NCAR's part also funded by ASR, has enabled the inclusion of the latest CAM physics within the community-released version of WRF. This enables climate physics to be tested both in idealized and real-data cases for short-term weather and regional climate runs. The CAM physics released in Version 3.3 (April 2011) included the newest version of Zhang-McFarlane convection, the Bretherton-Park UW planetary boundary layer, and the Park-Bretherton UW shallow cumulus scheme. These were added alongside the previously available RRTMG radiation supplied by AER, which was also linked to WRF-Chem by PNNL and NOAA/ESRL last year. Work is ongoing to make available the final piece, which is the Morrison-Gettelman microphysics scheme, and results will be shown if possible. There are plans to release this later in 2012. With a complete set of CESM 1.0's CAM physics, WRF can be used as a testbed for intercomparisons with a multitude of other physics options designed for both weather and climate applications, as well as for interactions with chemistry via the variety of WRF-Chem options. Independent efforts exist to couple WRF with a regional ocean model (ROM) and the CLM land model via the CPL7 approach used in CESM.