Intercomparisons of CAM physics with WRF physics options

 
Poster PDF

Author

Jimy Dudhia — National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

Category

Modeling

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.