Advancing models and evaluation of cumulus, climate, and aerosol interactions

Description

We are developing consistent cloud microphysics and aerosol activation for cumulus and stratiform clouds with a more modular and flexible cloud microphysics module for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Department of Energy (DOE) Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). We are developing a more robust single-column model framework that incorporates ARM field data sets and observation periods, including scripts for running CAM in forecast mode. We seek to improve the representation of convective clouds and aerosol-cloud interaction in convective clouds. We will evaluate the model with convective precipitation statistics (including intensity and extreme events) as well as aerosol-cloud interactions and their effect on cloud development such as the delay of precipitation, convection invigoration and extending cloud lifetime. We will eventually release our evaluation tools to the community. The project will tie together and link existing ASR efforts to release versions of the NCAR/DOE CAM.

*Proposal Team: A. Gettelman, L. Su, J. Bacmeister, R. Neale, H. Morrison, S. Park, B. Eaton, J. Truesdale (NCAR), S. Xie, S. Klein (LLNL), G. Zhang (UCSD), Y. Liu , W. Lin (BNL), S. J. Ghan, X. Liu (PNNL)