Byron A. Boville

The Formulation and Atmospheric Simulation of the Community Atmosphere Model Version 3 (CAM3)

Abstract A new version of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) has been developed and released to the climate community. CAM Version 3 (CAM3) is an atmospheric general circulation model that includes the Community Land Model (CLM3), an optional slab ocean model, and a thermodynamic sea ice model. The dynamics and physics in CAM3 have been changed substantially compared to implementations in previous versions. CAM3 includes options for Eulerian spectral, semi-Lagrangian, and finite-volume formulations of the dynamical equations. It supports coupled simulations using either finite-volume or Eulerian dynamics through an explicit set of adjustable parameters governing the model time step, cloud parameterizations, and condensation processes. The model includes major modifications to the parameterizations of moist processes, radiation processes, and aerosols. These changes have improved several aspects of the simulated climate, including more realistic tropical tropopause temperatures, boreal winter land surfac...

The NCAR Climate System Model, Version One*

The NCAR Climate System Model, version one, is described. The spinup procedure prior to a fully coupled integration is discussed. The fully coupled model has been run for 300 yr with no surface flux corrections in momentum, heat, or freshwater. There is virtually no trend in the surface temperatures over the 300 yr, although there are significant trends in other model fields, especially in the deep ocean. The reasons for the successful integration with no surface temperature trend are discussed.

Downward control of the mean meridional circulation and temperature distribution of the polar winter stratosphere

Abstract According to the “downward control” principle, the extratropical mean vertical velocity on a given pressure level is approximately proportional to the meridional gradient of the vertically integrated zonal force per unit mass exerted by waves above that level. In this paper, a simple numerical model that includes parameterizations of both planetary and gravity wave breaking is used to explore the influence of gravity wave breaking in the mesosphere on the mean meridional circulation and temperature distribution at lower levels in the polar winter stratosphere. The results of these calculations suggest that gravity wave drag in the mesosphere can affect the state of the polar winter stratosphere down to altitudes below 30 km. The effect is most important when planetary wave driving is relatively weak: that is, during southern winter and in early northern winter. In southern winter, downwelling weakens by a factor of 2 near the stratopause and by 20% at 30 km when gravity wave drag is not included ...

Sensitivity of Simulated Climate to Model Resolution

Abstract Dynamical measures of the climate (e.g., winds, eddy fluxes) simulated by a general circulation model are compared at different horizontal and vertical resolutions for the December, January, and February period. The simulations of the troposphere are found to improve significantly as the horizontal resolution increases in the range of spectral truncations from T21 to T63. Little sensitivity is found to changes in vertical resolution between about 2.8 km and 0.7 km vertical grid spacing. The improvements in the Southern Hemisphere troposphere are greater than in the Northern Hemisphere as the horizontal resolution increases. The eddy momentum fluxes and kinetic energies in both hemispheres increase monotonically with horizontal resolution. At T63, the Southern Hemisphere winds, eddy fluxes, and eddy kinetic energies agree favorably with observations, while serious discrepancies are present at lower resolutions. In the Northern Hemisphere, the eddy momentum flux at T63 is slightly larger than obser...

The Dynamical Simulation of the NCAR Community Climate Model Version 3 (CCM3)

The dynamical simulation of the standard configuration of the latest version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model (CCM3) is examined, including the seasonal variation of its mean state and its intraseasonal and interannual variability. A 15-yr integration in which the model is forced with observed monthly varying sea surface temperatures (SSTs) since 1979 is compared to coexisting observations. Results show that the most serious systematic errors in previous NCAR CCM versions have either been eliminated or substantially reduced. At sea level, CCM3 reproduces the basic observed patterns of the pressure field very well. Simulated surface pressures are higher than observed over the subtropics, however, an error consistent with an easterly bias in the simulated trade winds and low-latitude surface wind stress. Amplitude errors and phase shifts of the subpolar low pressure centers over both hemispheres during winter produce the largest regional errors, which are on the order of 5 mb. In the upper troposphere, both the amplitude and location of the major circulation centers are very well captured by the model, in agreement with relatively small regional biases in the simulated winds. Errors in the zonal wind component at 200 mb are most notable between 408 and 508 lat of both hemispheres, where the modeled westerlies are stronger than observed especially over the Southern Hemisphere during winter. A ;50% reduction in the magnitude of the zonally averaged westerly bias in the equatorial upper troposphere that plagued previous CCM versions can be attributed to a significantly improved tropical hydrologic cycle and reduced Walker circulation. Over middle latitudes, the CCM3 realistically depicts the main storm tracks, although the transient kinetic energy is generally underestimated, especially over the summer hemispheres. Over lower latitudes, the model simulates tropical intraseasonal oscillations with marked seasonality in their occurrence. Typical periodicities, however, are near 20‐30 days, which are shorter than observed, and the simulated amplitudes are weaker than in both observations and previous versions of the model. The simulated response to interannual variations in tropical SSTs is also realistic in CCM3. A simulated index of the Southern Oscillation agrees well with the observed, and the model captures the overall structure and magnitude of observed shifts in tropical and subtropical convergence zones and monthly rainfall anomalies associated with the tropical SST changes.

The Influence of the Polar Night Jet on the Tropospheric Circulation in a GCM

Abstract The influence of the polar night jet structure in determining the wave properties in the troposphere is examined using a general circulation model (GCM). It is shown that there are significant differences in the tropospheric simulation when the polar night jet is changed. Planetary wave theory leads us to expect that this will be the case for the stationary planetary waves; however, the changes found here extend to the transient eddies as well and to all scales in the model. The degree of trapping of the planetary waves in the troposphere is determined by the strength and structure of the polar night jet, resulting in the sensitivity of the troposphere to that structure. The most significant changes in the height field occur at high latitudes, beneath the polar night jet, but significant changes in the heat and momentum fluxes take place at both middle and high latitudes. The results indicate that inaccuracies in the stratospheric simulations of any general circulation model will produce serious ...

Simulation of Stratospheric N2O in the NCAR CCM2: Comparison with CLAES Data and Global Budget Analyses

Abstract Global variability and budgets of stratospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) are studied using output from a stratospheric version of the NCAR Community Climate Model. The model extends over 0–80 km, incorporating an N2O-like tracer with tropospheric source and upper-stratospheric photochemical sink, the latter parameterized using linear damping rates obtained from detailed two-dimensional model calculations. Results from the model over several seasonal cycles are compared with observations of N2O from the Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. The model produces N2O structure and variability that is in reasonable agreement with the observations. Global budgets of stratospheric N2O are furthermore analyzed using model output, based on the transformed Eulerian-mean, zonal-mean framework. These budgets are used to quantify the importance of planetary wave constituent transport in the stratosphere, for both slow seasonal variations and fast planetary w...

Equatorial waves in a stratospheric GCM : effects of vertical resolution

Abstract Equatorially trapped wave modes, such as Kelvin and mixed Rossby–gravity waves, are believed to play a crucial role in forcing the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the lower tropical stratosphere. This study examines the ability of a general circulation model (GCM) to simulate these waves and investigates the changes in the wave properties as a function of the vertical resolution of the model. The simulations produce a stratopause-level semiannual oscillation but not a QBO. An unfortunate property of the equatorially trapped waves is that they tend to have small vertical wavelengths (≤15 km). Some of the waves, believed to be important in forcing the QBO, have wavelengths as short as 4 km. The short vertical wavelengths pose a stringent computational requirement for numerical models whose vertical grid spacing is typically chosen based on the requirements for simulating extratropical Rossby waves (which have much longer vertical wavelengths). This study examines the dependence of the equatoria...

A Characterization of Tropical Transient Activity in the CAM3 Atmospheric Hydrologic Cycle

Abstract The Community Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) is the latest generation of a long lineage of general circulation models produced by a collaboration between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the scientific research community. Many aspects of the hydrological cycle have been changed relative to earlier versions of the model. It is the goal of this paper to document some aspects of the tropical variability of clouds and the hydrologic cycle in CAM3 on time scales shorter than 30 days and to discuss the differences compared to the observed atmosphere and earlier model versions, with a focus on cloud-top brightness temperature, precipitation, and cloud liquid water path. The transient behavior of the model in response to changes in resolution to various numerical methods used to solve the equations for atmospheric dynamics and transport and to the underlying lower boundary condition of sea surface temperature and surface fluxes has been explored. The ratio of stratiform to conve...

A three-dimensional transport model for the middle atmosphere

In this paper we describe fundamental properties of an “off-line” three-dimensional transport model, that is, a model which uses prescribed rather than predicted winds. The model is currently used primarily for studying problems of the middle atmosphere because we have not (yet) incorporated a formulation for the convective transport of trace species, a prerequisite for many tropospheric problems. The off-line model is simpler and less expensive than a model which predicts the wind and mass evolution (an “on-line” model), but it is more complex than the two-dimensional (2-D) zonally averaged transport models often used in the study of chemistry and transport in the middle atmosphere. It thus serves as a model of intermediate complexity and can fill a useful niche for the study of transport and chemistry. We compare simulations of four tracers, released in the lower stratosphere, in both the on- and off-line models to document the difference resulting from differences in modeling the same problem with this intermediate model. These differences identify the price to be paid in going to a cheaper and simpler calculation. The off-line model transports a tracer in three dimensions. For this reason, it requires fewer approximations than 2-D transport model, which must parameterize the effects of mixing by transient and zonally asymmetric wind features. We compare simulations of the off-line model with simulations of a 2-D model for two problems. First, we compare 2-D and three-dimensional (3-D) models by simulating the emission of an NOx-like tracer by a fleet of high-speed aircraft. The off-line model is then used to simulate the transport of 14C and to contrast its simulation properties to that of the host of 2-D models which participated in an identical simulation in a recent NASA model intercomparison. The off-line model is shown to be somewhat sensitive to the sampling strategy for off-line winds. Simulations with daily averaged winds are in very good qualitative agreement but are less diffusive than when driven with instantaneous winds sampled at half-hour intervals. Simulations with the off-line and 2-D models are quite similar in the middle and upper stratosphere but behave quite differently in the lower stratosphere, where the 3-D model has a substantially more vigorous circulation. The off-line model is quite realistic in its simulation of 14C. While there are still systematic differences between the 3-D calculation and the observations, the differences seem to be substantially reduced when compared with the body of 2-D simulations documented in the above mentioned NASA intercomparison, particularly at 31°N.