H. M. Christensen

Stochastic parameterization: Towards a new view of weather and climate models

AbstractThe last decade has seen the success of stochastic parameterizations in short-term, medium-range, and seasonal forecasts: operational weather centers now routinely use stochastic parameterization schemes to represent model inadequacy better and to improve the quantification of forecast uncertainty. Developed initially for numerical weather prediction, the inclusion of stochastic parameterizations not only provides better estimates of uncertainty, but it is also extremely promising for reducing long-standing climate biases and is relevant for determining the climate response to external forcing. This article highlights recent developments from different research groups that show that the stochastic representation of unresolved processes in the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and cryosphere of comprehensive weather and climate models 1) gives rise to more reliable probabilistic forecasts of weather and climate and 2) reduces systematic model bias. We make a case that the use of mathematically stri...

Stochastic and Perturbed Parameter Representations of Model Uncertainty in Convection Parameterization

AbstractIt is now acknowledged that representing model uncertainty in atmospheric simulators is essential for the production of reliable probabilistic forecasts, and a number of different techniques have been proposed for this purpose. This paper presents new perturbed parameter schemes for use in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) convection scheme. Two types of scheme are developed and implemented. Both schemes represent the joint uncertainty in four of the parameters in the convection parameterization scheme, which was estimated using the Ensemble Prediction and Parameter Estimation System (EPPES). The first scheme developed is a fixed perturbed parameter scheme, where the values of uncertain parameters are varied between ensemble members, but held constant over the duration of the forecast. The second is a stochastically varying perturbed parameter scheme. The performance of these schemes was compared to the ECMWF operational stochastic scheme, stochastically perturbed para...

Does the ECMWF IFS Convection Parameterization with Stochastic Physics Correctly Reproduce Relationships between Convection and the Large-Scale State?

AbstractImportant questions concerning parameterization of tropical convection are how should subgrid-scale variability be represented and which large-scale variables should be used in the parameterizations? Here the statistics of observational data in Darwin, Australia, are compared with those of short-term forecasts of convection made by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Integrated Forecast System. The forecasts use multiplicative-noise stochastic physics (MNSP) that has led to many improvements in weather forecast skill. However, doubts have recently been raised about whether MNSP is consistent with observations of tropical convection. It is shown that the model can reproduce the variability of convection intensity for a given large-scale state, both with and without MNSP. Therefore MNSP is not inconsistent with observations, and much of the modeled variability arises from nonlinearity of the deterministic part of the convection scheme. It is also shown that the model can reproduce...

Simulating weather regimes: impact of stochastic and perturbed parameter schemes in a simple atmospheric model

Representing model uncertainty is important for both numerical weather and climate prediction. Stochastic parametrisation schemes are commonly used for this purpose in weather prediction, while perturbed parameter approaches are widely used in the climate community. The performance of these two representations of model uncertainty is considered in the context of the idealised Lorenz ’96 system, in terms of their ability to capture the observed regime behaviour of the system. These results are applicable to the atmosphere, where evidence points to the existence of persistent weather regimes, and where it is desirable that climate models capture this regime behaviour. The stochastic parametrisation schemes considerably improve the representation of regimes when compared to a deterministic model: both the structure and persistence of the regimes are found to improve. The stochastic parametrisation scheme represents the small scale variability present in the full system, which enables the system to explore a larger portion of the system’s attractor, improving the simulated regime behaviour. It is important that temporally correlated noise is used in the stochastic parametrisation—white noise schemes performed similarly to the deterministic model. In contrast, the perturbed parameter ensemble was unable to capture the regime structure of the attractor, with many individual members exploring only one regime. This poor performance was not evident in other climate diagnostics. Finally, a ‘climate change’ experiment was performed, where a change in external forcing resulted in changes to the regime structure of the attractor. The temporally correlated stochastic schemes captured these changes well.

Stochastic Parameterization and El Niño–Southern Oscillation

AbstractEl Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant mode of interannual variability in the tropical Pacific. However, the models in the ensemble from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) have large deficiencies in ENSO amplitude, spatial structure, and temporal variability. The use of stochastic parameterizations as a technique to address these pervasive errors is considered. The multiplicative stochastically perturbed parameterization tendencies (SPPT) scheme is included in coupled integrations of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model, version 4 (CAM4). The SPPT scheme results in a significant improvement to the representation of ENSO in CAM4, improving the power spectrum and reducing the magnitude of ENSO toward that observed. To understand the observed impact, additive and multiplicative noise in a simple delayed oscillator (DO) model of ENSO is considered. Additive noise results in an increase in ENSO amplitude, but multiplicativ...

Decomposition of a New Proper Score for Verification of Ensemble Forecasts

AbstractA new proper score, the error-spread score (ES), has recently been proposed for evaluation of ensemble forecasts of continuous variables. The ES is formulated with respect to the moments of the ensemble forecast. It is particularly sensitive to evaluating how well an ensemble forecast represents uncertainty: is the probabilistic forecast well calibrated? In this paper, it is shown that the ES can be decomposed into its reliability, resolution, and uncertainty components in a similar way to the Brier score. The first term evaluates the reliability of the forecast standard deviation and skewness, rewarding systems where the forecast moments reliably indicate the properties of the verification. The second term evaluates the resolution of the forecast standard deviation and skewness, and rewards systems where the forecast moments vary from the climatological moments according to the predictability of the atmospheric flow. The uncertainty term depends only on the observed error distribution and is inde...

Systematic Errors in Weather and Climate Models: Nature, Origins, and Ways Forward

The fifth Workshop on Systematic Errors (WSE) in weather and climate models was hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on under the auspices of the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE), jointly sponsored by the Commission of Atmospheric Sciences of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). This major event welcomed over 200 scientists from the weather and climate communities. The workshop primary goal was to increase the understanding of the nature and cause of systematic errors in numerical models across timescales. Out of 240 abstracts submitted to the workshop, 48 talks and 132 posters were presented.

Forcing Single‐Column Models Using High‐Resolution Model Simulations

Abstract To use single‐column models (SCMs) as a research tool for parameterization development and process studies, the SCM must be supplied with realistic initial profiles, forcing fields, and boundary conditions. We propose a new technique for deriving these required profiles, motivated by the increase in number and scale of high‐resolution convection‐permitting simulations. We suggest that these high‐resolution simulations be coarse grained to the required resolution of an SCM, and thereby be used as a proxy for the true atmosphere. This paper describes the implementation of such a technique. We test the proposed methodology using high‐resolution data from the UK Met Offices Unified Model, with a resolution of 4 km, covering a large tropical domain. These data are coarse grained and used to drive the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) SCM. The proposed method is evaluated by deriving IFS SCM forcing profiles from a consistent T639 IFS simulation. The SCM simulations track the global model, indicating a consistency between the estimated forcing fields and the true dynamical forcing in the global model. We demonstrate the benefits of selecting SCM forcing profiles from across a large domain, namely, robust statistics, and the ability to test the SCM over a range of boundary conditions. We also compare driving the SCM with the coarse‐grained data set to driving it using the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecast operational analysis. We conclude by highlighting the importance of understanding biases in the high‐resolution data set and suggest that our approach be used in combination with observationally derived forcing data sets.

The impact of stochastic parametrisations on the representation of the Asian summer monsoon

The impact of the stochastic schemes Stochastically Perturbed Parametrisation Tendencies (SPPT) and Stochastic Kinetic Energy Backscatter Scheme (SKEBS) on the representation of interannual variability in the Asian summer monsoon is examined in the coupled climate model CCSM4. The Webster–Yang index, measuring anomalies of a specified wind-shear index in the monsoon region, is used as a metric for monsoon strength, and is used to analyse the output of three model integrations: one deterministic, one with SPPT, and one with SKEBS. Both schemes show improved variability, which we trace back to improvements in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). SPPT improves the representation of ENSO and through teleconnections thereby the monsoon, supporting previous work on the benefits of this scheme on the model climate. SKEBS also improves monsoon variability by way of improving the representation of the IOD, in particular by breaking an overly strong coupling to ENSO.

The benefits of global high-resolution for climate simulation: process-understanding and the enabling of stakeholder decisions at the regional scale.

Capsule summary:A perspective on current and future capabilities in global high-resolution climate simulation for assessing climate risks over next few decades, including advances in process representation and analysis, justifying the emergence of dedicated, coordinated experimental protocols.