Paul A. Vaillancourt

The 15‐km version of the Canadian regional forecast system

Abstract A new mesoscale version of the regional forecast system became operational at the Canadian Meteorological Centre on 18 May 2004. The main changes to the regional modelling system include an increase in both the horizontal and vertical resolutions (15‐km horizontal resolution and 58 vertical levels instead of 24‐km resolution and 28 levels) as well as major upgrades to the physics package. The latter consist of a new condensation package, with an improved formulation of the cloudy boundary layer, a new shallow convection scheme based on a Kuo‐type closure, and the Kain and Fritsch deep convection scheme, together with a subgrid‐scale orography parametrization scheme to represent gravity wave drag and low‐level blocking effects. The new forecast system also includes a few changes to the regional data assimilation such as additional radiance data from satellites. Objective verifications using a series of cases and parallel runs, along with subjective evaluations by CMC meteorologists, indicate significantly improved performance using the new 15‐km resolution forecast system. We can conclude from these verifications that the model exhibits a marked reduction in errors, improved predictability by about 12 hours, better forecasts of precipitation, a significant reduction in the spin‐up time, and a different implicit‐explicit partitioning of precipitation. A number of other features include: sharper precipitation patterns, better representation of trace precipitation, and general improvements of deepening lows and hurricanes. In mountainous regions, several aspects are better represented due to combined higher‐resolution orography and the low‐level blocking term.

Boundary Layer and Shallow Cumulus Clouds in a Medium-Range Forecast of a Large-Scale Weather System

Abstract The role and impact that boundary layer and shallow cumulus clouds have on the medium-range forecast of a large-scale weather system is discussed in this study. A mesoscale version of the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) atmospheric model is used to produce a 5-day numerical forecast of a midlatitude large-scale weather system that occurred over the Pacific Ocean during February 2003. In this version of GEM, four different schemes are used to represent (i) boundary layer clouds (including stratus, stratocumulus, and small cumulus clouds), (ii) shallow cumulus clouds (overshooting cumulus), (iii) deep convection, and (iv) nonconvective clouds. Two of these schemes, that is, the so-called MoisTKE and Kuo Transient schemes for boundary layer and overshooting cumulus clouds, respectively, have been recently introduced in GEM and are described in more detail. The results show that GEM, with this new cloud package, is able to represent the wide variety of clouds observed in association with the la...

Medium-Range Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts from Canada's New 33-km Deterministic Global Operational System

Abstract The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) recently implemented a 33-km version of the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model, with improved physics, for medium-range weather forecasts. Quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) from this new system were compared with those from the previous global operational system (100-km grid size) and with those from MSC’s short-range (48 h) regional system (15-km grid size). The evaluation is based on performance measures that evaluate bias, accuracy, and the value of the QPFs. Results presented in this article consistently show, for these three aspects of the evaluation, that the new global forecast system (GLBNEW) agrees more closely with observations, relative to the performance of the previous global system (GLBOLD). The biases are noticeably smaller with GLBNEW compared with GLBOLD, which severely overpredicts (underpredicts) the frequencies and total amounts associated with weak (strong) precipitation intensities. The accuracy and value scores r...

Staggered Vertical Discretization of the Canadian Environmental Multiscale (GEM) Model Using a Coordinate of the Log-Hydrostatic-Pressure Type

AbstractThe Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model is the Canadian atmospheric model used for meteorological forecasting at all scales. A limited-area version now also exists. It is a gridpoint model with an implicit semi-Lagrangian iterative space–time integration scheme. In the “horizontal,” the equations are written in spherical coordinates with the traditional shallow atmosphere approximations and are discretized on an Arakawa C grid. In the “vertical,” the equations were originally defined using a hydrostatic-pressure coordinate and discretized on a regular (unstaggered) grid, a configuration found to be particularly susceptible to noise. Among the possible alternatives, the Charney–Phillips grid, with its unique characteristics, and, as the vertical coordinate, log-hydrostatic pressure are adopted. In this paper, an attempt is made to justify these two choices on theoretical grounds. The resulting equations and their vertical discretization are described and the solution method of what is formi...

The Stratospheric Extension of the Canadian Global Deterministic Medium-Range Weather Forecasting System and Its Impact on Tropospheric Forecasts

AbstractA new system that resolves the stratosphere was implemented for operational medium-range weather forecasts at the Canadian Meteorological Centre. The model lid was raised from 10 to 0.1 hPa, parameterization schemes for nonorographic gravity wave tendencies and methane oxidation were introduced, and a new radiation scheme was implemented. Because of the higher lid height of 0.1 hPa, new measurements between 10 and 0.1 hPa were also added. This new high-top system resulted not only in dramatically improved forecasts of the stratosphere, but also in large improvements in medium-range tropospheric forecast skill. Pairs of assimilation experiments reveal that most of the stratospheric and tropospheric forecast improvement is obtained without the extra observations in the upper stratosphere. However, these observations further improve forecasts in the winter hemisphere but not in the summer hemisphere. Pairs of forecast experiments were run in which initial conditions were the same for each experiment ...

Using ARM Observations to Evaluate Cloud and Clear-Sky Radiation Processes as Simulated by the Canadian Regional Climate Model GEM

Abstract The total downwelling shortwave (SWD) and longwave (LWD) radiation and its components are assessed for the limited-area version of the Global Environmental Multiscale Model (GEM-LAM) against Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) at two sites: the southern Great Plains (SGP) and the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) for the 1998–2005 period. The model and observed SWD and LWD are evaluated as a function of the cloud fraction (CF), that is, for overcast and clear-sky conditions separately, to isolate and analyze different interactions between radiation and 1) atmospheric aerosols and water vapor and 2) cloud liquid water. Through analysis of the mean diurnal cycle and normalized frequency distributions of surface radiation fluxes, the primary radiation error in GEM-LAM is seen to be an excess in SWD in the middle of the day. The SWD bias results from a combination of underestimated CF and clouds, when present, possessing a too-high solar transmissivity, which is particularly the case for optically thi...

Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice : the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison

Weather and climate models struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Arctic winter, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build-up of surface-based temperature inversions. Many large-scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Here, the transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modelled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single-column experiment is the first Lagrangian Arctic air formation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system studies). The intercomparison reproduces the typical biases of large-scale models: Some models lack the cloudy state of the boundary layer due to the representation of mixed-phase micro-physics or to the interaction between micro-and macrophysics. In some models, high emissivities of ice clouds or the lack of an insulating snow layer prevent the build-up of surface-based inversions in the radiatively clear state. Models substantially disagree on the amount of cloud liquid water in the cloudy state and on turbulent heat fluxes under clear skies. Observations of air mass transformations including both boundary layer states would allow for a tighter constraint of model behaviour.

Comparison of Aircraft Observations with Mixed-Phase Cloud Simulations

Abstract In order to provide guidance for the further improvement of a mixed-phase cloud scheme being developed for use in an NWP model, comparisons of dynamical, thermodynamical, and microphysical variables between in situ aircraft data and model data were made. A total of 21 flights (∼88 h of data) from the First and Third Canadian Freezing Drizzle Experiments were selected and simulated. The basis of the evaluation of the model performance is a point-by-point comparison of each pertinent variable along the real and “virtual” aircraft trajectories. The virtual aircraft trajectory is constructed by choosing, for every observed data point, the closest available model data point in terms of time, pressure level, and latitude–longitude position. Observed and model data were used to calculate simple descriptive statistics to evaluate the ability of the forecast system to predict the presence of clouds, their phase, and water content. Even though a point-by-point comparison of the aircraft and model data is a...

Evaluation of Tropical Cyclones in the Canadian Global Modeling System: Sensitivity to Moist Process Parameterization

AbstractDeep convection is one of various complex processes driving the evolution of tropical cyclones (TCs). The scales associated with deep convection are too small to be resolved by global NWP models. In the deep convection parameterization used by the Canadian Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS), the trigger function depends on various criteria, one of which is the adjustable “trigger velocity” parameter, a vertical velocity threshold used in the parcel stability test of the scheme. In this study, the sensitivity of the GDPS TC activity and precipitation distribution to convective triggering parameters is investigated by varying this threshold. Multiple basins are considered for three TC seasons, and the impacts of trigger velocity variations on TC statistics (forecast hits, bias, false alarms, and track and intensity errors) and on the model’s genesis potential index (GPI) are measured. It is shown that a reduction of the trigger velocity, from 0.05 to 0.01 m s−1, over the tropical oceans l...

Improvements of a Mixed-Phase Cloud Scheme Using Aircraft Observations

To improve the quality of forecasts of mixed-phase clouds in winter storms, some aspects of a cloud scheme are examined in detail. Modifications to the basic formalism and specification of selected parameters of the cloud model are studied, and simulation results are compared with aircraft observations and satellite data. In particular, a sensitivity study to the parameterization of the ice particle size distribution is presented. A special technique allowing the reconstruction of any model variable along a virtual aircraft trajectory is used to compare model results with aircraft observations. It has been possible from these comparisons to optimize the scheme and improve the quality of forecasts.