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Development of two-moment cloud microphysics for liquid and ice within the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS-5)

Barahona, D. ; Molod, A. ; Bacmeister, J. ; Nenes, A. ; Gettelman, A. ; Morrison, H. ; Phillips, V. LU orcid and Eichmann, A. (2014) In Geoscientific Model Development 7(4). p.1733-1766
Abstract

This work presents the development of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme within version 5 of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5). The scheme includes the implementation of a comprehensive stratiform microphysics module, a new cloud coverage scheme that allows ice supersaturation, and a new microphysics module embedded within the moist convection parameterization of GEOS-5. Comprehensive physically based descriptions of ice nucleation, including homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing, and liquid droplet activation are implemented to describe the formation of cloud particles in stratiform clouds and convective cumulus. The effect of preexisting ice crystals on the formation of cirrus clouds is also accounted for. A new... (More)

This work presents the development of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme within version 5 of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5). The scheme includes the implementation of a comprehensive stratiform microphysics module, a new cloud coverage scheme that allows ice supersaturation, and a new microphysics module embedded within the moist convection parameterization of GEOS-5. Comprehensive physically based descriptions of ice nucleation, including homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing, and liquid droplet activation are implemented to describe the formation of cloud particles in stratiform clouds and convective cumulus. The effect of preexisting ice crystals on the formation of cirrus clouds is also accounted for. A new parameterization of the subgrid-scale vertical velocity distribution accounting for turbulence and gravity wave motion is also implemented. The new microphysics significantly improves the representation of liquid water and ice in GEOS-5. Evaluation of the model against satellite retrievals and in situ observations shows agreement of the simulated droplet and ice crystal effective radius, the ice mass mixing ratio and number concentration, and the relative humidity with respect to ice. When using the new microphysics, the fraction of condensate that remains as liquid follows a sigmoidal dependency with temperature, which is in agreement with observations and which fundamentally differs from the linear increase assumed in most models. The performance of the new microphysics in reproducing the observed total cloud fraction, longwave and shortwave cloud forcing, and total precipitation is similar to the operational version of GEOS-5 and in agreement with satellite retrievals. The new microphysics tends to underestimate the coverage of persistent low-level stratocumulus. Sensitivity studies showed that the simulated cloud properties are robust to moderate variation in cloud microphysical parameters. Significant sensitivity remains to variation in the dispersion of the ice crystal size distribution and the critical size for ice autoconversion. Despite these issues, the implementation of the new microphysics leads to a considerably improved and more realistic representation of cloud processes in GEOS-5, and allows the linkage of cloud properties to aerosol emissions.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Geoscientific Model Development
volume
7
issue
4
pages
34 pages
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:84922789351
ISSN
1991-959X
DOI
10.5194/gmd-7-1733-2014
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
7d4989cf-53db-4907-acfe-1ad04fd9de79
date added to LUP
2018-01-29 13:07:45
date last changed
2022-04-25 05:22:49
@article{7d4989cf-53db-4907-acfe-1ad04fd9de79,
  abstract     = {{<p>This work presents the development of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme within version 5 of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS-5). The scheme includes the implementation of a comprehensive stratiform microphysics module, a new cloud coverage scheme that allows ice supersaturation, and a new microphysics module embedded within the moist convection parameterization of GEOS-5. Comprehensive physically based descriptions of ice nucleation, including homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing, and liquid droplet activation are implemented to describe the formation of cloud particles in stratiform clouds and convective cumulus. The effect of preexisting ice crystals on the formation of cirrus clouds is also accounted for. A new parameterization of the subgrid-scale vertical velocity distribution accounting for turbulence and gravity wave motion is also implemented. The new microphysics significantly improves the representation of liquid water and ice in GEOS-5. Evaluation of the model against satellite retrievals and in situ observations shows agreement of the simulated droplet and ice crystal effective radius, the ice mass mixing ratio and number concentration, and the relative humidity with respect to ice. When using the new microphysics, the fraction of condensate that remains as liquid follows a sigmoidal dependency with temperature, which is in agreement with observations and which fundamentally differs from the linear increase assumed in most models. The performance of the new microphysics in reproducing the observed total cloud fraction, longwave and shortwave cloud forcing, and total precipitation is similar to the operational version of GEOS-5 and in agreement with satellite retrievals. The new microphysics tends to underestimate the coverage of persistent low-level stratocumulus. Sensitivity studies showed that the simulated cloud properties are robust to moderate variation in cloud microphysical parameters. Significant sensitivity remains to variation in the dispersion of the ice crystal size distribution and the critical size for ice autoconversion. Despite these issues, the implementation of the new microphysics leads to a considerably improved and more realistic representation of cloud processes in GEOS-5, and allows the linkage of cloud properties to aerosol emissions.</p>}},
  author       = {{Barahona, D. and Molod, A. and Bacmeister, J. and Nenes, A. and Gettelman, A. and Morrison, H. and Phillips, V. and Eichmann, A.}},
  issn         = {{1991-959X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{1733--1766}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Geoscientific Model Development}},
  title        = {{Development of two-moment cloud microphysics for liquid and ice within the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS-5)}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1733-2014}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/gmd-7-1733-2014}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}