Open AccessCloud-Resolving Model Simulations over the ARM SGP
Author(s) -
Xiaoqing Wu,
XinZhong Liang,
Sunwook Park
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
monthly weather review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.862
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1520-0493
pISSN - 0027-0644
DOI - 10.1175/mwr3438.1
Subject(s) - environmental science , longwave , middle latitudes , cloud forcing , shortwave , atmosphere (unit) , radiative transfer , outgoing longwave radiation , precipitation , atmospheric sciences , satellite , shortwave radiation , climatology , radiative flux , cloud cover , meteorology , radiative forcing , cloud computing , radiation , geology , geography , physics , convection , aerosol , quantum mechanics , astronomy , computer science , operating system
This study aims to combine the cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations with the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) observations to provide long-term comprehensive and physically consistent data that facilitate quantifying the effects of subgrid cloud–radiation interactions and ultimately to develop physically based parameterization of these interactions in general circulation models. The CRM is applied here to simulate the midlatitude cloud systems observed at the ARM southern Great Plains (SGP) site during the 1997 intensive observation period. As in the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE), the CRM-simulated ensemble mean quantities such as cloud liquid water, cloud fraction, precipitation, and radiative fluxes are generally in line with the surface measurements, satellite, and radar retrievals. The CRM differences from the ARM estimates, when averaged over the entire period, are less than 5 W m−2 in both longwave and shortwave radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and surface. Because of the different large-scale forcing and surface heat fluxes in ARM and TOGA COARE, the CRM produces different cloud distributions over the midlatitude continent and tropical ocean. However, diagnostic analyses show that the subgrid cloud variability has similar impact on the domain-averaged radiative fluxes and heating rates in ARM as in TOGA COARE.