Precipitation responses to radiative effects of ice clouds: A cloud-resolving modeling study of a pre-summer torrential precipitation event

The precipitation responses to the radiative effects of ice clouds are investigated through analysis of five-day and horizontally averaged data from 2D cumulus ensemble model experiments of a pre-summer torrential precipitation event. The exclusion of the radiative effects of ice clouds lowered the precipitation rate through a substantial reduction in the decrease of hydrometeors when the radiative effects of water clouds were switched on, whereas it increased the precipitation rate through hydrometeor change from an increase to a decrease when the radiative effects of ice clouds were turned off. The weakened hydrometeor decrease was associated with the enhanced longwave radiative cooling mainly through the decreases in the melting of non-precipitating ice to non-precipitating water. The hydrometeor change from an increase to a decrease corresponded to the strengthened longwave radiative cooling in the upper troposphere through the weakened collection of non-precipitating water by precipitation water.     

A cloud-resolving modeling study of short-term surface rainfall processes

The short-term tropical surface rainfall processes in rainfall regions (raining stratiform and convective regions) and rainfall-free regions (non-raining stratiform and clear-sky regions) are investigated based on the hourly data from a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation. The model is integrated over a 21-day period with imposed zonally uniform vertical velocity, zonal wind, horizontal temperature and vapor advection, and sea surface temperature from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The analysis of the model domain-mean surface rainfall budget reveals that surface rainfall is mainly associated with water vapor convergence and local atmospheric drying. The mean surface rainfall lags the mean water vapor convergence by 3?h. The convective?Cstratiform rainfall separation analysis shows that convective rainfall is associated with water vapor convergence, whereas stratiform rainfall is related to the local atmospheric drying and hydrometeor loss/convergence. The transport of water vapor from rainfall-free regions to rainfall regions creates the main water vapor source for rainfall while it balances local atmospheric drying in rainfall-free regions. Surface evaporation plays a minor role in short-term surface rainfall processes.     

An equilibrium cloud-resolving modeling study of diurnal variation of tropical rainfall

The diurnal variation of tropical rainfall is examined through the analysis of an equilibrium cloud-resolving model experiment. Model domain mean rain rate is defined as a product of rain intensity and fractional rainfall coverage. The diurnal variation of the mean rain rate is associated with that of fractional rainfall coverage because the diurnal variation of rain intensity is significantly weakened through the decrease in rainfall in early morning hours. The decrease in rainfall corresponds to the reduction in secondary circulations through the barotropic conversion from the perturbation kinetic energy to the mean kinetic energy under the imposed negative vertical gradient of westerly winds. The fractional rainfall coverage shows the diurnal signal with the maximum in the early morning hours primarily due to nocturnal infrared radiative cooling.     

Effects of doubled carbon dioxide on rainfall responses to large-scale forcing: A two-dimensional cloud-resolving modeling study

ABSTRACT Rainfall responses to doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration were investigated through the analysis of two pairs of two-dimensional cloud-resolving model sensitivity experiments. One pair of experiments simulated pre-summer heavy rainfall over southern China around the summer solstice, whereas the other pair of experiments simulated tropical rainfall around the winter solstice. The analysis of the time and model domain mean heat budget revealed that the enhanced local atmospheric warming was associated with doubled carbon dioxide through the weakened infrared radiative cooling during the summer solstice. The weakened mean pre-summer rainfall corresponded to the weakened mean infrared radiative cooling. Doubled carbon dioxide increased the mean tropical atmospheric warming via the enhanced mean latent heat in correspondence with the strengthened mean infrared radiative cooling during the winter solstice. The enhanced mean tropical rainfall was associated with the increased mean latent heat.     

Tropical convective responses to microphysical and radiative processes: a sensitivity study with a 2-D cloud resolving model

Summary Prognostic cloud schemes are increasingly used in weather and climate models in order to better treat cloud-radiation processes. Simplifications are often made in such schemes for computational efficiency, like the scheme being used in the National Centers for Environment Prediction models that excludes some microphysical processes and precipitation-radiation interaction. In this study, sensitivity tests with a 2-D cloud resolving model are carried out to examine effects of the excluded microphysical processes and precipitation-radiation interaction on tropical thermodynamics and cloud properties. The model is integrated for 10 days with the imposed vertical velocity derived from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment. The experiment excluding the depositional growth of snow from cloud ice shows anomalous growth of cloud ice and more than 20% increase of fractional cloud cover, indicating that the lack of the depositional snow growth causes unrealistically large mixing ratio of cloud ice. The experiment excluding the precipitation-radiation interaction displays a significant cooling and drying bias. The analysis of heat and moisture budgets shows that the simulation without the interaction produces more stable upper troposphere and more unstable mid and lower troposphere than does the simulation with the interaction. Thus, the suppressed growth of ice clouds in upper troposphere and stronger radiative cooling in mid and lower troposphere are responsible for the cooling bias, and less evaporation of rain associated with the large-scale subsidence induces the drying in mid and lower troposphere.     

沙尘气溶胶辐射强迫全球分布的模拟研究

为了定景了解沙尘气溶胶对气候的影响,文中利用一个改进的辐射传输模式,结合伞球气溶胶数据集(G-ADS),计算了晴空条件下,冬夏两季沙尘气溶胶的直接辐射强迫在对流层顶和地面的全球分布,并讨论了云对沙尘气溶胶辐射强迫的影响.计算结果表明,对北半球冬季和夏季而言,在对流层顶沙尘气溶胶的全球短波辐射强迫的平均值分别为-0.477和-0.501 W/m2;长波辐射强迫分别为0.11和0.085 W/m2;全球平均短波地面辐射强迫冬夏两季分别为-1.362和-1.559 W/m2;长波辐射强迫分别为0.274和0.23 W/m2.沙尘气溶胶在对流层顶和地面的负辐射强迫的绝对值郁随太阳天顶角的余弦和地表反照率的增加而增大;地表反照率对沙尘气溶胶辐射强迫的强度和分布都有重要影响.研究指出:云对沙尘气溶胶的直接辐射强迫的影响不仅取决于云量,而且取决于云的高度和云水路径,以及地面反照率和太阳高度角等综合因素.中云和低云对沙尘气溶胶在对流层顶的短波辐射强迫的影响比高云明显.云的存在都使对流层顶长波辐射强迫减少,其中低云的影响最为明显.因此,在估算沙尘气溶胶总的直接辐射强迫时,云的贡献不可忽视.     

Kinematics, cloud microphysics and spatial structures of tropical cloud clusters: A two-dimensional cloud-resolving modeling study

Kinematics, cloud microphysics and spatial structures of tropical cloud clusters are investigated using hourly outputs from a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation. The model is forced by the large-scale vertical velocity, zonal wind and horizontal advections obtained from Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). A period of 1600–2300 LST 21 December 1992 is selected for this study when the zonal-mean westerly winds in the lower troposphere intensify while the zonal-mean easterly winds above weaken. Under the vertical-shear environment, there are a westward-propagating cloud cluster, a newly-formed cloud cluster, and four eastward-moving cloud clusters. Two weak eastward-moving cloud clusters merge into strong westward-moving cloud clusters. Merged clouds display notable growth in the eastern edge, indicating that merging processes enhance convection. The development of the new cloud at the western edge of the existing cloud cluster before merging may account for the westward propagation of cloud cluster group, while the advection of the maximum total hydrometeor mixing ratio by the westerly winds after merging may cause the eastward propagation of individual cloud clusters.     

Effects of sea surface temperature, radiation, cloud microphysics, and diurnal variations on vertical structures of tropical tropospheric temperature: a two-dimensional equilibrium cloud-resolving modeling study

The effects of sea surface temperature (SST), radiation, cloud microphysics, and diurnal variations on the vertical structure of tropical tropospheric temperature are investigated by analyzing 10 two-dimensional equilibrium cloud-resolving model simulation data. The increase of SST, exclusion of diurnal variation of SST, and inclusion of diurnal variation of solar zenith angle, radiative effects of ice clouds, and ice microphysics could lead to tropical tropospheric warming and increase of tropopause height. The increase of SST and the suppression of its diurnal variation enhance the warming in the lower and upper troposphere, respectively, through increasing latent heat and decreasing IR cooling. The inclusion of diurnal variation of solar zenith angle increases the tropospheric warming through increasing solar heating. The inclusion of cloud radiative effects increases tropospheric warming through suppressing IR cooling in the mid and lower troposphere and enhancing solar heating in the upper troposphere. The inclusion of ice microphysics barely increases warming in the mid and lower troposphere because the warming from ice radiative effects is nearly offset by the cooling from ice microphysical effects, whereas it causes the large warming enhancement in the upper troposphere due to the dominance of ice radiative effects. The tropopause height is increased mainly through the large enhancement of IR cooling.     

A modeling study of effective radiative forcing and climate response due to tropospheric ozone

This study simulates the effective radiative forcing(ERF) of tropospheric ozone from 1850 to 2013 and its effects on global climate using an aerosol–climate coupled model, BCC AGCM2.0.1 CUACE/Aero, in combination with OMI(Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite ozone data. According to the OMI observations, the global annual mean tropospheric column ozone(TCO) was 33.9 DU in 2013, and the largest TCO was distributed in the belts between 30°N and 45°N and at approximately 30°S; the annual mean TCO was higher in the Northern Hemisphere than that in the Southern Hemisphere;and in boreal summer and autumn, the global mean TCO was higher than in winter and spring. The simulated ERF due to the change in tropospheric ozone concentration from 1850 to 2013 was 0.46 W m~(-2), thereby causing an increase in the global annual mean surface temperature by 0.36℃, and precipitation by 0.02 mm d~(-1)(the increase of surface temperature had a significance level above 95%). The surface temperature was increased more obviously over the high latitudes in both hemispheres, with the maximum exceeding 1.4?C in Siberia. There were opposite changes in precipitation near the equator,with an increase of 0.5 mm d~(-1)near the Hawaiian Islands and a decrease of about-0.6 mm d~(-1)near the middle of the Indian Ocean.     

Towards an accurate estimate of the entropy production due to radiative processes: Results with a gray atmosphere model

Summary Recently, there have been attempts at computing the various terms in the steady entropy balance of the climate system. Differing numbers have been published. The global atmospheric entropy production rate by absorption and emission of long-wave radiation is one contribution among many others. This paper is mainly devoted to the calculation of just that contribution for the simple model of a gray atmosphere. The inescapable conclusion is that it is substantial, out-weighing, with the unlikely exception of phase changes, all other contributions not explicitly considered here. The results are compared with those in accounts of a similar nature.With 1 Figure     

Water Vapor, Cloud, and Surface Rainfall Budgets Associated with the Landfall of Typhoon Krosa （2007）： A Two-Dimensional Cloud-Resolving Modeling Study

Water vapor, cloud, and surface rainfall budgets associated with the landfall of Typhoon Krosa on 6--8 October 2007 are analyzed based on a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation. The model is integrated with imposed zonally-uniform vertical velocity, zonal wind, horizontal temperature, and vapor advection from NCEP/Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) data. The simulation data that are validated with observations are examined to study physical causes associated with surface rainfall processes during the landfall. The time- and domain-mean analysis shows that when Krosa approached the eastern coast of China on 6 October, the water vapor convergence over land caused a local atmospheric moistening and a net condensation that further produced surface rainfall and an increase of cloud hydrometeor concentration. Meanwhile, latent heating was balanced by advective cooling and a local atmospheric warming. One day later, the enhancement of net condensation led to an increase of surface rainfall and a local atmospheric drying, while the water vapor convergence weakened as a result of the landfall-induced deprivation of water vapor flux. At the same time, the latent heating is mainly compensated the advective cooling. Further weakening of vapor convergence on 8 October enhanced the local atmospheric drying while the net condensation and associated surface rainfall was maintained. The latent heating is balanced by advective cooling and a local atmospheric cooling.     

Torrential rainfall responses to radiative and microphysical processes of ice clouds during a landfall of severe tropical storm Bilis (2006)

Ice clouds are an important component in precipitation systems. The radiative processes of ice clouds directly impact radiation in heat budget and the microphysical processes of ice clouds directly affect latent heat and net condensation through deposition processes, which may eventually change surface rainfall. Thus, torrential rainfall responses to radiative and microphysical processes of ice clouds during a landfall of severe tropical storm Bilis (2006) are investigated with the analysis of sensitivity experiments. The two-dimensional cloud-resolving model is integrated for 3 days with imposed zonally uniform vertical velocity, zonal wind, horizontal temperature and vapor advection from NCEP/GDAS data. One sensitivity experiment excludes the radiative effects of ice clouds and the other sensitivity experiment excludes ice microphysics and associated radiative and microphysical processes. Model domain mean surface rain rate is barely changed by the exclusion of radiative effects of ice clouds due to the small decrease in net condensation associated with the small reduction in latent heat as a result of the offset between the increase in radiative cooling and the decrease in heat divergence. The exclusion of microphysical effects of ice clouds decreases the mean rain rate simply through the suppression of latent heat as a result of the removal of deposition processes. The total exclusion of ice microphysics decreases the mean rain rate mainly through the exclusion of microphysical effects of ice clouds.     

Unstable behaviour of an upper ocean-atmosphere coupled model: role of atmospheric radiative processes and oceanic heat transport

We describe the initial bias of the climate simulated by a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. The atmospheric component is a state-of-the-art atmospheric general circulation model, whereas the ocean component is limited to the upper ocean and includes a mixed layer whose depth is computed by the model. As the full ocean general circulation is not computed by the model, the heat transport within the ocean is prescribed. When modifying the prescribed heat transport we also affect the initial drift of the model. We analyze here one of the experiments where this drift is very strong, in order to study the key processes relating the changes in the ocean transport and the evolution of the model's climate. In this simulation, the ocean surface temperature cools by 1.5°C in 20 y. We can distinguish two different phases. During the first period of 5 y, the sea surface temperatures become cooler, particularly in the intertropical area, but the outgoing longwave radiation at the top-of-the-atmosphere increases very quickly, in particular at the end of the period. An off-line version of the model radiative code enables us to decompose this behaviour into different contributions (cloudiness, specific humidity, air and surface temperatures, surface albedo). This partitioning shows that the longwave radiation evolution is due to a decrease of high level cirrus clouds in the intertropical troposphere. The decrease of the cloud cover also leads to a decrease of the planetary albedo and therefore an increase of the net short wave radiation absorbed by the system. But the dominant factor is the strong destabilization by the longwave cooling, which is able to throw the system out of equilibrium. During the remaining of the simulation (second phase), the cooling induced by the destabilization at the top-of-the-atmosphere is transmitted to the surface by various processes of the climate system. Hence, we show that small variations of ocean heat transport can force the model from a stable to an unstable state via atmospheric processes which arise wen the tropics are cooling. Even if possibly overestimated by our GCM, this mechanism may be pertinent to the maintenance of present climatic conditions in the tropics. The simplifications inherent in our model's design allow us to investigate the mechanism in some detail. Received: 18 February 1998 / Accepted: 22 April 1999     

Vegetation responses and feedbacks to climate: a review of models and processes

Vegetation changes both in stationary and changing climates. Such changes can significantly affect hydrological and climate dynamics. Probabilistic, inferential, empirical, statistical, threshold, ecophysiological, and mechanistic vegetation models provide tools and ideas to construct coupled climate and vegetation schemes to study climate/vegetation feedbacks. Their logic is discussed, typical applications are presented, and their usefulness is assessed. Developing coupled climate and vegetation schemes also implies tackling scaling issues explicitly. Just as the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) criterion guarantees that information is not transferred faster through space than time in climate models, information should be transmitted fast enough in vegetation models for the landscape to register vegetation responses. To guarantee that this is the case, a migration criterion, or m criterion, is proposed. The CFL criterion and the m criterion set formal constraints on the design of coupled atmosphere and vegetation schemes. In particular, the ratio of climate and vegetation space scales should be approximately five orders of magnitude less than the ratio of climate and vegetation time scales.     

Precipitation: Measurement,remote sensing,climatology and modeling

This review paper deals with four aspects of precipitation: measurement, remote sensing, climatology and modeling. The measurement of precipitation is summarized in terms of the instruments that count and measure drop sizes (defined as disdrometers) and the instruments that measure an average quantity proportional to the integrated volume of an ensemble of raindrops (these instruments are normally called rain gauges). Remote sensing of precipitation is accomplished with ground based radar and from satellite retrievals and these two approaches are separately discussed. The climatology of precipitation has evolved through the years from the traditional rain gauge data analyses to the more sophisticated data bases that result from a coalescence of data and information on precipitation that is available from several sources into amalgamated products. Recently, rain observations from both ground and space have been assimilated into regional and global numerical weather prediction models aiming at improved moisture analysis and better forecasts of extreme weather events. The current status and the main outstanding issues related to precipitation forecasting are discussed, providing a basic structure for research coordination aimed at the improvement of modeling, observation and data assimilation applicable to global and regional scales.     

Precipitation: Measurement,remote sensing,climatology and modeling

This review paper deals with four aspects of precipitation: measurement, remote sensing, climatology and modeling. The measurement of precipitation is summarized in terms of the instruments that count and measure drop sizes (defined as disdrometers) and the instruments that measure an average quantity proportional to the integrated volume of an ensemble of raindrops (these instruments are normally called rain gauges). Remote sensing of precipitation is accomplished with ground based radar and from satellite retrievals and these two approaches are separately discussed. The climatology of precipitation has evolved through the years from the traditional rain gauge data analyses to the more sophisticated data bases that result from a coalescence of data and information on precipitation that is available from several sources into amalgamated products. Recently, rain observations from both ground and space have been assimilated into regional and global numerical weather prediction models aiming at improved moisture analysis and better forecasts of extreme weather events. The current status and the main outstanding issues related to precipitation forecasting are discussed, providing a basic structure for research coordination aimed at the improvement of modeling, observation and data assimilation applicable to global and regional scales.     

A modeling analysis of rainfall and water cycle by the cloud-resolving WRF model over the western North Pacific

Simulated regional precipitation, especially extreme precipitation events, and the regional hydrologic budgets over the western North Pacific region during the period from May to June 2008 were investigated with the high-resolution （4-km grid spacing） Weather Research and Forecast （WRF v3.2.1） model with explicit cloud microphysics. The model initial and boundary conditions were derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy （NCEP/DOE） Reanalysis 2 data. The model precipitation results were evaluated against the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission （TRMM） Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis 3B42 product. The results show that the WRF simulations can reason- ably reproduce the spatial distributions of daily mean precipitation and rainy days. However, the simulated frequency distributions of rainy days showed an overestimation of light precipitation, an underestimation of moderate to heavy precipitation, but a good representation of extreme precipitation. The downscaling approach was able to add value to the very heavy precipitation over the ocean since the convective processes are resolved by the high-resolution cloud-resolving model. Moreover, the water vapor budget analysis indi- cates that heavy precipitation is contributed mostly by the stronger moisture convergence; whereas, in less convective periods, the precipitation is more influenced by the surface evaporation. The simulated water vapor budgets imply the importance in the tropical monsoon region of cloud microphysics that affects the precipitation, atmospheric latent heating and, subsequently, the large-scale circulation.     

A three-dimensional study of mesoscale model response to radiative forcing

An infrared radiation parameterization has been applied to a detailed three-dimensional mesoscale model in order to determine whether radiative forcing significantly affects mesoscale atmospheric processes. By taking into account water vapor, liquid water, and carbon dioxide absorption, the scheme differentiates between cloud and clear air regions. The parametric model is presented, along with an overview of the associated mesoscale model.Comparisons between a control run in which only a uniform cooling rate of l K day^–1 is specified, and runs with the infrared scheme are made for 12-hr simulations. The major feature of the radiative forcing is seen to be strong cloud-top cooling. This leads to enhanced destabilization of the upper cloud layer, which in turn results in faster growth of clouds (and which extend to higher levels) than in the control experiment. The deeper clouds force a more vigorous secondary circulation, in which thermodynamic feedbacks between clouds and their environment are substantially stronger than in the case with only a constant cooling rate. This confirms findings made in previous studies undertaken in small-scale numerical models. The discussion also focuses upon a simulation in which the cloud-top infrared cooling has been smoothed out over neighboring vertical levels, in order to represent a cloud-top height distribution crudely. The results indicate that although the absolute values of cloud-top cooling are reduced with respect to the unfiltered case, the fact that cooling extends even higher than previously predicted leads to the formation of thicker, more vigorous clouds. These clouds interact more intensely with their environment than in the unfiltered situation, thereby considerably modifying the mesoscale atmosphere.     

三维有云大气辐射变温率数值模拟研究——邻云辐射效应

大气数值模式普遍采用一维辐射传输模型,无法表征有云大气中的三维辐射传输过程,从而影响数值模拟乃至数值天气预报的准确性。为评估这种不确定性,研究了水平云体间的三维辐射相互作用及其改变云体热力结构的规律,力求为改进数值模式辐射计算方案提供理论依据。选取I3RC PhaseⅡ的典型积云场和层积云场作为试验对象,将云场中心区域云体视为目标云体,周围云体为邻近云体,采用宽带三维辐射传输模式SHDOM模拟长波和短波辐射变温率的空间分布,定量阐明邻近云体对目标云体热力结构的影响。结果表明,邻云在长波区域对目标云体主要起辐射保温的作用,目标云体增温区域集中于邻云一侧的云体表面层,增温强度与云覆盖率和云间距离倒数成正比,最高可达3.08K/h,云体增温的厚度与目标云体液态水含量成反比;在短波区域,邻云同时起散射增温和遮蔽降温的作用,太阳垂直入射时,散射增温效应较弱,变温率空间差异小;当太阳天顶角增大后,遮蔽降温效应逐步起主导作用,造成目标云体被邻云遮挡一侧的表面层明显降温,峰值可达-1.72K/h,数值上甚至超过邻云长波增温效应。总之,邻近云体可以明显改变目标云体的变温率空间分布,引入三维邻云辐射效应对改进大气数值模式辐射计算方案具有重要意义。