LMDZ5B: the atmospheric component of the IPSL climate model with revisited parameterizations for clouds and convection
Frederic Hourdin
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Jean-Yves Grandpeix
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Catherine Rio
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Sandrine Bony
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Arnaud Jam
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Frederique Cheruy
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Nicolas Rochetin
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Laurent Fairhead
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Abderrahmane Idelkadi
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Ionela Musat
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Jean-Louis Dufresne
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Alain Lahellec
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Marie-Pierre Lefebvre
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Romain Roehrig
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M.-P. Lefebvre CNRM-Game, Meteo-France and CNRS, Toulouse,
France
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J.-Y. Grandpeix C. Rio S. Bony A. Jam F. Cheruy N. Rochetin L. Fairhead A. Idelkadi I. Musat J.-L. Dufresne A. Lahellec M.-P. Lefebvre LMD,
Paris, France
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F. Hourdin (&) Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique
, IPSL, UPMC, Tr 45-55, 3e et, B99, Jussieu,
75005 Paris, France
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R. Roehrig CNRM-GAME, Toulouse,
France
Based on a decade of research on cloud processes, a new version of the LMDZ atmospheric general circulation model has been developed that corresponds to a complete recasting of the parameterization of turbulence, convection and clouds. This LMDZ5B version includes a mass-flux representation of the thermal plumes or rolls of the convective boundary layer, coupled to a bi-Gaussian statistical cloud scheme, as well as a parameterization of the cold pools generated below cumulonimbus by reevaporation of convective precipitation. The triggering and closure of deep convection are now controlled by lifting processes in the sub-cloud layer. An available lifting energy and lifting power are provided both by the thermal plumes and by the spread of cold pools. The individual parameterizations were carefully validated against the results of explicit high resolution simulations. Here we present the work done to go from those new concepts and developments to a full 3D atmospheric model, used in particular for climate change projections with the IPSLCM5B coupled model. Based on a series of sensitivity experiments, we document the differences with the previous LMDZ5A version distinguishing the role of parameterization changes from that of model tuning. Improvements found previously in single-column simulations of case studies are confirmed in the 3D model: (1) the convective boundary layer and cumulus clouds are better represented and (2) the diurnal cycle of convective rainfall over continents is delayed by several hours, solving a longstanding problem in climate modeling. The variability of tropical rainfall is also larger in LMDZ5B at intraseasonal timescales. Significant biases of the LMDZ5A model however remain, or are even sometimes amplified. The paper emphasizes the importance of parameterization improvements and model tuning in the frame of climate change studies as well as the new paradigm that represents the improvement of 3D climate models under the control of single-column case studies simulations.
1 Introduction
The representation of turbulent, convective and cloud
processes is critical for climate modeling for a series of
reasons. Clouds affect the latitudinal gradients of diabatic
heating in the atmosphere, thereby forcing the general
circulation. Their representation is key for the simulation
of prominent climate features such as the Inter Tropical
Convergence Zone (ITCZ) organization (Lindzen and Hou
1988; Hou and Lindzen 1992) or Madden-Julian
Oscillation (Zhang 2005). Cloud feedbacks also constitute a major
source of dispersion in global warming projections (Bony
and Dufresne 2005; Webb et al. 2006). A good
representation of boundary layer and convective processes is also a
key issue for the coupling with the other components of the
climate system: surface energy fluxes (which depend on
turbulence and clouds) and rainfall for coupling with the
ocean and continental surfaces, vertical transport of
gaseous molecules or lifting and scavenging of aerosols. It is
also essential for so-called impact studies which generally
rely on statistics on the near surface meteorological
variables and fluxes which determine the climates in the
geographers sense.
In the last two decades, significant progress was made in
the understanding of cloud and convective processes and
paths towards new parameterizations were proposed. These
works were coordinated at an international level in the
framework of the GCSS1 or Eurocs2 projects. They
benefited from the progress in observationsboth satellite and
in-situ on the occasions of coordinated field campaign
experimentsand from the development of limited area
non-hydrostatic models. Explicit simulations, with
socalled cloud resolving models (CRM, with horizontal
resolution of 12 km) are indeed able to represent reasonably
well some important aspects of deep convection (Guichard
et al. 2004; Redelsperger et al. 2000). Large Eddy
simulations (LES), with a resolution of 20100 m, are able to
accurately simulate boundary layer dynamics (Moeng and
Wyngaard 1988; Couvreux et al. 2005), cumulus clouds
(Siebert and Frank 2003; Brown et al. 2002) or the
transition from shallow to deep convection (Petch et al. 2002).
A series of such explicit simulations, concerning various
types of clouds or meteorological situations, were made
available to the community. Evaluation against those
reference simulations has become a central tool for the
development of new parameterizations (see e.g. Lenderink
et al. 2004; Guichard et al. 2004).
In the team of Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique
(LMD) in charge of the development of the atmospheric
general circulation model LMDZ (Z standing for the model
zoom capacity), we have tried to pursue a double objective.
In parallel with the development of the IPSL3 climate
system model, which required robust rather than
sophisticated versions of the atmospheric code, work was done on
the parameterization of boundary layer turbulence, dry and
deep moist convection and clouds. These efforts have been
1 Group for Clouds Systems Studies of the World Climate Research
2 EURopean Cloud Systems.
3 Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace.
capitalized recently in a brand new version of the physical
package. The previous version LMDZ5A, based on
Standard Physics (SP), was used in IPSL-CM5A to
explore a large sample of the climate change simulations
defined by the CMIP5 project. The New Physics (NP)
package, that defines the LMDZ5B version of the
atmospheric model, was used to produce a subset of CMIP5
simulations with IPSL-CM5B.
The boundary layer parameterization now relies on the
combination of a classical eddy diffusion (Yamada 1983)
with a mass-flux representation of the organized thermal
structures of the convective boundary layer, the so-called
thermal plume model (Hourdin et al. 2002; Rio and
Hourdin 2008). The idea of combining a diffusive scheme
with a mass flux scheme was first proposed by Chatfield
and Brost (1987). It enables one to represent the upward
convective transport in the mixed layer although this layer
is generally marginally stable (Hourdin et al. 2002),
solving a long recognized limitation of eddy diffusion
(Deardorff 1966). This approach was developed independently
by two teams and since adopted in several groups (Soares
et al. 2004; Siebesma et al. 2007; Pergaud et al. 2009;
Angevine et al. 2010; Neggers et al. 2009; Neggers 2009).
Mass-flux schemes account reasonably well for the
organized structures (thermal plumes, or rolls) of the convective
boundary layer. Their properties are used in the new model
version for coupling with deep convection and also to
better parameterize the boundary layer clouds (Rio and
Hourdin 2008; Jam et al. 2011).
With respect to deep convection, the developments were
motivated in particular by what was long considered as a
deadlock: parameterized deep convection tends to peak at
noon, in phase with insolation, while the observed
convection is usually maximum between mid afternoon and
midnight. The SP and NP versions of LMDZ5 share the
same Emanuel (1991) scheme but the convective closure
(that determines the convective mass flux at cloud base)
and triggering which were relying in the SP version on the
large scale vertical profiles of temperature and humidity
(through notions like Convective Available Potential
Energy or CAPE) are now based on the sub-cloud
processes. The coupling of the convective parameterization
with those of sub-cloud processes is done through the
notions of Available Lifting Energy (ALE, which must
overcome the convective inhibition, or CIN, for triggering)
and Available Lifting Power (ALP) that controls the
convective closure. Both quantities are computed from internal
variables of the thermal plume model and of a new
parameterization of the cold pools created by
re-evaporation of convective rainfall in the sub-cloud layer
(Grandpeix and Lafore 2010; Grandpeix et al. 2010). The
potential role of cold pools in controlling the life cycle of
continental convection has been recognized for a while
(Zipser 1969; Houze 1977; Lima and Wilson 2008) but no
parameterization has been available as yet.
The developments of the new parameterizations were
essentially conducted and evaluated in single-column
versions of the LMDZ model by comparison with explicit
CRM or LES simulations on a series of case studies.
Several important improvements of the new
parameterizations were demonstrated in that framework: (1)
accounting for the organized structures of the convective
boundary layer through the thermal plume model allows
the boundary layer thermodynamical and wind profiles to
be well represented both in terms of quasi-stationary state
over the ocean and of diurnal cycle over the continents (Rio
and Hourdin 2008); (2) coupling with a bi-Gaussian
statistical cloud scheme leads to a good representation of the
associated cumulus clouds (Jam et al. 2011); (3) coupling
of the convective mass-flux scheme with the thermal plume
model and cold pools results in a shift of several hours of
the diurnal cycle of convective rainfall over continents,
which is in much better agreement with observations and
CRM results (Rio et al. 2009).
The aim of the present paper is twofold. It describes the
development of the new LMDZ5B 3D model. It also
documents and analyses the effect of its new
parameterizations on its climatology, its variability and its sensitivity
to greenhouse gases as represented in the IPSL-CM5
coupled atmosphere-ocean simulations. We insist on the
importance of free model parameters tuning, an often
hidden but fundamental aspect of climate modeling.
Tuning is needed because the models, and in particular the
parameterizations of physical processes, are only
approximate representation of reality. The picture of a mean plume
representing the organized structures of the boundary layer
allows to derive a set of mathematical equations at the
basis of the parameterization. But, in fine, the parameters of
the models must be tuned so that the mean plume accounts
as closely as possible for the behavior of an ensemble of
clouds. In this particular case, the tuning can be done in a
large part on simulations of case studies validated by
comparison with observations or explicit high resolution
simulations. However, even after the tuning of individual
parameterizations, when possible, the 3D model still
requires a final tuning of free parameters, in order to insure
in particular that radiative fluxes balance globally at
atmospheric top for present-day condition.
Here, we present (Sect. 2) the rationale that drove the
development of the NP version. We show illustrations from
the single-column simulations that underline the main
improvements and describe the work which had to be done
to pass from parameterization new concepts and
developments to 3D climate modeling. Section 3 addresses the
issue of free parameters tuning for the 3D atmospheric
model, and to the compromises done to guarantee some
important constraints for the coupled IPSL model. In Sect.
4, we illustrate how the changes in physics did modify
some important aspects of the model mean climatology and
variability, as well as its sensitivity to greenhouse gases.
Climate sensitivity results are based on climate change
simulations which will be available on the CMIP database.
The conclusions (Sect. 5) underline the robust
improvements that come from the change in physical
parameterizations, the importance of the tuning phase as well as the
change of paradigm that constitutes the fact that the new
parameterizations were evaluated in details in
single-column mode on selected case studies.
2 The LMDZ5 New Physics
2.1 LMDZ5 and IPSL-CM5
LMDZ5 is the current version of the LMDZ atmospheric
general circulation model (Hourdin et al. 2006) which is
used for climate studies, climate change projections and
environmental studies. LMDZ5 is the atmospheric
component of the IPSL Coupled Model (IPSL-CM5) used in
particular for climate change projections in the frame of
CMIP5. In IPSL-CM5, LMDZ5 is coupled to Orchidee
over continental surfaces (Krinner et al. 2005) and
Nemo3.2 over the oceans, which uses the Orca2 grid, Lim2
for sea-ice and Pisces for biochemistry (see Dufresne et al.,
submitted).
The LMDZ dynamical core is based on a mixed finite
difference/finite volume discretization of the primitive
equations of meteorology and transport equations. It is
coupled to a set of physical parameterizations. The
Morcrette (1991) code is used for radiative transfer. Effects of
subgrid-scale orography are accounted for both through
drag and lifting effects on the obstacles and through
generation and propagation in the atmosphere of gravity waves
(Lott and Miller 1997). The LMDZ5A and LMDZ5B
configurations of LMDZ5 differ by the activation of a
different set of parameterizations for turbulence,
convection and clouds.
The parameterizations of the SP version LMDZ5A are
close to that of the previous LMDZ4 version (Hourdin
et al. 2006). The boundary layer turbulence is
parameterized as a diffusion with an eddy diffusivity which depends
on the local Richardson number. A counter-gradient term
on potential temperature (Deardorff 1972) as well as a dry
convective adjustment are added to handle dry convection
cases which often prevail in the boundary layer. The
standard version also includes the Emanuel (1993) scheme
for deep convection and the Bony and Emanuel (2001)
statistical cloud scheme. This version is described further
by Hourdin et al. (submitted).
2.2 The NP version LMDZ5B
The development of the new set of physical
parameterizations that defines the LMDZ5B version was motivated
by the importance of clouds for climate and climate
sensitivity (Bony et al. 2006), and by known weaknesses of
current climate model parameterizations such as the
underestimation of shallow cumulus clouds (Zhang et al. 2005)
or the unrealistic phasing of the diurnal cycle of
parameterized convection over continents (Guichard et al. 2004).
The new set of parameterizations relies on the separation
of three distinct scales for the turbulent and convective
subgrid-scale vertical motions:
1. The small scale (10100 m), associated with random
turbulence, dominant in particular in the surface layer.
2. The boundary layer height (500 m-3 km) that corresponds to the vertical scale of organized structures of the convective boundary layer.
3. The deep convection depth (1020 km) of cumulo
nimbus, meso-scale convective systems or squall lines.
The way parameterizations separate the various
components of the convective/turbulent motions is debated in
the community. Some authors favor for instance the idea of
unified convection schemes (Kuang and Bretherton 2006;
Hohenegger and Bretherton 2011). Here, the treatment of
dry and cloudy shallow convection is unified while there is
a separate treatment for deep convection. This separate
treatment is motivated by the differences in dominant
processes and spatial organization. While shallow
convection can be seen as an organization mode of the
convective boundary layer turbulence, rainfall plays a crucial
role in deep convection, both locally in the convective
column, and through the cold pools created below
cumulonimbus by rainfall re-evaporation.
2.2.1 Boundary layer
The first two scales dominate the vertical subgrid-scale
transport in the boundary layer. In the new physics, the
parameterization of this vertical transport relies on the
combination of a diffusion scheme for small scale
turbulence and a mass-flux model of the organized structures of
the convective boundary layer, the so-called thermal
plume model (Hourdin et al. 2002; Rio and Hourdin
2008).
The computation of the eddy diffusivity Kz is based on a
prognostic equation for the turbulent kinetic energy,
according to Yamada (1983). It is mainly active in practice
in the surface boundary layer, typically in the first few
hundred meters above surface.
The mass flux scheme represents an ensemble of
coherent ascending thermal plumes in the grid cell as a
mean plume. A model column is separated in two parts: the
thermal plume and its environment. The vertical mass flux
in the plume fth = q ath wthwhere q is the air density, wth
the vertical velocity in the plume and ath its fractional
coveragevaries vertically as a function of lateral
entrainment eth (from environment to the plume) and
detrainment dth (from the plume to the environment):
For a scalar quantity q (total water, potential temperature,
chemical species, aerosols), the vertical transport by the
thermal plume (assuming stationarity) reads
qth being the concentration of q inside the plume (air is
assumed to enter the plume with the concentration of the
large scale, which is equivalent to neglect the plume
fraction ath in this part of the computation). The time
evolution of q finally reads
The vertical velocity wth in the plume is driven by the
plume buoyancy g (hth - h)/h. The thermal plume fraction
is also an internal variable of the model. The computation
of wth, ath, eth and dth is a critical part of the code. We test
here two different versions of the eth and dth computation
presented in details by Rio and Hourdin (2008) and Rio
et al. (2010) respectively.
2.2.2 Cold pools
The wake model is fully described in Grandpeix and Lafore
(2010) and Grandpeix et al. (2010). Only a sketch of the
scheme is presented here.
The model represents a population of identical circular
cold pools (the wakes) with vertical frontiers over an
infinite plane containing the grid cell. The wakes are
cooled by the convective precipitating downdrafts, while
the air outside the wakes feeds the convective saturated
drafts.
The wake centers are assumed statistically distributed
with a uniform spatial density Dwk. The wake state
variables are their fractional coverage rwrw Dwkpr2 where
r is the wake radius), the potential temperature difference
dh(p) and the specific humidity difference dqv(p) between
the wake region (w) and the off-wake region (x). dh(p) and
Available Lifting Power (ALP) provided by sub-cloud
lifting processes. The ALE allows to overcome the
Convective INhibition (CIN) so that convection is triggered
when ALE [ |CIN|. The closure consists in prescribing the
mass flux M at the top of the inhibition zone as:
where wB is the updraft speed at the level of free
convection. The original constant value wB = 1 m/s was replaced
by a function of the level of free convection as explained
below.
In the NP version of LMDZ, two processes are taken
into account for both ALE and ALP: (1) the ascending
motions of the convective boundary layer, as predicted by
the thermal plume model and (2) the air lifted downstream
of gust fronts. ALE is the largest of the lifting energies
provided by the two processes: ALE = max(ALEth, ALEwk)
where ALEth scales with wt2h and ALEwk = WAPE. ALP is
the sum of the lifting powers provided by the two
processes: ALP = ALPth ? ALPwk where ALPth scales with
wt3h and ALPwk scales with C*.
3
This coupling between cold pools (generated by
convection) and convection (triggered in turn and fed by cold
pools) allows for the first time to get an autonomous life
cycle of convection, not directly driven by the large scale
conditions.
dqv(p) are non zero up to the homogeneity level ph = 0.6ps
(where ps is the surface pressure). Above ph the sole
difference between (w) and (x) regions lies in the convective
drafts (saturated drafts in (x) and unsaturated ones in (w)).
Wake air being denser than off-wake air, wakes spread
as density currents, inducing a vertical velocity difference
dx(p) between regions (w) and (x) (dx(p) [ 0). The
vertical profile dx(p) is imposed piecewise linear. Especially,
between surface and wake top (the altitude hw where dh
crosses zero) the slope corresponds to wake spreading
without lateral entrainment nor detrainment.
The wake geometrical changes with time are due to the
spread, split, decay and coalescence of the wakes. Split,
decay and coalescence are merely represented by imposing
a constant density Dwk and by assuming that when rw
reaches a maximum allowed value (=0.5) some wakes
vanish (i.e. mix with the environment) while others split so
that the fractional cover rw stays constant. The spreading
rate of the wake fractional area rw reads:
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
otrw 2C pp Dwk rw 5
where C*, the mean spread speed of the wake leading
edges, is proportional to the square
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffirffiffioffiffioffiffiffitffiffi of the WAke
Potential Energy WAPE: C k p2WAPE and WAPE
R
g 0hw dhhvvdz where, k*, the spread efficiency, is a tunable
parameter in the range 1/32/3 and hv is the virtual
potential temperature.
The energy and water vapor equations are expressed at
each level yielding prognostic equations for dh(p) and
dqv(p) as well as contributions to the average temperature h
and average humidity qv equations.
The convective scheme is supposed to provide
separately the apparent heat sources due to saturated drafts and
to unsaturated drafts, which makes it possible to compute
the differential heating and moistening feeding the wakes.
2.2.3 Deep convection
As in the standard LMDZ5 version, the LMDZ5B version
uses the buoyancy sorting mass-flux scheme of Emanuel
(1993), with modified mixing (Grandpeix et al. 2004) and
splitting of the tendencies due to saturated and unsaturated
drafts. The precipitation efficiency is computed as a
function of the in-cloud condensed water and temperature
following Emanuel and Zivkovic-Rothman (1999). It is
bounded by a maximum value epmax which is slightly less
than unity to allow some cloud water to remain in
suspension in the atmosphere instead of being entirely rained
out (Bony and Emanuel 2001).
The parameterizations of triggering and closure have
been deeply modified in the NP version as explained in the
introduction, using the Available Lifting Energy (ALE) and
2.2.4 Clouds
The fractional cloudiness ac and condensed water qc are
predicted by introducing a subrid-scale distribution P(q) of
total water q so that:
where qsat(T) is the grid averaged saturation specific
humidity in the mesh.
For deep convection, we assume that the subgrid-scale
condensation and rainfall can be handled by the Emanuel
scheme, so that this statistical cloud scheme is used only to
predict the fractional cloudiness for the radiative transfer.
Following Bony and Emanuel (2001), the in-cloud water
(qinc = qc/ac) predicted by the convective scheme is used,
through an inverse procedure, to determine the variance r
of a generalized log-normal function bounded at 0. With
this particular function, the skewness of P(q) increases with
increasing values of the unique width parameter n = r/ q.
For other types of clouds, the statistical cloud scheme is
used to compute not only the cloud properties for radiation
but also large scale condensation.
If the thermal plume is not active in the grid box (in practice
if fth = 0), the width parameter n of the generalized log-normal
function is specified as a function of pressure: n(p) increases
linearly from 0 at surface to n600 = 0.002 at 600 hPa, then to
n300 = 0.25 at 300 Pa. It is kept constant above.
When fth [ 0 in the grid box, two options are available.
Either we use the Bony and Emanuel (2001) procedure to
invert the width parameter n from the knowledge of the
condensed water computed in the thermal plumes (like
what is done for deep convection) or we use a new
statistical cloud scheme proposed by Jam et al. (2011) in
which the sub-grid scale distribution of the water saturation
deficit (rather than total water) is parameterized as the sum
of two Gaussian functions, representing the variability
within and outside the thermal plume respectively. The
width of each Gaussian varies as a function of the thermal
plume fractional cover ath and of the contrast in saturation
deficit between the plume and its environment.
A fraction fiw of the condensed water qc is assumed to be
frozen. This fraction varies as a function of temperature
from fiw = 0 at 273.15 K to fiw = 1 at 258.15 K.
The condensed water is partially precipitated. Derived
from Zender and Kiehl (1997) formula for an anvil model,
the associated sink is
where wiw = ciw 9 w0, w0 = 3.29(qqiw)0.16 being a
characteristic free fall velocity (in m/s) of ice crystals given by
Heymsfield and Donner (1990) and ciw a parameter
introduced for the purposes of model tuning (q in kg/m3).
For liquid water, following Sundqvist (1978), rainfall
starts to precipitate above a critical value clw (0.6 g/kg in
the reference version) for condensed water, with a time
constant for auto-conversion sconvers (=1,800 s) so that
h i
qlw 1 e qlw=clw2
A fraction of the precipitation is re-evaporated in the
layer below and added to the total water of this layer before
the statistical cloud scheme is applied. For ice particles, we
assume that all the precipitation re-evaporates. For liquid
water, following Sundqvist (1988), we assume that
q=qsat pffiPffiffi
where P is the precipitation flux, and b a tunable parameter.
The effective radius of cloud droplets depends on the
aerosol concentration which is specified as a function of
space and season as explained by Dufresne et al., this issue.
The effective radius of ice crystals varies linearly as a
function of temperature between eriw,max at 0 C and
eriw,min at -84.1 C.
2.3 1D evaluation
2.3.1 The single-column framework
In the last decades, single-column models have become a
central tool for the development and evaluation of physical
parameterizations. In this approach, the coupling between
the local atmospheric column and large scale dynamics is
replaced by an imposed forcing: surface fluxes or
temperature, large-scale advection of heat and moisture plus
radiative heating if not computed interactively. A number
of case studies have been developed addressing in
particular convection and clouds. The case studies are often
derived from field campaign experiments for which a lot of
in-situ or remote sensing observations are available.
If enough observations are available to prescribe properly
the large-scale forcing and adequately sample the relevant
variables, one can evaluate single-column simulations against
real observations. However, they are more often compared
with the results of full 3D non-hydrostatic high-resolution
simulations. This approach presents several advantages: (1)
the same forcing can be applied to the 3D explicit simulation
and to the single-column model, (2) the explicit simulation
gives access to any variable at any time and location in the
domain and (3) the forcing parameters can be arbitrarily
varied to test the response of the physical parameterizations in
the single-column model. The counterpart is that the explicit
simulations can depart from observation.
Most developments and improvements of the LMDZ
new physical parameterizations were undergone in this
single-column framework. We show below results of
single-column simulations that illustrate the improvements of
the new parameterizations with respect to the previous SP
version. Those tests are performed with the NPv3 version
of the NP parameterizations, which is used in the 3D
simulations as explained later on.
2.3.2 Boundary layer clouds
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate two cases of convective boundary
layer with shallow cumulus. The first one is the Eurocs
fairweather cumulus case, built from observations of the ARM
site in Oklahoma (Brown et al. 2002; Lenderink et al.
2004). This case has been used systematically during the
development of the thermal plume model (Rio and Hourdin
2008; Couvreux et al. 2010; Rio et al. 2010). The
difference with previously published results is that the
singlecolumn simulations shown here are performed with exactly
the same version of the model as in the full climate model,
with the same tuning of free parameters (see next section).
In particular, the deep convection parameterization is
uninhibited here, whereas it was intentionally switched off
in the publications mentioned above. The second one is a
Fig. 1 Time evolution of the
vertical profile of cloud fraction
(in %, colors) for two test cases
of shallow cumulus: the Eurocs
cumulus continental case (left)
and the Rico oceanic case
(right). Results of the SP (lower
panels) and NP (middle)
versions of LMDZ5 ran in
single-column mode are
compared with LES results
(upper panels). The contours
show the specific humidity (in
g/kg) for the Eurocs case and
the difference of the specific
humidity with its initial value
for Rico
case of marine drizzling cumulus based on the Rico
campaign (Rauber et al. 2007; VanZanten et al. 2011). This
case was not used during the model development and so
offers an independent evaluation of the new scheme.
The LMDZ single-column results are compared with
those of 3D Large Eddy Simulation (LES) performed with
the MesoNH model with meshes of the order of 50 m (see
Couvreux et al. 2010, for more details). The Eurocs
singlecolumn simulation is performed with 40 levels on the
vertical between the surface and 4 km and the Rico
simulation with 80 layers covering the whole troposphere.
We first show in Fig. 1 the time evolution of the
cloudiness vertical profile. The improvement from the SP to NP
version is clear on those graphs, with much deeper clouds,
even if the vertical extent remains a bit underestimated. The
comparison of vertical profiles of liquid potential
temperature and specific humidity (first two panels in Fig. 2) shows
that the boundary layer is also better represented in the NP
version with a well-mixed layer below 1 km and a cloud
layer between 1 and 2 km. Note also the better representation
of the horizontal wind which is well mixed between the top of
the surface layer (at 200 m) and the cloud base (1 km) and
gradually reaches the imposed geostrophic wind (U, V) =
(10, 0) m/s in the free troposphere. In the SP version, the
boundary layer is confined to the first kilometer or so, and
almost no cloud layer develops above.
Fig. 2 Vertical profile of liquid potential temperature hl (K), specific
humidity rt (g/kg), zonal and meridional wind (m/s) for the 8th hour
of the Eurocs cumulus simulation (13:30 local time). We show the
results of the MesoNH LES (gray) and SP and NP single-column
simulations with LMDZ5. The last two panels show the thermal
plume vertical velocity (m/s) and fractional cover in the NP
simulation and diagnosed through the tracer-based sampling of
thermal plumes in LES (Couvreux et al. 2010)
In addition, the thermal plume model provides a
characterization of the organized structures of the convective
boundary layer. As an illustration, we show for the same hour
of the Eurocs case, the plume vertical velocity and fractional
cover obtained in the NP simulation (last two panels in
Fig. 2). It is compared with values obtained thanks to a
tracerbased sampling of the thermal plumes of the LES (Couvreux
et al. 2010). The adequate representation of these internal
variables is crucial for the simulation of the vertical transport
of trace species. These variables also enter in the definition of
the ALE and ALP used for triggering and closure of the deep
convection parameterization.
2.3.3 Diurnal cycle of convection
The second improvement, concerning the representation of
the diurnal cycle of deep convection over continents (Rio
et al. 2009), is illustrated in Fig. 3 for the ARM case of
Guichard et al. (2004). The SP version tends to predict a
rainfall in phase with insolation, as most convective
parameterizations do. The convection maximum is delayed
by about four hours with the NP version, in much better
agreement with CRM results. The thermal plume model
plays a key role in preconditioning the boundary layer in
the morning and controlling the early phase of deep
convection while the addition of the cold pool
parameterization allows an amplification and self-maintenance of
convection in late afternoon, with a slightly underestimated
intensity when compared with CRMs.
2.4 Switching to new parameterizations in the 3D model
2.4.1 From case studies to global climate
To be qualified for 3D climate modeling, a
parameterization must be valid both over ocean and continents, from the
Fig. 3 Diurnal cycle of rainfall for the Eurocs ARM continental case
of deep convection. The dots correspond to four of the results of CRM
simulations presented in Guichard et al. (2004)
poles to the equator, on deserts or wet lands. Two
important points had to be addressed in that respect when
finalizing the LMDZ5B version.
The first issue concerns the convective closure: the set of
free parameters which was retained by Rio et al. (2009) for
the ALP convective closure, based on the 1D ARM case,
was not satisfactory for oceanic cases. Introducing a height
dependency in the vertical velocity at cloud base (wB) used
in the ALP-closure (Eq. 6) allowed to reconcile the case of
continental convection with oceanic cases. This modified
ALP closure is discussed in details by Rio et al.
(submitted).
The second point concerns the treatment of
stratocumulus. Although some encouraging work is done
currently on the thermal plume model in that direction, the
current version does not represent properly strato-cumulus
clouds. Strato-cumulus are known to be especially
prominent at the eastern side of tropical oceans. On the other
hand, the Yamada (1983) scheme alone performs quite well
for those particular conditions. A kludge is thus introduced
in the model, which consists in identifying the atmospheric
columns with a sharp temperature inversion at the
boundary layer top, and turning off the thermal plume
model in those particular cases. In practice, if
then the thermal plume parametrization is arbitrarily
switched off. This test is in fact inherited from the standard
LMDZ5 model where it was used to switch between two
different computations of the Kz coefficient with the same
goal of contrasting the regions of strato-cumulus and
tradewind cumulus on tropical oceans. We show in Fig. 4 the
regions selected by this criteria on a typical simulation
done with LMDZ5B (the NPv3 simulation which is
analyzed later on).
2.4.2 Vertical resolution
A major difference between 1D and 3D is the issue of
numerical cost. This puts some constraints on the
complexity of the parameterizations but also on the resolution
at which those parameterizations are used.
The vertical and horizontal discretization are often a
compromise between the expected improvement coming
from an increased resolution, and numerical cost. The
question of horizontal resolution is discussed by Hourdin
et al. (submitted). For grid mesh coarser than a few tens of
km, the horizontal resolution is not an issue for the
parameterizations, except for the organization of deep
convection which covers a very large range of scales.
The question of vertical discretization is more crucial
for boundary layer and cloud parameterizations. The
parameterizations of the convective boundary layer
presented above require an explicit representation of the
decrease of potential temperature with height in the first
few hundreds meters above surface. The parameterization
of lateral entrainment and detrainment (Rio et al. 2010)
also shows very sharp variations at the inversion level,
Fig. 4 Fraction of year for which the thermal flux scheme is switched
off over oceans due to the identification of a strong temperature
inversion in a climate simulation with LMDZ5B
where water vapor can vary by an order of magnitude and
the temperature by several degrees over only a few tens of
meters.
In the current version, we retained the same L39
discretization as in the LMDZ5A configuration. It was found
to be fine enough to capture most of the boundary layer
structures.
We illustrate in Fig. 5 for the Rico case of precipitating
shallow cumulus how the cloudiness and specific humidity
degrade when using the L39 vertical grid of the 3D model
(red curve) rather than the L80 grid used for single-column
simulations (black curve). The use of a coarser grid and
time step clearly impacts the cloud cover but less than the
change of parameterization. However, an increase of
vertical resolution, or alternatively a modification of the
parameterization which would allow to account for subgrid
scale transitions on the vertical (in particular at cloud
bottom and cloud top) would be better.
2.4.3 Numerical stability
The parameterizations presented above, although being a
crude representation of the full meteorology, are already
quite sophisticated. The number of equations and internal
variables of those parameterizations grows, with often poor
control on the behavior of the mathematical equations and
appropriate numerical methods to handle them in a climate
model. In particular, the parameterizations of boundary
layer presented above tend to show important numerical
oscillations when long time steps are used.
In the current version of the LMDZ model, the primitive
equations are integrated with a 3 min time step (there is no
Fig. 5 Effect on the LMDZ5B single-column simulations of the Rico
case of changing the vertical grid or time step. We show the mean
cloudiness (left) and specific humidity (g/kg, right) profiles averaged
between hour 6 and 12 of the simulation. The single-column
integration shown in Figs. 1 and 8 are run with the L80 vertical
grid and a time step of 60 s. They correspond to the black curve here.
The L39 grid is that of the 3D model. The green curve corresponds to
the L39 vertical discretization and 450 s time step of the 3D climate
simulations
filtering of gravity waves). In the standard version
LMDZ5A, the physical parameterizations are coupled to
primitive equations every 30 min. This is not a fine enough
time step for the NP parameterizations. The single-column
simulations of case studies are typically performed with a 1
or 2 min time step. For the 3D simulation, a 7.5 min time
step is used, which does not inhibit all numerical
oscillations.
We show in Fig. 5 results obtained for the Rico case
using the L39 vertical grid with either a 60 s time step (red)
or the 450 s time step of the 3D model (green). Once again,
the impact of using a larger time step is significant, but
weaker than the impact of changing parameterization.
2.4.4 Tuning of free parameters
The last but essential step in the finalization of a model
version to be used in climate change projections is the
tuning of free parameters.
In forced simulations, the imposed distribution of Sea
Surface Temperatures (SSTs) puts a strong constraint on
the atmospheric general circulation. Even in this case,
significant biases can be obtained in the mid-troposphere or
over continents if, for instance, cloud parameters have not
been tuned. The issue is even more crucial when coupling
the atmosphere to an ocean model. In the range of
uncertainty of the model free parameters, the radiative impact of
clouds can vary by several tens of W/m2. Systematic biases
in surface fluxes will produce significant biases in SSTs
which, in turn, will strongly affect the climate over
continents.
When tuning the model, choices and compromises must
be made, which may depend on the scientific question
addressed and will remain, at the end, arbitrary. The
strategy followed for the LMDZ5B tuning and the
sensitivity of the model results to parameterization changes and
tuning is discussed in the next section.
3 Improvements and tuning
3.1 Tuning strategy
3.1.1 Key targets for tuning
When tuning the LMDZ5B free parameters, the first
priority was given to the global radiative balance.
The tuning of the net top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA)
radiative balance determines the global energy budget of
the climate system. With a perfect model, it is expected
that an exact balance in simulations forced by present day
observed SSTs should guarantee a stable climate in the
coupled atmosphere-ocean simulations, i.e. with no drift in
the SSTs. In fact, since we are in a warming transient phase
due to greenhouse gases increase, the present-day balance
is probably closer to 0.51 W/m2 which corresponds to
heat storage in the ocean.4 In practice for LMDZ5B, an
unbalance of -2.5 W/m2 is needed in the forced-by-SSTs
simulation in order to obtain, in the coupled model, a stable
climate with a mean surface temperature close to present
day observations.
The final tuning of the net balance is a key issue.
Changing this tuning by 1 W/m2 will typically shift the
mean surface temperature by 1 K. Because of the robust
spatial patterns of the SST biases in global climate models,
this gives a certain degree of freedom. One can favor
having the best global SSTs, or best average surface
temperature over continents, or best mean temperature in a
particular region of the globe.
Regarding radiative fluxes, we also consider the
following targets for tuning:
1. the latitudinal variations which drive the atmospheric
general circulation;
2. the absolute global values of the absorbed solar
radiation and outgoing long-wave radiation at TOA
(the difference of which gives the net balance);
3. the decomposition between clear sky fluxes and cloud
radiative forcing (CRF);
4. the dependency of the radiative flux on the large scale
dynamics, using the x500 regime sorting of Bony et al.
(1997);
5. ocean/continent contrasts, in the tropics, which is key
for monsoon circulation.
Regarding meteorological variables, reducing as far as
possible the biases in the mean meridional structure of the
zonal wind, temperature and humidity was the main target.
3.2 A set of sensitivity experiments
The model depends on probably more than one hundred
parameters. Some of them have a well-known value such as
the gravity or the solar constants. About 15 of them, mostly
related to clouds and convection, were actually used for the
tuning of the LMDZ5B model. Those parameters were
chosen somewhat arbitrarily, both because they are quite
uncertain and for their significant impact on the radiative
fluxes.
During the development and tuning of the NP version of
LMDZ5, many simulations were performed with the same
set of values of the tunable parameters for both the 1D test
cases and 3D forced-by-SSTs simulations. In the 3D
simulations, the mean seasonal cycle of the AMIP SSTs
4 Note that this global unbalance is too small to be constrained by
observation (Loeb et al. 2009).
(Hurrell et al. 2008) for the period 19702000 was used as
boundary condition. The grid used for the 3D simulations is
the low resolution grid retained at IPSL for the CMIP5
experiments. It is based on 96 longitudes (3.75 resolution)
and 95 latitudes (1.9 ) on the horizontal. The standard L39
vertical grid of LMDZ5 is also used in these simulations.
See Hourdin et al. (submitted) for a discussion on the
choice of this particular grid.
To demonstrate the added value of the new
parameterizations and underline the importance of parameter tuning,
we defined a posteriori a set of nine sensitivity experiments,
in which we start from the final tuning of the model. This
final tuning defines the NPv3 version used for CMIP5
simulations.
The list of the sensitivity experiments is given in
Table 1 together with the value of the modified parameter.
The first four simulations (TH08, TH10, CLDTAU and
CLDLC) are expected to modify mainly the low and
midlevel clouds. The following four (EPMAX, FALLICE,
RQD and ICEER) are expected to modify humidity,
temperature and cloudiness in the mid and upper troposphere.
The last one (DRAGOCE) concerns surface drag on the
oceans. Because of the low reliability of the surface drag
computation in the LMDZ5 SP and NP versions, a factor is
applied to the surface exchange coefficient for water and
temperature, and used as a tunable parameter. This
parameter is set to 0.8 in the SP and DRAGOCE
experiments and to 0.7 in the NPv3 simulation.
3.3 Clouds
The tuning of the 3D model was done mainly on
parameters that control radiative fluxes through clouds and
atmospheric humidity.
A consistent comparison between model clouds and
space observations is made possible by the use of so-called
observations simulators (Yu et al. 1996), which diagnose
from model outputs what different satellites would observe
Table 1 Description of the sensitivity experiments
from space if they were flying in orbit around the models
atmosphere.
Figure 6 shows the zonal and annual mean of the cloud
fraction as simulated with the NPv3 version of the model
and as observed by the Caliop Lidar onboard the Calipso
satellite (Winker et al. 2007). The Calipso-GOCCP
(Chepfer et al. 2010) data set is used here as it has been
developed to be consistent with the Calipso-COSP
simulator outputs (Chepfer et al. 2008; Bodas-Salcedo et al.
2011). We separate the low (surface to 680 hPa), mid
(680440 hPa) and high (above 440 hPa) level clouds. We
compare with observations both the model cloud cover and
that derived from the Calipso-COSP simulator.
The use of the simulator is particularly important in the
case of low or mid-clouds overlapped by upper-levels
clouds. A difference between model (viewed through the
simulator) and observed low clouds can be due to a
difference in the masking effect of higher clouds.
3.3.1 Low- and mid-level clouds
We illustrate in Fig. 7 how the changes in boundary layer
parameterizations improved the representation of the low
and mid-level cloud coverage with respect to the SP
version. The SP version strongly underestimates the low and
mid-level clouds, a common feature in climate models
(Zhang et al. 2005). The increase in low level clouds in the
NP version is consistent with the single-column results
(Fig. 1). Significant changes, although not systematic, are
also visible when comparing NPv3 with TH08 and TH10.
TH08 and TH10, which differ from each other by the
specification of lateral entrainment/detrainment of the
thermal plume, are close to each other.
On the other hand, introducing the bi-Gaussian cloud
scheme (Jam et al. 2011) induces a stronger effect
(comparing TH10 and NPv3).
The NPv3 version also systematically simulates more
mid-level clouds than SP and a little bit more than TH08
Use of the Rio et al. (2008) version of the thermal plume model
Use of the Rio el al. (2010) with improved lateral entrainment/detrainment rates
Description of modified parameter
Cloud water auto-conversion time constant, sconvers
In-cloud water threshold for autoconversion, clw
maximum precipitation efficiency for deep convection, epmax
Factor on ice particles fall velocity, ciw
relative width of subgrid-scale water distribution above 300 hPa, n300
Ice crystals min. and max. effective radius, (eriw,min, eriw,max)
Factor on heat and moisture ocean surface fluxes
Fig. 6 Comparison of the GOCCP observations (gray dots) with the
cloud fraction obtained in the NPv3 simulation, either directly by the
model (red) or through the Calipso/COSP simulator (black)
and TH10. The changes here may not be due only to the
change in the boundary layer parameterizations but also to
the modification of the convective closure.
These changes are highlighted by the 1D simulations
shown in Fig. 8. For the Eurocs cumulus case, the
improved parameterization of the thermal plume lateral
entrainment and detrainment (from TH08 to TH10)
produces a better representation of the deepening of the
boundary layer in the afternoon. However, both simulations
produce vertical profiles of the cloud fraction that do not
peak at cloud base, as it does in the LES (Fig. 1). Using the
bi-Gaussian scheme coupled to the thermal plumes (NPv3
simulation in Fig. 1) produces much more realistic vertical
profiles. The impact is even stronger in the Rico case as
illustrated in the right panels of Fig. 8. During the first
hours of the Rico simulation, as for Eurocs, the cloud cover
shows a marked and unrealistic maximum in the upper part
of the cloud in TH08 and TH10. In-cloud condensation
produces rainfall that re-evaporates in the sub-cloud layer
Fig. 7 Mid and low level cloud fraction (%) obtained with the SP and
NPv3 versions of LMDZ, and in the TH08 and TH10 simulations. The
gray dots correspond to GOCCP observations. The black curve and
gray dots are the same as in Fig. 6
which rapidly moistens, explaining the later apparition of
clouds close to the surface. Note that this behavior was not
visible in the case of non precipitating marine cumulus
used for the development of the thermal plume model (see
e.g. Rio et al. 2010).
Increasing from 30 min to 2 h the time constant of the
cloud autoconversion rate sconvers (CLDTAU) or reducing
from 0.6 to 0.1 g/kg the critical value for the in-cloud
condensed water clw (CLDLC) has a much weaker effect
than the changes of parameterizations, as seen both for the
3D model (by comparing Figs. 7 with 9) and in the
singlecolumn simulations (Figs. 8, 1). The mid-level clouds are
also weakly affected in the tuning experiments.
3.3.2 High-level clouds
For high clouds, changes in parameterizations and tuning
of free parameters have a comparable impact (see Fig. 10).
High clouds significantly depend on the fall velocity of ice
crystals (FALLICE) and on the maximum precipitation
efficiency (EPMAX) of the convective scheme. The
difference between the SP and NPv3 simulations actually
comes for a large part from the use of a larger value of
epmax and a smaller value of ciw. Increasing epmax (i.e.
reducing the condensed water detrained by the convection
in the upper troposphere) slightly reduces the high cloud
fraction close to the convective regions, while reducing ciw
has an effect along the trajectory of air parcels at all
Fig. 8 Time evolution of the
vertical profile of cloud fraction
(in %, colors) for the Eurocs
cumulus continental case (left)
and the Rico oceanic case
(right). Results are shown for
the TH08, TH10, CLCTAU and
CLDLC simulations. The
contours show the specific
humidity (in g/kg) for the
Eurocs case and the difference
of the specific humidity with its
initial value for Rico
Fig. 9 Zonal mean of the 10-year averaged low level cloud fraction
(%) in the NPv3, CLDLC and CLDTAU simulations. The Calipso/
Cosp simulator is applied on-line on the model thermodynamical
variables for the comparison
Fig. 10 Zonal mean of the 10-year averaged high level cloud fraction
(%) in the NPv3, TH08, TH10, EPMAX, FALLICE, RQH, CLDLC
and CLDTAU simulations. The Calipso/Cosp simulator is applied
online on the model thermodynamical variables for the comparison
latitudes. This explains the over estimation of high cloud
cover in the SP and FALLICE simulations with respect to
NPv3, particularly strong in mid to high latitudes. A
decrease of the parameter n300, which controls the width of
the sub-grid scale total water distribution for large-scale
clouds in the upper troposphere (RQH), has a similar
impact.
3.4 Radiative fluxes
The effect of changes in parameterizations (left column)
and free parameters tuning (right column) on the TOA
radiative fluxes is shown in Fig. 11 for the latitudinal
variations and Fig. 12 for tropical dynamical regimes, the
corresponding global mean values being given in Table 2.
The latitudinal variations of the TOA total radiation
(upper panels in Fig. 11), which in part reflect the
latitudinal variations of insolation, are captured rather well. All
simulations except CLDLC (highlighted as a thick red
curve) tend however to underestimate the net radiation in
the southern mid-latitudes. The regime dependence of this
TOA total radiation (upper panels in Fig. 12) is rather well
simulated for the various sensitivity experiments.
Among the various tunings of the NP version,
differences in net radiation are dominated by the changes in
cloud radiative forcing, the clear-sky radiation (not shown)
being less affected.
The impact of the switch from SP to NP is particularly
strong in the tropics. The SW CRF in the tropics was
strongly underestimated in the SP version, and in particular
in convective regimes (large negative values of x500 in
Fig. 12). The TH10 and NPv3 versions are closer to
observations, both in terms of latitudinal variations and
regime sorting. Tuning experiments do not really affect the
shape of the SW CRF in the tropics but can change the
mean value by several W/m2. The improvement of tropical
SW CRF is thus a robust feature of the new
parameterizations. In the mid-latitudes, the SW CRF is more
sensitive to parameter tuning. The tuning retained for NPv3 is
significantly too negative in the southern mid-latitudes,
which explains the bias already mentioned for the total net
radiation.
Changes in LW CRF are closely related to the changes
in high-level clouds discussed above. Decreasing epmax, ciw
or n300 increases the high-levels cloud cover and in turn the
LW CRF. As already discussed, the effect of epmax is
particularly strong in regions of deep convection. This is
clearly illustrated in the regime sorted graph. Both the SW
CRF and LW CRF are in fact intensified in the convetive
regimes (large negative values of x500) in EPMAX (thick
green versus black curves in the two lower panels in the
right column of Fig. 12). The SW and LW effects
compensate in the total CRF. Also ciw has a particularly strong
effect in mid-latitudes (thick green versus black curves in
the lower right panel of Fig. 11), as already discussed for
the high clouds.
Fig. 11 Zonal mean of the 10-year average of the TOA total
(LW?SW) net radiation (upper row), total CRF (second row), SW
CRF (third row) and LW CRF (fourth row) in W/m2. The left column
shows the sensitivity to parameterization changes and the right one
the free parameter sensitivity experiments. For the right column, the
sensitivity experiments that affect more the low clouds are shown in
red (CLDLC, CLDTAU, DRAGOCE) and those that affect more the
Altogether, the NPv3 version constitutes a satisfactory
tuning of radiative fluxes. A lower value of clw may be
seen as preferable in view of the zonal averages (second
column of Fig. 11). However, reducing clw has a strong
effect on the global energy balance. The difference in
the global balance between NPv3 and CLDLC is around
7 W/m2 (Table 2).
As mentioned earlier, it turns out that the tuning of the
TOA global net flux in the forced-by-SSTs model must be
of about -2.5 W/m2 in order to obtain a realistic
simulation of the global surface temperature in the coupled
model. Thus the combination of values retained for the
tunable parameters must ensure, in the end, a balance of -2
to -3 W/m2. In addition to this global constraint, we
retained a tuning with a good simulation of separate SW
and LW fluxes. The global mean clear-sky OLR being too
high clouds in green (EPMAX, FALLICE, ICEER, RQH). For each
panel, a thick line is used (red or green) to highlight one particular
sensitivity experiment. Observations (gray dots) correspond to the
The CERES Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) dataset, developed
to remove the inconsistency between average global net TOA flux and
heat storage in the Earth-atmosphere system Loeb et al. (2009)
weak by about 2 W/m2 (it was not the case for the SP
version), the final tuning corresponds to an underestimation
of the LW CRF by 2.6 W/m2 so that the total-sky OLR is
close to observation. The clear-sky absorbed solar radiation
is close to observation (about 287 W/m2 as can be checked
by adding the ASR and SW CRF in Table 2) and does not
depend much on the parameterizations nor on the
parameter tuning. In the final NPv3 tuning, the global balance of
-2.3 W/m2 was obtained with an overestimated SW CRF
by about -3 W/m2.
This final tuning is the result of a 2-year-long iterative
process, during which series of tuning simulations were
redone regularly, in particular after each significant change
in the parameterizations. It is possible that a better set of
tuning values could be reached. Attempts to automatize the
tuning procedure were made several times: once a series of
Fig. 12 Regime sorting (as a function of the vertical velocity x500 at 500 hPa) of the TOA total (LW?SW) net radiation (upper row), total CRF
(second row), SW CRF (third row) and LW CRF (fourth row) in W/m2. Same conventions and remarks as for Fig. 11
Table 2 Global values of the TOA total flux (in W/m2), and its decomposition into Absorbed SW radiation (ASR) and Outgoing LW Radiation
(OLR), clear Outgoing LW Radiation, and SW, LW and total Cloud Radiative Forcing (CRF)
The last three columns correspond to the global evaporation (E, mm/day), precipitation (P, mm/day) and precipitable water (PRW, mm)
sensitivity experiments is available, one could try to build
sensitivity functions on which optimization procedures
could be applied. But the compromise that is done at the
end is difficult to translate into objective functions so far.
Also, some systematic biases seem to be intrinsically
linked to the particular model or model version, and one
may not want to correct too far this model signature by a
tuning which would be too negative for other aspects. So,
up to now, this tuning phase remains somewhat manual and
the results sometimes disappointing.
3.5 Tropospheric biases
The NPv3 simulation shows a strong bias in the mean zonal
wind (Fig. 13), positive on the equatorial flank of the
midlatitude jets and negative at higher latitudes. This bias is a
robust signature of the LMDZ model and corresponds to a
shift of the mid-latitude jets toward equator. It has been
analyzed by Hourdin et al. (submitted). This bias is
significantly reduced when refining the horizontal grid (see also
Guemas and Codron 2011). More surprisingly, this bias
appears to be sensitive to the tuning of the cloud parameters.
The NPv3 version is worse than the SP version in that respect.
Improvement in the representation of the boundary layer
thermodynamics visible in the 1D simulations is
responsible for the reduction of a robust dry bias of the SP version
at boundary layer top (around 900 hPa) in the tropics. The
moister top boundary layer in the NP version directly
comes from the vertical transport of humidity by thermal
plumes which extends all through the depth of the
boundary layer. The moist bias of the mid latitudes is
however reinforced in the NP version compared to SP.
Regarding temperature, both SP and NP show a cold
bias in mid-latitudes. This bias is largely due to the
overestimation of the cooling-to-space associated with the
overestimated humidity there.
Fig. 13 Zonal averages of the 10-year mean zonal wind (U, m/s),
temperature (T, K) and relative humidity (RH, %) in the SP, NPv3
and FALLICE simulations. Contours correspond to the simulated
The lower panels of Fig. 13 illustrate how tuning may
affect these biases. The FALLICE simulation interestingly
produces biases in the temperature field which are closer to
the SP version. The effect on the zonal wind biases goes in
the direction of a reduction, but is not enough to reconcile
the results with the SP version. Note however that an even
smaller value of ciw = 0.25 was used in the SP version.
Whether the mid-latitude biases in zonal wind,
temperature and humidity could be reduced in the NP version by
refining the horizontal grid or by a different tuning has to
be investigated further.
3.6 Rainfall
The zonally and annually averaged rainfall is shown in
Fig. 14 for the various model versions. Even with the
change from SP to NP, the changes are weak. The impact
of parameter tuning is even smaller (not shown). The
global mean rainfall is a little bit stronger in the NP version
than in SP, and too strong when compared to GPCP5
observations (see Table. 2). This is the reason why the
value of the surface drag tuning parameter was reduced in
NPv3 with respect to SP. The DRAGOCE simulation
documents the effect of this parameter. Changing this
scaling factor from 0.8 (the value of the SP version and of
the DRAGOCE sensitivity experiment) to 0.7 (retained for
NPv3) decreases a little bit the global precipitation, from
2.95 to 2.85 mm/day, while GPCP suggests a still smaller
value of 2.61 (Table 2). The factor was not reduced further
because the impact on the radiative balance (?1.4 W/m2
when passing from DRAGOCE to NPv3) is not negligeable
and would have been to be compensated, for instance by a
worse tuning of clouds. No significant change was noticed
in this sensitivity experiment, except the change in global
parameters.
4 Climate of the NPv3 model
In the present section, important aspects of the mean
climate and its variability, as simulated by the NP version of
the forced-by-SSTs and coupled ocean-atmosphere models,
are documented and compared to the previous SP version.
4.1 Mean climate of the atmospheric LMDZ5B
simulations
The impact of the new parameterizations and free
parameters tuning on the zonally averaged cloudiness was
already discussed. The improvement in the seasonal and
5 Global Precipitation Climatology Dataset (Huffman et al. 2001).
Fig. 14 Zonal mean of the 10-year averaged rainfall (mm/day) for
the SP, NPv3, TH08 and TH10 simulations compared with the GPCP
observations
geographical distribution of clouds is illustrated further for
northern summer in Fig. 15.
Concerning high clouds, the contrast between the cloudy
and clear regions is stronger in the NP version and the
patterns over South Asia, the warm pool and West Pacific
are better represented. However, as discussed above, the
differences may come in part from the use of a smaller fall
velocity for ice crystal in the SP version, which makes it
possible for cirrus clouds to be advected farther away from
convective regions. A major deficiency of the NP version is
the underestimation of high clouds coverage over West and
Equatorial Africa.
There is a clear improvement in the representation of
mid-level clouds even if they are still underestimated.
Trade-wind cumulus, on the western side of the tropical
ocean basins are still underestimated in LMDZ5B while
strato-cumulus, on the eastern side, are well captured. The
contrasts between continents and oceans are also simulated
well in the NP version.
Figure 16 presents the 10-year annual mean of rainfall
for the LMDZ5A and B versions together with GPCP
observations. Differences in the precipitation field are not
as strong as for clouds. Rainfall over Amazonia and central
Africa is weaker in the NP version, in better agreement
with observation. On the contrary, rain is too strong (and
stronger than in the SP simulation) over the Maritime
continent and extends too much westward over the Indian
ocean. Rainfall in the monsoon regions, over South Asia
and over Africa, north of the Guinean coast, are simulated
rather well in the two versions. Over Africa, the three
maximum over Guinea, Cameroon and Sudan are well
represented in the NP version. The overestimation in the SP
version of the (very weak) rainfall on the eastern side of
tropical oceans (a classical bias of climate models) is
slightly amplified in the NP version. Finally the South
Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) as well as the SACZ
over Atlantic are better captured in the NP version.
Shifting the continental convection from noon to late
afternoon was one of the major achievements of the
development of the new parameterizations. The
singlecolumn results of Rio et al. (2009) are confirmed in 3D as
Fig. 15 High (upper panels), mid (middle) and low (lower panels)
clouds coverage (%) averaged for the months of JuneJulyAugust
September for the NPv3 and SP simulations with the LMDZ5 model
and for the Calipso/GOCCP climatology. The Calipso/Cosp simulator
is applied on-line on the model thermodynamical variables for the
comparison
illustrated in Fig. 17. The shift in time of the rainfall
maximum is quite systematic over continents. Here also,
the results are not affected by the tuning of clouds
parameters (not shown), and are directly related to changes
of physical parameterizations, as discussed in details by
Rio et al. (submitted).
4.2 Biases in IPSL-CM5B
We document here the mean biases obtained in the
IPSLCM5B-LR version of the IPSL coupled model, which uses
LMDZ5B as atmospheric component. The results are
compared with the IPSL-CM5A-LR version, based on
LMDZ5A. All the simulations presented in this paper are
performed with the Low Resolution (LR) horizontal grid
based on 96 by 95 points regularly spread in longitude and
latitude and we will omit the -LR suffix in the name.
Figure 18 compares the structure of the SSTs biases.
Because the historical simulations were not available for
IPSL-CM5B at the time of paper submission, pre-industrial
simulations are considered here. The mean SST value from
the models and observations is subtracted before bias
computation so that only the structure of the bias is seen.
IPSL-CM5A shows warm biases in the tropics and cold
biases in the high-latitudes, essentially symmetrical with
respect to the equator. The model also tends to show
stronger positive biases on the eastern side of tropical
oceanic basins.
In IPSL-CM5B, biases show an hemispheric asymmetry
with a warm bias in the southern high latitudes and a cold
bias in the north. This asymmetry is probably associated
with another strong deficiency of the IPSL-CM5B coupled
model which drastically underestimates the intensity of the
Atlantic thermohaline circulation. It is typically of the
order of 34 Sverdrup against 1618 in the observation and
1012 in the IPSL-CM5A version. This underestimation of
the thermohaline circulation is probably itself related to the
strong biases in the mid-latitudes jet.
The biases are significantly reduced in the tropical
Pacific as well as in the South Atlantic. However, the
contrast between the warm bias in the region of upwelling,
on the west coast of Africa, south of the equator, and the
cold bias in the north Atlantic is, at least, as strong as in
IPSL-CM5A. The cold bias in the West Pacific is also
much more pronounced in IPSL-CM5B than in
IPSLCM5A.
Regarding the mean rainfall (Fig. 19), the IPSL-CM5A
model shows a so-called double ITCZ structure over the
Pacific ocean, with a secondary convergence zone around
5S. This deficiency is still present but significantly reduced
in the NP version IPSL-CM5B. A similar improvement is
noticeable over the Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly, the
Fig. 16 10-year annual mean
rainfall (mm/day) in the
forcedby-SSTs simulations with the
LMDZ5A and LMDZ5B
configurations compared with
the GPCP climatology
Fig. 17 Local hour of the
maximum rainfall in the SP
(upper) and NPv3 (lower)
simulations. The maximum is
computed on the first harmonic
of the diurnal cycle. Results are
displayed only if the
peak-topeak amplitude of this first
harmonic is larger than 15 % of
the maximum rainfall. The NP
version shows results closer on
continents to that obtained from
observations by Yang and
Slingo (2001)
tendency of LMDZ5B to simulate a too strong rainfall over
the maritime continent in Southeast Asia is less marked in
the coupled than in the forced-by-SSTs simulations which
may be related to the simulation of colder SSTs than
observed in this region. The monsoon rainfall over the
Indian sub-continent and over West Africa does not extend
far enough north in the two versions of the IPSL-CM5
model if compared with GPCP observations and with the
forced-by-SSTs simulations. For West Africa at least, this
deficiency can be attributed to the bias in the
inter-hemispheric contrast over the Atlantic Ocean, the presence of a
warm (resp cold) bias south (resp north) of the equator
counteracting the northward migration of the rainfall band
during summer. However, monsoon rainfall are reasonably
well represented here, if compared for instance to the
previous IPSL-CM4 version (see Hourdin et al., submitted)
4.3 Atmospheric variability in the IPSL-CM5B model
Although the mean rainfall turns out to be fairly similar in
the SP and NP simulations, we note a huge impact on the
rainfall variability, as illustrated by comparing the standard
deviation of daily rainfall anomalies for the winter season
(November to April, Fig. 20).
Precipitation intraseasonal variability was much too
weak in the SP version (Fig. 20b), while it is too strong in
the new version (Fig. 20c). This new behavior of
precipitation is also present in the forced version of LMDZ5B.
These results do not depend much on the tuning parameters
of LMDZ5 (not shown), indicating that they originate
mainly from the change in parameterizations.
A space-time analysis of tropical rainfall anomalies,
similar to that of Wheeler and Kiladis (1999) was then
performed (Fig. 21), in order to assess how rainfall
variability projects onto major Convectively-Coupled
Equatorial Waves (CCEWs, e.g., Kiladis et al. 2009) or how it
relates to the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO, Zhang
2005; Waliser et al. 2009). The raw spectrum of rainfall
anomalies (Fig. 21ac) was computed for each latitude
between 15S and 15N, for successive overlapping
segments of data (256-day long, with 206 days of overlap),
and then averaged. As demonstrated in Wheeler and
Kiladis (1999), the structure of CCEWs is either symmetric
or antisymmetric about the equator, consistently with the
shallow water theory. Therefore, precipitation anomalies
were further decomposed into their symmetric and
antisymmetric parts. The space-time spectra were computed
for each of these two components, and background spectra
were estimated through successive passes of a 1-2-1 filter
in frequency and wavenumber. The ratio between the raw
spectra and this background spectra (Fig. 21df for the
symmetric component) should emphasize significant peaks
of variance in the space-time domain (see the discussion in
Wheeler and Kiladis 1999).
In accordance with Figs. 20, 21bc show an increase of
rainfall variance at all frequencies and wavenumbers, from
IPSL-CM5A to IPSL-CM5B. Precipitation variability in
the NP version is now overestimated at low frequencies/
Fig. 18 Biases in the mean
SSTs in a pre-industrial control
IPSL-CM5A (upper panel) and
IPSL-CM5B (lower panel)
simulations. The mean
difference with the observed
averaged SST in the 60S-60N
domain is subtracted in order to
focus on the bias structure. This
averaged difference is of
-1.8 K for IPSL-CM5A and
-0.5 K for IPSL-CM5B
high wavenumbers, while it still remains underestimated in
the right upper part of the diagram (periods shorter than 7
days and eastward wavenumbers). This last deficiency is
symptomatic of the lack of Kelvin waves in both the SP
and NP version (Fig. 21e, f).
A new peak in the spectrum now stands out for
wavenumber 14 and periods between 30 and 80 days
(Fig. 21c), consistent with the GPCP dataset (Fig. 21a),
and should indicate that the IPSL-CM5B is able to
produce a MJO-like signal. Even though this signal is
still weak compared to that of the GPCP dataset, it is
highly significant for the symmetric component of
rainfall anomalies (Fig. 21f), as well as for their
antisymmetric component (not shown). In IPSL-CM5A, a
significant peak can also be highlighted near 80 days
(Fig. 21e), but the period is too long to be attributed to
MJO-like variability.
4.4 Sensitivity to greenhouse gases
Finally, we present here how the switch from the SP to NP
physical package modifies the climate sensitivity. For that
purpose we perform simulations where the CO2
concentration is instantaneously quadrupled and then held constant
(the so-called abrupt 4CO2 experiment in the CMIP5
design). For such experiments, Gregory et al. (2004) suggest
to use a regression of the perturbation of the net flux at TOA
(N) as a function of the perturbation DT of the global mean
surface temperature in order to estimate the radiative
forcing, the total climate feedback and the temperature change at
Fig. 19 10-year mean rainfall
(mm/day) in the pre-industrial
coupled simulations with
IPSLCM5A and IPSL-CM5B
equilibrium. The radiative forcing is obtained by the
intersection of the regression line and the Y axis (for DT 0, i.e.
at the beginning of the simulation) whereas the temperature
change at equilibrium is obtained by the intersection of the
regression line and the X axis (N = 0). The variations of N
and DT for the SP and NP 4CO2 experiments are reported in
Fig. 22. In contrast with IPSL-CM5A, IPSL-CM5B shows a
change of slope after 58 years. A time dependence of the
climate feedbacks was in fact pointed out in other models as
well (Senior and Mitchell 2000; Winton et al. 2010). It
makes the radiative forcing estimate more difficult. For the
estimate of the temperature change at equilibrium, we use a
linear regression on years 10160. This temperature change
is of about 8 K for IPSL-CM5A and 5.4 for IPSL-CM5B
(Fig. 22). The climate sensitivity of the new IPSL-CM5B
model is thus much smaller than that of the previous
IPSLCM5A model. For a doubling of CO2, the temperature
increase is approximately half of that for a quadrupling of
CO2, i.e. around 2.7 K for IPSL-CM5B and 4 for
IPSLCM5A. The first one is in the lower part of the CMIP3
models sensitivities and the second one in the upper part
(Meehl et al. 2007).
We show in Fig. 23 the structure of the global warming
in the two model versions as well as the impact on rainfall.
Because the asymptotic state of the 4CO2 simulations was
not reached, and in order to focus on patterns, we show
differences normalized by the change in the global mean
temperature. For illustration, we assume a global warming
of 3 K which is the approximate averaged value of the
CMIP3 models for a CO2 doubling.
Fig. 20 Standard deviation of
daily rainfall anomalies (mm/
day) of the a GPCP dataset
(19962009), b IPSL-CM5A
and c IPSL-CM5B preindustrial
simulations, for the winter
season (November to April
NDJFMA). 30 years of
simulations were used for the
two IPSL-CM5 versions. Daily
rainfall anomalies were
computed against their mean
seasonal cycle
Classical features of the climate change simulations are
recognized: a stronger warming over continents (where
evaporation is limited by the water availability) than over
oceans, a stronger warming at the (more continental)
northern hemisphere than in the south, and in high than in
low latitudes in the northern hemisphere due to both local
albedo feedbacks and dynamical reasons (Alexeev et al.
2005). The simulations show also, in a rather consistent
way, a weak warming in the southern mid-latitudes. The
signature of the two simulations is quite different in other
regions, for instance in the North Atlantic, where the
difference could come from the quite different thermohaline
circulation in the two models.
Regarding rainfall, some aspects appear to be robust as
well, such as the global increase of rainfall in the ITCZ/
SPCZ region, and a relative drying at around 3040
degrees latitude in both hemispheres, also a rather robust
feature of CMIP3 projections (Held and Soden 2006).
However, the structure in the ITCZ region is very different
in the two models. The IPSL-CM5B version tends to
predict a larger increase in rainfall (or less drying) over
semiarid regions like South Europa, West Africa, India or in the
southern part of the USA. Patterns over tropical forest
(Amazonia, Central Africa, Indonesia) are also strongly
modified from one model to the other.
5 Conclusions
The present paper is an outcome of 15 years of research on
clouds and convection parameterization in the community
in general, and in the team that develops the LMDZ model
in particular. A version of the model, LMDZ5B, with new
parameterizations has been developed, which is used for
CMIP5. Important improvements in the climate
simulations arise from the improvement of the physical
parameterizations.
1. The low-levels cloud coverage is better represented in
the new version as well as the thermodynamic and
diurnal cycle of the boundary layer. Additional
evaluation by comparison with continuous in-situ
observations in the Paris area is presented by Cheruy et al.
(submitted).
2. The improvement of the boundary layer parameterization results in a better representation of the SW CRF
Fig. 21 Raw space-time spectrum of rainfall anomalies for the
a GPCP dataset (19962009), b IPSL-CM5A and c IPSL-CM5B
preindustrial simulations. The power has been summed over latitudes
between 15S and 15N, and its base-10 logarithm is taken for plotting.
The ratio between the raw spectrum and a background spectrum of the
symmetric component of rainfall anomalies is also shown for the
d GPCP dataset, e IPSL-CM5A and f IPSL-CM5B. Shading begins at
a value of 1.1 for which the spectral signatures are statistically
significant above the background at the 95 % level (see Wheeler and
Kiladis 1999). Superimposed are the dispersion curves of the odd
meridional mode-numbered equatorial waves for five equivalents
depths of h = 8, 12, 25, 50 and 90 m
Fig. 22 Scatter plot of the net flux change (N in W/m2) at TOA as a
function of the global mean surface temperature increase (DT in K)
simulated by the two versions of the model in response to an abrupt
quadrupling of the CO2 concentration. A 3-year running mean is
applied to the 160 years of the simulations. One value is displayed for
each year, in red for IPSL-CM5A and in black for IPSL-CM5B. The
straight lines corresponds to linear regressions of the data, for years
10160. Intersection with the horizontal axis gives the expected
temperature change at equilibrium (N = 0 W/m2). The flux and
temperature changes are computed relative to the values of the control
experiment where the CO2 concentration is held fixed
in the tropics, both in terms of spatial distribution and
dependency on large scale dynamical regimes.
The mid-level cloud coverage is also simulated better
with the NP version, although the coverage is still
underestimated when compared with the
CalipsoGOCCP dataset.
The maximum of the diurnal cycle of convective
rainfall over continents is shifted by several hours.
Tropical rainfall variability is much larger in the NP
version, in better agreement with observations, in
particular in the location, and spectral range associated
with the Madden Julian Oscillation.
The improvements described above are robust in the
sense that the conclusions are not modified by tuning the
free parameters in the range of acceptable values. Also, for
points 1 and 4, the confidence comes for a large part from
the fact that the same improvements are observed in
singlecolumn simulations of test cases as in the 3D forced or
coupled model.
The NP version, as any climate model, is however
subject to significant biases, and some of those biases are
even stronger in the NP than in the SP version. Some of
them are also significantly affected by the tuning of free
parameters needed to minimize biases and drifts in the
coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations. Note that this
Fig. 23 Temperature change (T2m, K, left) and precipitation relative
change (%, right) in Abrupt 4CO2 experiments. The computation is
done on the difference between the 4CO2 and corresponding control
experiment. The difference is divided by the change in global mean
temperature, and then multiplied by 3 to illustrate the changes that
would be associated with a change of 3 K in the global mean
temperature. The average is computed on the years 100160 of the
4CO2 simulations
tuning is crucial as well for forced-by-SST global and
regional climate simulations, a point which is too often
neglected and could explain strong biases observed in some
regional climate studies (Oettli et al. 2011).
When tuning the model, particular care was given to the
latitudinal variations of the TOA radiative flux, to
the dependency to dynamical regimes in the tropics and to
the decomposition between SW and LW or clear sky and
CRF. As discussed above, a significant improvement of the
SW CRF representation in the tropics comes directly from
the better simulation of boundary layer clouds. As for
midlatitude balance and LW CRF, it is much more dependent
on the values chosen for the tunable parameters, and in
particular to the three parameters that control the non
convective upper levels clouds (epmax, ciw and n300).
Except for the moistening of the top of the tropical
boundary layer, the NP version shows generally stronger
biases than the SP version with regards to the
representation of mean meteorological variables in the troposphere.
In particular, the jets are located even closer to the equator
than in the SP version, for which this was already a
problem. Also the cold and moist biases of the
midlatitudes troposphere are amplified. The bias in the zonal
wind might be responsible for a major deficiency of the
IPSL-CM5B model: a quasi collapse of the North Atlantic
deep water formation and, probably linked to it, a strong
hemispheric asymmetry in the SSTs biases, with too warm
SSTs around Antarctica and too cold SSTs in the north.
A number of shortcomings or features should be
improved in future model versions. For instance, the
reasonable representation of strato-cumulus relies in the
current NP version on an arbitrary bypass of the thermal
plume model when a strong inversion is present in the
temperature profile. The turbulence in stable conditions and
the representation of surface drags have not been looked at
with enough attention so far. Also the 2-layer model for
surface hydrology is responsible for significant biases over
continents as illustrated by Cheruy et al. (submitted).
The switch from the SP to NP version of LMDZ5
constitutes (at least for us) a change in the paradigm of
climate modeling. Most of the pieces of the new
parameterizations were developed and tested in a single-column
framework and compared with detailed 3D LES or CRM
simulations of the parameterized processes. Note that it
was already partly the case before for convective clouds
(Bony and Emanuel 2001), which parameterization was
evaluated in single-column simulations of the Toga-Coare
experiment, and for the effect of sub-grid scale orography
(Lott and Miller 1997; Lott 1999). With the development
of the NP version, the iterative work between
single-column simulations on test cases and 3D evaluation and
tuning has become a corner stone of the model development.
In practice, the sensitivity experiments were run
systematically in 3D simulations and on a series of test cases of
shallow cumulus or deep convection on both continents
and ocean. Single-column simulations of test cases serve as
a guide for model improvement and help in understanding
some biases of the 3D model. It also put strong additional
constraints on the model. If this strategy is not always
sufficient to solve the problems identified in the 3D model,
it prevents improving the 3D results with changes in
parameterizations or tuning that would degrade the
representation of cloud processes.
Finally, our results confirm that the representation of
clouds and convection has a strong impact on the
simulation of climate changes, in terms of both global warming
and regional climate change. Progress in physical
parameterizations of boundary layer, clouds or soil processes may
be a crucial issue for improving our assessment of regional
climate change, as important as progress in down-scaling
techniques.
The model new version can be seen less pessimistic with
both a weaker global warming and a tendency to simulate a
more rainy future climate in semi-arid regions.
Improvements of the representation of some fundamental processes
could lead to give more credit to the NP projections. It
must be kept in mind, however, that the new processes
have been evaluated in terms of the representation of
current climate but not in terms of climate sensitivity. An
important issue for the confidence building will be to
understand why the sensitivity of the SP and NP versions
are so different. This will require deep analysis of the
model results and simulations in a range of configurations
including, for instance, aqua-planets. The evaluation of the
sensitivity and mechanisms involved through detection/
attribution studies on the observations of the past decades
will also be essential.
The work on parameterizations is often difficult to
promote in research programs or scientific institutions. It is
sometimes considered as an old-fashioned question. A
more serious argument comes from the difficulty of the
subject itself. In view of the slow progress in that field,
authors even suggested that we were facing a deadlock
(Randall et al. 2003). Because centenal climate simulations
with global explicit CRM or LES will not be possible for a
while, intermediate strategies were explored with so-called
super-parameterizations, in which a local 2D or 3D CRM
model is nested in each column of the climate model
(Randall et al. 2003; Khairoutdinov et al. 2005; Zhu et al.
2009). If this approach is worth exploring and has already
shown promising results concerning, in particular, tropical
variability, we argue here that significant progress in
parameterizations are indeed possible.
Parameterizations are only an approximation of the real
system, or of the explicit simulations used here as a
reference. Models with parameterized physics are also more
complex since new equations are introduced in addition to
the fundamental equations of fluid mechanics. This
additional complexity is however payed-off by a gain in
numerical cost when compared with explicit simulations.
Parameterizations are also conceptual models that
summarize the effect of subgrid-scale processes and their
coupling with the large scale dynamics. As such, the
improvement of a model with parameterized convection
represents a step forward in our understanding of the role
of clouds in the climate system.
Acknowledgments The work presented in this paper has largely
benefited from the work of our colleagues of the IPSL Climate
Modelling Centre. The development of the new parameterizations
which are at the basis of the NP version of LMDZ would not have
been possible without the long term and fruitful collaboration of Fleur
Couvreux, Francoise Guichard and Jean-Philippe Lafore from the
Moana/CNRM team, who develop and use the MesoNH non
hydroststic model for process studies. The research leading to these
results was supported by CNRS, the INSU-LEFE French Program
under the projects Dephy and MissTerre. This work also benefited of
the HPC resources of CCRT and IDRIS made available by GENCI
(Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif).
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the
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author(s) and the source are credited.