Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5
©2012 Author(s). A modal aerosol module (MAM) has been developed for the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), the atmospheric component of the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1). MAM is capable of simulating the aerosol size distribution and both internal and external mixing betw...
Published in: | Geoscientific Model Development |
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Language: | English |
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2012
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11919/723 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 |
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ftcolostateunidc:oai:mountainscholar.org:20.500.11919/723 2023-05-15T15:03:35+02:00 Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 Liu, Xiaohong Easter, R. C. Ghan, S. J. Zaveri, R. Rasch, P. Shi, X. Lamarque, J.-F. Gettelman, A. Morrison, H. Vitt, F. Conley, A. Park, S. Neale, R. Hannay, C. Ekman, A. M. L. Hess, P. Mahowald, N. Collins, W. Iacono, M. J. Bretherton, C. S. Flanner, M. G. Mitchell, D. 2012-05-21 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11919/723 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 English eng eng University of Wyoming. Libraries Faculty Publications - Atmospheric Science https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11919/723 doi:10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Atmospheric Science Faculty Publications aerosol climate modeling concentration (composition) particle size sea salt sensitivity analysis simulation size distribution temporal analysis Arctic Journal contribution 2012 ftcolostateunidc https://doi.org/20.500.11919/723 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 2021-07-14T20:58:16Z ©2012 Author(s). A modal aerosol module (MAM) has been developed for the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), the atmospheric component of the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1). MAM is capable of simulating the aerosol size distribution and both internal and external mixing between aerosol components, treating numerous complicated aerosol processes and aerosol physical, chemical and optical properties in a physically-based manner. Two MAM versions were developed: a more complete version with seven lognormal modes (MAM7), and a version with three lognormal modes (MAM3) for the purpose of long-term (decades to centuries) simulations. In this paper a description and evaluation of the aerosol module and its two representations are provided. Sensitivity of the aerosol lifecycle to simplifications in the representation of aerosol is discussed. Simulated sulfate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass concentrations are remarkably similar between MAM3 and MAM7. Differences in primary organic matter (POM) and black carbon (BC) concentrations between MAM3 and MAM7 are also small (mostly within 10%). The mineral dust global burden differs by 10% and sea salt burden by 30-40% between MAM3 and MAM7, mainly due to the different size ranges for dust and sea salt modes and different standard deviations of the log-normal size distribution for sea salt modes between MAM3 and MAM7. The model is able to qualitatively capture the observed geographical and temporal variations of aerosol mass and number concentrations, size distributions, and aerosol optical properties. However, there are noticeable biases; e.g., simulated BC concentrations are significantly lower than measurements in the Arctic. There is a low bias in modeled aerosol optical depth on the global scale, especially in the developing countries. These biases in aerosol simulations clearly indicate the need for improvements of aerosol processes (e.g., emission fluxes of anthropogenic aerosols and precursor gases in developing countries, boundary layer nucleation) and properties (e.g., primary aerosol emission size, POM hygroscopicity). In addition, the critical role of cloud properties (e.g., liquid water content, cloud fraction) responsible for the wet scavenging of aerosol is highlighted. Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper Arctic black carbon Digital Collections of Colorado (Colorado State University) Arctic Geoscientific Model Development 5 3 709 739 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Digital Collections of Colorado (Colorado State University) |
op_collection_id |
ftcolostateunidc |
language |
English |
topic |
aerosol climate modeling concentration (composition) particle size sea salt sensitivity analysis simulation size distribution temporal analysis Arctic |
spellingShingle |
aerosol climate modeling concentration (composition) particle size sea salt sensitivity analysis simulation size distribution temporal analysis Arctic Liu, Xiaohong Easter, R. C. Ghan, S. J. Zaveri, R. Rasch, P. Shi, X. Lamarque, J.-F. Gettelman, A. Morrison, H. Vitt, F. Conley, A. Park, S. Neale, R. Hannay, C. Ekman, A. M. L. Hess, P. Mahowald, N. Collins, W. Iacono, M. J. Bretherton, C. S. Flanner, M. G. Mitchell, D. Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
topic_facet |
aerosol climate modeling concentration (composition) particle size sea salt sensitivity analysis simulation size distribution temporal analysis Arctic |
description |
©2012 Author(s). A modal aerosol module (MAM) has been developed for the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), the atmospheric component of the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1). MAM is capable of simulating the aerosol size distribution and both internal and external mixing between aerosol components, treating numerous complicated aerosol processes and aerosol physical, chemical and optical properties in a physically-based manner. Two MAM versions were developed: a more complete version with seven lognormal modes (MAM7), and a version with three lognormal modes (MAM3) for the purpose of long-term (decades to centuries) simulations. In this paper a description and evaluation of the aerosol module and its two representations are provided. Sensitivity of the aerosol lifecycle to simplifications in the representation of aerosol is discussed. Simulated sulfate and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass concentrations are remarkably similar between MAM3 and MAM7. Differences in primary organic matter (POM) and black carbon (BC) concentrations between MAM3 and MAM7 are also small (mostly within 10%). The mineral dust global burden differs by 10% and sea salt burden by 30-40% between MAM3 and MAM7, mainly due to the different size ranges for dust and sea salt modes and different standard deviations of the log-normal size distribution for sea salt modes between MAM3 and MAM7. The model is able to qualitatively capture the observed geographical and temporal variations of aerosol mass and number concentrations, size distributions, and aerosol optical properties. However, there are noticeable biases; e.g., simulated BC concentrations are significantly lower than measurements in the Arctic. There is a low bias in modeled aerosol optical depth on the global scale, especially in the developing countries. These biases in aerosol simulations clearly indicate the need for improvements of aerosol processes (e.g., emission fluxes of anthropogenic aerosols and precursor gases in developing countries, boundary layer nucleation) and properties (e.g., primary aerosol emission size, POM hygroscopicity). In addition, the critical role of cloud properties (e.g., liquid water content, cloud fraction) responsible for the wet scavenging of aerosol is highlighted. |
format |
Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Liu, Xiaohong Easter, R. C. Ghan, S. J. Zaveri, R. Rasch, P. Shi, X. Lamarque, J.-F. Gettelman, A. Morrison, H. Vitt, F. Conley, A. Park, S. Neale, R. Hannay, C. Ekman, A. M. L. Hess, P. Mahowald, N. Collins, W. Iacono, M. J. Bretherton, C. S. Flanner, M. G. Mitchell, D. |
author_facet |
Liu, Xiaohong Easter, R. C. Ghan, S. J. Zaveri, R. Rasch, P. Shi, X. Lamarque, J.-F. Gettelman, A. Morrison, H. Vitt, F. Conley, A. Park, S. Neale, R. Hannay, C. Ekman, A. M. L. Hess, P. Mahowald, N. Collins, W. Iacono, M. J. Bretherton, C. S. Flanner, M. G. Mitchell, D. |
author_sort |
Liu, Xiaohong |
title |
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
title_short |
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
title_full |
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
title_fullStr |
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 |
title_sort |
toward a minimal representation of aerosols in climate models: description and evaluation in the community atmosphere model cam5 |
publisher |
University of Wyoming. Libraries |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11919/723 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic black carbon |
genre_facet |
Arctic black carbon |
op_source |
Atmospheric Science Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
Faculty Publications - Atmospheric Science https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11919/723 doi:10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11919/723 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012 |
container_title |
Geoscientific Model Development |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
709 |
op_container_end_page |
739 |
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1766335445670559744 |