Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice: the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison ...

• Main Authors: Pithan, Felix, Ackerman, Andrew, Angevine, Wayne M., Hartung, Kerstin, Ickes, Luisa, Kelley, Maxwell, Medeiros, Brian, Sandu, Irina, Steeneveld, Gert-Jan, Sterk, Hendrika A.M., Svensson, Gunilla, Vaillancourt, Paul A., Zadra, Ayrton
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000124303; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/124303

Weather and climate models struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Arctic winter, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build‐up of surface‐based temperature inversions. Many large‐scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Here, the transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modeled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single‐column experiment is the first Lagrangian Arctic air formation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system ... : Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 8 (3) ...