Intercomparison of cloud model simulations of Arctic mixed‐phase boundary layer clouds observed during SHEBA/FIRE‐ACE ...

• Main Authors: Morrison, Hugh, Zuidema, Paquita, Ackerman, Andrew S., Avramov, Alexander, De Boer, Gijs, Fan, Jiwen, Fridlind, Ann M., Hashino, Tempei, Harrington, Jerry Y., Luo, Yali, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, Shipway, Ben
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Columbia University 2011
• Subjects: Clouds > Models; Eddies > Simulation methods; Ice clouds; Meteorology; Atmospheric physics; Cloud physics; Arctic; Arctic Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-tsc5-g822; https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-tsc5-g822

An intercomparison of six cloud‐resolving and large‐eddy simulation models is presented. This case study is based on observations of a persistent mixed‐phase boundary layer cloud gathered on 7 May, 1998 from the Surface Heat Budget of Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) and First ISCCP Regional Experiment ‐ Arctic Cloud Experiment (FIRE‐ACE). Ice nucleation is constrained in the simulations in a way that holds the ice crystal concentration approximately fixed, with two sets of sensitivity runs in addition to the baseline simulations utilizing different specified ice nucleus (IN) concentrations. All of the baseline and sensitivity simulations group into two distinct quasi‐steady states associated with either persistent mixed‐phase clouds or all‐ice clouds after the first few hours of integration, implying the existence of multiple states for this case. These two states are associated with distinctly different microphysical, thermodynamic, and radiative characteristics. Most but not all of the models produce a persistent ...