The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA
Components of the atmospheric energy budget from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) are evaluated in polar regions for the period 1979-2005 and compared with previous estimates, in situ observations, and contemporary reanalyses. Closure of the energy budget i...
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ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20110007312 2023-05-15T13:11:45+02:00 The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA Bosilovich, Michael G. Cullather, Richard I. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available [2010] application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110007312 unknown Document ID: 20110007312 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110007312 Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright CASI Meteorology and Climatology 2010 ftnasantrs 2018-06-09T22:57:25Z Components of the atmospheric energy budget from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) are evaluated in polar regions for the period 1979-2005 and compared with previous estimates, in situ observations, and contemporary reanalyses. Closure of the energy budget is reflected by the analysis increments term, which results from virtual enthalpy and latent heating contributions and averages -11 W/sq m over the north polar cap and -22 W/sq m over the south polar cap. Total energy tendency and energy convergence terms from MERRA agree closely with previous study for northern high latitudes but convergence exceeds previous estimates for the south polar cap by 46 percent. Discrepancies with the Southern Hemisphere transport are largest in autumn and may be related to differences in topography with earlier reanalyses. For the Arctic, differences between MERRA and other sources in TOA and surface radiative fluxes maximize in May. These differences are concurrent with the largest discrepancies between MERRA parameterized and observed surface albedo. For May, in situ observations of the upwelling shortwave flux in the Arctic are 80 W/sq m larger than MERRA, while the MERRA downwelling longwave flux is underestimated by 12 W/sq m throughout the year. Over grounded ice sheets, the annual mean net surface energy flux in MERRA is erroneously non-zero. Contemporary reanalyses from the Climate Forecast Center (CFSR) and the Interim Re-Analyses of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ERA-I) are found to have better surface parameterizations, however these collections are also found to have significant discrepancies with observed surface and TOA energy fluxes. Discrepancies among available reanalyses underscore the challenge of reproducing credible estimates of the atmospheric energy budget in polar regions. Other/Unknown Material albedo Arctic NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Arctic Merra ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
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Open Polar |
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
op_collection_id |
ftnasantrs |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Meteorology and Climatology |
spellingShingle |
Meteorology and Climatology Bosilovich, Michael G. Cullather, Richard I. The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
topic_facet |
Meteorology and Climatology |
description |
Components of the atmospheric energy budget from the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) are evaluated in polar regions for the period 1979-2005 and compared with previous estimates, in situ observations, and contemporary reanalyses. Closure of the energy budget is reflected by the analysis increments term, which results from virtual enthalpy and latent heating contributions and averages -11 W/sq m over the north polar cap and -22 W/sq m over the south polar cap. Total energy tendency and energy convergence terms from MERRA agree closely with previous study for northern high latitudes but convergence exceeds previous estimates for the south polar cap by 46 percent. Discrepancies with the Southern Hemisphere transport are largest in autumn and may be related to differences in topography with earlier reanalyses. For the Arctic, differences between MERRA and other sources in TOA and surface radiative fluxes maximize in May. These differences are concurrent with the largest discrepancies between MERRA parameterized and observed surface albedo. For May, in situ observations of the upwelling shortwave flux in the Arctic are 80 W/sq m larger than MERRA, while the MERRA downwelling longwave flux is underestimated by 12 W/sq m throughout the year. Over grounded ice sheets, the annual mean net surface energy flux in MERRA is erroneously non-zero. Contemporary reanalyses from the Climate Forecast Center (CFSR) and the Interim Re-Analyses of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ERA-I) are found to have better surface parameterizations, however these collections are also found to have significant discrepancies with observed surface and TOA energy fluxes. Discrepancies among available reanalyses underscore the challenge of reproducing credible estimates of the atmospheric energy budget in polar regions. |
author |
Bosilovich, Michael G. Cullather, Richard I. |
author_facet |
Bosilovich, Michael G. Cullather, Richard I. |
author_sort |
Bosilovich, Michael G. |
title |
The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
title_short |
The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
title_full |
The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
title_fullStr |
The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Energy Budget of the Polar Atmosphere in MERRA |
title_sort |
energy budget of the polar atmosphere in merra |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110007312 |
op_coverage |
Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
geographic |
Arctic Merra |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Merra |
genre |
albedo Arctic |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic |
op_source |
CASI |
op_relation |
Document ID: 20110007312 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110007312 |
op_rights |
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
_version_ |
1766248800229261312 |