Attendees at the SoMAS-BNL joint symposium on climate modeling
Of the implements found in the tool boxes of 21st Century atmospheric scientists and climatologists, climate models are arguably the most important. Climate models simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. They are used for a variety of purposes associated with the study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system, including the projection of future climate. Climate models are perhaps most famously known for their ability to project temperature changes resulting from increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is the most widely-used climate model in the world, and one of the most sophisticated. CESM is housed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. NCAR scientists and the university community will depend heavily on the model when they participate in climate change simulations for the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) as it develops its next climate assessment report.
In early November, SoMAS and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL, www.bnl.gov) initiated a joint symposium on climate modeling. The objective is for SoMAS graduate students and faculty and BNL scientists to learn about and discuss the various physical processes in the CESM and their performances.
The symposium is organized into three sequential series of talks and discussions. The first series took place on November 2nd at SoMAS and November 3rd at BNL. The subject was atmospheric aerosols and their numerical modeling. Dr. Xiaohong Liu of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy) gave four lectures on the topic. Dr. Liu is one of the principal scientists involved in the development of the aerosol modules in the CESM. The second series of talks took place on November 9th and 10th at SoMAS and focused on atmospheric turbulence, convection and cloud macrophysics. Dr. Sunsu Park of NCAR gave four lectures on the subject. Dr. Park was heavily involved in crafting the CESM’s numerical algorithms for turbulence, shallow convection and cloud macrophysics. The third and concluding series of lectures and discussions will take place at BNL on December 10th and 11th, when cloud microphysics will be on the docket. NCAR’s Dr. Hugh Morrison will be the keynote speaker, giving several lectures on research in cloud microphysics and its numerical modeling. Dr. Morrison is the author of the Morrison-Gettleman scheme in the newest version of the Community Atmospheric Model Version 5 (CAM5).
The symposium is being organized by Dr. Minghua Zhang, Dean of SoMAS, and Drs. Andy Vogelmann and Wuyin Lin of BNL. Comments Dr. Zhang, “The topics of the symposium cover some of the most important areas of research in atmospheric and climate sciences. The materials that are discussed at the symposium represent state-of-the-art science in the climate modeling community. We are very pleased that all keynote speakers accepted our invitation to come to Stony Brook. Their lectures so far have been marvelous.”
In addition to participants from SoMAS and BNL, a group of visiting scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Meteorological Administration and Tsinghua University also attended the symposium.
The following are the talks given in the first two lecture series in the symposium.
Series 1, 02 & 03 November 2011
“Aerosols in the Community Earth System Model” Dr. Xiaohung Liu (PNNL)
- Overview of Aerosols in GCMs
- Organic Aerosols in the Earth System: Current Status and Future Challenges (TAOS seminar1)
- Aerosol Representation in CAM5
- Coding Structure, Performance and Evaluation in CAM5
- Discussion forum: issues and challenges
Series 2, 09 & 10 November 2011
“Moist Convection and Turbulence in the CAM” Dr. Sungsu Park (NCAR)
- Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) in CAM5
- Evidence for Aerosol Enhancement of Lightning & Convective Invigoration (TAOS seminar2)
- CAM5 Shallow Convection Scheme
- CAM5 Cloud Macrophysics and Convection
- UNICON (Unified Convection Scheme)
1 Kostas Tsigaridis, Center for Climate Systems Research/GISS, Columbia University.
2 Tianle Yuan, NASA GSFC “
