On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models

Details On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsa41a1599m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SA41A-1599

Statistics

Computation

[0340] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Middle Atmosphere: Composition And Chemistry, [3311] Atmospheric Processes / Clouds And Aerosols

Scientific paper

The distribution of ice layers in the polar summer mesosphere (called polar mesospheric clouds or PMCs) is sensitive to background atmospheric conditions and therefore affected by global-scale dynamics. To investigate this coupling it is necessary to simulate the global distribution of PMCs within a 3-dimensional (3-D) model that couples large- scale dynamics with cloud microphysics. However, modeling PMC microphysics within 3-D global chemistry climate models (GCCM) is a challenge due to the high computational cost associated with particle following (Lagrangian) or sectional microphysical calculations. By characterizing the relationship between the PMC radius, ice water content (iwc), and local temperature (T) from an ensemble of simulations from the sectional microphysical model, the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA), we determined that these variables have a fundamental stable relationship that is independent of the cloud time history. We use a parameterization of the relationship to predict the particle effective radius using only the local temperature and ice water content in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) for decadal scale PMC simulations. Such a parameterization allows for theoretical ice cloud microphysics to be applied in the WACCM to simulate growth, sublimation and sedimentation of ice particles without keeping track of the time history of each ice particle size or particle size bin. This approach produces realistic PMC simulations including estimates of the optical properties of PMCs. We validate the relationship with PMC data from the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE).

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and On the relationship of polar mesospheric cloud ice water content, particle radius and mesospheric temperature and its use as a parameterization in global climate models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1780431