Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Is GCM-Simulated Tropical Anvil Peak Constrained by Basic Physics?

Presentation Date
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 8:30am - Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 12:20pm
Location
Convention Center - Hall B-C (Poster Hall)
Authors

Author

Abstract

Tropical anvil clouds play a crucial role in Earth's radiation balance, yet uncertainties persist regarding the processes governing their fractional coverage and changes under warming, and the fidelity of GCMs in simulating them. Understanding to what extent GCMs can accurately simulate the tropical anvil peak is therefore imperative. To address this, we conducted a series of nudged simulations using GFDL's latest atmosphere climate model, employing a hierarchy of cloud fraction parameterization schemes: prognostic (most complex), PDF-based diagnostic (intermediately complex), and binary (simplest) schemes. Through these hierarchical simulations and mechanism-denial experiments, we reveal that the simulated peak in anvil cloudiness in GCMs is primarily constrained by fundamental physical laws of thermodynamics and dynamics, with minimal influence from model tuning. The implications of these findings for understanding anvil cloud feedback are discussed.
Image removed.

Category
Atmospheric Sciences
Funding Program Area(s)
Additional Resources:
NERSC (National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center)