The DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility actively produces a suite of data products focused on supplementing ARM observations with high-resolution modeling called the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) ARM Symbiotic Simulation and Observation (LASSO) activity. LASSO is unique in that it provides an ever-growing library of freely available kilometer-scale and O(100 m)-scale LES simulations to the community, spanning a range of case dates, combined with ensembles for each date that are vetted with ARM observations via skill scores. A primary goal is to provide plausible representations of the environments surrounding the ARM instrumentation, and estimates of processes that cannot be measured. This is valuable for improving understanding of processes, such as clouds and boundary layer turbulence, as well as for developing and evaluating coarser-scale models.

Recently, the LASSO shallow-convection scenario for ARM’s Southern Great Plains location has been integrated with the E3SM modeling hierarchy. Software has been developed to use LASSO forcing data to drive the E3SM single column model and doubly-periodic SCREAM model. This permits using LASSO simulations as benchmarks to compare with the E3SM parameterizations. A second scenario simulates deep convection for Argentina during ARM’s Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) campaign.

Currently, a third scenario for LASSO focusing on maritime clouds is under development. This scenario will simulate conditions at ARM’s Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) atmospheric observatory in the Azores. Science topics motivating this new scenario include investigation of the physical drivers (e.g., aerosol state, stability and subsidence variability) that control mesoscale cloud organization (e.g., open-cell and closed-cell cloud regimes) and precipitation processes including the ubiquitous drizzle formation within these boundary layer clouds. To enhance the workflow and impact of this ENA activity, the LASSO team seeks input from the E3SM community for how best to meet their model development and evaluation needs with LASSO. Since E3SM capabilities and resolutions are starting to overlap with LASSO modeling scales, there are future opportunities for using the E3SM hierarchy of models from the mesoscale down to LES to parallel LASSO and assist model development.