Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Parameterisation of orographic cloud dynamics in a GCM

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A new parameterisation is described that predicts the temperature perturbations due to sub-grid scale orographic gravity waves in the atmosphere of the 19 level HadAM3 version of the United Kingdom Met Office Unified Model. The explicit calculation of the wave phase allows the sign of the temperature perturbation to be predicted. The scheme is used to create orographic clouds, including cirrus, that were previously absent in model simulations. A novel approach to the validation of this parameterisation makes use of both satellite observations of a case study, and a simulation in which the Unified Model is nudged towards ERA-40 assimilated winds, temperatures and humidities. It is demonstrated that this approach offers a feasible way of introducing large scale orographic cirrus clouds into GCMs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bacmeister JT, Newman PA, Gray BL, Chan KR (1994) An algorithm for forecasting mountain wave-related turbulence in the stratosphere. Weather Forecast 9:241–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broutman D, Rottman JW, Eckermann SD (2004) Ray methods for internal waves in the atmosphere and ocean. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 36:233–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butchart N, Knight JR (1999) Estimates of sub-grid temperature perturbations from a gravity wave drag parameterization in a GCM. In: Carslaw KS, Amanatidis GT (eds) Mesoscale processes in the stratosphere—their effects on stratospheric chemistry and microphysics, no. 69 in European Commission air pollution research report

  • Carslaw KS, Peter T, Bacmeister JT, Eckermann SD (1999) Widespread solid particle formation by mountain waves in the Arctic stratosphere. J Geophys Res 104:1827–1836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cusack S, Edwards JM, Kershaw R (1999) Estimating the subgrid variance of saturation and its parameterization for use in a GCM cloud scheme. Q J R Meteorol Soc 125:3057–3076

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean SM, Lawrence BN, Grainger RG, Heuff DN (2005) Orographic cloud in a GCM: the missing cirrus. Clim Dyn 24:771–780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckermann SD, Preusse P (1999) Global measurements of stratospheric mountain waves from space. Science 286:1534–1537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eckermann SD, Gibson-Wilde DE, Bacmeister JT (1998) Gravity wave perturbations of minor constituents: a parcel advection methodology. J Atmos Sci 55:3521–3539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ECMWF (1995) User Guide to ECMWF Products 2.1, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting

  • Feichter J, Lohmann U (1999) Can a relaxation technique be used to validate clouds and sulphur species in a gcm? Q J R Meteorol Soc 125:1277–1294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowler LD, Randall DA (1999) Simulation of upper tropospheric clouds with the Colorado State University general circulation model. J Geophys Res 104:6101–6121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregory D, Shutts GJ, Mitchell JR (1998) A new gravity-wave drag scheme incorporating anisotropic orography and low level wave breaking: impact upon the climate of the UK Meteorological Office Unified Model. Q J R Meteorol Soc 124:463–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Höpfner M, Larsen N, Spang R, Luo BP, Ma J, Svendsen SH, Eckermann SD, Knudsen B, Massoli P, Cairo F, Stiller G, v Clarmann T, Fischer H (2005) Mipas detects antarctic stratospheric belt of nat pscs caused by mountain waves. Atmos Chem Phys Discuss 5:10723–10745

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeuken ABM, Siegmund PC, Heijboer LC, Feichter J, Bengtsson L (1996) On the potential of assimilating meteorological analyses in a global climate model for the purposes of model validation. J Geophys Res 101:16939–16950

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karcher B, Lohmann U (2002) A parameterization of cirrus cloud formation: homogeneous freezing of supercooled aerosols. J Geophys Res 107:ACL4–9,ACL4–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung LR, Ghan S (1995) A subgrid parameterisation of orographic precipitation. Theor Appl Climatol 53:95–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leung LR, Ghan S (1998) Parameterising subgrid orographic precipitation and surface cover in climate models. Mon Weather Rev 126:3271–3291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindzen RS (1981) Turbulence and stress owing to gravity wave and tidal breakdown. J Geophys Res 86,NO.C10:9707–9714

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohmann U, Feichter J, Chuang CC, Penner JE (1999) Prediction of the number of cloud droplets in the ECHAM GCM. J Geophys Res 104:9169–9198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann GW, Carslaw KS, Chipperfield MP, Davies S, Eckermann SD (2005) Large nat particles and dentrification caused by mountain waves in the arctic stratosphere. J Geophys Res 110

  • McFarlane NA (1987) The effect of orographically excited gravity wave drag on the general circulation of the lower stratosphere and troposphere. J Atmos Sci 44:1775–1800

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nilson ED, Pirjola L, Kulmala M (2000) The effect of atmospheric waves on aerosol nucleation and size distribution. J Geophys Res 105:19917–19926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer TN, Shutts GJ, Swinbank R (1986) Alleviation of a systematic westerly bias in general circulation and numerical weather prediction models through an orographic gravity wave drag parameterisation. Q J R Meteorol Soc 112:1001–1039

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pope VD, Gallani ML, Rowntree PR, Stratton RA (2000) The impact of new physical parameterizations in the Hadley Centre climate model HadAM3. Clim Dyn 16:123–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Queney P (1948) The problem of airflow over mountains: a summary of theoretical studies. Bull Am Met Soc 29:16–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridley RN (1991) Observations and numerical modelling of air flows over New Zealand, Ph.D. thesis, Monash University

  • Tan K, Eckermann SD (2000) Numerical simulations of mountain waves in the middle atmosphere over the southern Andes. In: Siskind DE, Summers ME, Eckermann SD (eds) Atmospheric science across the stratopause. Geophysical Monograph, AGU, Washington pp 123:311–318

  • Watts PD (1995) Potential use of along track scanning radiometer data for cloud parameter retrieval, no. 2578 in Proc Spie Int Soc Opt Eng

  • Webster S, Brown AR, Cameron DR, Jones CP (2003) Improvements to the representation of orography in the Met Office Unified Model. Q J R Meteorol Soc 129:1989–2010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DR, Ballard SP (1999) A microphysically based precipitation scheme for the UK Meteorological Office Unified Model. Q J R Meteorol Soc 125:1607–1636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson D, Gregory D (2003) The behavior of large-scale model cloud schemes under idealized forcing scenarios. Q J R Meteorol Soc 129:967–986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu KM, Randall DA (1996) A semiempirical cloudiness parameterization for use in climate models. J Atmos Sci 53:3084–3102

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The ISCCP data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences Data Center. The ERA-40 Re-analysis data were obtained from the United Kingdom Met Office through the British Atmospheric Data Centre. This work was partially funded by the NERC thematic programme Clouds Water Vapour and Climate, the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology under contract C01X0202.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand

    S. M. Dean

  2. Atmospheric Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK

    J. Flowerdew

  3. British Atmospheric Data Centre, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire, UK

    B. N. Lawrence

  4. E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research, Code 7646, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA

    S. D. Eckermann

Authors
  1. S. M. Dean
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. Flowerdew
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. B. N. Lawrence
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. D. Eckermann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. M. Dean.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dean, S.M., Flowerdew, J., Lawrence, B.N. et al. Parameterisation of orographic cloud dynamics in a GCM. Clim Dyn 28, 581–597 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-006-0202-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-006-0202-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation