The Role of km-Resolution Climate Models for Climate-Change Projections: From the Extratropics to the Tropics
Abstract
Currently major efforts are underway towards refining the horizontal resolution of climate models to about 1 km, using both global and regional models (GCMs and RCMs). Recent studies have shown promising progress and demonstrated that km-resolution convection-resolving climate models provide major benefits in the simulation of moist convection, leading to an improved representation of precipitation and clouds. In particular, results have demonstrated reductions in systematic biases associated with the diurnal cycle of precipitation, have dramatically reduced the "drizzle problem" of conventional climate models, and have provided more credible projections of short-term heavy precipitation events. Many of these advances have been achieved with simulations over extratropical regions during the summer season, when convective activity is high. Yet, despite the key role of convection in the tropics and subtropics, comparatively little experience is available with km-resolution models in such domains.
Here we provide an overview of the potential role of km-resolution climate models when applied to tropical (or global) computational domains. A particular focus will be on the question whether such models might play a role in reducing the uncertainties of (global and regional) climate projections relating to tropical cloud feedbacks. Specific aspects of the presentation will be based on month-long simulations from the DYAMOND project, and extended (seasonal to decade-long) simulations using the COSMO model at resolutions around 2 km. It is argued that the role of km-resolution models in the tropics will likely be even more important than in the extratropics.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMA083...01S
- Keywords:
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- 3319 General circulation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3329 Mesoscale meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3337 Global climate models;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3364 Synoptic-scale meteorology;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES