The Impact of Stratospheric Model Configuration on Planetary-Scale Waves in Northern Hemisphere Winter

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3369-3389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany A. Shaw ◽  
Judith Perlwitz

Abstract The impact of stratospheric model configuration on modeled planetary-scale waves in Northern Hemisphere winter is examined using the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM). The CMAM configurations include a high-lid (0.001 hPa) and a low-lid (10 hPa) configuration, which were each run with and without conservation of parameterized gravity wave momentum flux. The planetary wave structure, vertical propagation, and the basic state are found to be in good agreement with reanalysis data for the high-lid conservative configuration with the exception of the downward-propagating wave 1 signal. When the lid is lowered and momentum is conserved, the wave characteristics and basic state are not significantly altered, with the exception of the downward-propagating wave 1 signal, which is damped by the act of conservation. When momentum is not conserved, however, the wave amplitude increases significantly near the lid, and there is a large increase in both the upward- and downward-propagating wave 1 signals and a significant increase in the strength of the basic state. The impact of conserving parameterized gravity wave momentum flux is found to be much larger than that of the model lid height. The changes to the planetary waves and basic state significantly impact the stratosphere–troposphere coupling in the different configurations. In the low-lid configuration, there is an increase in wave-reflection-type coupling over zonal-mean-type coupling, a reduction in stratospheric sudden warming events, and an increase in the northern annular mode time scale. Conserving gravity wave momentum flux in the low-lid configuration significantly reduces these biases.

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2726-2742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany A. Shaw ◽  
Michael Sigmond ◽  
Theodore G. Shepherd ◽  
John F. Scinocca

Abstract The Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model is used to examine the sensitivity of simulated climate to conservation of momentum in gravity wave drag parameterization. Momentum conservation requires that the parameterized gravity wave momentum flux at the top of the model be zero and corresponds to the physical boundary condition of no momentum flux at the top of the atmosphere. Allowing momentum flux to escape the model domain violates momentum conservation. Here the impact of momentum conservation in two sets of model simulations is investigated. In the first set, the simulation of present-day climate for two model-lid height configurations, 0.001 and 10 hPa, which are identical below 10 hPa, is considered. The impact of momentum conservation on the climate with the model lid at 0.001 hPa is minimal, which is expected because of the small amount of gravity wave momentum flux reaching 0.001 hPa. When the lid is lowered to 10 hPa and momentum is conserved, there is only a modest impact on the climate in the Northern Hemisphere; however, the Southern Hemisphere climate is more adversely affected by the deflection of resolved waves near the model lid. When momentum is not conserved in the 10-hPa model the climate is further degraded in both hemispheres, particularly in winter at high latitudes, and the impact of momentum conservation extends all the way to the surface. In the second set of simulations, the impact of momentum conservation and model-lid height on the modeled response to ozone depletion in the Southern Hemisphere is considered, and it is found that the response can display significant sensitivity to both factors. In particular, both the lower-stratospheric polar temperature and surface responses are significantly altered when the lid is lowered, with the effect being most severe when momentum is not conserved. The implications with regard to the current round of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change model projections are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoko ICHIMARU ◽  
Shunsuke NOGUCHI ◽  
Toshihiko HIROOKA ◽  
Hitoshi MUKOUGAWA

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (14) ◽  
pp. 5601-5610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sigmond ◽  
Theodore G. Shepherd

Abstract Following recent findings, the interaction between resolved (Rossby) wave drag and parameterized orographic gravity wave drag (OGWD) is investigated, in terms of their driving of the Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC), in a comprehensive climate model. To this end, the parameter that effectively determines the strength of OGWD in present-day and doubled CO2 simulations is varied. The authors focus on the Northern Hemisphere during winter when the largest response of the BDC to climate change is predicted to occur. It is found that increases in OGWD are to a remarkable degree compensated by a reduction in midlatitude resolved wave drag, thereby reducing the impact of changes in OGWD on the BDC. This compensation is also found for the response to climate change: changes in the OGWD contribution to the BDC response to climate change are compensated by opposite changes in the resolved wave drag contribution to the BDC response to climate change, thereby reducing the impact of changes in OGWD on the BDC response to climate change. By contrast, compensation does not occur at northern high latitudes, where resolved wave driving and the associated downwelling increase with increasing OGWD, both for the present-day climate and the response to climate change. These findings raise confidence in the credibility of climate model projections of the strengthened BDC.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 679-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Spang ◽  
J. J. Remedios ◽  
L. J. Kramer ◽  
L. R. Poole ◽  
M. D. Fromm ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) on ENVISAT has made extensive measurements of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) in the northern hemisphere winter 2002/2003. A PSC detection method based on a ratio of radiances (the cloud index) has been implemented for MIPAS and is validated in this study with respect to ground-based lidar and space borne occultation measurements. A very good correspondence in PSC sighting and cloud altitude between MIPAS detections and those of other instruments is found for cloud index values of less than four. Comparisons with data from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III are used to further show that the sensitivity of the MIPAS detection method for this threshold value of cloud index is approximately equivalent to an extinction limit of 10-3km-1 at 1022nm, a wavelength used by solar occultation experiments. The MIPAS cloud index data are subsequently used to examine, for the first time with any technique, the evolution of PSCs throughout the Arctic polar vortex up to a latitude close to 90° north on a near-daily basis. We find that the winter of 2002/2003 is characterised by three phases of very different PSC activity. First, an unusual, extremely cold phase in the first three weeks of December resulted in high PSC occurrence rates. This was followed by a second phase of only moderate PSC activity from 5-13 January, separated from the first phase by a minor warming event. Finally there was a third phase from February to the end of March where only sporadic and mostly weak PSC events took place. The composition of PSCs during the winter period has also been examined, exploiting in particular an infra-red spectral signature which is probably characteristic of NAT. The MIPAS observations show the presence of these particles on a number of occasions in December but very rarely in January. The PSC type differentiation from MIPAS indicates that future comparisons of PSC observations with microphysical and denitrification models might be revealing about aspects of solid particle existence and location.


SOLA ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 189-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shingo Watanabe ◽  
Tatsuya Nagashima ◽  
Seita Emori

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