TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of horizontal resolution on simulation quality in the Community Atmospheric Model, CAM5.1
AU - Wehner, Michael F.
AU - Reed, Kevin A.
AU - Li, Fuyu
AU - Prabhat,
AU - Bacmeister, Julio
AU - Chen, Cheng Ta
AU - Paciorek, Christopher
AU - Gleckler, Peter J.
AU - Sperber, Kenneth R.
AU - Collins, William D.
AU - Gettelman, Andrew
AU - Jablonowski, Christiane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014. The Authors.
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - We present an analysis of version 5.1 of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM5.1) at a high horizontal resolution. Intercomparison of this global model at approximately 0.25°, 1°, and 2° is presented for extreme daily precipitation as well as for a suite of seasonal mean fields. In general, extreme precipitation amounts are larger in high resolution than in lower-resolution configurations. In many but not all locations and/or seasons, extreme daily precipitation rates in the high-resolution configuration are higher and more realistic. The high-resolution configuration produces tropical cyclones up to category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale and a comparison to observations reveals both realistic and unrealistic model behavior. In the absence of extensive model tuning at high resolution, simulation of many of the mean fields analyzed in this study is degraded compared to the tuned lower-resolution public released version of the model.
AB - We present an analysis of version 5.1 of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM5.1) at a high horizontal resolution. Intercomparison of this global model at approximately 0.25°, 1°, and 2° is presented for extreme daily precipitation as well as for a suite of seasonal mean fields. In general, extreme precipitation amounts are larger in high resolution than in lower-resolution configurations. In many but not all locations and/or seasons, extreme daily precipitation rates in the high-resolution configuration are higher and more realistic. The high-resolution configuration produces tropical cyclones up to category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale and a comparison to observations reveals both realistic and unrealistic model behavior. In the absence of extensive model tuning at high resolution, simulation of many of the mean fields analyzed in this study is degraded compared to the tuned lower-resolution public released version of the model.
KW - extreme precipitation
KW - global atmospheric modeling
KW - high resolution
KW - tropical cyclones
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U2 - 10.1002/2013MS000276
DO - 10.1002/2013MS000276
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84923048246
SN - 1942-2466
VL - 6
SP - 980
EP - 997
JO - Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
JF - Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
IS - 4
ER -