Emulation of Cloud-Aerosol Indirect Radiative Effects (ECLAIRE)

Abstract:

Resolving sub-grid-scale interactions between clouds and aerosols is one of the biggest challenges facing climate models in the 21st century. By carefully selecting boundary conditions to represent grid boxes in larger-scale models, an emulator of a cloud-resolving model can be created and implemented in a regional or global model. Emulators can estimate the output of a model, based on a statistical analysis of outputs from simulations with known inputs. This method may reduce uncertainties in a range of cloud-scale processes, including calculations of aerosol indirect radiative effects, precipitation rates, and wet removal rates of aerosol. The Finnish Academy has recently funded the Emulation of Cloud-Aerosol Indirect Radiative Effects (ECLAIRE) project, whose aim is to construct emulators of cloud-scale processes from the WRF-Chem model and implement them into the ECHAM climate model. This poster will describe the goals and proposed methods of the project, together with any initial results.