PNNL

Abstract

This paper introduces an Earth system modeling testbed for predicting aerosols and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACIs) at convection-permitting scales. Using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) version 2 with a four-mode Modal Aerosol Module, we conduct simulations at 3.25 km resolution on a regionally refined mesh (RRM) across four regions with distinct aerosol and cloud regimes. Results are compared with the standard 100 km E3SM configuration and evaluated against satellite, aircraft, and ground-based observations. We find that increasing model resolution improves heavy precipitation simulation but amplifies positive bias in light drizzle at coarse resolution. These resolution-induced changes affect cloud and aerosol properties to varying degrees across regions. Generally, cloud cover and liquid water path (LWP) show better agreement with satellite retrievals at 3.25 km, though surface-based comparisons suggest otherwise. Aerosol composition remains poorly represented at both resolutions. The RRM increases Aitken mode aerosol number concentrations via enhanced new particle formation. However, accumulation mode aerosols are decreased at higher resolution as aerosol removals become more efficient. This partially contributes to fewer cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and lower cloud droplet number concentrations (Nd), which produces larger model biases in some scenarios. These findings suggest that solely increasing horizontal resolution to kilometer scales is insufficient to broadly improve aerosol and cloud predictions without concurrent advancements in physical and chemical process representations. Nonetheless, the RRM moderately improves key ACI relationships such as CCN- correlation, reflecting enhanced aerosol activation representation. The LWP-Nd relationship is also better captured by RRM, suggesting a better characterization of LWP adjustment.