PNNL

Abstract

Arctic clouds simulated by the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) are evaluated with observations from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), which were conducted at its North Slope of Alaska site in April 2008 and October 2004, respectively. Model forecasts for the Arctic Spring and Fall seasons performed under the Cloud- Associated Parameterizations Testbed (CAPT) framework generally reproduce the spatial distributions of cloud fraction for single-layer boundary layer mixed-phase stratocumulus, and multilayer or deep frontal clouds. However, for low-level clouds, the model significantly underestimates the observed cloud liquid water content in both seasons and cloud fraction in the Spring season. As a result, CAM5 significantly underestimates the surface downward longwave (LW) radiative fluxes by 20-40 W m-2. The model with a new ice nucleation parameterization moderately improves the model simulations by increasing cloud liquid water content in mixed-phase clouds through the reduction of the conversion rate from cloud liquid to ice by the Wegener-Bergeron- Findeisen (WBF) process. The CAM5 single column model testing shows that change in the homogeneous freezing temperature of rain to form snow from -5 °C to -40 °C has a substantial impact on the modeled liquid water content through the slowing-down of liquid and rain-related processes. In contrast, collections of cloud ice by snow and cloud liquid by rain are of minor importance for single-layer boundary layer mixed-phase clouds in the Arctic.