Atmospher Sci & Global Chg
Staff Awards & Honors

October 2013

New and Improved Community Atmosphere Model Proves Hot Topic

Representing aerosols' complex physical and chemical effects in climate models is one of the largest challenges in projecting future climate change. Enlarge Image

Research led at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory by Drs. Xiaohong Liu, Richard Easter, Steven Ghan, Rahul Zaveri, and Phil Rasch was featured as a ScienceWatch New Hot Paper. The paper, "Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Descriptions and evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5," has been cited over 50 times since its publication less than 18 months ago. This Hot Paper provides a foundation for global studies of atmospheric particles from human activities and other sources, which play an important role in the Earth's climate system, but their effect on the climate is still one of the largest sources of uncertainty in model predictions of climate change. The paper describes and evaluates CAM5, the advanced aerosol module for the Community Earth System Model, which provides a clearer picture of these atmospheric particles. The research helps scientists better understand the future climate.

For more information, see PNNL's Bytes for Bits, or read the paper here.

Congratulations, team!

Reference: Liu X, RC Easter, SJ Ghan, R Zaveri, P Rasch, X Shi, J-F Lamarque, A Gettelman, H Morrison, F Vitt, A Conley, S Park, R Neale, C Hannay, AM Ekman, P Hess, N Mahowald, W Collins, MJ Iacono, CS Bretherton, MG Flanner, and D Mitchell. 2012. "Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Description and Evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5." Geoscientific Model Development 5(3):709-739. DOI:10.5194/gmd-5-709-2012.