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Equilibrium climate sensitivity of the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) is 3.20°C for 1° horizontal resolution in each component. This is about a half degree Celsius higher than in the previous version (CCSM3). The transient climate sensitivity of CCSM4 at 1° resolution is 1.72°C, which is about 0.2°C higher than in CCSM3. These higher climate sensitivities in CCSM4 cannot be explained by the change to a preindustrial baseline climate. This study uses the radiative kernel technique to show that, from CCSM3 to CCSM4, the global mean lapse-rate feedback declines in magnitude and the shortwave cloud feedback increases. These two warming effects are partially canceled by cooling because of slight decreases in the global mean water vapor feedback and longwave cloud feedback from CCSM3 to CCSM4. A new formulation of the mixed layer, slab-ocean model in CCSM4 attempts to reproduce the SST and sea ice climatology from an integration with a full-depth ocean, and it is integrated with a dynamic sea ice model. These new features allow an isolation of the influence of ocean dynamical changes on the climate response when comparing integrations with the slab ocean and full-depth ocean. The transient climate response of the full-depth ocean version is 0.54 of the equilibrium climate sensitivity when estimated with the new slab-ocean model version for both CCSM3 and CCSM4. The authors argue the ratio is the same in both versions because they have about the same zonal mean pattern of change in ocean surface heat flux, which broadly resembles the zonal mean pattern of net feedback strength.

Forecasts of southeast Pacific stratocumulus at 20°S and 85°W during the East Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) cruise of October 2001 are examined with the ECMWF model, the Atmospheric Model (AM) from GFDL, the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) from NCAR, and the CAM with a revised atmospheric boundary layer formulation from the University of Washington (CAM-UW). The forecasts are initialized from ECMWF analyses and each model is run for 3–5 days to determine the differences with the EPIC field observations. Observations during the EPIC cruise show a well-mixed boundary layer under a sharp inversion. The inversion height and the cloud layer have a strong and regular diurnal cycle. A key problem common to the models is that the planetary boundary layer (PBL) depth is too shallow when compared to EPIC observations. However, it is suggested that improved PBL depths are achieved with more physically realistic PBL schemes: at one end, CAM uses a dry and surface-driven PBL scheme and produces a very shallow PBL, while the ECWMF model uses an eddy-diffusivity/mass-flux approach and produces a deeper and better-mixed PBL. All the models produce a strong diurnal cycle in the liquid water path (LWP), but there are large differences in the amplitude and phase when compared to the EPIC observations. This, in turn, affects the radiative fluxes at the surface and the surface energy budget. This is particularly relevant for coupled simulations as this can lead to a large SST bias.

The extent to which the climate will change due to an external forcing depends largely on radiative feedbacks, which act to amplify or damp the surface temperature response. There are a variety of issues that complicate the analysis of radiative feedbacks in global climate models, resulting in some confusion regarding their strengths and distributions. In this paper, the authors present a method for quantifying climate feedbacks based on “radiative kernels” that describe the differential response of the top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes to incremental changes in the feedback variables. The use of radiative kernels enables one to decompose the feedback into one factor that depends on the radiative transfer algorithm and the unperturbed climate state and a second factor that arises from the climate response of the feedback variables. Such decomposition facilitates an understanding of the spatial characteristics of the feedbacks and the causes of intermodel differences. This technique provides a simple and accurate way to compare feedbacks across different models using a consistent methodology. Cloud feedbacks cannot be evaluated directly from a cloud radiative kernel because of strong nonlinearities, but they can be estimated from the change in cloud forcing and the difference between the full-sky and clear-sky kernels. The authors construct maps to illustrate the regional structure of the feedbacks and compare results obtained using three different model kernels to demonstrate the robustness of the methodology. The results confirm that models typically generate globally averaged cloud feedbacks that are substantially positive or near neutral, unlike the change in cloud forcing itself, which is as often negative as positive.

Climate models differ in their responses to imposed forcings, such as increased greenhouse gas concentrations, due to different climate feedback strengths. Feedbacks in NCAR’s Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) are separated into two components: the change in climate components in response to an imposed forcing and the “radiative kernel,” the effect that climate changes have on the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiative budget. This technique’s usefulness depends on the linearity of the feedback processes. For the case of CO2 doubling, the sum of the effects of water vapor, temperature, and surface albedo changes on the TOA clear-sky flux is similar to the clear-sky flux changes directly calculated by CAM. When monthly averages are used rather than values from every time step, the global-average TOA shortwave change is underestimated by a quarter, partially as a result of intramonth correlations of surface albedo with the radiative kernel. The TOA longwave flux changes do not depend on the averaging period. The longwave zonal averages are within 10% of the model-calculated values, while the global average differs by only 2%. Cloud radiative forcing (ΔCRF) is often used as a diagnostic of cloud feedback strength. The net effect of the water vapor, temperature, and surface albedo changes on ΔCRF is −1.6 W m−2, based on the kernel technique, while the total ΔCRF from CAM is −1.3 W m−2, indicating these components contribute significantly to ΔCRF and make it more negative. Assuming linearity of the ΔCRF contributions, these results indicate that the net cloud feedback in CAM is positive.

In this study, it is shown that the NCAR and GFDL GCMs exhibit a marked difference in climate sensitivity of clouds and radiative fluxes in response to doubled CO2 and ±2-K SST perturbations. The GFDL model predicted a substantial decrease in cloud amount and an increase in cloud condensate in the warmer climate, but produced a much weaker change in net cloud radiative forcing (CRF) than the NCAR model. Using a multiple linear regression (MLR) method, the full-sky radiative flux change at the top of the atmosphere was successfully decomposed into individual components associated with the clear sky and different types of clouds. The authors specifically examined the cloud feedbacks due to the cloud amount and cloud condensate changes involving low, mid-, and high clouds between 60°S and 60°N. It was found that the NCAR and GFDL models predicted the same sign of individual longwave and shortwave feedbacks resulting from the change in cloud amount and cloud condensate for all three types of clouds (low, mid, and high) despite the different cloud and radiation schemes used in the models. However, since the individual longwave and shortwave feedbacks resulting from the change in cloud amount and cloud condensate generally have the opposite signs, the net cloud feedback is a subtle residual of all. Strong cancellations between individual cloud feedbacks may result in a weak net cloud feedback. This result is consistent with the findings of the previous studies, which used different approaches to diagnose cloud feedbacks. This study indicates that the proposed MLR approach provides an easy way to efficiently expose the similarity and discrepancy of individual cloud feedback processes between GCMs, which are hidden in the total cloud feedback measured by CRF. Most importantly, this method has the potential to be applied to satellite measurements. Thus, it may serve as a reliable and efficient method to investigate cloud feedback mechanisms on short-term scales by comparing simulations with available observations, which may provide a useful way to identify the cause for the wide spread of cloud feedbacks in GCMs.

The equatorial Pacific is a region with strong negative feedbacks. Yet coupled general circulation models (GCMs) have exhibited a propensity to develop a significant SST bias in that region, suggesting an unrealistic sensitivity in the coupled models to small energy flux errors that inevitably occur in the individual model components. Could this “hypersensitivity” exhibited in a coupled model be due to an underestimate of the strength of the negative feedbacks in this region? With this suspicion, the feedbacks in the equatorial Pacific in nine atmospheric GCMs (AGCMs) have been quantified using the interannual variations in that region and compared with the corresponding calculations from the observations. The nine AGCMs are the NCAR Community Climate Model version 1 (CAM1), the NCAR Community Climate Model version 2 (CAM2), the NCAR Community Climate Model version 3 (CAM3), the NCAR CAM3 at T85 resolution, the NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP) Atmospheric Model, the Hadley Centre Atmospheric Model (HadAM3), the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) model (LMDZ4), the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) AM2p10, and the GFDL AM2p12. All the corresponding coupled runs of these nine AGCMs have an excessive cold tongue in the equatorial Pacific. The net atmospheric feedback over the equatorial Pacific in the two GFDL models is found to be comparable to the observed value. All other models are found to have a weaker negative net feedback from the atmosphere—a weaker regulating effect on the underlying SST than the real atmosphere. Except for the French (IPSL) model, a weaker negative feedback from the cloud albedo and a weaker negative feedback from the atmospheric transport are the two leading contributors to the weaker regulating effect from the atmosphere. The underestimate of the strength of the negative feedbacks by the models is apparently linked to an underestimate of the equatorial precipitation response. All models have a stronger water vapor feedback than that indicated in Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) observations. These results confirm the suspicion that an underestimate of the regulatory effect from the atmosphere over the equatorial Pacific region is a prevalent problem. The results also suggest, however, that a weaker regulatory effect from the atmosphere is unlikely solely responsible for the hypersensitivity in all models. The need to validate the feedbacks from the ocean transport is therefore highlighted.

The climate sensitivity of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) is described in terms of the equilibrium change in surface temperature due to a doubling of carbon dioxide in a slab ocean version of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) and the transient climate response, which is the surface temperature change at the point of doubling of carbon dioxide in a 1% yr−1 CO2 simulation with the fully coupled CCSM. For a fixed atmospheric horizontal resolution across model versions, we show that the equilibrium sensitivity has monotonically increased across CSM1.4, CCSM2, to CCSM3 from 2.01° to 2.27° to 2.47°C, respectively. The transient climate response for these versions is 1.44° to 1.09° to 1.48°C, respectively. Using climate feedback analysis, it is shown that both clear-sky and cloudy-sky processes have contributed to the changes in transient climate response. The dependence of these sensitivities on horizontal resolution is also explored. The equilibrium sensitivity of the high-resolution (T85) version of CCSM3 is 2.71°C, while the equilibrium response for the low-resolution model (T31) is 2.32°C. It is shown that the shortwave cloud response of the high-resolution version of the CCSM3 is anomalous compared to the low- and moderate-resolution versions.

Climate model simulations of the latter part of the twentieth century indicate a warming of the troposphere that is equal to or larger than the warming at the surface, while satellite observations from the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) indicate little warming of the troposphere relative to surface observations. Recently, Fu et al. proposed a new approach to retrieving free tropospheric temperature trends from MSU data that better accounts for stratospheric cooling, which contaminates the tropospheric signal and leads to a smaller trend in tropospheric warming. In this study, climate model simulations are used as a self-consistent dataset to test these retrieval algorithms. The two methods of retrieving tropospheric temperature trends are applied to three climate model simulations of the twentieth century. The Fu et al. algorithm is found to be in very good agreement with the model-simulated tropospheric warming, indicating that it accurately accounts for cooling from the lower stratosphere.

The Community Climate System Model, version 2 (CCSM2) is briefly described. A 1000-yr control simulation of the present day climate has been completed without flux adjustments. Minor modifications were made at year 350, which included all five components using the same physical constants. There are very small trends in the upper-ocean, sea ice, atmosphere, and land fields after year 150 of the control simulation. The deep ocean has small but significant trends; however, these are not large enough that the control simulation could not be continued much further. The equilibrium climate sensitivity of CCSM2 is 2.2 K, which is slightly larger than the Climate System Model, version 1 (CSM1) value of 2.0 K. Several aspects of the control simulation's mean climate and interannual variability are described, and good and bad properties of the control simulation are documented. In particular, several aspects of the simulation, especially in the Arctic region, are much improved over those obtained in CSM1. ...

Coupling the NCAR Community Climate Model version 3.6 (CCM3.6) with relaxed Arakawa–Schubert convection to a slab ocean model (SOM) improves the simulation of eastern Pacific convection during a composite June–November intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) life cycle. Intraseasonal oscillations in the SOM simulation produce convective variability over the tropical northeastern Pacific that is similar to that produced by the observed Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). A composite ISO life cycle in the SOM simulation exhibits stronger, more coherent, and more widespread eastern Pacific warm pool convective anomalies than in a control simulation using climatological SSTs. Competing convective forcings over land and ocean make eastern Pacific low-level circulation anomalies more complex in the SOM simulation than in the observed MJO. Off-equatorial eastern Pacific SST variations of more than 0.6°C are associated with the June–November SOM simulation ISO. These variations are similar to those observed with th...

The effects of the south Asian haze on the regional climate are assessed using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model version 3 (CCM3) at the T42/L18 resolution. This haze, as documented during the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) campaign (1995‐2000), consists mainly of anthropogenic aerosols, and spans over most of south Asia and the north Indian Ocean. It reduces the net solar flux at the surface by as much as 20‐40 W m 22 on a monthly mean basis and heats the lowest 3-km atmosphere by as much as 0.4‐0.8 K day21, which enhances the solar heating of this layer by 50%‐100%. This widespread haze layer is a seasonal phenomenon limited to the dry period between November and May. The imposed haze radiative forcing leads to several large and statistically significant climate changes during the dry monsoon season, which include cooling of the land surface, and warming of the atmosphere. These temperature change features lead to the stabilization of the boundary layer that results in a reduction of evaporation and sensible heat flux from the land. The dynamical response to the aerosol forcing is surprisingly large. The aerosol forcing weakens the north‐south temperature gradient in the lower level, which results in an enhancement of the area mean low-level convergence and a northward shift of the ITCZ. The increase in low-level convergence leads to increased convective rainfall and latent heat release, which in turn leads to a further increase in lowlevel convergence. This positive feedback between the low-level convergence and deep convective heating increases the average precipitation over the haze area by as much as 20%. The ocean surface undergoes a suppression of evaporation. Because of this decreased evaporation accompanied by the increase in the hazearea precipitation, the precipitation over the rest of the Tropics decreases, with a large fraction of this decrease concentrated over the Indonesian and the western Pacific warm pool region. The prescribed dry monsoon haze effect affects the summertime wet monsoon too, but a detailed analysis has to await the availability of yearround aerosol data. The major inference from this study is that the effects of absorbing aerosols on the regional climate can be quite large. The simulated surface temperature response was very sensitive to the ratio ( R) of the surface aerosol forcing to the atmospheric forcing. The R itself varies from 21.5 in clear skies to about 20.5 in overcast skies over ocean, and available experimental data are not sufficient to constrain its value more narrowly.

The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) significantly modulates eastern tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during Northern Hemisphere summer. Typical SST variations during an MJO life cycle are 0.4°–0.5°C. Considerably higher variations occur with the strongest events (1°–2°C). The magnitudes of these variations are comparable to those associated with west Pacific MJO variability during NH winter. SST anomalies to the north of 4°N, where the strongest modulation of east Pacific convection by the MJO occurs, are 180° out of phase with equatorial anomalies. These SST variations are responsible for variations in surface saturation equivalent potential temperatures of greater than 3°C. The highest SSTs lead maximum convection by about 10 days, and SSTs begin to cool with the onset of enhanced convection. Off-equatorial SST anomalies are most likely due to variations in surface latent heat flux, although shortwave flux anomalies are important in the heart of the MJO convective region. Decrea...

The Climate System Model, a coupled global climate model without ‘‘flux adjustments’’ recently developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, was used to simulate the twentieth-century climate using historical greenhouse gas and sulfate aerosol forcing. This simulation was extended through the twenty-first century under two newly developed scenarios, a business-as-usual case (ACACIA-BAU, CO2 710 ppmv in 2100) and a CO2 stabilization case (STA550, CO 2 540 ppmv in 2100). Here we compare the simulated and observed twentieth-century climate, and then describe the simulated climates for the twenty-first century. The model simulates the spatial and temporal variations of the twentieth-century climate reasonably well. These include the rapid rise in global and zonal mean surface temperatures since the late 1970s, the precipitation increases over northern mid- and high-latitude land areas, ENSO-induced precipitation anomalies, and Pole‐ midlatitude oscillations (such as the North Atlantic oscillation) in sea level pressure fields. The model has a cold bias (28‐68C) in surface air temperature over land, overestimates of cloudiness (by 10%‐30%) over land, and underestimates of marine stratus clouds to the west of North and South America and Africa. The projected global surface warming from the 1990s to the 2090s is ;1.98C under the BAU scenario and ;1.58C under the STA550 scenario. In both cases, the midstratosphere cools due to the increase in CO 2, whereas the lower stratosphere warms in response to recovery of the ozone layer. As in other coupled models, the surface warming is largest at winter high latitudes ($5.08C from the 1990s to the 2090s) and smallest (;1.08C) over the southern oceans, and is larger over land areas than ocean areas. Globally averaged precipitation increases by ;3.5% (3.0%) from the 1990s to the 2090s in the BAU (STA550) case. In the BAU case, large precipitation increases (up to 50%) occur over northern mid- and high latitudes and over India and the Arabian Peninsula. Marked differences occur between the BAU and STA550 regional precipitation changes resulting from interdecadal variability. Surface evaporation increases at all latitudes except for 60 8‐908S. Water vapor from increased tropical evaporation is transported into mid- and high latitudes and returned to the surface through increased precipitation there. Changes in soil moisture content are small (within 63%). Total cloud cover changes little, although there is an upward shift of midlevel clouds. Surface diurnal temperature range decreases by about 0.28‐ 0.58C over most land areas. The 2‐8-day synoptic storm activity decreases (by up to 10%) at low latitudes and over midlatitude oceans, but increases over Eurasia and Canada. The cores of subtropical jets move slightly upand equatorward. Associated with reduced latitudinal temperature gradients over mid- and high latitudes, the wintertime Ferrel cell weakens (by 10%‐15%). The Hadley circulation also weakens (by ;10%), partly due to the upward shift of cloudiness that produces enhanced warming in the upper troposphere.

Improvements to the NCAR Climate System Model, CSM-1, primarily for transient climate forcing simulations, are discussed. The impact of the individual changes is assessed through atmosphere–land or ocean–ice experiments, and through short coupled simulations. A 270-yr control simulation has been performed using the model with all of the changes, defined as CSM-1.3. Trace gas concentrations appropriate for 1870 were used and the model produced a stable surface climate with less deep ocean drift than CSM-1. Changing the aerodynamic roughness length of sea ice to a value appropriate for first year ice reduced the deep ocean salinity trend by a factor of 100 and error in the transport by the Antarctic circumpolar current by 50% (60 × 106 m3 s−1). Three new features were added to the Community Climate Model, version 3 (CCM3), which is the atmospheric component of CSM-1. These additions were N2O, CH4, CFC11, and CFC12 as prognostic tracers and the oxidation of CH4 to form water vapor; a prognostic clou...

The global warming resulting from increased CO2 is addressed in the context of two regional processes that contribute to climate change in coupled climate models, the ''El Nino-like'' response (slackening of the equatorial Pacific SST gradient) and sea-ice response at high latitudes. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Climate System Model (CSM) response is compared with results from a coupled model that produces comparatively greater global warming, the NCAR U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) global coupled model. In an experiment where atmospheric CO2 is increased 1% yr21 compound, globally averaged surface air temperature increase near the time of CO2 doubling for the CSM is 1.438C (3.508C for the DOE model). Analysis of a simple coupled model shows the CSM equilibrium sensitivity to doubled CO2 is comparable to that from the slab ocean version (about 2.18C). One process that contributes to global warming (estimated to be about 5% in one slab ocean model), as well as to significant Pacific region climate effects, is the El Nino-like response. It is a notable feature in the DOE model and some other global coupled models but does not occur in the CSM. The authors show that cloud responses are a major determining factor. With increased CO2, there are negative net cloud-forcing differences in the western equatorial Pacific in the CSM and DOE models, but large positive differences in the DOE model and negative differences in the CSM in the eastern equatorial Pacific. This produces asymmetric cloud radiative forcing contributing to an El Nino-like response in the DOE model and not in the CSM. To remove the amplifying effects of ocean dynamics and to identify possible parameter-dependent processes that could contribute to such cloud forcing changes, the authors analyze slab ocean versions of the coupled models in comparison with a slab ocean configuration of the atmospheric model in the CSM (Community Climate Model Version 3 (CCM3)) that includes prognostic cloud liquid water. The latter shows a change in sign (from negative to positive) of the net cloud forcing in the eastern equatorial Pacific with doubled CO2, similar to the DOE model, in comparison with the CCM3 version with diagnostic cloud liquid water. Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (prescribed SST) experiments show that all three atmospheric models (DOE, CCM3 with diagnostic cloud liquid water, and CCM3 with prognostic cloud liquid water) perform poorly relative to observations in terms of cloud radiative forcing, though CCM3 with prognostic cloud liquid water is slightly superior to the others. Another process that contributes to climate response to increasing CO 2 is sea-ice changes, which are estimated to enhance global warming by roughly 20% in the CSM and 37% in the DOE model. Sea-ice retreat with increasing CO2 in the CSM is less than in the DOE model in spite of identical sea-ice formulations. Results from the North Atlantic and Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian (GIN) Sea region show that the surface energy budget response is con- trolled primarily by surface albedo (related to ice area changes) and cloud changes. However, a more important factor is the poleward ocean heat transport associated with changes in meridional overturning in the GIN Sea. With increased CO2, the transport of warmer water from the south into this region in the DOE model is greater in comparison with that of the CSM. This leads to a larger ice reduction in the DOE model, thus also contributing to the enhanced contribution from ice albedo feedback in the DOE model in comparison with the CSM.

This study examines the response of the climate simulation by the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (CCM3) to the introduction of the Zhang and McFarlane convective parameterization in the model. It is shown that in the CCM3 the simulated surface climate in the tropical convective regimes, especially in the western Pacific warm pool, is markedly improved, yielding a much better agreement with the recent observations. The systematic bias in the surface evaporation, surface wind stress over the tropical Pacific Ocean in previous model simulations is significantly reduced, owing to the better simulation of the surface flow. Experiments using identical initial and boundary conditions, but different convection schemes, are performed to isolate the role of the convection schemes and to understand the interaction between convection and the large-scale circulation in a convecting atmosphere. The comparison of the results from these experiments in the western Pacific warm pool suggests that use of the Zhang and McFarlane scheme makes a significant contribution to the improved climate simulation in CCM3. The simulated atmosphere using the Zhang and McFarlane scheme exhibits a quasi-equilibrium between convection and the large-scale processes. When this scheme is removed from the CCM3, such a quasi-equilibrium is no longer observed. In addition, the simulated thermodynamic structures, the surface evaporation, and surface winds in the Pacific warm pool become very similar to those in the CCM2 climate. Examination of the temporal evolution of the various fields demonstrates that the stabilization of the atmosphere using the new convection scheme takes place during the transition from nonequilibrium to quasi equilibrium at the beginning of the time integration. After quasi equilibrium is reached, the atmosphere is warmer and more stable compared to the run without the new scheme. Associated with the more stable stratification, the atmospheric circulation becomes weaker, thus the surface winds and evaporation are weaker because of the coupling between thermodynamics and dynamics in the tropical troposphere.

The energy budget of the latest version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model (CCM3) is described. The energy budget at the top of the atmosphere and at the earth’s surface is compared to observational estimates. The annual mean, seasonal mean, and seasonal cycle of the energy budget are evaluated in comparison with earth radiation budget data at the top of the atmosphere and with the NCAR Ocean Model (NCOM) forcing data at the ocean’s surface. Individual terms in the energy budget are discussed. The transient response of the top-of-atmosphere radiative budget to anomalies in tropical sea surface temperature is also presented. In general, the CCM3 is in excellent agreement with ERBE data in terms of annual and seasonal means. The seasonal cycle of the top-of-atmosphere radiation budget is also in good (,10 Wm 22) agreement with ERBE data. At the surface, the model shortwave flux over the oceans is too large compared to data obtained by W. G. Large and colleagues (;20‐30 W m22). It is argued that this bias is related to a model underestimate of shortwave cloud absorption. The major biases in the model are related to the position of deep convection in the tropical Pacific, summertime convective activity over land regions, and the model’s inability to realistically represent marine stratus and stratocumulus clouds. Despite these deficiencies, the model’s implied ocean heat transport is in very good agreement with the explicit ocean heat transport of the NCOM uncoupled simulations. This result is a major reason for the success of the NCAR Climate System Model.

The simulation of the tropical western Pacific warm pool is explored with the NCAR Climate System Model (CSM). The simulated sea surface temperatures in the Pacific basin have biases that are similar to other coupled model simulations in this region. In particular, an excessive cold tongue of water extends across the Pacific basin, with warm water on either side of this cold tongue. The warm pool region is also too cold. This cold bias exists in spite of an overestimate in surface net energy flux into this region. To understand the source of this bias in SST, simulations from the uncoupled and fully coupled models are analyzed in terms of biases in surface energy budget. These analyses suggest that the strong constraint of little ocean heat transport out of the warm pool region forces a change in SST gradient that leads to an increase in the atmospheric zonal wind. This increase in zonal wind causes an increase in latent heat flux in the warm pool region. The increase in latent heat flux is requi...

Climatological properties for selected aspects of the thermodynamic structure and hydrologic cycle are presented from a 15-yr numerical simulation conducted with the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model, version 3 (CCM3), using an observed sea surface temperature climatology. In most regards, the simulated thermal structure and hydrologic cycle represent a marked improvement when compared with earlier versions of the CCM. Three major modifications to parameterized physics are primarily responsible for the more notable improvements in the simulation: modifications to the diagnosis of cloud optical properties, modifications to the diagnosis of boundary layer processes, and the incorporation of a penetrative formulation for deep cumulus convection. The various roles of these physical parameterization changes will be discussed in the context of the simulation strengths and weaknesses.

The latest version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model (CCM3) is described. The changes in both physical and dynamical formulation from CCM2 to CCM3 are presented. The major differences in CCM3 compared to CCM2 include changes to the parameterization of cloud properties, clear sky longwave radiation, deep convection, boundary layer processes, and land surface processes. A brief description of each of these parameterization changes is provided. These modifications to model physics have led to dramatic improvements in the simulated climate of the CCM. In particular, the top of atmosphere cloud radiative forcing is now in good agreement with observations, the Northern Hemisphere winter dynamical simulation has significantly improved, biases in surface land temperatures and precipitation have been substantially reduced, and the implied ocean heat transport is in very good agreement with recent observational estimates. The improvement in implied ocean heat transport is among the more important attributes of the CCM3 since it is used as the atmospheric component of the NCAR Climate System Model. Future improvements to the CCM3 are also discussed.

The properties of the marine boundary layer produced by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model version 3 (CCM3) are compared with observations from two experiments in the central and western equatorial Pacific. The main objective of the comparison is determining the accuracy of the ocean–atmosphere fluxes calculated by the model. The vertical thermodynamic structure and the surface fluxes calculated by the CCM3 have been validated against data from the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX) and the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere–Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TOGA–TAO) buoy array. The mean latent heat flux for the TOGA–TAO array is 92 W m−2, and the model estimate of latent flux is 109 W m−2. The bias of 17 W m−2 is considerably smaller than the overestimation of the flux by the previous version of the CCM. The improvement in the latent heat flux is due to a reduction in the surface winds caused by nonlocal effects of a new convective parameterization. Th...

Recent studies by Cess et al. and Ramanathan et al. find that clouds absorb significantly more shortwave radiation than currently modeled by general circulation models. Initial calculations for the global annual shortwave energy budget imply that including the additional shortwave cloud absorption leads to an additional 22 W m−2 absorption in the atmosphere, with an equivalent reduction of shortwave flux at the surface. The present study investigates the climate implications of enhanced cloud absorption with the use of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model. The GCM response to this forcing is to warm the upper troposphere by as much as 4 K. The additional shortwave heating in the upper troposphere reduces the strength of the Hadley circulation by 12% and leads to lower surface wind speeds in the Tropics. In turn, these lower wind speeds lead to a 25 W m−2 reduction in surface latent heat flux.

Observations based on Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) satellite data indicate that there is a near cancellation between tropical longwave and shortwave cloud forcing in regions of deep convective activity. Cloud forcing depends on both cloud macrophysical properties (e.g., cloud amount, cloud height, etc.) and on microphysical properties (e.g., cloud particle size, particle shape, etc.). Hence, the near cancellation in the tropics could be due to either the macrophysical or the microphysical properties of these clouds, or a combination of these effects. By using satellite data from the ERBE and International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and recent in situ observations of tropical anvils, it is argued that the observed near cancellation in the tropics is mainly a result of the tropical tropopause height. This conclusion depends on two observational results from comparison of ERBE and ISCCP data: 1) Both the longwave and shortwave cloud forcing are predominately due to high ...