1. Evaluation of the aerosol vertical distribution in global aerosol models through comparison against CALIOP measurements: AeroCom phase II results
- Author
-
Koffi, Brigitte, Schulz, Michael, Breon, Francois-Marie, Dentener, Frank, Steensen, Birthe Marie, Griesfeller, Jan, Winker, David, Balkanski, Yves, Bauer, Susanne E., Bellouin, Nicolas, Berntsen, Terje, Bian, Huisheng, Chin, Mian, Diehl, Thomas, Easter, Richard, Ghan, Steven, Hauglustaine, Didier A., Iversen, Trond, Kirkevag, Alf, Liu, Xiaohong, Lohmann, Ulrike, Myhre, Gunnar, Rasch, Phil, Seland, Oyvind, Skeie, Ragnhild B., Steenrod, Stephen D., Stier, Philip, Tackett, Jason, Takemura, Toshihiko, Tsigaridis, Kostas, Vuolo, Maria Raffaella, Yoon, Jinho, Zhang, Kai, JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), European Commission - Joint Research Centre [Ispra] (JRC), Norwegian Meteorological Institute [Oslo] (MET), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Modélisation INVerse pour les mesures atmosphériques et SATellitaires (SATINV), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), NASA Langley Research Center [Hampton] (LaRC), Modelling the Earth Response to Multiple Anthropogenic Interactions and Dynamics (MERMAID), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Center for Climate Systems Research [New York] (CCSR), Columbia University [New York], Department of Meteorology [Reading], University of Reading (UOR), Department of Geosciences [Tucson], University of Arizona, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research [Oslo] (CICERO), University of Oslo (UiO), Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology [Baltimore] (JCET), University of Maryland [Baltimore County] (UMBC), University of Maryland System-University of Maryland System-NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), University of Wyoming (UW), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Department of Physics [Oxford], University of Oxford [Oxford], Science Systems and Applications Inc (SSAI), Research Institute for Applied Mechanics [Fukuoka] (RIAM), Kyushu University [Fukuoka], Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, European Commission [070307/ENV/2012/636596/C3], Research Council of Norway [207711/E10, 229771], CRAICC, EU, Norwegian Space Center, US Department of Energy, Office of Science, DOE [DE-AC06-76RLO 1830], NASA MAP program Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction Climate Variability and Change [NNH08ZDA001N-MAP], Research Council of Norway, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Geosciences [University of Arizona], NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)-University of Maryland [Baltimore County] (UMBC), University of Maryland System-University of Maryland System, University of Oxford, and Kyushu University
- Subjects
[SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] ,Article - Abstract
The ability of 11 models in simulating the aerosol vertical distribution from regional to global scales, as part of the second phase of the AeroCom model intercomparison initiative (AeroCom II), is assessed and compared to results of the first phase. The evaluation is performed using a global monthly gridded data set of aerosol extinction profiles built for this purpose from the CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) Layer Product 3.01. Results over 12 subcontinental regions show that five models improved, whereas three degraded in reproducing the interregional variability in Zα0–6 km, the mean extinction height diagnostic, as computed from the CALIOP aerosol profiles over the 0–6 km altitude range for each studied region and season. While the models' performance remains highly variable, the simulation of the timing of the Zα0–6 km peak season has also improved for all but two models from AeroCom Phase I to Phase II. The biases in Zα0–6 km are smaller in all regions except Central Atlantic, East Asia, and North and South Africa. Most of the models now underestimate Zα0–6 km over land, notably in the dust and biomass burning regions in Asia and Africa. At global scale, the AeroCom II models better reproduce the Zα0–6 km latitudinal variability over ocean than over land. Hypotheses for the performance and evolution of the individual models and for the intermodel diversity are discussed. We also provide an analysis of the CALIOP limitations and uncertainties contributing to the differences between the simulations and observations. ©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF