Identification

Title

Mesoscale convective systems represented in high resolution E3SMv2 and impact of new cloud and convection parameterizations

Abstract

In this study, we evaluate mesoscale convective system (MCS) simulations in the second version of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv2). E3SMv2 atmosphere model (EAMv2) is run at the uniform 0.25° horizontal resolution. We track MCSs consistently in the model and observations using PyFLEXTRKR algorithm, which defines MCSs based on both cloud top brightness temperature ( T b ) and surface precipitation. Results from using only T b to define MCSs are also discussed to understand the impact of different MCS tracking algorithms on MCS evaluation and provide additional insights into model errors in simulating MCSs. Our results show that EAMv2 simulated MCS precipitation is largely underestimated in tropical and extratropical regions. This is mainly attributed to the underestimated MCS genesis and underestimated precipitation intensity in EAMv2. Comparing the two MCS tracking methods, simulated MCS precipitation is increased if MCSs are defined with only cloud top T b . The T b ‐based MCS tracking method, however, includes cloud systems with very weak precipitation. This illustrates the model issues in simulating heavy precipitation even though the convective cloud shield is overall well simulated from the moist convective processes. Furthermore, sensitivity experiments are performed to examine the impact of new cloud and convection parameterizations developed for EAMv3 on simulated MCSs. The new physics parameterizations help increase the relative contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation in the tropics, but the simulated MCS properties are not significantly improved. This suggests that simulating MCSs still remain a challenge for the next version of E3SM.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7g73k1h

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

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code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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Text

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title

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reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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date type

publication

effective date

2024-09-01T00:00:00Z

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<style type="text/css"></style><style type="text/css"></style><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright 2024 American Geophysical Union.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-10T19:58:51.737943

Metadata language

eng; USA