Impact of orographically induced gravity-wave drag in the GLA GCM

Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science, 2021

Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are generated in the lower atmosphere by various weather phenomena. They propagate upward, carry energy and momentum to higher altitudes, and appreciably influence the general circulation upon depositing them in the middle and upper atmosphere. We use a three-dimensional first-principle general circulation model (GCM) with implemented nonlinear whole atmosphere GW parameterization to study the global climatology of wave activity and produced effects at altitudes up to the upper thermosphere. The numerical experiments were guided by the GW momentum fluxes and temperature variances as measured in 2010 by the SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) instrument onboard NASA's TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics Dynamics) satellite. This includes the latitudinal dependence and magnitude of GW activity in the lower stratosphere for the boreal summer season. The modeling results were compared to the SABER temperature and total absolute momentum flux and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) data in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Simulations suggest that, in order to reproduce the observed circulation and wave activity in the middle atmosphere, GW fluxes that are smaller than observed fluxes have to be used at the source level in the lower atmosphere. This is because observations contain a broader spectrum of GWs, while parameterizations capture only a portion relevant to the middle and upper atmosphere dynamics. Accounting for the latitudinal variations of the source appreciably improves simulations.

Journal of Climate, 2011

Previous versions of GISS climate models have either used formulations of Rayleigh drag to represent unresolved gravity wave interactions with the model-resolved flow or have included a rather complicated treatment of unresolved gravity waves that, while being climate interactive, involved the specification of a relatively large number of parameters that were not well constrained by observations and also was computationally very expensive. Here, the authors introduce a relatively simple and computationally efficient specification of unresolved orographic and nonorographic gravity waves and their interaction with the resolved flow. Comparisons of the GISS model winds and temperatures with no gravity wave parameterization; with only orographic gravity wave parameterization; and with both orographic and nonorographic gravity wave parameterizations are shown to illustrate how the zonal mean winds and temperatures converge toward observations. The authors also show that the specification...

Advances in Space Research, 2011

Adequate representations of diverse dynamical processes in general circulation models (GCM) are necessary to obtain reliable simulations of the present and the future. The parameterization of orographic gravity wave drag (GWD) is one of the critical components of GCM. It is therefore convenient to evaluate whether standard orographic GWD parameterizations are appropriate. One alternative is to study the generation of gravity waves (GW) with horizontal resolutions that are higher than those used in current GCM simulations. Here we assess the seasonal pattern of topographic GW momentum flux (GWMF) generation for the late 20th and 21st centuries in a downscaling using the Rossby Centre regional atmospheric model under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A1B emission conditions. We focus on one of the world's strongest extra-tropical GW zones, the Andes Mountains at mid-latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. The presence of two GCM sub-grid scale structures locally contributing to GWMF (one positive and one negative) is found to the East of the mountains. For the late 21st century the strength of these structures during the GW high season increases around 23% with respect to the late 20th century, but the GWMF average over GCM grid cell scales remains negative and nearly constant around À0.015 Pa. This constitutes a steady significant contribution during GW high season, which is not related to the GWMF released by individual sporadic strong GW events. This characteristic agrees with the fact that no statistically significant variation in GWMF at source level has been observed in recent GCM simulations of atmospheric change induced by increases in greenhouse gases.

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 2013

A version of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM) that is nudged toward reanalysis data up to 1 hPa is used to examine the impacts of parameterized orographic and nonorographic gravity wave drag (OGWD and NGWD) on the zonal-mean circulation of the mesosphere during the extended northern winters of 2006 and 2009 when there were two large stratospheric sudden warmings. The simulations are compared to Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) observations of mesospheric temperature and carbon monoxide (CO) and derived zonal winds. The control simulation, which uses both OGWD and NGWD, is shown to be in good agreement with MLS. The impacts of OGWD and NGWD are assessed using simulations in which those sources of wave drag are removed. In the absence of OGWD the mesospheric zonal winds in the months preceding the warmings are too strong, causing increased mesospheric NGWD, which drives excessive downwelling, resulting in overly large lower-mesospheric values of CO prior to the warming. NG...

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 2002

It has become increasingly clear that Gravity Waves (GW) have an essential and often dominant role in the dynamics of the Middle Atmosphere. This leads to them having strong impacts upon the thermal structure and the distribution of atmospheric constituents. However, the radar observations of GW have been limited in their latitudinal extent during the past decade, and although satellite observations are now signiÿcantly contributing, global-seasonal climatologies of important characteristics are still inadequate. With regard to models, the inclusion of GW-drag e ects has been problematic. Usually no seasonal or latitudinal variation in the subgrid-scale GW-drag parameterization scheme is included, and varieties of parameterization schemes have been used. Although these often make con icting assumptions, they generally produce similarly acceptable end-products, e.g. zonal-mean zonal wind ÿelds. In this paper, we report upon the beginnings of a substantial program, using observations from a network of MF radars (North America, Paciÿc and Europe), and data from the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM). This model allows the tidal and planetary wave ÿelds to be assessed, characteristics and climatologies of which are well known from the MF Radars. Here we focus upon the tides. There are useful similarities in the observed and modeled background wind and wave ÿelds, and strong indications that the two non-orographic GW-drag parameterization schemes (Hines; Medvedev-Klaassen) have signiÿcant and di ering e ects upon the dynamics of the modeled atmosphere. It is shown that this comparison process is valuable in the evaluation, and potentially the optimization, of parameterization schemes.

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

Compensation between the resolved wave (RW) forcing and the parameterized orographic gravity wave drag (OGWD) accompanying barotropic/baroclinic (BT/BC) instability in the realistic atmosphere is investigated using Climate Forecast System Reanalysis data in the Northern Hemisphere winter stratosphere. When sufficiently narrow and/or strong negative OGWD drives instability, RWs are generated in situ, providing positive Eliassen–Palm flux divergence that compensates for the parameterized OGWD enhancement; this is consistent with the findings of previous studies based on the idealized general circulation models. However, dependence of the compensation rate on RW forcing differs from the nearly complete compensation in the previous studies, implying that an additional mechanism operates for the compensation: the refractive-index modification by BT/BC instability. The negative meridional gradient of the quasigeostrophic potential vorticity leads to the negative refractive index squared f...

Quarterly Journal of The Royal Meteorological Society, 2010

Recent observational and theoretical studies of the global properties of small-scale atmospheric gravity waves have highlighted the global effects of these waves on the circulation from the surface to the middle atmosphere. The effects of gravity waves on the large-scale circulation have long been treated via parametrizations in both climate and weather-forecasting applications. In these parametrizations, key parameters describe the global distributions of gravity-wave momentum flux, wavelengths and frequencies. Until recently, global observations could not define the required parameters because the waves are small in scale and intermittent in occurrence. Recent satellite and other global datasets with improved resolution, along with innovative analysis methods, are now providing constraints for the parametrizations that can improve the treatment of these waves in climate-prediction models. Research using very-high-resolution global models has also recently demonstrated the capability to resolve gravity waves and their circulation effects, and when tested against observations these models show some very realistic properties. Here we review recent studies on gravity-wave effects in stratosphere-resolving climate models, recent observations and analysis methods that reveal global patterns in gravity-wave momentum fluxes and results of very-high-resolution model studies, and we outline some future research requirements to improve the treatment of these waves in climate simulations. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society and Crown in the right of Canada

Journal of Climate, 2004

A parameterization of gravity wave drag forced by subgrid-scale cumulus convection (GWDC) proposed by Chun and Baik is implemented into the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (NCAR CCM3) and its effect on perpetual January and July climate is investigated. The cloud-top gravity wave stress is concentrated in the intertropical convergence zone where persistent deep cumulus clouds exist. The resultant zonal wind acceleration due to the breaking of convectively forced gravity waves is predominantly found in the tropical lower stratosphere with westerly acceleration above cloud top and easterly acceleration just below it. Since the parameterized gravity waves are stationary relative to convective clouds, wave breaking occurs mainly in the tropical lower stratosphere where the zonal wind is weak enough for wave saturation. It is shown that the GWDC parameterization significantly alleviates the systematic model biases of zonal-mean zonal wind and temperature. In particular, excessive easterlies in the tropical stratosphere and excessive cold temperatures in the tropical lower stratosphere are reduced by more than 50% by including the GWDC parameterization. The horizontal wind divergence field in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere is also significantly improved with the GWDC parameterization. The impact of the GWDC parameterization extends to mid-to high latitudes through planetary wave activity in the winter hemisphere. The increased amplitude of zonal wavenumber 3 in the January Northern Hemisphere and the increased amplitude of zonal wavenumber 2 in the July Southern Hemisphere lead to significant improvements in model performance. The impact of the GWDC parameterization on Eliassen-Palm (EP) flux divergence forcing by stationary waves is generally opposite to that by transient waves in the extratropics, especially in the Northern Hemisphere wintertime. Hence, the zonal-mean zonal wind change by the GWDC parameterization occurs mainly in the Tropics by direct gravity wave drag forcing.

Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 1994

This paper reviews some recent observations of gravity wave characteristics in the middle atmosphere, revealed by co-ordinated observations with the MU radar in Shigaraki (35 'N. 136 E) and ncarbq rocketsondc experiments at Uchinoura (3 I N, I3 I E). We further summarize the results of comparative studies on the latitudinal variations of the gravity wa\c activity, which were detected by additionally employing data obtained with MF radars at Adelaide (35 S. I39 E) and Saskatoon (52 N. I07 W) and lidar observations at Haute Provencc (44 N. 6 E). The seasonal variation of gravity wave activity detected with the MU radar in the lower stratosphere showscd a clear annual variation with a maximum in winter, and coincided with that for the jet-stream intensity, indicating a close relation between the excitation of gravity Raves and jet-stream activity Ott middle latitudes. The long-period (2-2 I h) gravity W;IVCS seemed to be excited near the ground, presumably due to the interactlon of flow with topo!rdphy. and the short-period (5 min 2 h) components had the largest kinetic energy around the peak ofjet-stream.

2010

This paper describes the implementation of the orographic gravity wave drag (GWDO) processes induced by subgrid-scale orography in the global version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The sensitivity of the model simulated climatology to the representation of shortwave radiation and the addition of the GWDO processes is investigated using the Kim-Arakawa GWDO parameterization and the Goddard, RRTMG (Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for GCMs), and Dudhia shortwave radiation schemes. This sensitivity study is a part of efforts of selecting the physics package that can be useful in applying the WRF model to global and seasonal configuration. The climatology is relatively well simulated by the global WRF; the zonal mean zonal wind and temperature structures are reasonably represented with the Kim-Arakawa GWDO scheme using the Goddard and RRTMG shortwave schemes. It is found that the impact of the shortwave radiation scheme on the modeled atmosphere is pronounced in the upper atmospheric circulations above the tropopause mainly due to the ozone heating. The scheme that excludes the ozone process suffers from a distinct cold bias in the stratosphere. Moreover, given the improper thermodynamic environment conditions by the shortwave scheme, the role of the GWDO process is found to be limited.