Development and testing of parameterizations for continental and tropical ice cloud microphysical and radiative properties in GCM and mesoscale models. Final report

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research was to exploit measurements in clouds sampled during several field programs, especially from experiments in tropical regions, in a four-component study to develop and validate cloud parameterizations for general circulation models, emphasizing ice clouds. The components were: (1) parameterization of basic properties of mid- and upper-tropospheric clouds, such as condensed water content, primarily with respect to cirrus from tropical areas; (2) the second component was to develop parameterizations which express cloud radiative properties in terms of basic cloud microphysical properties, dealing primarily with tropical oceanic cirrus clouds and continental thunderstorm anvils, but also including altocumulus clouds; (3) the third component was to validate the parameterizations through use of ground-based measurements calibrated using existing and planned in-situ measurements of cloud microphysical properties and bulk radiative properties, as well as time-resolved data collected over extended periods of time; (4) the fourth component was to implement the parameterizations in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) community climate model (CCM) II or in the NOAA-GFDL model (by L. Donner GFDL) and to perform sensitivity studies.