General information
CVAS is thrilled to announce the launch of the CVAS seminar series, focusing on climate model development and tuning, a key aspect of CVAS phase 3. Our aim is to foster engaging discussions by inviting experts in climate model development to share insights into their work's history, philosophy, and the challenges they face. Specifically, we seek to explore the ability of climate models to simulate potential instability, or whether they were "Built for stability" (Valdes, 2011; https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1200).
We are eager to develop approaches that enable us to explore a broader model parameter space and identify parameters associated with the amplitude and spatial structure of supra-decadal variability. This will enhance our ability to reproduce changes observed in paleoclimate data, thus bolstering our confidence in climate models' capacity to simulate future changes.
The presentations will be followed by an open discussion, serving as a vital and integral component of our seminar series.
Upcoming seminar
Logistics
Date: 11 July
Time: 15:00 UTC
Location: Online
Meeting link: https://awi.webex.com/awi-en/j.php?MTID=m4f5d914728c66bb186b9f4dcb1da7989
Meeting number: 2794 247 4528
Meeting password: UnwBhAPi923
Description
The sixth session of CVAS' seminar series featuring Jiang Zhu joining us from NCAR in Boulder and presenting Clearing Clouds of Uncertainty with the Help of Paleoclimate:
Cloud feedback has long been identified as the leading source of uncertainty in the climate forcing-feedback framework, dominating the inter-model spread in how the global-average temperature responds to CO2 doubling, the equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). The increase of cloud feedback in the most recent generation of models is also responsible for the higher ECS than the previous generation of models. In this study, I use the Community Earth System Model as an example to show how we can constrain the cloud parameterizations and feedbacks through simulation of past climate changes. Specifically, the paleoclimate simulations suggest that models with too strong or too weak cloud feedback may fail to simulate realistic ice age and/or hothouse climates in Earth’s past. Further, I show that paleoclimate constraints can be used to identify the physical, numerical, and parametrical inconsistencies in the cloud and convection parameterizations. This study stresses the importance of paleoclimate constraints in the assessment of climate models and the improvement of understanding and modeling of climate dynamics under warming conditions.
Further information
Please contact the CVAS steering committee for more information.
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