A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models
Abstract Many chemical processes depend non‐linearly on temperature. Gravity‐wave‐induced temperature perturbations have been shown to affect atmospheric chemistry, but accounting for this process in chemistry‐climate models has been a challenge because many gravity waves have scales smaller than th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003505 |
| _version_ | 1797672530343886848 |
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| author | M. Weimer C. Wilka D. E. Kinnison R. R. Garcia J. T. Bacmeister M. J. Alexander A. Dörnbrack S. Solomon |
| author_facet | M. Weimer C. Wilka D. E. Kinnison R. R. Garcia J. T. Bacmeister M. J. Alexander A. Dörnbrack S. Solomon |
| author_sort | M. Weimer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Many chemical processes depend non‐linearly on temperature. Gravity‐wave‐induced temperature perturbations have been shown to affect atmospheric chemistry, but accounting for this process in chemistry‐climate models has been a challenge because many gravity waves have scales smaller than the typical model resolution. Here, we present a method to account for subgrid‐scale orographic gravity‐wave‐induced temperature perturbations on the global scale for the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model. Temperature perturbation amplitudes T^ consistent with the model's subgrid‐scale gravity wave parameterization are derived and then used as a sinusoidal temperature perturbation in the model's chemistry solver. Because of limitations in the parameterization, we explore scaling of T^ between 0.6 and 1 based on comparisons to altitude‐dependent T^ distributions of satellite and reanalysis data, where we discuss uncertainties. We probe the impact on the chemistry from the grid‐point to global scales, and show that the parameterization is able to represent mountain wave events as reported by previous literature. The gravity waves for example, lead to increased surface area densities of stratospheric aerosols. This increases chlorine activation, with impacts on the associated chemical composition. We obtain large local changes in some chemical species (e.g., active chlorine, NOx, N2O5) which are likely to be important for comparisons to airborne or satellite observations, but the changes to ozone loss are more modest. This approach enables the chemistry‐climate modeling community to account for subgrid‐scale gravity wave temperature perturbations interactively, consistent with the internal parameterizations and are expected to yield more realistic interactions and better representation of the chemistry. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:31:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-01fb8803421c43779c176eb6870cc27e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1942-2466 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:31:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-01fb8803421c43779c176eb6870cc27e2023-09-27T08:36:05ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems1942-24662023-09-01159n/an/a10.1029/2022MS003505A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate ModelsM. Weimer0C. Wilka1D. E. Kinnison2R. R. Garcia3J. T. Bacmeister4M. J. Alexander5A. Dörnbrack6S. Solomon7Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USADepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USAAtmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USAAtmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USAClimate and Global Dynamics Laboratory National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USANorthWest Research Associates/Colorado Research Associates Boulder CO USAInstitut für Physik der Atmosphäre Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt Oberpfaffenhofen GermanyDepartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA USAAbstract Many chemical processes depend non‐linearly on temperature. Gravity‐wave‐induced temperature perturbations have been shown to affect atmospheric chemistry, but accounting for this process in chemistry‐climate models has been a challenge because many gravity waves have scales smaller than the typical model resolution. Here, we present a method to account for subgrid‐scale orographic gravity‐wave‐induced temperature perturbations on the global scale for the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model. Temperature perturbation amplitudes T^ consistent with the model's subgrid‐scale gravity wave parameterization are derived and then used as a sinusoidal temperature perturbation in the model's chemistry solver. Because of limitations in the parameterization, we explore scaling of T^ between 0.6 and 1 based on comparisons to altitude‐dependent T^ distributions of satellite and reanalysis data, where we discuss uncertainties. We probe the impact on the chemistry from the grid‐point to global scales, and show that the parameterization is able to represent mountain wave events as reported by previous literature. The gravity waves for example, lead to increased surface area densities of stratospheric aerosols. This increases chlorine activation, with impacts on the associated chemical composition. We obtain large local changes in some chemical species (e.g., active chlorine, NOx, N2O5) which are likely to be important for comparisons to airborne or satellite observations, but the changes to ozone loss are more modest. This approach enables the chemistry‐climate modeling community to account for subgrid‐scale gravity wave temperature perturbations interactively, consistent with the internal parameterizations and are expected to yield more realistic interactions and better representation of the chemistry.https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003505atmospheric chemistrystratospheregravity wavessub‐grid scale parametrizationtemperature perturbationspolar stratospheric clouds |
| spellingShingle | M. Weimer C. Wilka D. E. Kinnison R. R. Garcia J. T. Bacmeister M. J. Alexander A. Dörnbrack S. Solomon A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems atmospheric chemistry stratosphere gravity waves sub‐grid scale parametrization temperature perturbations polar stratospheric clouds |
| title | A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models |
| title_full | A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models |
| title_fullStr | A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models |
| title_short | A Method for Estimating Global Subgrid‐Scale Orographic Gravity‐Wave Temperature Perturbations in Chemistry‐Climate Models |
| title_sort | method for estimating global subgrid scale orographic gravity wave temperature perturbations in chemistry climate models |
| topic | atmospheric chemistry stratosphere gravity waves sub‐grid scale parametrization temperature perturbations polar stratospheric clouds |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2022MS003505 |
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