FASTER
(FAst-physics
System
TEstbed and
Research)
Project
Brookhaven Climate Consortium
The FASTER project arises from the proposal
“Continuous Evaluation of Fast Processes in
Climate Models Using ARM Measurements” funded by the Department of Energy's
Earth System Modeling (ESM) program. The overarching goal of this project is to narrow
uncertainty and biases in GCMs by utilizing continuous ARM measurements to
enhance and accelerate evaluation and improvement of parameterizations of
fast processes in GCMs involving clouds, precipitation, and aerosols, with
six primary objectives:
-
Construction of a Fast-Physics Testbed to
rapidly evaluate fast physics in GCMs by comparing model results against
continuous long-term cloud observations made by the ARM program.
-
Execution of a suite of CRM simulations for
selected periods/cases to augment the Fast-Physics Testbed. We will run
WRFs with different parameterizations as CRMs, CRMs with
bin-microphysics, and multi-scale modeling framework.
- Continuous evaluation of model performance to
identify and determine model errors by comparing the NWP and SCM results
against continuous ARM observations, and to each other. The long-time
data record at the ARM sites (e.g., SGP) permits evaluation of various
statistical properties (e.g., PDFs) and recurring cloud regimes.
-
Examination and improvement of parameterizations
of key cloud processes/properties (e.g., convection, microphysics and
aerosol-cloud interactions), thus narrowing the range of treatments of
fast processes that exert strong influences on model sensitivity so as
to better constrain climate sensitivity.
-
Assessment and development of metrics of model
performance. Different metrics will be applied and tested in the
evaluation, and new metrics will be explored. Special care will be taken
to address the issue of scale-mismatch between observations and models.
-
Incorporation of newly acquired knowledge on
parameterizations into the full participating GCMs to
evaluate the impact of the refined parameterizations on GCM and
ascertain the improvement in the representation of fast physics in the
GCMs.
The multi-institutional Brookhaven Climate Consortium is
formed to achieve these objectives by integrating complementary areas of
expertise of the five adjacent institutions with the Brookhaven National
Laboratory as a hub. The team is further supplemented by investigators from
other renowned research centers.
See the
FASTER flyer
for more.
The project is co-managed by the DOE Earth System
Modeling (ESM) and Atmospheric
System Research (ASR)
program managers.
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