Frédéric Hourdin

and 9 more

We demonstrate a new approach for climate model tuning in a realistic situation. Our approach, described in detail in Part I, systematically uses a single-column configuration of a global atmospheric model on a series of test cases for which reference large-eddy-simulations are available. The space of free parameters is sampled running the single-column model from which metrics are estimated in the full parameter space using emulators. The parameter space is then reduced by retaining only the values that are consistent with the metrics computed on large eddy simulations within a given tolerance to error. The approach is applied to the recently designed 6A version of the LMDZ model, itself the result of a long investment in the development of physics parameterizations and by-hand tuning. The boundary layer is revisited by increasing the vertical resolution and varying parameters that were kept fixed so far. The approach allows us to automatically reach a tuning as good as that of the 6A version, after some improvements are done at process scale. This approach helps accelerate the introduction of new parameterizations, by avoiding a tedious manual tuning process and preventing some of the error compensations that could occur if calibration was carried out directly with the full atmospheric model. This way of using machine learning techniques allows us to maintain the physical foundations of the model and to ensure that the improvement of global metrics is obtained for a reasonable behavior at process level. That is, we get things right for the right reasons.

Bjorn Stevens

and 291 more

The science guiding the \EURECA campaign and its measurements are presented. \EURECA comprised roughly five weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic — eastward and south-eastward of Barbados. Through its ability to characterize processes operating across a wide range of scales, \EURECA marked a turning point in our ability to observationally study factors influencing clouds in the trades, how they will respond to warming, and their link to other components of the earth system, such as upper-ocean processes or, or the life-cycle of particulate matter. This characterization was made possible by thousands (2500) of sondes distributed to measure circulations on meso (200 km) and larger (500 km) scales, roughly four hundred hours of flight time by four heavily instrumented research aircraft, four global-ocean class research vessels, an advanced ground-based cloud observatory, a flotilla of autonomous or tethered measurement devices operating in the upper ocean (nearly 10000 profiles), lower atmosphere (continuous profiling), and along the air-sea interface, a network of water stable isotopologue measurements, complemented by special programmes of satellite remote sensing and modeling with a new generation of weather/climate models. In addition to providing an outline of the novel measurements and their composition into a unified and coordinated campaign, the six distinct scientific facets that \EURECA explored — from Brazil Ring Current Eddies to turbulence induced clustering of cloud droplets and its influence on warm-rain formation — are presented along with an overview \EURECA’s outreach activities, environmental impact, and guidelines for scientific practice.