Resolution requirement for improved representation of coastal stratocumulus in E3SM

Abstract:

We have shown that the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) coupled with the Framework for Improvement by Vertical Enhancement (FIVE) is a viable option to improve overall representation of low clouds while saving computational cost. FIVE allows E3SM to compute microphysics, radiation, turbulence, and vertical advection on high vertical resolution. However, the highest vertical resolution, which is 16 times high resolution below 700 hPa than the standard 72 levels, with the ne30 configuration (1 degree horizontal mesh) still suffers adequately having stratocumulus in the coastal regions of California and Peru. We hypothesized that concurrent increase in horizontal and vertical resolution is an essential requirement for this problem. In this presentation, we use E3SM and E3SM-FIVE to investigate the sensitivity of coastal stratocumulus to different horizontal resolution between ne30 and ne120 (0.25 degree mesh) and vertical resolution between 72 level and 16 times high resolution below 700 hPa.