EGU23-7255, updated on 29 Jun 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7255
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Modelling momentum transport in climate simulations of boundary-layer winds with a higher order parameterization scheme

Emanuele Silvio Gentile1, Ming Zhao2, Vince Larson3, and Colin Zarzycki4
Emanuele Silvio Gentile et al.
  • 1Princeton University, Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Program, Princeton, United States of America (emanuele.gentile@noaa.gov)
  • 2Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab, NOAA, Princeton, United States of America (ming.zhao@noaa.gov)
  • 3University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America (vlarson@uwm.edu)
  • 4Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States of America (czarzycki@psu.edu)

Accurate modelling of sub-grid momentum flux is crucial for reliable climate simulations of the boundary-layer wind. While first-order momentum flux parametrizations often employed in leading climate models are crude, consisting in a downgradient diffusion scheme with a separate cumulus momentum transport scheme, higher-order turbulence parametrizations which directly prognose the momentum flux are more flexible and general, adhering more closely to the governing equations.

Here, we present the results of studying the sensitivity of the AM4-GFDL global climate simulations of the boundary-layer wind to a first-order, diagnostic, and a higher-order, prognostic, sub-grid momentum flux parametrization. Moreover, we demonstrate how the boundary-layer wind turning angle can be effectively used as a metric to evaluate the impact of changing the sub-grid momentum flux parametrization on the boundary-layer wind structure. 

How to cite: Gentile, E. S., Zhao, M., Larson, V., and Zarzycki, C.: Modelling momentum transport in climate simulations of boundary-layer winds with a higher order parameterization scheme, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7255, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7255, 2023.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material file