ESP seminar series - today at 3pm

[Adrian Tompkins]

_Thursday 11 March 2021 - 15:00 CET (UTC+1)** - Zoom_
*
*
*Allison Wing
*/Florida State University/
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*"Convective Self-Aggregation and Climate Sensitivity in a Multi-Model 
Ensemble of Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Simulations"*

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_Abstract_

The Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Model Intercomparison Project 
(RCEMIP) is an intercomparison of multiple types of numerical models, 
including atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs), cloud-resolving 
models (CRMs), global cloud-resolving models (GCRMs), large eddy 
simulation models (LES), and single column models (SCMs), configured in 
radiative-convective equilibrium (RCE). RCE is an idealization of the 
tropical atmosphere that has long been used to study basic questions in 
climate science, and is employed here to investigate the response of 
clouds and convective activity to warming, cloud feedbacks and climate 
sensitivity, and the aggregation of convection and its role in climate.

Results are presented from the RCEMIP ensemble of more than 30 different 
models. The robustness of the RCE state across the RCEMIP ensemble is 
assessed, in terms of mean profiles of temperature, humidity, and 
cloudiness, and the occurrence of self-aggregation is identified. While 
there are significant differences across the RCEMIP ensemble in the 
representation of humidity and cloudiness, nearly all models exhibit 
self-aggregation and there is agreement that self-aggregation acts to 
dry the atmosphere and reduce high cloudiness. The dependence of 
cloudiness and the degree of self-aggregation on SST and the resulting 
influence on the climate sensitivity of the RCE state is also compared 
across the RCEMIP ensemble. High clouds tend to rise and warm slightly 
with warming, and in a majority of models, decrease in extent. There is 
no clear tendency for either an increase or decrease in self-aggregation 
with warming, but changes in self-aggregation with warming partially 
explain the extreme spread in simulated climate sensitivities across the 
RCEMIP ensemble.

_Bio_

Allison Wing is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean 
and Atmospheric Science (EOAS) at Florida State University (FSU). Prior 
to arriving at FSU in January 2017, she was a National Science 
Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University's 
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in the Division of Ocean and Climate 
Physics. Allison currently maintains an appointment there as an Adjunct 
Associate Research Scientist. She received a Ph.D. in Atmospheric 
Science from MIT in 2014 under the advisement of Professor Kerry Emanuel 
in the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, and a B.S. in 
Atmospheric Science from Cornell University in 2008. Her research 
interests include the organization of tropical convection and how this 
modulates tropical and global climate and climate sensitivity, the 
process of tropical cyclone formation, variability of tropical cyclone 
intensity, and extreme weather and climate. She uses theory, idealized 
numerical modeling, and analysis of observations and comprehensive 
climate models to tackle these problems



-- 
Adrian Tompkins          | Earth System Physics
+39 040 2240579 (office) | ICTP
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www.ictp.it/~tompkins    | 34151 Trieste, Italy