The typical coarse resolution of Earth system models (ESMs) ($\sim$100 km) is insufficient to represent atmospheric features critical for aerosols and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI), contributing to uncertainties in climate predictions. Significant efforts have been made to develop next-generation ESMs for global kilometer-scale resolutions. However, the behavior of aerosol and ACI parameterizations at kilometer scales within a global ESM framework is unclear, and model evaluation at such high resolutions is computationally infeasible. To address this challenge, aerosol and ACI in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) are evaluated at a convection-permitting 3.25 km resolution using the regionally refined mesh (RRM) capability. Kilometer-scale E3SM simulations are performed in four geographical regions with distinct aerosol and cloud conditions. These kilometer-scale simulations are compared with coarse-resolution E3SM simulations and are evaluated against ground-based, aircraft, and satellite measurements. Results show that increasing model resolution moderately improves the multivariable relationships related to ACI, such as the cloud condensation nuclei number versus cloud droplet number (N$\mathrm{_d}$), and N$\mathrm{_d}$ versus the liquid water path. However, its impact on accurately predicting aerosol properties varies by region. Overall, the differences between E3SM simulations at different resolutions are smaller than the differences between model simulations and observations. These results suggest that increasing resolution is insufficient to improve the simulation of aerosol and ACI with existing process representations. Improved process representations are required to achieve more accurate simulations of aerosol and ACI at global kilometer scales.

A document by Yiling Huo. Click on the document to view its contents.

Recent studies reveal an anti-correlation between global cloud feedback (CF) and effective radiative forcing due to aerosol-cloud interaction (ERFaci) in climate models, but its physical plausibility remains uncertain. Here we investigate whether different turbulence representations, specifically through perturbing turbulence parameters, contribute to this relationship over the global ocean using an E3SMv2 perturbed parameter ensemble. The anti-correlation appears only in the tropical ascent regime. In the Northern Hemisphere midlatitude and high latitude regimes, there is no significant correlation, and in the tropical marine low cloud and Southern Ocean regimes, the correlation is positive. These opposite correlations are primarily driven by opposing CF responses to perturbed parameters. We find that the mean-state turbulent mixing strength affects both CF and ERFaci, enabling strong correlations in certain regimes. This study highlights the complex linkages between CF and ERFaci through turbulent processes across diverse cloud regimes.

The effective climate sensitivity in the Department of Energy’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) has decreased from 5.3 K in version 1 to 4.0 K in version 2. This reduction is mainly due to a weaker positive cloud feedback that leads to a stronger negative radiative feedback. Present-day atmosphere-only experiments with uniform 4 K sea surface temperature warming are used to separate the contributions of individual model modifications to the reduced cloud feedback. We find that the reduced cloud feedback is mostly driven by changes over the tropical marine low cloud regime, mainly related to a new trigger function for the deep convection scheme and modifications in the cloud microphysics scheme. The new trigger function helps weaken the low cloud reduction by increasing the cloud water detrainment at low levels from deep convection under warming. Changes to the formula of autoconversion rate from liquid to rain and an introduced minimum cloud droplet number concentration threshold in cloud microphysical calculations help sustain clouds against dissipation by suppressing precipitation generation with warming. In the midlatitudes, the increased Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) efficiency strongly reduces present-day liquid water and leads to a stronger negative cloud optical depth feedback. The reduced trade cumulus cloud feedback in v2 is closer to estimates from recent observational and large-eddy modeling studies but might not be due to the right physical reasons. The reduced mid-latitude cloud feedback may be more plausible because more realistic present-day mixed-phase clouds are produced through the change in the WBF efficiency.