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Improving the Scientific Foundation for Atmosphere-Land-Ocean Simulations Report of a Workshop (2005) / Chapter Skim
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2 Development and Testing of Model Parameterizations: Some Examples
Pages 8-11

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 8...
... In many ways the research on fluxes between the atmosphere and oceans provides a nearly ideal example of how progress can be made in the representation of physical processes in large-scale models. A body of theory was developed, based mostly on dimensional reasoning, and field and laboratory experiments were designed to carefully and rigorously test the theoretical predictions.
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From page 9...
... Parameterizing clouds and moist convection in models presents several unique challenges to modelers. Layer clouds may span many grid cells horizontally, but may be thin compared to typical vertical layer thicknesses; conversely, convective clouds usually occupy only a small fraction of a grid cell, yet span many model levels.
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From page 10...
... There is an abundance of data in which gravity waves are detected, but only rare datasets provide the needed informationthat is, momentum flux as a function of at least two wave characteristics and the propagation direction. It is a substantial observational challenge to characterize these intermittent and highly variable phenomena on a global scale using available measurements that were not designed to observe gravity waves.
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From page 11...
... For the most part, the model rules for these ecosystem dynamics are acts of imagination, usually involving abstraction of actual organisms to hypothesized generic forms but guided by overall conservation principles. Such constructs are exceedingly difficult to evaluate except at the gross level of chemical distributions and fluxes, both because of their organismic unreality and the technical measurement challenges of highly variable compositions with quite heterogeneous distributions.
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Key Terms

  • climate models
  • model parameterizations
  • convective clouds
  • boundary layer
  • bottom boundary

  • global models
  • moist convection
  • layer clouds
  • theoretical predictions
  • internal gravity

  • momentum flux
  • reduce uncertainties
  • model studies
  • ideal example
  • model levels

  • gravity current
  • cells horizontally
  • dimensional reasoning
  • oceanic basins
  • aforementioned cloudfeedbacks

  • direct observations
  • improve ocean
  • mesoscale eddies
  • propagation direction
  • cloud microphysics

  • global coupled
  • layer thicknesses
  • parameterizing clouds
  • circulation models
  • grid cells


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