Publication Date:
2014-12-15
Description:
For the first time a mesoscale-resolving whole atmosphere general circulation model (GCM) has been developed, using the NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) with ~0.25° horizontal resolution and 0.1 scale height vertical resolution above the middle stratosphere (higher resolution below). This is made possible by the high accuracy and high scalability of the spectral element dynamical core from the High-Order Method Modeling Environment (HOMME). For the simulated January-February period, the latitude-height structure and the magnitudes of the temperature variance compare well with those deduced from SABER observations. The simulation reveals the increasing dominance of gravity waves (GWs) at higher altitudes through both the height dependence of the kinetic energy spectra, which display a steeper slope (~-3) in the stratosphere and an increasingly shallower slope above, and the increasing spatial extent of GWs (including a planetary-scale extent of a concentric GW excited by a tropical cyclone) at higher altitudes. GW impacts on the large-scale flow is evaluated in terms of zonal mean zonal wind and tides: with no GW drag parameterized in the simulations, forcing by resolved GWs does reverse the summer mesospheric wind, albeit at an altitude higher than climatology, and only slows down the winter mesospheric wind without closing it. The hemispheric structures and magnitudes of diurnal and semidiurnal migrating tides compare favorably with observations.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
