Third Term Renewal Proposal, July 1, 1997 - June 30, 2002
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Transfer and Linkages to Other Sectors (1994-1997)
The NSF Site Review Panel visited C4 on December 4-5, 1995, and reported:
"The Panel commends C4 for its significant activities in knowledge transfer and application,
which directly benefit federally-sponsored laboratories and other academic climate research
centers. The open and timely manner in which C4 shares its research and research tools
with the broader community of climate scientists is excellent. C4 provides a very good
example of the capacity of an S&T Center to carry out fundamental research in the broad
context of ideas, discoveries and knowledge transfer. For example, a Canadian convective
parameterization scheme (modified with new knowledge gained from C4's CEPEX and
using the C4-developed tool CIDS) was applied by C4 scientists to the National Center for
Atmospheric Research's Community Climate Model (CCM). This was accomplished in a
little over two-years after the field measurements were made, a fraction of the time it
usually takes for observations from a field program to have an impact on GCM
parameterization. This modified parameterization scheme has produced significant
improvements in the CCM, which is used by many climate scientists and which will serve
as the atmospheric component of a new Climate System Model, being developed with US
Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) funding. This success fits well the
USGCRP paradigm of observations, leading to analysis and understanding leading to
improved predictive modeling and benefits to society."
Outreach to Mission Agencies and Research Institutions
The influence of C4 research programs in the past five years was summarized in "Our
Changing Planet, The FY 1996 U.S. Global Change Research Program." In the section on
"Highlights of Recent USGCRP Research Results," the committees involved answered the
question, "What has been Learned About the Influence of Clouds and Other Feedbacks on
Climate?", by citing two research projects in which C4 scientists participated or led.
"New discrepancy noted between predicted and observed absorption of solar radiation
by clouds", or the research in the so called "excess absorption by clouds" involving V.
Ramanathan, J.T. Kielh, F.P.J. Valero, G. Zhang, B. Subasilar, W. Conant, L. Shi,
and others who have collaborated with C4 such as R. Cess (State University of New
York, Stoney Brooks) and P. Pilewski (NASA-Ames Research Center); and
"High clouds found to be important to the stabilization of sea surface temperatures":
this is essentially the results of the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX), led
by C4, with V. Ramanathan as the Chief Scientist.
General Circulation Model (GCM) improvement
Knowledge gained through combining observational and modeling studies using CEPEX,
TOGA and other in situ surface data enabled improvements of the NCAR Community
Climate Model. In collaboration with the NCAR climate modeling group, C4 members (G.
Zhang, J. Kiehl and P. Rasch) implemented a new convective parameterization scheme
developed by Zhang and McFarlane (1995). Many significant improvements in simulating
the surface climate of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans have been adopted in the
standard CCM3. This accomplishment occurred approximately two years after the CEPEX
field measurements were complete, a fraction of the time usually necessary for observations
from a field program to impact GCM parameterization.
The new convection scheme reduces several long standing systematic errors in the
simulation of surface climate parameters by the NCAR model, including surface
evaporation in the western Pacific warm pool, and precipitation in the western Pacific,
Indian monsoon and central American monsoon. Specifically, precipitation in the Indian
monsoon is more realistically simulated in CCM3, both in magnitude and phase. Also,
precipitation maximum in major tropical convective regimes is reduced in CCM3 to give
closer agreement with the observations, and the precipitation distribution is smoother. The
previous NCAR CCM has been known to produce excessive surface evaporation over the
warm pool (Kiehl et al., 1995), yet the new simulation agrees more with the observations
(Zhang and McPhaden, 1995; Ramanathan et al., 1995). Even a relatively low evaporation
zone over the equatorial Pacific observed in the climatology is better simulated in the new
version. Significant improvements were also made in the simulation of the surface wind
stress.
The NCAR CCM, used by many climate scientists, serves as the atmospheric component
of a new Climate System Model under development with US Global Change Research
Program (USGCRP) funding.
Deparment of Energy-Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (DOE-ARM)
C4 members (V. Ramanathan and G. Zhang) are involved in research sponsored by the
DOE ARM program. Use of the CEPEX data has been instrumental in several significant
achievements, including the adoption of a new convective parameterization (Zhang and
McFarlane, 1995) in the NCAR CCM3; the identification of excess solar absorption in
cloudy atmosphere; and the development of a new understanding of the role of surface
evaporation in maintaining the warm pool sea surface temperature.
E. Boer and V. Ramanathan (Boer and Ramanathan, 1996) developed an algorithm to
determine the life time of convective-stratiform cloud systems and the size distribution and
properties of the individual clouds that compose each system. If validated using
observational data, this approach could provide a strong constraint on fundamental cloud
statistics for GCM cloud parameterization and simulation. Preliminary application of the
algorithm using one month of satellite data from CEPEX has yielded some very promising
results. For example, deep convective cloud systems with cloud shields greater than 104
km2 are found to be responsible for more than 60% of the total daily cloud reflected solar
energy.
Department of Energy-ARM Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (DOE-ARESE)
C4 investigators have been closely involved with the planning, execution, and analysis of
the ARM Enhanced Shortwave Experiment. Members of the ARESE science team, F.P.J.
Valero, ARESE Chief Scientist, W.D. Collins and J.T. Kiehl, guided the experiments for
this project. W.D. Collins attended portions of the field phase, and served as both mission
scientist and chief scientist for several of the ARESE fight missions.
In collaboration with R. Cess (SUNY), M. Zhang (SUNY), and F.P.J. Valero (SIO), C4
investigators have four submitted or in preparation publications concerning ARESE.
Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere/Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE)
Using data from the TOGA TAO moored buoys for the period of 1991-93, scientists found
that in the high SST regime (SST > 301 K), surface evaporation decreases with SST
(Zhang and McPhaden, 1995). This result has led to some new understanding on the
fundamental climate issue of what limits the tropical warm pool SST. The low evaporation
at high SST is well related to the large-scale effect of convection on the surface circulation
(Zhang et al. 1995).
NASA-Cloud and Earth's Radiant Energy System (NASA-CERES)
A. Inamdar and V. Ramanathan developed analysis techniques to monitor the planetary
greenhouse effect using space-based radiometric observations and other correlative
meteorological variables (Inamdar and Ramanathan, 1994; 1996). In particular, their
techniques can be applied to data from the proposed Cloud and Earth's Radiant Energy
System (CERES) instrument, a vital component of the NASA-EOS program. Further,
their studies demonstrated how to use the potential of top-of-atmosphere measurements of
the broadband and window fluxes (8 - 12 microns) from the CERES to understand the
physics of the greenhouse effect and water vapor feedback in the earth's atmosphere. Data
from different platforms in CEPEX were critical for validating some of these analytical
techniques.
Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), an International Outreach
The INDOEX program has attracted commitments from 45 institutions in 8 countries (Table
3). The total INDOEX budget could reach $20-25 million with possibly $8-9 million in
support requested from U.S. agencies. For complete details of the program, please see the
INDOEX Experimental Design Document submitted to NSF in June 1996.
Pre-INDOEX Activities
Pre-INDOEX activities provide opportunities for international collaborative efforts,
specifically offering research opportunities for over three graduate students and their
advisors.
Before conducting the Intensive Field Phase of INDOEX in the winter of 1999, several
long term surface measurements will be collected, including surface solar radiation, aerosol
composition and size distribution, and trace species and pollutant concentrations.
Monitoring began with pre-INDOEX cruises by the NOAA R/V M. Baldrige in April, 1995
(please see detailed report from R. Dickerson in the C4 June 1996 Annual Report) and the
Indian R/V Sagar Kanya (Cruise #109) in January 1996. The future cruise #120 of the
R/V Sagar Kanya from December 26, 1996 through January 23, 1997, continues the pre-
INDOEX experimental phase by incorporating a multi-institutional observing platform.
Consistent with the previous cruises, Cruise #120 will collect:
* Boundary layer chemistry measurements and aerosol dry deposition rates (A.P. Mitra and
K.S. Zalpuri, Indian National Physical Laboratory),
* Aerosol size distributions and extinction optical depths (A. Jayaraman, Indian Physical
Research Laboratory), and
* Surface solar irradiance measurements for seven narrow and broad spectral regions (D.
Lubin and W. Conant, SIO).
In addition, Cruise #120 will provide the following new measurements:
* Daily profiles of temperature and humidity to 25 km provided by the Mobile-CLASS
balloon sounding system from National Center for Atmospheric Research (V.
Ramanathan, SIO, A. Heymsfield, NCAR, and S. Raman of NC State Univ.),
* Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) spectrometry measurements (G. Shaw and W.
Cantrell, University of Alaska, and A. Heymsfield, NCAR),
* High volume aerosol samples measurements for sulfate isotopes (M. Thiemens and C.
Lee, UCSD), and
* Aerosol sampling of Cl- (M. Wahlen, Geological Research Division, SIO).
Development of the C4 Integrated Data System (CIDS)
CIDS facilitates interdisciplinary research by providing a common world wide web
interface to complex and heterogeneous data sets. Unlike other data base management
systems, it automatically collocates and merges measurements from arbitrary sets of
observing platforms or model output. A summary of CIDS Statistics demonstrates the
widespread applicability of CIDS as well as the popularity of its high quality data sets
(Table 4).
Originally developed to store CEPEX data, CIDS software now has been generalized to
handle other data as well. Several programs import measurements from buoys,
atmospheric soundings, ships, and aircraft. Results from NSF funded research on TOGA
COARE have assisted C4 in developing other applications to incorporate GCM results into
CIDS. Scientists now use CIDS to test NCAR CCM3 with CEPEX and COARE
observations, and to develop a comprehensive data set for INDOEX from pre-INDOEX
experiments and satellite observations. The availability of CIDS for INDOEX significantly
lowers programming efforts normally associated with calculating derived quantities (e.g.,
cloud and aerosol radiative forcing) from heterogeneous sets of measurements.
Knowledge Transfer and Linkages to Other Sectors (1997-2002)
Outreach to Mission Agencies and Research Institutions
Outreach to DOE-ARM
In addition to the new FTS system at C4, several advanced spectral radiometric
instruments, similar to the C4 FTS, are in routine operation at the ARM Southern Great
Plains site (two of these, the AERI and SORTI, are also FTS systems). Because C4 and
ARM collect their spectrographic data under different environmental conditions, they may
pool this data to investigate solar absorption by clouds.
Outreach to NASA-TOMS
A collaborative effort proposed by Dr. Pawan K. Bhartia, Branch Head of the TOMS
Project with NASA Goddard, could make TOMS data available to INDOEX. Additionally,
NASA may establish a tropical ozone lidar at the INDOEX surface observation site. In
turn, this data will be used to calibrate TOMS.
Outreach to NASA-CERES
C4 researchers are investigating spatial and temporal variations in atmospheric greenhouse
forcing over land and water using NASA's CERES instrument. In the future, this study
will be extended by using ground-based synoptic cloud reports to examine cloud radiative
forcing at the top-of-the-atmosphere and at the surface.
Outreach to GOALS (NOAA Program)
At the INDOEX Workshop in Paris, 1996, Professor P. Webster of NOAA's GOALS
recommended several topics for collaborative work between GOALS and INDOEX,
including the heat balance of the Indian Ocean, and intra-seasonal transitions of monsoons
and the southern ITCZ. Webster also proposed deploying research platforms, such as
drone aircraft for flux measurements and buoys, across the Indian Ocean. The system
would operate at least one year with intensive data collection during INDOEX and the
northern summer monsoon in 1999.
Outreach to Industry
Industrial Outreach of the C4 Surface Observation Program
D. Lubin and J. Coakley, working with FLIR Systems, Inc. (FSI, Portland, Oregon)
will develop an automated, surface-based infrared imager for characterizing cloud cover.
The imager will be developed from an instrument manufactured by FSI for night vision and
other infrared imaging applications. Such an instrument will augment the automated
observing systems now used by the weather service and the FAA. In its implementation at
the C4 site, this imager will provide observations to distinguish between single uniform or
broken, and multiple cloud layers. This information will be combined with satellite
observations to characterize conditions under which specific radiation field studies occur.
Industrial Outreach of the Advanced Satellite and Surface Remote Sensing
Program
SeaSpace Corporation (Dr. R. Bernstein) will establish strong ties with C4 in this
mutually beneficial effort. C4 will purchase SeaSpace system for collecting satellite data
during INDOEX. SeaSpace in turn will provide NOAA and GOES data over La Jolla for
the CARPOS site. A SeaSpace scientist will be invited to participate in C4 meetings. J.
Coakley and D. Lubin will combine the surface-based observations from CARPOS with
satellite observations from NOAA overpasses and GOES multispectral imagery.
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