Climate sensitivity and relative humidity changes in global storm-resolving model simulations of climate change.
Timothy M Merlis, Kai-Yuan Cheng, Ilai Guendelman, Lucas Harris, Christopher S Bretherton, Maximilien Bolot, Linjiong Zhou, Alex Kaltenbaugh, Spencer K Clark, Gabriel A Vecchi, Stephan Fueglistaler
Author Information
Timothy M Merlis: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Kai-Yuan Cheng: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Ilai Guendelman: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Lucas Harris: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, NOAA, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Christopher S Bretherton: Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. ORCID
Maximilien Bolot: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Linjiong Zhou: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
Alex Kaltenbaugh: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, NOAA, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
Spencer K Clark: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, NOAA, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Gabriel A Vecchi: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. ORCID
Stephan Fueglistaler: Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 300 Forrestal Road, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
The climate simulation frontier of a global storm-resolving model (GSRM; or -scale model because of its kilometer-scale horizontal resolution) is deployed for climate change simulations. The climate sensitivity, effective radiative forcing, and relative humidity changes are assessed in multiyear atmospheric GSRM simulations with perturbed sea-surface temperatures and/or carbon dioxide concentrations. Our comparisons to conventional climate model results can build confidence in the existing climate models or highlight important areas for additional research. This GSRM's climate sensitivity is within the range of conventional climate models, although on the lower end as the result of neutral, rather than amplifying, shortwave feedbacks. Its radiative forcing from carbon dioxide is higher than conventional climate models, and this arises from a bias in climatological clouds and an explicitly simulated high-cloud adjustment. Last, the pattern and magnitude of relative humidity changes, simulated with greater fidelity via explicitly resolving convection, are notably similar to conventional climate models.
