Data · dataset · 2026
The global impact of supersaturation in a coupled chemistry-climate model
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
Ice supersaturation is important for understanding condensation in the upper troposphere.
Description
Many general circulation models however do not permit supersaturation. In this study, a coupled chemistry climate model, the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), is modified to include supersaturation for the ice phase.
Rather than a study of a detailed parameterization of supersaturation, the study is intended as a sensitivity experiment, to understand the potential impact of supersaturation, and of expected changes to stratospheric water vapor, on climate and chemistry. High clouds decrease and water vapor in the stratosphere increases at a similar rate to the prescribed supersaturation (20% supersaturation increases water vapor by nearly 20%).
Read the rest (3 more)
The stratospheric Brewer-Dobson circulation slows at high southern latitudes, consistent with slight changes in temperature likely induced by changes to cloud radiative forcing. The cloud changes also cause an increase in the seasonal cycle of near tropopause temperatures, increasing them in boreal summer over boreal winter. There are also impacts on chemistry, with small increases in ozone in the tropical lower stratosphere driven by enhanced production.
The radiative impact of changing water vapor is dominated by the reduction in cloud forcing associated with fewer clouds (similar to+0.6 Wm(-2)) with a small component likely from the radiative effect ( greenhouse trapping) of the extra water vapor (similar to+0.2 Wm(-2)), consistent with previous work. Representing supersaturation is thus important, and changes to supersaturation resulting from changes in aerosol loading for example, might have a modest impact on global radiative forcing, mostly through changes to clouds.
There is no evidence of a strong impact of water vapor on tropical tropopause temperatures.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7xw4k2x ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/the-global-impact-of-supersaturation-in-a-coupled-chem… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=85c4a770-1df8-4d20-9deb-b094597e8… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Climate model simulation 65%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 85c4a770-1df8-4d20-9deb-b094597e8a4d | 12 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[method].local:method:climate-model | enrichment · data ucar edu | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (65%) |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |