From lydia at ucar.edu Fri Oct 13 12:02:58 2006 From: lydia at ucar.edu (Lydia Shiver) Date: Fri Oct 13 12:03:02 2006 Subject: [CCSM-AMWG] Postdocs and Visiting Scientists Opportunity Message-ID: <452FD4D2.2040103@ucar.edu> *Opportunity for Postdoctoral Candidates or Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research* The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is recruiting postdoctoral scientists and short-term scientific visitors to work at the ESSL/Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division as part of the Prediction Across Scales Initiative. Since 2003, NCAR has invested in the development and application of a Nested Regional Climate Model (NRCM) based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the Community Climate System Model (CCSM), as a key component of the Prediction Across Scales Initiative. An NRCM team, which is composed of NCAR staff and external scientists, have been working in close collaboration to develop a tropical prototype version of the NRCM. Using a large amount of available computing resources on a supercomputer (Blue Vista) during its bedding in period, simulations have been completed with the WRF-based NRCM configured as a tropical channel (from 30^o S to 45^o N) at 36 km spatial resolution with multiple nesting (at 12 km and 4 km spatial resolution) over the western Pacific warm pool. Initial analyses suggest that the simulations captured some realistic features of tropical variability. To advance the NRCM effort, applications are solicited from qualified postdoctoral candidates and senior visitors interested in analysis of the tropical channel simulations. The selected candidate is expected to work closely with the NRCM team to advance the broader NRCM objectives. Specific research foci may include, but are not limited to the following: * Diagnosis of model errors through detailed analysis and evaluation of the tropical channel simulations using in-situ and remote sensing data. * Analysis of the tropical channel simulations to advance the understanding of the role of convection and its mesoscale organization on tropical variability. * Investigation of the impacts of scale interactions and their implications to addressing biases in regional and global climate models. * Analysis of distinct climate features in the tropical channel simulations. Examples include seasonal and diurnal cycle, monsoon circulation and hydroclimate, tropical modes, and hurricanes. * Comparison of the tropical channel simulations and global climate simulations to examine issues such as the impacts of spatial resolution and physics parameterizations, and implications to model coupling (e.g., coupling of atmosphere and ocean models, and coupling of regional and global atmospheric models). Interested candidates should send the following materials to Bill Kuo (kuo@ucar.edu): * Cover letter describing the applicant?s research experience and interests. * Curriculum vitae with a list of publications in refereed journals. * Names and addresses of three references. * PhD thesis abstract for recent PhDs. Please note that the recruitment will begin immediately, and will end by 15 November 2006. From rneale at ucar.edu Tue Oct 24 11:40:43 2006 From: rneale at ucar.edu (Richard Neale) Date: Tue Oct 24 12:00:43 2006 Subject: [CCSM-AMWG] CCSM3+ development simulations Message-ID: <453E501B.7030005@ucar.edu> AMWG and working group co-chairs, In preparation for an interim CCSM development simulation using the new pop2 ocean we have produced a number of CAM (atmosphere-only) experiments examining possible incremental improvements to the Zhang-McFarlane deep convection scheme. Therefore, we are requesting the community's feedback as to the configuration which shows the greatest promise for inclusion in this coupled integration. The convection changes represent the initial internal efforts of the NCAR Climate Modeling Section. We, of course, recognize the ongoing efforts of external collaborators and so any changes included in the up-coming CCSM experiment by no means represent any final version of CCSM4. We intend to have a similar evaluation whenever other groups submit model formulations to be considered for CCSM. We hope the community will examine and provide feedback on 3 experiments, with the following changes to the convection scheme. 1. The addition of convective momentum transports. (cam3_3_fv_cmt) 2. Changing the deep convective plume calculation from a non-entraining to an entraining calculation. (cam3_3_fv_dilute) 3. Combining changes (1) and (2). (cam3_3_fv_cmt_dilute, cam3_3_fv_cmt2_dilute) A range of diagnostics have been produced for each experiment including climate mean and variability diagnostics as well as a first effort at providing metrics in the form of an extended Taylor diagram. They can be found on the following website: http://swiki.ucar.edu/cam-dev/25 This webpage is an editable wiki based webpage and is currently restricted to UCAR and guest users. If you do not have a UCAR general username and password then please contact me (rneale@ucar.edu) and I will send the guest password and username. The initial conclusion of the Climate Modelling Section is that ** option 3 (cmt2_dilute) ** represents the most promising configuration. However, community members may find aspects which are unacceptable in the simulation and we encourage feedback regarding any comments, suggestions and reservations you may have. Many thanks Richard Neale (for AMWG and the Climate Modeling Section) -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Neale - Rm 304 - rneale@ucar.edu http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cms/rneale Climate Modelling Section, CGD, NCAR P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 Tel (303) 497-1380 Fax (303) 497-1324 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-