Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 3 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-12283-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/12283/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/12283/2009/acpd-9-12283-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/12283/2009/acpd-9-12283-2009.pdf 12283 12344 2009-05-20 Comparison of a global-climate model simulation to a cloud-system resolving model simulation for long-term thin stratocumulus clouds S. S. Lee seoungl@umich.edu J. E. Penner M. Wang Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA A case of thin, warm marine-boundary-layer (MBL) clouds is simulated by a cloud-system resolving model (CSRM) and is compared to the same case of clouds simulated by a general circulation model (GCM). In this study, the simulation by the CSRM adopts higher resolutions and more advanced microphysics as compared to those by the GCM, enabling the CSRM-simulation to act as a benchmark to assess the simulation by the GCM. Explicitly simulated interactions among the surface latent heat (LH) fluxes, buoyancy fluxes, and cloud-top entrainment lead to the deepening-warming decoupling and thereby the transition from stratiform clouds to cumulus clouds in the CSRM. However, in the simulation by the GCM, these interactions are not resolved and thus the transition to cumulus clouds is not simulated. This leads to substantial differences in cloud mass and radiation between simulations by the CSRM and the GCM. 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