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On the impact of recent developments of an atmospheric general circulation model on the simulation of CO2 transport

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
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Postprint: policy unknown
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Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

The quality of the representation of greenhouse gas (GHG) transport in atmospheric General Circulation Models (GCMs) drives the potential of inverse systems to retrieve GHG surface fluxes to a large extent. In this work, the transport of CO 2 is evaluated in the latest version of the LMDz GCM, developed for the Climate Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) relative to the LMDz version developed for CMIP4. Several key changes have been implemented between the two versions; those include a more elaborate radiative scheme, new sub-grid scale parameterizations of convective and boundary layer processes, and a refined vertical resolution. We performed a set of simulations of LMDz with the different physical parameterizations, two different horizontal resolutions and different land surface schemes, in order to test the impact of those different configurations on the overall transport simulation. By modulating the intensity of vertical mixing, the physical parameterizations control the interhemispheric gradient and the amplitude of the seasonal cycle in the summer northern hemisphere, as emphasized by the comparison with observations at surface sites. However, the effect of the new parameterizations depends on the region considered, with a strong impact over South America (Brazil, Amazonian forest) but a smaller impact over Europe, Eastern Asia and North America. A finer horizontal resolution reduces the representation errors at observation sites near emission-hot spots or along the coastlines. In comparison, the sensitivities to the land surface model and to the increased vertical resolution are marginal.

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