HR: 15:10h
AN: SA13B-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Simulation of Polar Mesospheric Clouds Within a 3-Dimensional Chemistry Climate Model
AU: * Marsh, D R
EM: marsh@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, United States
AU: Merkel, A W
EM: aimee.merkel@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, United States
AU: Merkel, A W
EM: aimee.merkel@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado/LASP, 1234 Innovation Drive, Campus Box 590, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Gettelman, A
EM: andrew@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, United States
AU: Bardeen, C G
EM: Charles.Bardeen@colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado/LASP, 1234 Innovation Drive, Campus Box 590, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Rusch, D W
EM: David.Rusch@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado/LASP, 1234 Innovation Drive, Campus Box 590, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Hervig, M E
EM: m.e.hervig@gats-inc.com
AF: GATS Inc., 65 So. Main #5, Driggs, ID 83422, United States
AB: While cold mesospheric temperatures dictate that polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) will usually form during the summer months, substantial variation in their global frequency and distribution has been observed by both ground-based and satellite instruments. Likely sources of PMC variability include global-scale dynamics, solar irradiance changes, and long-term trends in atmospheric constituents and temperatures. To explore this variability, a parameterization of PMC microphysics has been incorporated into NCAR's Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), a chemistry climate model the covers the height range from the surface to ~130 km. This paper describes the parameterization, explores PMC variability in the model, and presents comparisons of WACCM PMC frequency and ice mass distributions with observations from instruments on board the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere and Student Nitric Oxide Explorer satellites.
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
DE: 1626 Global climate models (3337, 4928)
DE: 3334 Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342)
DE: 3337 Global climate models (1626, 4928)
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting