A method for transporting cloud-resolving model variance in a multiscale modeling framework

Abstract

An unphysical checkerboard pattern has recently been identified in the multiscale modeling framework configuration of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM-MMF) that is hypothesized to be associated with the inability of large-scale dynamics to transport fluctuations within the embedded cloud-resolving model (CRM) on the global grid. To address this issue, a method is presented to facilitate the large-scale transport of CRM variance in E3SM-MMF. Simulation results show that the method is effective at reducing the occurrence of unphysical checkerboard patterns on a range of timescales from days to years. This result is confirmed both subjectively through visual inspection and quantitatively with a previously developed pattern categorization technique. The CRM variance transport does not significantly alter the model climate, although it does tend to reduce temporal variance on fields associated with convection on the global grid.