The Canadian Atmospheric Model version 5 (CanAM5.0.3)

Abstract

The Canadian Atmospheric Model version 5 (CanAM5) is the component of Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5) which models atmospheric processes and coupling of the atmosphere with land and lake models. Described in this paper are the main features of CanAM5, with a focus on changes relative to the last major scientific version of the model (CanAM4). These changes are mostly related to improvements in radiative transfer, clouds, and aerosol parameterizations, as well as a major upgrade of the land surface and land carbon cycle models and addition of a small lake model. In addition to changes to parameterizations and models, changes in the adjustable parameters between CanAM4 and CanAM5 are documented. Finally, the mean climatology simulated by CanAM5 for the present day is evaluated against observations and compared with that simulated by CanAM4. Although many of the aspects of the simulated climate are similar between CanAM4 and CanAM5, there is a reduction in precipitation and temperature biases over the Amazonian basin, global cloud fraction biases, and solar and thermal cloud radiative effects, all of which are improvements relative to observations.