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These are the intended use-case/justification for one or multiple variable groups. Opportunities are linked to relevant experiment groups. Identifying opportunities helps to provide a structure to map variables against requirements. Each opportunity description will convey why this combination of variables and experiments is important and how they contribute to impact.
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| description | This opportunity facilitates scientific investigations that fall under the purview of the Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP). These include studies of cloud, precipitation, and circulation processes, feedbacks, and rapid adjustments, model evaluation against observations, climate sensitivity, and pattern effects This "CFMIP-all" flavor of the broader CFMIP opportunity is intended to capture the base set of variables requested from all experiments in the DECK and CFMIP subset of the Fast-Track (12 total experiments). |
| expected_impacts | This opportunity addresses the three primary objectives of CFMIP: A) Advance diagnosis and understanding of cloud feedbacks and rapid cloud adjustments in past, present and future climates. B) Assess representations of clouds, their radiative properties, and their feedback mechanisms in climate models to inform model development. C) Understand and evaluate other aspects of climate change that depend on cloud processes, such as climate sensitivity, circulation and precipitation, regional patterns and extremes, and nonlinear behaviour. This opportunity will facilitate the community's ability to answer the key science questions of CFMIP: 1) What are the physical mechanisms underlying cloud feedbacks and rapid adjustments in nature, and how credibly do models represent these? 2) How and why do cloud feedbacks and adjustments depend on the nature of the climate forcing? 3) How and why do cloud feedbacks and adjustments depend on climate base state? 4) What coupled processes underlie the SST pattern effect, and how and why does this affect cloud feedback? 5) What are the mechanisms underlying cloud-circulation coupling and regional precipitation change, and how credibly do models represent these? |
| justification_of_resources | Despite being a large number of variables, we do not envision this being overly burdensome because (1) many variables are already included in the BCVs, and (2) only monthly 2D and 3D fields, daily 2D fields, and fixed fields are requested. No sub-monthly 3D fields are requested. Data is requested only from the DECK and the CFMIP subset of FastTrack. |
| lead_theme | Atmosphere |
| minimum_ensemble_size | 1 |
| name | Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity: baseline |
| opportunity_id | 78 |
| data_request_themes | Atmosphere |
| experiment_groups | fast-track_cfmip, cfmip-additional-nonfasttrack, deck |
| mips | CFMIP, PMIP, DAMIP |
| time_subsets | 80ac3156-a698-11ef-914a-613c0433d878 |
| variable_groups | CFMIP-aero, CFMIP-aux, CFMIP-convective, CFMIP-daily, CFMIP-monthly |