Minghua Zhang

Stony Brook University | Stony Brook · School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

The BiLateral Operational Storm‐Scale Observation and Modeling (BLOSSOM) project was initiated to establish a long‐term supersite to improve understanding of cloud physical states and processes as well as to support satellite and climate model programs over the Wallops Flight Facility site via a bilateral approach of storm‐scale observations and pr...

Climate change is a critical issue of our time, and its causes, pathways, and forecasts remain a topic of broader discussion. In this paper, we present a novel data driven pathway analysis framework to identify the key processes behind mean global temperature and sea level rise, and to forecast the magnitude of their increase from the present to 21...

Climate change remains a top concern for the world, with its causes, pathways, and forecasts, still subject to debate. In this paper, we present a novel data driven pathway analysis framework to identify the key processes behind the mean global temperature and sea level rise, and to forecast the magnitude of the increases between now and 2100. Base...

Deficiencies in convection trigger functions, used in deep convection parameterizations in General Circulation Models (GCMs), have critical impacts on climate simulations. A novel convection trigger function is developed using the machine learning (ML) classification model XGBoost. The large‐scale environmental information associated with convectiv...

Surface topography strongly impacts the regional atmospheric circulation dynamically and thermodynamically. Over the Great Plains in the United States, the gently tilted slope is an important factor that impacts clouds, convection, and regional circulations. This study enhances an atmospheric constrained variational analysis by using a terrain‐foll...

Accurate simulation and prediction of intense precipitation events require better understanding of their physical mechanisms. This study uses Yaan—a place with regional maximum rainfall in central China—to investigate the cause and process of intense precipitation. Hourly rain gauge records and the new ERA5 reanalysis are used to characterize the e...

The Earth-Climate System Model (ECSM) is an important platform for multi-disciplinary and multi-sphere integration research, and its development is at the frontier of international geosciences, especially in the field of global change. The research and development (R&D) of ECSM in China began in the 1980s and have achieved great progress. In China,...

Ten‐year warm‐season (May–August) observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site are used to examine the large‐scale atmospheric moisture budget and the strength of land‐atmosphere coupling. Atmospheric moisture budget components, computed from the ARM variational analysis data, are compared between dif...

Abstract We revise the convective triggering function in Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Atmosphere Model version 1 (EAMv1) by introducing a dynamic constraint on the initiation of convection that emulates the collective dynamical effects to prevent convection from being triggered too frequently and allowing air par...

Tropical cyclone (TC) genesis is a problem of great significance in climate and weather research. Although various environmental conditions necessary for TC genesis have been recognized for a long time, prediction of TC genesis remains a challenge due to complex and stochastic processes involved during TC genesis. Different from traditional statist...

Differences in the surface turbulent heat fluxes measured by the eddy correlation flux measurement system (ECOR) and the energy balance Bowen ratio system (EBBR) are examined using 12 years of continuous measurements collected at multiple stations in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program Southern Great Plains (SGP) surface observation...

Traditional trial-and-error tuning of uncertain parameters in global atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) is time consuming and subjective. This study explores the feasibility of automatic optimization of GCM parameters for fast physics by using short-term hindcasts. An automatic workflow is described and applied to the Community Atmospher...

Traditional trial-and-error tuning of uncertain parameters in global atmospheric General Circulation Models (GCM) is time consuming and subjective. This study explores the feasibility of automatic optimization of GCM parameters for fast physics by using short-term hindcasts. An automatic workflow is described and applied to the Community Atmospheri...

Large-scale forcing data, such as vertical velocity and advective tendencies, are required to drive single-column models (SCMs), cloud-resolving models, and large-eddy simulations. Previous studies suggest that some errors of these model simulations could be attributed to the lack of spatial variability in the specified domain-mean large-scale forc...

This study describes the characteristics of large-scale vertical velocity, apparent heating source (Q1) and apparent moisture sink (Q2) profiles associated with seasonal and diurnal variations of convective systems observed during the two intensive operational periods (IOPs) that were conducted from 15 February to 26 March 2014 (wet season) and fro...

The seasonal variation of clouds in the southeastern equatorial Pacific (SEP) is analysed and compared with the spatial variation of clouds in the northeastern Pacific along the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Cloud System Study/Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (GCSS/WGNE) Pacific Cross-Section Intercomparison (GPCI) transect. A...

Reference Stratification Subtraction (RSS) in the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) Spectral Dynamical Core

Composite dynamic and thermodynamic structures of mixed Rossby-gravity (MRG) waves are presented with their coupling with diabatic heating and moisture sources/sinks, using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission-Kwajalein Experiment (TRMM-KWAJEX) field campaign data. A significant departure of convectively coupled waves from dry waves exists in the ph...

Observation-based modeling case studies of continental boundary layer clouds have been developed to study cloudy boundary layers, aerosol influences upon them, and their representation in cloud- and global-scale models. Three 60 h case study periods span the temporal evolution of cumulus, stratiform, and drizzling boundary layer cloud systems, repr...

Climatically important low-level clouds are commonly misrepresented in climate models. The FAst-physics System TEstbed and Research (FASTER) project has constructed case studies from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility's Southern Great Plain site during the RACORO aircraft campaign to facilitate research on model r...

Fine-resolution three-dimensional fields have been produced using the Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation system for the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) region. The GSI system is implemented in a multi-scale data assimilation framework using the Weathe...

This study attempts to understand interactions between midlatitude convective systems and their environments through a heat and moisture budget analysis using the sounding data collected from the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) in central Oklahoma. Distinct large-scale structures and diabatic heating and drying profiles...

We produce fine-resolution, three-dimensional fields of meteorological and other variables for the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. The Community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) System is implemented in a multi-scale data assimilation (MS-DA) framework that is used withi...

This study investigates the bulk budgets of the vertical velocity and its parameterization in convective cores, convective updrafts, and clouds by using large-eddy simulation (LES) of four shallow convection cases in the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud System Study (GCSS) programs. The relative magnitudes of the dominant mome...

Neddylation, the covalent attachment of ubiquitin-like protein Nedd8, of the Cullin-RING E3 ligase family regulates their ubiquitylation activity. However, regulation of HECT ligases by neddylation has not been reported to date. Here we show that the C2-WW-HECT ligase Smurf1 is activated by neddylation. Smurf1 physically interacts with Nedd8 and Ub...

CGILS – the CFMIP-GASS Intercomparison of Large Eddy Models (LESs) and Single Column Models (SCMs) – investigates the mechanisms of cloud feedback in SCMs and LESs under idealized climate change perturbation. This paper describes the CGILS results from 15 SCMs and eight LES models. Three cloud regimes over the subtropical oceans are studied: shallo...

Given the large discrepancies that exist in climate models for shortwave cloud forcing over eastern China (EC), the dynamic (vertical motion and horizontal circulation) and thermodynamic (stability) relations of stratus clouds and the associated cloud radiative forcing in the cold season are examined. Unlike the stratus clouds over the southeastern...

This paper uses different deep convection triggering functions and closure assumptions in two versions of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM4 and CAM5) to investigate the interactions of parameterization components and the sensitivity of single-column model simulations of tropical convection. The schemes include those used in the standard CAM4 an...

[1] This paper describes an integrated modeling system in which the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is nested within the Community Earth System Model (CESM). This system is validated for the simulation of a midlatitude cyclongesis event over the Southern Great Plains of the United States. The global atmospheric model CAM4 at T42 resolu...

[1] Subtropical marine low cloud sensitivity to an idealized climate change is compared in six large-eddy simulation (LES) models as part of CGILS. July cloud cover is simulated at three locations over the subtropical northeast Pacific Ocean, which are typified by cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) under well-mixed stratocumulus, cool SSTs under...

The simulations of summertime diurnal cycle of precipitation and low-level winds by the Community Atmosphere Model, version 5, are evaluated over subtropical East Asia. The evaluation reveals the physical cause of the observed diurnal rainfall variation in East Asia and points to the source of model strengths and weaknesses. Two model versions with...

This study estimates MJO change under the A1B greenhouse gas emission scenario using the ECHAM5 AGCM whose coupled version (ECHAM5/MPI-OM) has simulated best MJO variance among fourteen CGCMs. The model has a horizontal resolution at T319 (about 40 km) and is forced by the monthly evolving SST derived from the ECHAM5/MPI-OM at a lower resolution of...

Using hourly rain gauge records and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B42 from 1998 to 2006, the authors present an analysis of the diurnal characteristics of summer rainfall over subtropical East Asia. The study shows that there are four different regimes of distinct diurnal variation of rainfall in both the rain gauge and the satellite data. T...

A surrogate climate change is designed to investigate low cloud feedbacks in the northeastern Pacific by using Single Column Models (SCMs), Cloud Resolving Models (CRMs), and Large Eddy Simulation models (LES), as part of the CGILS study (CFMIP-GASS Intercomparison of LES and SCM models). The constructed large-scale forcing fields, including subsid...

This paper investigates the initial development of the double ITCZ in the Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3) in the central Pacific. Starting from a resting initial condition of the ocean in January, the model developed a warm bias of sea surface temperature (SST) in the central Pacific from 58S to 108S in the first three months. This...

The ice crystal enhancement (IE) factor, defined as the ratio of the ice crystal to ice nuclei (IN) number concentrations for any particular cloud condition, is needed to quantify the contribution of changes in IN to global warming. However, the ensemble characteristics of IE are still unclear. In this paper, a representation of the IE factor is in...

Coupled ocean-atmospheric models suffer from the common bias of a spurious rain belt south of the central equatorial Pacific throughout the year. Observational constraints on key processes responsible for this bias are scarce. The recently available reanalysis from a coupled model system for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)...

The C2-WW-HECT type ubiquitin ligases Smurf1 and Smurf2 play a critical role in embryogenesis and adult bone homeostasis via regulation of BMP, Wnt and RhoA signaling pathways. The intramolecular interaction between C2 and HECT domains autoinhibits the ligase activity of Smurf2. However, the role of the Smurf1 C2 domain remains elusive. Here we sho...

The C2-WW-HECT-type ubiquitin ligases Smurf1 and Smurf2 play a critical role in embryogenesis and adult bone homeostasis via regulation of bone morphogenetic protein, Wnt, and RhoA signaling pathways. The intramolecular interaction between C2 and HECT domains autoinhibits the ligase activity of Smurf2. However, the role of the Smurf1 C2 domain rema...

Subseasonal characteristics of the diurnal variation of the summer monsoon rainfall over central eastern China (110°-120°E, 25°-40°N) are analyzed using hourly station rain gauge data. Results show that the rainfall in the monsoon rain belt is dominated by the long-duration rainfall events (≥7 hours) with early morning peaks. The long-duration rain...

The double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over the tropical Pacific, with a spurious band of maximum annual sea surface temperature (SST) south of the equator between 5°S and 10°S, is a chronic bias in coupled ocean-atmosphere models. This study focuses on a region of the double ITCZ in the central Pacific from 5°S to 10°S and 170°E to 150°W...

This study investigates the physical mechanisms of the low cloud feedback through cloud-resolving simulations of cloud-radiative equilibrium response to an increase in sea surface temperature (SST). Six pairs of perturbed and control simulations are performed to represent different regimes of low clouds in the subtropical region by specifying SST d...

The pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing protein casein kinase 2 interacting protein-1 (CKIP-1) plays an important role in regulation of bone formation and muscle differentiation. How CKIP-1 localization is determined remains largely unclear. We observed that isolated CKIP-1-PH domain was predominantly localized in the nucleus and the C-termi...

Abstract This study documents the characteristics of the large-scale structures and diabatic heating and drying profiles observed during the Tropical Warm Pool ‐ International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE), which was conducted in January-February 2006 in Darwin during the northern Australian monsoon season. The examined profiles exhibit significant va...

Ice nuclei (IN) significantly affect clouds via supercooled droplets, that in turn modulate atmospheric radiation and thus climate change. Since the IN effect is relatively strong in stratiform clouds but weak in convective ones, the overall effect depends on the ratio of stratiform to convective cloud amount. In this paper, ten years of TRMM (Trop...

Marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds can significantly regulate the sensitivity of climate models, yet they are currently poorly simulated. This study aims to characterize the seasonal variations of physical properties of these clouds and their associated processes by using multisatellite data. Measurements from several independent satellite datasets...

Current climate models have shown systematic simulation biases of low clouds that have cast great uncertainties on the climate sensitivity of these models. Among them is the deficient amount of low clouds over the storm tracks. This study uses the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) and the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) to study t...

A three-dimensional cloud-resolving model (CRM) with observed large-scale forcing is used to study how ice nuclei (IN) affect the net radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). In all the numerical experiments carried out, the cloud ice content in the upper troposphere increases with IN number concentration via the Bergeron process. As a re...

Month-long large-scale forcing data from two field campaigns are used to drive a cloud-resolving model (CRM) and produce ensemble simulations of clouds and precipitation. Observational data are then used to evaluate the model results. To improve the model results, a new parameterization of the Bergeron process is proposed that incorporates the numb...

Two 20-day, continental midlatitude cases are simulated with a three-dimensional (3D) cloud-resolving model (CRM) and are compared to Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) data. Surface fluxes from ARM ground stations and a land data assimilation system are used to drive the CRM. This modeling evaluation shows that the model simulates pre...

Both the ECMWF and the NCEP-NCAR reanalyses show a strengthening of the atmospheric Hadley circulation in boreal winter over the last 50 years, but the intensification is much stronger in the ECMWF than in the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis. This study focuses on the difference of these trends in the two reanalyses. It is shown that trends in the Hadley circ...

1] This paper first analyzes structures of the double Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the central equatorial Pacific simulated by three coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models in terms of sea surface temperatures, surface precipitation, and surface winds. It then describes the projection of the double ITCZ in the equatorial upp...

A case study is carried out to evaluate the capability of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM3) in simulating frontal clouds over the Southern Great Plains (SGP). It focuses on a midlatitude cyclonic storm system observed during the March 2000 Intensive Observation Period (IOP) of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM). Cloud biases ar...

1] This study represents an effort to develop Single-Column Model (SCM) and Cloud-Resolving Model large-scale forcing data from a sounding array in the high latitudes. An objective variational analysis approach is used to process data collected from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), wh...

Introduction As shown in Chapters 5 and 8, clouds as one of the moist fluid dynamical phenomena play a subtle role in Earth’s climate. Clouds act as a greenhouse ingredient to warm Earth; they also reflect solar radiation to space to cool Earth. The net radiative effect of these two competing processes depends on the amount, height, type, and the o...

A new version of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) has been developed and released to the climate community. CAM Version 3 (CAM3) is an atmospheric general circulation model that includes the Community Land Model (CLM3), an optional slab ocean model, and a thermodynamic sea ice model. The dynamics and physics in CAM3 have been changed substantia...

1] European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis and model forecast data are evaluated using observations collected during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) October 2004 Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) at its North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site. It is shown that the ECMWF analysis reasonably represents the...

This modeling study compares the performance of eight single-column models (SCMs) and four cloud-resolving models (CRMs) in simulating shallow frontal cloud systems observed during a short period of the March 2000 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) intensive operational period. Except for the passage of a cold front at the beginning of this pe...

This study quantitatively evaluates the overall performance of nine single-column models (SCMs) and four cloud-resolving models (CRMs) in simulating a strong midlatitude frontal cloud system taken from the spring 2000 Cloud Intensive Observational Period at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site. The evaluation data...

1] This study implements a revised convective triggering condition in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmosphere Model, Version 2 (CAM2), model to reduce its excessive warm season daytime precipitation over land. The new triggering mechanism introduces a simple dynamic constraint on the initiation of convection that em...

This paper introduces the concept of cloud-climate feedback along with its role in the sensitivity of the climate system. It reviews available cloud feedback diagnostic methods and representative results in three-dimensional atmospheric general circulation models. A case study is presented to analyze physical processes responsible for cloud feedbac...

This study proposes another approach to develop multiyear single-column model (SCM) and cloud system-resolving model (CSRM) forcing data from numerical weather prediction (NWP) model analyses constrained with the observed surface and top of the atmosphere measurements by using a variational analysis approach. In the approach the atmospheric state v...

The large-scale forcing data diagnosed from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) model for driving Single-Column Models (SCMs) and Cloud System Resolving Models (CSRMs) are compared with forcing data derived using the objective variational analysis constrained by observations collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measureme...

We have extended the interpretations made in two prior studies of the aircraft shortwave radiation measurements that were obtained as part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (ARESE). These extended interpretations use the 500 nm (10 nm bandwidth) measurements to minimize sampling errors in the broadband me...

During the past few years, there has been increasing recognition of the role of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) in determining stratospheric water vapor -- the TTL being a layer of transition between air showing tropospheric properties below and stratospheric properties above. In this study, we have investigated the three-dimensional structure...

This paper describes a modified formulation of stratiform condensation rate associated with fractional cloudiness in the Community Atmospheric Model Version 2 (CAM2). It introduces an equation to link cloudiness change with the variation of total condensate. Together with a diagnostic cloud relationship that represents subgrid-scale variability of...

This study reports the Single‐Column Model (SCM) part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)/the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud System Study (GCSS) joint SCM and Cloud‐Resolving Model (CRM) Case 3 intercomparison study, with a focus on evaluation of cumulus parametrizations used in SCMs. Fifteen SCMs are evaluated un...

Observations and model results indicate that the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) modulation of stratospheric water vapor results from two causes. Dynamical redistribution of water vapor from the QBO-induced mean meridional circulation dominates the observed variability in the middle and upper stratosphere. In the lower stratosphere, the QBO water...

Satellite measurements of both cloud vertical structure and cloud-radiative forcing have been used to show that during the strong 1997/98 El Nino there was a substantial change in cloud vertical structure over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Relative to normal years, cloud altitudes were lower in the western portion of the Pacific and higher in the eas...

Clouds cool the climate system by reflecting shortwave radiation and warm it by increasing the atmospheric greenhouse. Previous studies have shown that in tropical regions of deep convection there is a near cancellation between cloud-induced shortwave cooling and longwave warming. The present study investigates the possible influence of the 1998 El...

Tropical cold point tropopause (CPT) characteristics have been calculated using ECMWF reanalyses and high resolution radiosonde soundings obtained in TOGA COARE as well as operational sounding data. It is found that ECMWF reanalyses are suitable for investigating the morphology of the tropical CPT and the variabilities of the tropopause over the en...

Operational sounding data (1973-1998) were used to determine cold point tropopause (CPT) characteristics. A cooling trend (-0.57+/-0.06K/Decade during 1973-1998) in tropical CPT temperatures has been found, which is opposite to what has been hypothesized to explain the trend in stratospheric water vapor. Given this trend, the annual averages of the...

We analyze the causes of the large thermal biases in the simulation of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Community Climate Model Version 3 (CCM3) single-column model (SCM) when it is forced with the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's (ARM) summer 1995 Intensive Observing Period (IOP) data. We have found that deficiencies of th...

This study examines the following question: Are the recently available climate data sets consistent with each other in describing the atmospheric energy budget? If they are not, what is the sign of the systematic bias and how large is it? The atmospheric radiative cooling in this budget analysis is derived from satellite measurements of radiative f...

We have extended the interpretations made in two prior studies of the aircraft shortwave radiation measurements that were obtained as part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiments (ARESE). These extended interpretations use the 500 nm (10 nm bandwidth) measurements to minimize sampling errors in the broadband m...

As part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (ARESE), we have obtained and analyzed measurements made from collocated aircraft of the absorption of solar radiation within the atmospheric column between the two aircraft. The measurements were taken during October 1995 at the ARM site in Oklahoma. Relative to a...

To study the signature of enhanced shortwave absorption in clouds, several recent studies have used monthly-mean shortwave radiation measurements from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) together with monthly-mean surface insolation as obtained from the Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA). In this paper we discuss probable causes of incon...

One-dimensional calculations are carried out for the time evolution of the equatorial lower stratospheric mean zonal wind forced by time-varying equatorial Kelvin and mixed Rossby-gravity waves. If the time variation of the wave momentum forcing is given by a steady forcing plus a sinusoidal modulation, a tendency toward phase locking between the p...

This paper investigates the effects of vertical shear of the mean zonal flow on CISK waves in a spherical geometry. A linearized primitive equation model, including mean zonal flow, on a sphere is designed to generalize the previous results about the effects of the vertical shear of the mean zonal flow on the excitation of fast tropical waves with...

The growth of waves and the generation of potential energy in wave-CISK require unstable waves to tilt with height oppositely to their direction of propagation. This makes the structures and instability properties of these waves very sensitive to the presence of vertical shear in the basic flow. Equatorial Kelvin and Rossby-gravity waves have oppos...

1] The present study examines the characteristics of cloud distributions with emphasis on cloud longwave radiative forcing (CLRF) during the peak of the 1997/1998 El Niño in relation to climatological conditions, based on measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II. The observed distinct cloud occurrence and CLRF during...