Prescribing the aerosol effective radiative forcing in the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model v1
Abstract. Aerosol effective radiative forcing critically influences climate projections but remains poorly constrained. Using the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM) v1 configuration, we assess the sensitivity of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenic aerosol changes using a simplified prescribed aerosol scheme (SPA) derived from E3SM v3. Nudged simulations at 3 and 12 km horizontal grid spacings reveal a more negative aerosol forcing than the reference 100 km E3SM v3 whence the SPA properties are derived. The resulting globally averaged aerosol forcing signal is largely due to aerosol–cloud interactions and exhibits little overall resolution sensitivity, while hints of resolution sensitivity appear regionally between the 3 and 12 km runs. While the default SPA scheme overestimates cloud droplet dependence on aerosols, parameterization adjustments in the activation process reconcile forcing estimates with the reference model. Our results demonstrate the ability to use a prescribed aerosol scheme to hold aerosol forcing to a desired strength across resolutions.
Authors
- Yun Qian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-1934)
- Christopher R. Terai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2433-0472)
- Naser Mahfouz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7097-1430)
- Andrew Gettelman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8284-2599)
- Luca Bertagna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-3202)
- Susannah M. Burrows (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0745-7252)
- Jean‐Christophe Golaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1616-5435)
- Mark A. Taylor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9267-2554)
- Aaron S. Donahue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4710-753X)
- Andrew Bradley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4687-198X)
- Mingxuan Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2970-1102)
- Noel D. Keen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3607-3554)
- Matthew W. Christensen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4273-6644)
- James Foucar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2036-8032)
- Weiren Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3228-2789)
- Hassan Beydoun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4094-8173)
- Oksana Guba (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7242-7001)
- Thomas C Clevenger
- Balwinder Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6798-3097)
- Jerome D. Fast (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2006-5675)
- Peter Caldwell
- Walter M. Hannah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4811-1928)
- Hailong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1994-4402)
- Peter Bogenschutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3519-2762)
- Po‐Lun Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3109-5316)
- Adam C. Varble (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5926-7154)
- Lai-Yung Ruby Leung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3221-9467)
- Kai Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0457-6368)
- Robert Jacob (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9444-6593)
- Johannes Mülmenstädt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1105-6678)
- Benjamin Hillman
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Sandia National Laboratories (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Atmospheric chemistry and physics
- Published
- 2025-11-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15105-2025
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Battelle
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
- Office of Science
- National Nuclear Security Administration
- Biological and Environmental Research
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Sandia National Laboratories
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory