The U.S. contribution to
Climate Variability and Predictability
Climate
Process and Modeling Teams CPTs
| CPT Whitepapers | CPT Motivation/Concept (336K PDF) |
| CPT Implementation (386K PDF) |
A CPT is a team of observationalists, process modelers, and coupled climate modelers formed around specific issues or key uncertainties that aims to link process-oriented research to modeling for the purpose of addressing key uncertainties in coupled climate models.
The objectives of a CPT:
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Speed the improvement of coupled models, data assimilation systems, and model components by
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Parameterizing the important processes not included explicitly in climate models;
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Transferring theoretical and process-model understanding into improved treatment of processes in climate models;
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Sharpening our understanding of how particular physical processes impact the climate system;
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Identifying sustained observational requirements required by climate models for these parameterizations; and
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Identifying additional process studies necessary to reduce uncertainties associated with important climate model processes/parameterizations.
Several distinguishing characteristics will mark potentially successful CPTs:
Team Composition The success of CPTs depends critically on the commitment of individual team members and their ability to work together constructively to demonstrate the effectiveness of their collaboration. CPT composition will vary depending on needs, but be composed of a combination of observation oriented experimentalists, process modelers, process diagnosticians, and developers of climate models. The emphasis on demonstrable progress necessitates that CPTs may wish to include participation of a mix of climate scientists, analysts, and/or software engineers, particularly a staff scientist from each modeling center who would complete diagnostics and test code improvements. Team Activities CPTs are encouraged to pursue activities that foster sustained and constructive interaction. These activities should emphasize the importance of open, regular, and interactive pathways of communication (e.g. web-based forums, teleconferencing, visitation by key scientific and supporting personnel).
The scope of scientific activities will be team dependent, and may fall into one or more of categories, including:
*Assessing modeling capabilities (e.g. process diagnostics; assessing consistency of parameterizations with existing observations, detailed process models, and other implementations; preparation of documented observation set for testing);
* Model sensitivity (e.g. single and multiple-model sensitivities/intercomparisons; diagnosis/attribution of model errors to parameterization errors; determining accuracy requirements for simulating climate feedbacks);
* Best use of observations (e.g. upscaling of local process measurements to needed space/time scales); and
* Parameterization improvements (e.g. testing and documentation of parameterizations).