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The Aerosol Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2
Co-chairs
| Name | Affiliation | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephanie Fiedler | GEOMAR | Germany | sfiedler (at) geomar.de |
| Fiona O’Connor | Met Office Hadley Centre | UK | fiona.oconnor (at) metoffice.gov.uk |
| Duncan Watson-Parris | University of California, San Diego | USA | dwatsonparris (at) ucsd.edu |
Advisory Group members
| Name | Affiliation | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Robert J. Allen | University of California, Riverside | USA |
| William J. Collins | Department of Meteorology, University of Reading | UK |
| Paul Griffiths | National Centre for Atmospheric Science, Cambridge University | UK |
| Matthew Kasoar | Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, Imperial College London | UK |
| Vaishali Naik | NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory | USA |
| Michael Schulz | Norwegian Meteorological Institute | Norway |
| Toshihiko Takemura | Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University | Japan |
| Steven Turnock | Met Office Hadley Centre | UK |
| Daniel M. Westervelt | Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University | USA |
Summary
Phase 2 of the Aerosol Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project (AerChemMIP2) focuses on the quantification of the climate, atmospheric composition, and air quality responses to changes in emissions of aerosols and chemically reactive gases. Short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), many of which are also air pollutants, play a fundamental role in regional and global climate change.
AerChemMIP2 aims at facilitating a better understanding of the relative contributions of individual SLCF emissions to composition change, radiative forcing, and the climate response from the pre-industrial to present-day as well as for projected future emission scenarios. Assessing feedbacks from natural emissions relevant to SLCFs on atmospheric composition and climate change is again a unique component in AerChemMIP2.
The experimental protocol builds on methodological knowledge, e.g., gained through AerChemMIP, RFMIP, and ScenarioMIP, which were endorsed by CMIP6, and closely aligns with the CMIP AR7 Fast Track design and its listed MIPs (AR7 Fast Track experiment viewer). AerChemMIP2 requests several experiments that have been performed in the first phase of AerChemMIP to provide continuity of the results with CMIP7 models compared to CMIP6. New experiments in AerChemMIP2 address some persistent challenges in Earth system modeling, namely the role of desert dust and biomass burning aerosols as well as methane for atmospheric composition and climate, for which the community can exploit new observational data, emission inventories, and model capabilities. AerChemMIP2 further proposes new future experiments for a revised scenario taking contemporary plans for policy implementations into account and new present-day experiments that allow the community to assess the state-dependence of radiative forcing. A shortlist of diagnostic outputs from CMIP AR7 Fast Track experiments is solicited to facilitate targeted analyses on the role of aerosols and chemistry in composition and climate change across the larger CMIP7 model ensemble. AerChemMIP2 desires to incorporate output from kilometer-scale climate experiments through the advancement of the next generation of global atmosphere-only and coupled atmosphere-ocean models wherever possible. In so doing, AerChemMIP2 strives to help generate policy-relevant information on modern climate change and contribute to gaining new fundamental knowledge and estimates on the role of individual SLCFs.
Scientific questions
Process Understanding
How has our process understanding advanced for global and regional atmospheric composition changes, radiative forcing, and climate responses?
Feedbacks
How important are climate feedbacks to natural SLCF emissions, atmospheric composition, and radiative effects?
Air quality
What is the relative importance of climate change and emissions of SLCFs for the atmospheric composition and air quality?
Sustainability
What future climate penalties are expected from improving air quality and what are the tradeoffs for climate benefits arising from policies for improved sustainability?
History
AerChemMIP2 builds on experiences from MIPs endorsed by CMIP6. Especially the protocol of AerChemMIP (Collins et al., 2017) is influential in defining experiments to be performed in the second phase. A review of the accomplishments of AerChemMIP is currently in preparation (Griffith et al., in prep.). A perspective article from the CACTI community on AerChemMIP, RFMIP, and PDRMIP is available here.
Contact
Do you have a question about AerChemMIP2?
Send us an email. You may either contact the AerChemMIP2 co-chairs directly or forward your request to the advisory board for AerChemMIP2 via the CACTI committee email:
Cacti-committee (at) geomar.de
You want to get involved in performing experiments and analyzing results?
We distribute news on AerChemMIP2 activities by known channels of the community. One way is the CACTI email list. Signing up is possible by sending an email with a brief statement of interest to cacti-join (at) geomar.de.
CACTI workshops
We encourage you to attend the hybrid CACTI workshops.
- 2024 CACTI workshop, San Diego, USA https://www.geomar.de/cacti-workshop2024
- 2023 CACTI workshop, Kiel, Germany https://www.geomar.de/cacti-workshop2023
