The DNA Climate (Deep Numerical Analysis Climate) project will integrate a high-resolution global cloud-resolving model with existing climate models to create the next generation of climate models, the Digital Earth. The global cloud-resolving model NICAM can realistically reproduce atmospheric phenomena at intra-seasonal time-scales such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, but its ability to reproduce the climate systems over longer time scales requires verification and improvement. Although the climate model MIROC is reliable for El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and climate predictions, representations of atmospheric phenomena at sub-seasonal and shorter time scales are not adequate. DNA Climate aims to develop a next-generation, global cloud-resolving climate model by asymptotically matching these two models. This will be achieved by making NICAM and MIROC refer to each other’s solutions and sequentially improve their representations of atmosphere-ocean interaction phenomena at intraseasonal to multi-year time scale where the long time scales for NICAM and short time scales for MIROC overlap.
| Duration: | 36 months, from 04/01/2020 to 03/31/2023 |
| Funded by: | JSPS KAKENHI |
| Grant Number: | JP20H05727, JP20H05728, JP20H05729, JP20H05730, and JP20H05731 |
| Coordinating Organization: | The University of Tokyo |
| Participating Institutions: | The University of Tokyo, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kobe University, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, and RIKEN R-CCS |
| Principal Investigator: | Dr. Hiroaki Miura |
| Co-PI: | Dr. Chihiro Kodama, Dr. Yoshiyuki Kajikawa, Dr. Yukio Masumoto, and Dr. Tamaki Suematsu |
| Domestic Advisors: | Dr. Akimasa Sumi, Dr. Michio Kawamiya, and Dr. Eiichi Tajika |
| International Advisors: | Dr. David Randall (Colorado State University) and Dr. Bjorn Stevens (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology) |
Research Groups
A01
NICAM team
led by Dr. Chihiro Kodama
The NICAM team will conduct the first ever decadal climate simulation with a sub-10 km mesh using NICAM, a global non-hydrostatic cloud-resolving model. We will take the lead in identifying and resolving issues for global cloud-resolving climate simulations through reproducibility studies, intercomparisons of existing models, and sensitivity experiments. Through these efforts we will obtain a global cloud-resolving climate model that will revolutionize the understanding and prediction of cloud-climate interactions in the climate system, and become the pioneer in this field.
A02
MIROC team
led by Dr. Hiroaki Miura
The MIROC team will cooperate with the NICAM team and the model analytics team to improve the reproducibility of monsoon circulation, which includes the baiu front, and ENSO through providing atmosphere-ocean coupled simulation using MIROC, which has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The goal is to seamlessly connect the intra-seasonal timescales of NICAM, such as representing the Madden-Julian Oscillation, and the climate timescale of MIROC to realize climate prediction by global cloud-resolving models.
Meanwhile, by leveraging the experiences from using NICAM on the Earth Simulator and the “K computer”, the team will make drastic modifications to the parallel programming of MIROC to enable efficient calculations on large-scale parallel supercomputers such as Fugaku. The advancement will make MIROC a sixth-generation climate model, and realize global cloud-resolving climate simulations with horizontal mesh size of 10 km or less.
A03
Model analytics team
led by Dr. Yoshiyuki Kajikawa
The model analytics team will compare the climate simulations from the cloud resolving model NICAM and the climate model MIROC, both of which the developmental goal is to make them a sixth generation global climate model. Focus will be on analyzing phenomena at timescales where the strengths and weaknesses of the two models overlap, such as the monsoons, intraseasonal variabilities, and typhoons. By comparing the results of climate simulations on NICAM and MIROC climate simulations with observations, the team will clarify the physical processes essential for reproducing the hierarchical structure of the climate system including the fundamental processes of cloud microphysics, and develop a new method for evaluating the performance of the next-generation global climate models. In addition, the results obtained from the comparative study will be provided to model developers to promote model development and generate ideas for next-generation climate models.
A04
Innovative model development team
led by Dr. Yukio Masumoto
This team aims to develop a “new elemental model” to be incorporated into the sixth-generation global climate model and to construct a planetary climate model that can be applied for various planets by fostering innovative ideas from the next generation of researchers. The multiscale modeling approach will provide the basis for explicitly incorporating cross-scale interactions, ranging from cloud microphysics processes to the general circulation, to the sixth-generation global climate model. The team will contribute to the development of a new generation of parameterizations that are compatible with conventional models. In the construction of a planetary climate model, the team will develop a high-precision fluid scheme that balances complexity of physical representations with computational efficiency, and apply it to atmospheric and oceanic models to understand the behavior of various planetary fluids. By realizing these goals, the team will contribute to the transformation from the conventional coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model to a more integrated and flexible model applicable for a wider range of problems.
