CCMVal
CCM Validation Activity for SPARC
(CCMVal)
SPARC
WCRP
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CCMVal Evaluation Table
includes core processes and diagnostics for the evaluation of coupled chemistry-climate models (CCMs)
with a focus on the model's ability to predict future stratospheric ozone

The CCMVal evaluation table from the Eyring et al., BAMS, 2005 article is now superseded by this table. The aim is to include a link to a website with detailed information for all diagnostics listed. For now, you'll either find a link to a website with detailed description of the diagnostic in the column Diagnostic or you will find a link to an email address under the column Contact. General questions can be directed to Veronika Eyring.

CCM Validation Activity for SPARC          
Dynamics                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Process Diagnostic* (Click for Description) Variables  Contact
Ranking
Forcing and propagation of planetary waves Hemispheric Ozone Variability Indices Total column ozone over several years Thilo Erbertseder C
Stratospheric response to wave drag Annual cycle of temperatures in tropics and extra-tropics Zonal monthly mean temperature, residual streamfunction Ted Shepherd C
PW flux vs. polar temperature, lagged in time  Heat flux (v'T') at 100 hPa (Jan/Feb)
Temperature at 50 hPa (March)
Zonal monthly mean
Paul Newman C
Occurrence of sudden & final warmings
Polar temperatures		 PV, horizontal winds, Temperature, Area colder than PSC temperature, Vortex area/equiv. Latitude; Warming statistics; High-frequency (daily) 3-D fields Andrew Charlton and Lorenzo Polvani  C
Downward control  integral, also scatter plot of PWD v GWD w* from model
PWD, GWD, other drag
zonal and monthly means		 Ted Shepherd C
Persistence (e.g., leading EOFs), including Holton-Tan Geopotential Height, Temperature
Multi-year time series (means, frequency spectra)		 Judith Perlwitz C
QBO, SAO Amplitude and phase (SAO & QBO) of u and temperature Horizontal winds and temperature, zonal and monthly means Marco Giorgetta C
Extratropical Tropopause
(TTL under transport)
 Tropopause altidtude and temperature Temperature and  PV Lorenzo Polvani, Seok-Woo Son, and Thomas Birner C
Stratospheric Transport                                                                                                                                                            
Process Diagnostic* (Click for Description) Variables  Contact
Ranking
Subtropical and polar mixing barriers PDFs of long-lived tracers N2O, CH4, CFC-11, etc.; Potential Vorticity (PV) Susan Strahan C
Latitudinal gradients of long-lived tracers Veronika Eyring C
Correlations of long-lived tracers Ted Shepherd I
Phase and amplitude of subtropical CO2 (or H2O) annual cycle in lower stratosphere (tape recorder) 
CO2, H2O or idealized annually repeating tracer
 Darryn Waugh  C
Meridional circulation Mean age Conserved tracer with linearly increasing concentration, SF6 or CO2 Darryn Waugh C
Correlation of interannual anomalies of total O3 and PW flux Total ozone and heat flux at 100 hPa, zonal and monthly means Paul Newman C
Vertical propagation of tracer isopleths H2O or CO2 or idealized annually repeating tracer (tropics), CH4 or N2O (polar)
U
UTLS transport Vertical gradients of, and correlations between, chemical species in the extratropical UTLS CO2, SF6, H2O, CO, O3, HCl Peter Hoor and Laura Pan I
TTL structure and transport Temperature, Ozone, LW Heating rates, SW heating rates Andrew Gettelman

 		I
STE
Mass / Ozone flux

I
Radiation
Process Diagnostic* (Click for Description) Variables  Contact
Ranking
Heating rates Comparison of thermal and solar heating rates in offline runs employing column version of CCM radiation codes Heating rates and irradiances from CCM radiation code, with a prescribed and standardised set of input atmospheric profiles Piers Forster C
Radiative heating Global average of temperature profiles Annually averaged global trace-gas and clouds fields, temperature Piers Forster C
Transient response of global average temperature Long-term globally averaged transient temperature changes Changes in Ozone, water vapor & high clouds, greenhouse gases, Hydrofluorocarbons, aerosols etc. Piers Forster C
Stratospheric Chemistry & Microphysics   
Process Diagnostic* (Click for Description) Variables  Contact
Ranking
Photolysis rates
MMII - off-line model
Photolysis rates
 Ross Salawitch C
Photochemical mechanisms and short timescale chemical processes Offline box model comparisons of fast chemistry (of order one day or less) Full chemical constituents
(O3 loss due to Ox, HOx, NOx, ClOx, BrOx)		 Ross Salawitch C
Long timescale chemical processes Comparison of abundance of reservoirs and radical precursors Instantaneous output of all chemical constituents and temperature
(one per month)		 Martyn Chipperfield and Wenshou Tian U
Tracer-tracer relations O3, NOy, CH4, H2O, N2O Martyn Chipperfield and  Ross Salawitch C
Polar processes in winter / spring  Partitioning of species within the families Species from families (ClOx, NOx, HOx, BrOx, Cly, NOy, Bry) temperature, PV from wind fields Martyn Chipperfield C
Denitrification/ dehydration (NOy vs. tracer, H2O +2 CH4)
 NOy, HNO3, N2O, CH4, etc.;  H2O particle-flux rates added to daily polar chem. Instantaneous output, CH4 Martyn Chipperfield and  Ross Salawitch C
Chemical Ozone Loss versus PSC activity O3, passive O3 tracer, O3 prod./loss rate, PV from wind fields, temperature Ross Salawitch and Simone Tilmes U
Stratospheric 
Aerosols 		Sulfuric acid size distribution; aerosol optical extinction Sulfuric acid mass, particle number conc., water vapor, temperature Martyn Chipperfield and  Ross Salawitch U
Temperature response in the lower stratosphere; Chlorine and nitrogen partitioning after major volcanic eruptions
All species from chlorine and nitrogen families, temperature
 Martyn Chipperfield and  Ross Salawitch C
Aerosols & Cloud Microphysics in TTL
Cirrus cloud frequency; Tropical dehydration; H2O in TTL
Ice water content, aerosol size distribution; water vapor, temperature, CH4
Jonathan Jiang and Bernd Kärcher U

     A desciption and software how to calculate equivalent latitudes is available here.
Legend
*  in addition to traditional model validation (climatological means, inter-annual variations)
**  due to uncertainties use several analyses, not one
Ranking
 (C) core    (I) important, or (U) useful.
A core diagnostic was considered to be proven, straightforward to calculate, and important for illuminating the model processes.  An important diagnostic was important, but somewhat difficult to calculate or not well defined and requiring additional research.  Finally, a useful diagnostic was well defined and of importance, but only complementary to the core diagnostics. 
Last modified:  June 9, 2007
by Veronika Eyring

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