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How do the polar stratospheric clouds form (and particle size and number density are treated) in WACCM4?

Hi all,

I am trying to find out how polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are parameterized in WACCM4 (CAM4+WACCM).

According to the WACCM4 description article Marsh et al 2013 WACCM4 includes: nitric acid trihydrate, supercooled ternary solution, and water ice (Climate Change from 1850 to 2005 Simulated in CESM1(WACCM)). But I didn't find any details on how PSCs form and treatment of PSC particle size and number density in the model.
Does WACCM4 use all cloud parameterization schemes same as CAM4 (and hence PSCs are treated in a similar way like the tropospheric clouds in CAM4)?

Can you please help figuring this out?

(If you could suggest any articles that describe this that will be really helpful. I could find studies on SD-WACCM or WACCM-CARMA, but not abt WACCM4 without these additional parameterization schemes.)

Thank you!
Deepashree
 

mmills

CSEG and Liaisons
Staff member
The PSC parameterization in WACCM4 and later versions is described the publication cited below:

Solomon, S., D. Kinnison, J. Bandoro, and R. Garcia (2015), Simulation of polar ozone depletion: An update, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 120, 7958–7974, doi:10.1002/2015JD023365.
 
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