Physical-process parameterizations

The parameterization problem involves algorithmically or statistically relating the effects of physical processes that cannot be represented directly in a model to variables that are included. Physical processes are parameterized for a few reasons. The small scales involved make it too computationally expensive to represent a process directly. The complexity of a process makes it too computationally expensive to represent directly. There is insufficient knowledge about how a process works to explicitly represent it mathematically. The representation of atmospheric processes in models takes place within the dynamical core as well as through the so-called model “physics”. The dynamic processes include the propagation of various types of waves (e.g., advective, Rossby, inertia–gravity). Even though the physics processes are parameterized to a large degree, their correct rendering by a model is nevertheless essential for the prediction of virtually all of the dependent variables. The parameterized processes that are discussed in this chapter include cumulus convection, cloud microphysics, turbulence, and radiation. Land-surface processes are also parameterized because they occur on too small a scale to be represented directly, but they are discussed separately in Chapter 5. Even though parameterizations are typically developed and discussed independently from each other, and from the dynamical core, this is artificial and should be avoided. This is because parameterizations do interact, and the realism of this interaction determines the accuracy of the model. For example, the parameterized spectral solar radiation represents an energy flux at the land surface, and the land-surface parameterization partitions some of it to the sensible heating of the ground.