Evaluating the Water Cycle Over CONUS at the Watershed Scale for the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Version 1 (E3SMv1) Across Resolutions

Bryce E. Harrop, Karthik Balaguru, Jean Christophe Golaz, L. Ruby Leung, Salil Mahajan, Alan M. Rhoades, Paul A. Ullrich, Chengzhu Zhang, Xue Zheng, Tian Zhou, Peter M. Caldwell, Noel D. Keen, Azamat Mametjanov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The water cycle is an important component of the earth system and it plays a key role in many facets of society, including energy production, agriculture, and human health and safety. In this study, the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1 (E3SMv1) is run with low-resolution (roughly 110 km) and high-resolution (roughly 25 km) configurations—as established by the High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project protocol—to evaluate the atmospheric and terrestrial water budgets over the conterminous United States (CONUS) at the large watershed scale. The warm season water cycle slows down in the HR experiment relative to the LR, with decreasing fluxes of precipitation, evapotranspiration, atmospheric moisture convergence, and runoff. The reductions in these terms exacerbate biases for some watersheds, while reducing them in others. For example, precipitation biases are exacerbated at HR over the Eastern and Central CONUS watersheds, while precipitation biases are reduced at HR over the Western CONUS watersheds. The most pronounced changes with resolution to the water cycle come from reductions in precipitation and evapotranspiration. The reduction in evapotranspiration reduces the biases across nearly all of the CONUS. Additional exploratory metrics show improvements to water cycle extremes (both in precipitation and streamflow), fractional contributions of different storm types to total precipitation, and mountain snowpack.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2022MS003490
JournalJournal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Volume15
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2023

Funding

This research was supported as part of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER). The data were produced using resources of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. The data were produced using resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated for the U.S. DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE‐AC05‐76RL01830. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE‐AC52‐07NA27344.LLNL‐JRNL‐825746 Author Rhoades was funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy within the Regional and Global Climate Modeling Program under the “the Calibrated and Systematic Characterization, Attribution and Detection of Extremes (CASCADE)” Science Focus Area (award no. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231). Authors Rhoades and Ullrich were funded by the project “A Framework for Improving Analysis and Modeling of Earth System and Intersectoral Dynamics at Regional Scales” (award no. DE‐SC0016605). We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme, which, through its Working Group on Coupled Modelling, coordinated and promoted CMIP6. We thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output, the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) for archiving the data and providing access, and the multiple funding agencies who support CMIP6 and ESGF. We thank DOE's RGMA program area, the Data Management program, and NERSC for making this coordinated CMIP6 analysis activity possible. This research was supported as part of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER). The data were produced using resources of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. The data were produced using resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated for the U.S. DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.LLNL-JRNL-825746 Author Rhoades was funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy within the Regional and Global Climate Modeling Program under the “the Calibrated and Systematic Characterization, Attribution and Detection of Extremes (CASCADE)” Science Focus Area (award no. DE-AC02-05CH11231). Authors Rhoades and Ullrich were funded by the project “A Framework for Improving Analysis and Modeling of Earth System and Intersectoral Dynamics at Regional Scales” (award no. DE-SC0016605). We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme, which, through its Working Group on Coupled Modelling, coordinated and promoted CMIP6. We thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output, the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) for archiving the data and providing access, and the multiple funding agencies who support CMIP6 and ESGF. We thank DOE's RGMA program area, the Data Management program, and NERSC for making this coordinated CMIP6 analysis activity possible. ** The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid‐up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan. http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan

FundersFunder number
Earth System Grid FederationCMIP6
U.S. Department of Energy
BattelleDE‐AC05‐76RL01830
Office of ScienceDE‐AC02‐05CH11231
Biological and Environmental Research
Argonne National LaboratoryDE‐AC02‐06CH11357
Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryDE‐AC52‐07NA27344, DE‐SC0016605
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

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