Chris Bretherton

Office

704 Atmospheric Science-Geophysics Building

206-685-7414 (phone), 206-685-9302 (fax)

Mailing Address

University of Washington

Department of Atmospheric Sciences

Box 351640

Seattle, WA 98195-1640

I am a professor in the UW Departments of Atmospheric Science and Applied Mathematics, where I teach classes on weather, atmospheric turbulence and cumulus convection, tropical meteorology, geophysical fluid dynamics, numerical methods, and classical analysis of ODEs and PDEs.

I direct the University of Washington Program on Climate Change, which organizes graduate courses, seminars, a summer institute, and research on climate science and its relevance to our society and future.

My group developed the parameterizations of shallow cumulus convection used in the cutting-edge versions of two leading US climate models, the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model, version 5 (CAM5), and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Atmosphere Model, version 3 (AM3). We also developed the turbulence parameterization used in CAM5, and have versions of both schemes for the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) regional modeling system.

With Pier Siebesma of KNMI, Netherlands, I am co-chair of the GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS), an international project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that organizes carefully controlled comparisons of observed cloud systems with simulations by the world's leading weather forecast and climate models and cloud-resolving models. GCSS has led to significant improvement in the representation of clouds and their contribution to global energy balance in many leading forecast and climate models.

With Minghua Zhang of Stony Brook, I am also co-leading a joint subproject of GCSS and the Cloud Feedbacks Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) to use a column-oriented approach to compare subtropical boundary layer cloud feedbacks on climate change between single column versions of climate models and large-eddy simulation models. This is called the CFMIP-GCSS Intercomparison of LES and Single-Column Models (CGILS). I will be lead author for the cloud feedbacks section of the IPCC Fifth Assessment WG1 report.

Research interests

• Atmospheric convection
• Boundary layer cloudiness
• Numerical modelling

Vitae in pdf format.

Publications.

For most publications, clicking on the authors will take you to an electronic abstract from the journal publisher. Subscribers can download an 'authoritative' copy of articles from that link. As a convenience to others, pdf copies of the full text of these articles for your personal noncommercial use are also included below. For a few publications which do not have an electronic abstract, clicking on the author will give you the full article. These are copyrighted by the publisher. For American Meteorological Society, these are posted subject to the AMS disclaimer, which you should read before downloading them. Other publishers have similar disclaimers.

• Prior to 2010.
• Fletcher, J. K., and C. S. Bretherton, 2010: Evaluating boundary-layer based mass flux closures using cloud-resolving model simulations of deep convection. J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 2212-2225. Full text copy.
• Zhang, M., C. S. Bretherton, M. Webb, and P. Siebesma, 2010: CFMIP-GCSS Intercomparison of Large Eddy Models and Single Column Models (CGILS). GEWEX News, 20, #2 (May).
• Uchida, J., C. S, Bretherton, and P. N. Blossey, 2010: The sensitivity of stratocumulus-capped mixed layers to cloud droplet concentration: Do LES and mixed-layer models agree? Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 4097-4109.
• Wyant, M. C., and coauthors, 2010: The PreVOCA Experiment: Modeling the lower troposphere in the Southeast Pacific. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 4757-4774.
• Bretherton, C. S., R. Wood, R. C. George., D. Leon, G. Allen, and X. Zheng, 2010: Southeast Pacific stratocumulus clouds, precipitation and boundary layer structure sampled along 20 S during VOCALS-REx. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 10639-10654.
• Bretherton, C. S, J. Uchida, and P. N. Blossey, 2010: Slow manifolds and multiple equilibria in stratocumulus-capped boundary layers. Journal of Advancing Modeling Earth Systems, 2, Art.#14, 20 pp.
• Schlemmer L., C. Hohenegger, J. Schmidli, C. S. Bretherton, and C. Schär, 2011: An idealized cloud-resolving framework for the study of midlatitude diurnal convection over land. J. Atmos. Sci., 68, 1041-1057. Full text copy.
• Wood, R., C. S. Bretherton, Mechoso, C. R., and coauthors, 2011: The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx): goals, platforms, and field operations. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 627-654.
• Wood, R., C. S. Bretherton, D. Leon, A. D. Clarke, P. Zuidema, G. Allen, and H. Coe, 2011: An aircraft case study of the spatial transition from closed to open mesoscale cellular convection over the Southeast Pacific. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 2341-2370.
• Allen, G., H. Coe, A. Clarke, and coauthors, 2011: Southeast Pacific atmospheric composition and variability sampled along 20 S during VOCALS-REx. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5237-5262.
• Jones, C. R., C. S. Bretherton, and D. Leon, 2011: Coupled vs. decoupled boundary layers in VOCALS-REx. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 7143-7153.
• Hohenegger, C., and C. S. Bretherton, 2011: Simulating deep convection with a shallow convection scheme. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 10389-10406.
• Berner, A. H., C. S. Bretherton, and R. Wood, 2011: Large-eddy simulation of mesoscale dynamics and entrainment around a pocket of open cells observed in VOCALS RF06. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 10525-10540.
• Wyant, M. C., C. S. Bretherton, P. N. Blossey, and M. Khairoutdinov, 2011: Fast cloud adjustment to increasing CO2 in a superparameterized climate model. J. Adv. Model Earth Syst., submitted.
• Liu, X., and coauthors, 2011: Toward a minimal representation of aerosol direct and indirect effects: Model description and evaluation. Geosci. Model. Dev. Discuss., 4, 3485-3598.

For Browsing

• The GEWEX Cloud System Study, GCSS, is an international collaborative effort to improve parameterizations of cloud processes in global forecast and climate models using detailed process-level intercomparison cases incorporating observations and high-resolution models of cloud systems. Since its founding in 1993, GCSS has been instrumental in testing and development of moist physics parameterizations in the world's leading weather forecast and climate models, and has also advanced the physics used in cloud-resolving models.
• VOCALS, the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study, is a subprogram of the International CLIVAR VAMOS (Variability of the American MOnsoon Systems). VOCALS coordinates modeling, data analysis, and field activities between researchers across the Americas studying Southeast Pacific upper ocean dynamics and boundary layer clouds and their role in the tropical coupled ocean-atmosphere-land climate system, in order to improve the forecasting skill of weather and climate prediction models on all timescales, including the REx field project in Oct.-Nov. 2008 off the north coast of Chile which included 5 aircraft, two ships and three land sites.
• East Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) integrated datasets for modelers (SCM and LES/CRM) :
  • EPIC 2001 stratocumulus cruise integrated dataset (netcdf file of 3 hourly data over a 6-day period, 16-21 October 2001, giving forcings and observed cloud/boundary layer characteristics useful for driving a SCM or LES). Beautifully documents a fairly well-mixed subtropical Sc regime with a strong and regular diurnal cycle of cloud thickness and early-morning drizzle.  Compiled by Peter Caldwell, Univ. of Washington, based on data from NOAA/ETL, U. Washington, ECMWF, and NCEP. Caldwell and Bretherton (2009) present a comparison of an LES with this dataset.
  • EPIC ITCZ integrated dataset. Synthesizes key in-situ, sonde and surface-based remote sensing data (including scanning Doppler precipitation radar and vertically pointing cloud radar) from the Ron Brown deployment at 10N 95W in the E Pacific ITCZ for 12 Sept.-1 Oct 2001 with relevant satellite and reanalysis datasets and advective forcing estimates. An excellent dataset for comparison for CRM and SCM of deep tropical oceanic convection, including several easterly wave passages and strong time-mean precipitation of 15-20 mm/d. Compiled by Peter Blossey, Univ. of Washington, based on data from NOAA/ETL, Colo. State Univ., U. Miami, ECMWF, and NCEP.
• UW ASTEX (The Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment 1992) anonymous ftp archive (click on README file for more info) and the ASTEX Lagrangian modellers data set.