Chris Bretherton

breth@atmos.washington.edu

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 am on the governing board and a past director (2006-2011) of 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 Joao Teixeira of JPL, I co-lead a NOAA Climate Process Team on the Stratocumulus to Cumulus Transition, aimed at improving the representation of low cloud cover in the NCEP GFS/CFS forecast models and of low cloud and aerosol-related processes in the NCAR CESM. With Minghua Zhang of Stony Brook, I am co-leading a joint subproject of the Global Atmospheric System Study (GASS, an outgrowth 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 am a 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 2011.
Schlemmer L., C. Hohenegger, J. Schmidli, C. S. Bretherton, and C. Schaer, 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, 2012: Fast cloud adjustment to increasing CO2 in a superparameterized climate model. J. Adv. Model Earth Syst., VOL. 4, M05001, 14 pp., doi: 10.1029/2011MS000092.
Liu, X., and coauthors, 2012: Toward a minimal representation of aerosol direct and indirect effects: description and evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5. Geosci. Model. Dev., 5, 709-739.
Zhang, M., C. S. Bretherton, P. N. Blossey, Sandrine Bony, Florent Brient and Jean-Christophe Golaz, 2012: The CGILS experimental design to investigate low cloud feedbacks in general circulation models by using single-column and large-eddy simulation models. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 4, doi:10.1029/2012MS000182.
P. N. Blossey, C. S. Bretherton, M. Zhang, A. Cheng, S. Endo, T. Heus, Y. Liu, A. Lock, S. R. de Roode and K.-M. Xu, 2013: Marine low cloud sensitivity to an idealized climate change: The CGILS LES intercomparison. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 5, doi:10.1002/jame.20025.
Bretherton, C. S., P. N. Blossey and C. R. Jones, 2013: Mechanisms of marine low cloud sensitivity to idealized climate perturbations: A single-LES exploration extending the CGILS cases. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 5, doi:10.1002/jame.20019.
George, R. C., R. Wood, C. S. Bretherton, and G. Painter, 2013: Development and impact of hooks of high droplet concentration on remote southeast Pacific stratocumulus. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6305-6328.
Xiao, H., C. R. Mechoso, R. Sun, J. Han, H.-L. Pan, S. Park, C. Hannay, J. Teixeira, C. Bretherton, 2012: Diagnosis of the Marine Low Cloud Simulation in the NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS). Clim. Dyn., submitted 9/2012, revised 4/2013.
J. J. van der Dussen, S. R. de Roode, A. S. Ackerman, P. N. Blossey, C. S. Bretherton, M. J. Kurowski, A. P. Lock, R. A. J. Neggers, I. Sandu, and A. P. Siebesma, 2013: The GASS/EUCLIPSE Model Intercomparison of the Stratocumulus Transition as Observed During ASTEX: LES results. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., accepted 5/2013.
Pritchard, M. S., and C. S. Bretherton, 2013: Causal evidence that horizontal moisture advection is critical to the superparameterized Madden-Julian Oscillation. J. Climate, submitted 4/2013, revised 6/2013.
Fletcher, J. K., C. S. Bretherton, H. Xiao, R. Sun, and J. Han, 2013: Improving tropical and subtropical boundary layer cloudiness in the NCEP GFS. Weather and Forecasting, submitted 12/2012, revised 4/2013.
Zhang, M., and coauthors, 2013: CGILS: Results from the first phase of an international project to understand the physical mechanisms of low cloud feedbacks in general circulation models. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst, submitted 6/2013 (previously submitted to BAMS).
Berner, A. H., C. S. Bretherton, R. Wood, and A. Muhlbauer, 2013: Marine boundary layer cloud regimes and POC formation in an LES coupled to a bulk aerosol scheme. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discussions, 13, 18143-18203, doi:10.5194/acpd-13-18143-2013.
Bretherton, C. S., and P. N. Blossey, 2013: Low cloud reduction in a greenhouse-warmed climate: Results from Lagrangian LES of a subtropical marine cloudiness transition. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., submitted 7/2013.

For Browsing

The Global Atmospheric System Studies, GASS, is an international collaborative effort to improve parameterizations of cloud and boundary-layer processes in global forecast and climate models using detailed process-level intercomparison cases incorporating observations and high-resolution models of cloud systems. It started as the GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) in 1993, and in 2011 merged with the GEWEX Atmospheric Boundary Layer Study (GABLS) to form GASS. GASS and its ancestors have been instrumental in testing and development of moist physics parameterizations in the world's leading weather forecast and climate models, and have 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.