Item

Abstract

In this manuscript, we present an intercomparison of three different aerosol microphysics modules that are implemented in the climate model ECHAM5. The comparison was done between the modal aerosol microphysics module M7, which is currently the default aerosol microphysical core in ECHAM5, and two sectional aerosol microphysics modules SALSA, and SAM2. A detailed aerosol microphycical model MAIA was used as a reference model to evaluate the results of the aerosol microphysics modules with respect to sulphate aerosol.

The ability of the modules to describe the development of the aerosol size distribution was tested in a zero dimensional framework. We evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches under different types of stratospheric conditions. Also, we present an improved method for the time integration in M7 and study how the setup of the modal approach affects the evolution of the aerosol size distribution.

Intercomparison simulations were carried out with varying SO2 concentrations from background conditions to extreme values arising from stratospheric injections of large volcanic eruptions. Under background conditions, all microphysics modules were in good agreement describing the shape of the size distribution but the scatter between the model results increased with increasing SO2 concentrations. In particular for the volcanic case the module setups have to be redefined to be applied in global model simulations capturing respective sulphate particle formation events.

Summarized, this intercomparison serves as a review on the different aerosol microphysics modules which are currently available for the climate model ECHAM5.