| 1. |
- Teixeira, J., et al.
(författare)
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Tropical and Subtropical Cloud Transitions in Weather and Climate Prediction Models : The GCSS/WGNE Pacific Cross-Section Intercomparison (GPCI)
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Climate. - 0894-8755 .- 1520-0442. ; 24:20, s. 5223-5256
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A model evaluation approach is proposed in which weather and climate prediction models are analyzed along a Pacific Ocean cross section, from the stratocumulus regions off the coast of California, across the shallow convection dominated trade winds, to the deep convection regions of the ITCZ-the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Cloud System Study/Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (GCSS/WGNE) Pacific Cross-Section Intercomparison (GPCI). The main goal of GPCI is to evaluate and help understand and improve the representation of tropical and subtropical cloud processes in weather and climate prediction models. In this paper, a detailed analysis of cloud regime transitions along the cross section from the subtropics to the tropics for the season June-July-August of 1998 is presented. This GPCI study confirms many of the typical weather and climate prediction model problems in the representation of clouds: underestimation of clouds in the stratocumulus regime by most models with the corresponding consequences in terms of shortwave radiation biases; overestimation of clouds by the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) in the deep tropics (in particular) with the corresponding impact in the outgoing longwave radiation; large spread between the different models in terms of cloud cover, liquid water path and shortwave radiation; significant differences between the models in terms of vertical cross sections of cloud properties (in particular), vertical velocity, and relative humidity. An alternative analysis of cloud cover mean statistics is proposed where sharp gradients in cloud cover along the GPCI transect are taken into account. This analysis shows that the negative cloud bias of some models and ERA-40 in the stratocumulus regions [as compared to the first International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP)] is associated not only with lower values of cloud cover in these regimes, but also with a stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition that occurs too early along the trade wind Lagrangian trajectory. Histograms of cloud cover along the cross section differ significantly between models. Some models exhibit a quasi-bimodal structure with cloud cover being either very large (close to 100%) or very small, while other models show a more continuous transition. The ISCCP observations suggest that reality is in-between these two extreme examples. These different patterns reflect the diverse nature of the cloud, boundary layer, and convection parameterizations in the participating weather and climate prediction models.
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| 2. |
- Birch, C. E., et al.
(författare)
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Modelling atmospheric structure, cloud and their response to CCN in the central Arctic : ASCOS case studies
- 2012
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 12:7, s. 3419-3435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Observations made during late summer in the central Arctic Ocean, as part of the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), are used to evaluate cloud and vertical temperature structure in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM). The observation period can be split into 5 regimes; the first two regimes had a large number of frontal systems, which were associated with deep cloud. During the remainder of the campaign a layer of low-level cloud occurred, typical of central Arctic summer conditions, along with two periods of greatly reduced cloud cover. The short-range operational NWP forecasts could not accurately reproduce the observed variations in near-surface temperature. A major source of this error was found to be the temperature-dependant surface albedo parameterisation scheme. The model reproduced the low-level cloud layer, though it was too thin, too shallow, and in a boundary-layer that was too frequently well-mixed. The model was also unable to reproduce the observed periods of reduced cloud cover, which were associated with very low cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations (< 1 cm(-3)). As with most global NWP models, the MetUM does not have a prognostic aerosol/cloud scheme but uses a constant CCN concentration of 100 cm(-3) over all marine environments. It is therefore unable to represent the low CCN number concentrations and the rapid variations in concentration frequently observed in the central Arctic during late summer. Experiments with a single-column model configuration of the MetUM show that reducing model CCN number concentrations to observed values reduces the amount of cloud, increases the near-surface stability, and improves the representation of both the surface radiation fluxes and the surface temperature. The model is shown to be sensitive to CCN only when number concentrations are less than 10-20 cm(-3).
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| 3. |
- Caballero, Francisco, et al.
(författare)
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Birth and Death of Human beta-Cells in Pancreases From Cadaver Donors, Autopsies, Surgical Specimens, and Islets Transplanted Into Mice
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cell Transplantation. - 0963-6897 .- 1555-3892. ; 23:2, s. 139-151
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is great interest in the potential of the human endocrine pancreas for regeneration by beta-cell replication or neogenesis. Our aim was to explore this potential in adult human pancreases and in both islet and exocrine tissue transplanted into mice. The design was to examine pancreases obtained from cadaver donors, autopsies, and fresh surgical specimens and compare these findings with those obtained from islet and duct tissue grafted into the kidney. Islets and exocrine tissue were transplanted into normoglycemic ICR-SCID mice and studied 4 and 14 weeks later. beta-Cell replication, as assessed by double staining for insulin and Ki67, was 0.22 +/- 0.03% at 4 weeks and 0.13 +/- 0.03% at 14 weeks. In contrast, no evidence of beta-cell replication could be found in 11 cadaver donor and 10 autopsy pancreases. However, Ki67 staining of beta-cells in frozen sections obtained at surgery was comparable to that found in transplanted islets. Evidence for neogenesis in transplanted pancreatic exocrine tissue was supported by finding beta-cells within the duct epithelium and the presence of cells double stained for insulin and cytokeratin 19 (CK19). However, beta-cells within the ducts never constituted more than 1% of the CK19-positive cells. With confocal microscopy, 7 of 12 examined cells expressed both markers, consistent with a neogeneic process. Mice with grafts containing islet or exocrine tissue were treated with various combinations of exendin-4, gastrin, and epidermal growth factor; none increased beta-cell replication or stimulated neogenesis. In summary, human beta-cells replicate at a low level in islets transplanted into mice and in surgical pancreatic frozen sections, but rarely in cadaver donor or autopsy pancreases. The absence of beta-cell replication in many adult cadaver or autopsy pancreases could, in part, be an artifact of the postmortem state. Thus, it appears that adult human beta-cells maintain a low level of turnover through replication and neogenesis.
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