Faculty

Xiaoqing Wu

Associate Professor
Cloud and Climate System Modeling

3011 Agronomy
Dept. of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
515-294-9872
Email: wuxq@iastate.edu

Education
Ph.D. UCLA , 1992
M.S. Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1986
B.S. Hangzhou University, 1983

Research
My research interests include diagnostic, theoretical, and numerical modeling studies to understand fundamental physical processes of convection-cloud-radiation interaction and improve their representation in general circulation models (GCMs) for predicting future climate. Studying and modeling of clouds are motivated by the profound effects of clouds on the global radiation budget and surface temperature, and the need for improved climate models and data for policy makers to determine safe levels of greenhouse gases for the Earth system. Convection and clouds affect atmospheric temperature, moisture and wind through the heat of condensation and evaporation and through redistributions of heat, moisture and momentum. Clouds strongly affect the planetary energy budget and surface temperature through the reflection of sunlight, the absorption of infrared radiation from the surface and the emission of radiation to the surface as part of greenhouse effect. Since individual clouds have a spatial scale of less than 10 km that is much smaller than the conventional grid size of several hundred kilometers in climate and weather prediction models, they must be quantitatively formulated in terms of resolved variables in the prognostic equations of temperature, moisture and wind. Deriving such formulations for convection and clouds has been a major challenge for the climate modeling community due to the lack of observations of cloud and microphysical properties. To address this problem, my collaborators at NCAR and I have developed a cloud-resolving model (CRM) which resolves individual clouds but covers a large horizontal domain to generate cloud-scale datasets. The diagnostic and theoretical studies applying the high-resolution datasets generated by the CRM have lead to the improved representation of convection and cloud-radiation interaction in the climate models.

Research Projects

Wu, X., and X.-Z. Liang (Co-PI), 2002-2006: Application of Seasonal CRM Integrations to Develop Statistics and Improved GCM Parameterization of Subgrid Cloud-Radiation Interactions. DOE/ARM.

Wu, X., G.J. Zhang (Co-PI), and R.W. Arritt (Co-I), 2004-2007: Evaluating the representation and impact of convective momentum transport in CCSM atmosphere model. DOE/CCPP.

Teaching
Atmosperic Physics I (Mteor 341)
Atmosperic Physics II (Mteor 342)
Atmosperic Physics (Mteor 542)

Selected Refereed Papers
Wu, X., and X.-Z. Liang, Effect of subgrid cloud-radiation interaction on climate simulations. Geophys. Res. Lett., submitted, 08/2005.

Wu, X., and X.-Z. Liang, Effects of cloud distributions on radiative flux and heating rate in the cloud-resolving model simulation over the ARM SGP. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc.,submitted, 05/2005.

Grabowski, W.W., X. Wu, and Co-authors, Daytime convective development over land: A model intercomparison based on LBA observations. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., under second review, 2005.

Wu, X., and S. Guimond, 2005: Two- and three-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulations of the mesoscale enhancement of surface heat fluxes by precipitating deep convection. J. Climate, in press.

Wu, X., and X.-Z. Liang, 2005: Radiative effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity and vertical overlap identified from a month-long cloud-resolving simulation. J. Atmos. Sci., in press.

Liang, X.-Z., and X. Wu, 2005: Evaluation of a GCM subgrid cloud-radiation interaction parameterization using cloud-resolving model simulations. Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L06801, doi:10.1029/2004GL022301.

Xu, K.-M., X. Wu, and Co-authors, 2005: Modeling springtime shallow frontal clouds with cloud-resolving and single-column models, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D15S04,doi:10.1029/2004JD005153.

Xie, S., X. Wu, and Co-authors, 2005: Simulations of midlatitude frontal clouds by SCMs and CRMs during the ARM March 2000 cloud IOP. J. Geophys. Res., 110, D15S03, doi:10.1029/2004JD005119.

Publications