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The discovery of integrable $N=2$ supersymmetric Landau-Ginzburg theories whose chiral rings are fusion rings suggests a close connection between fusion rings, the related Landau-Ginzburg superpotentials, and $N=2$ quantum integrability. We examine this connection by finding the natural $SO(N)_K$ analogue of the construction that produced the superpotentials with $Sp(N)_K$ and $SU(N)_K$ fusion rings as chiral rings. The chiral rings of the new superpotentials are not directly the fusion rings of any conformal field theory, although they are natural quotients of the tensor subring of the $SO(N)_K$ fusion ring. The new superpotentials yield solvable (twisted $N=2$) topological field theories. We obtain the integer-valued correlation functions as sums of $SO(N)_K$ Verlinde dimensions by expressing the correlators as fusion residues. The $SO(2n+1)_{2k+1}$ and $SO(2k+1)_{2n+1}$ related topological Landau-Ginzburg theories are isomorphic, despite being defined via quite different superpotentials., Comment: 34 pages, BRX-TH-348

We find and analyze the Landau-Ginzburg potentials whose critical points determine chiral rings which are exactly the fusion rings of Sp(N)_{K} WZW models. The quasi-homogeneous part of the potential associated with Sp(N)_{K} is the same as the quasi-homogeneous part of that associated with SU(N+1)_{K}, showing that these potentials are different perturbations of the same Grassmannian potential. Twisted N=2 topological Landau-Ginzburg theories are derived from these superpotentials. The correlation functions, which are just the Sp(N)_{K} Verlinde dimensions, are expressed as fusion residues. We note that the Sp(N)_{K} and Sp(K)_{N} topological Landau-Ginzburg theories are identical, and that while the SU(N)_{K} and SU(K)_{N} topological Landau-Ginzburg models are not, they are simply related., Comment: 13 pages

Accurate climate and weather simulations must account for all relevant physical processes and their complex interactions. Each of these atmospheric, ocean, and land processes must be considered on an appropriate spatial and temporal scale, which leads these simulations to require a substantial computational burden. One especially critical physical process is the flow of solar and thermal radiant energy through the atmosphere, which controls planetary heating and cooling and drives the large-scale dynamics that moves energy from the tropics toward the poles. Radiation calculations are therefore essential for climate and weather simulations, but are themselves quite complex even without considering the effects of variable and inhomogeneous clouds. Clear-sky radiative transfer calculations have to account for thousands of absorption lines due to water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases, which are irregularly distributed across the spectrum and have shapes dependent on pressure and temperature. The line-by-line (LBL) codes that treat these details have a far greater computational cost than can be afforded by global models. Therefore, the crucial requirement for accurate radiation calculations in climate and weather prediction models must be satisfied by fast solar and thermal radiation parameterizations with a high level of accuracy that has been demonstrated through extensive comparisons with LBL codes. See attachment for continuation.

Ice clouds influence the climate system by changing the radiation budget and large-scale circulation. Therefore, climate models need to have an accurate representation of ice clouds and their radiative effects. In this paper, new broadband parameterizations for ice cloud bulk scattering properties are developed for severely roughened ice particles. The parameterizations are based on a general habit mixture that includes nine habits (droxtals, hollow/solid columns, plates, solid/hollow bullet rosettes, aggregate of solid columns, and small/large aggregates of plates). The scattering properties for these individual habits incorporate recent advances in light-scattering computations. The influence of ice particle surface roughness on the ice cloud radiative effect is determined through simulations with the Fu-Liou and the GCM version of the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTMG) codes and the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model (CAM, version 5.1). The differences in shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiative effect at both the top of the atmosphere and the surface are determined for smooth and severely roughened ice particles. While the influence of particle roughening on the single-scattering properties is negligible in the LW, the results indicate that ice crystal roughness can change the SW forcing locally by more than 10 W m(exp −2) over a range of effective diameters. The global-averaged SW cloud radiative effect due to ice particle surface roughness is estimated to be roughly 1-2 W m(exp −2). The CAM results indicate that ice particle roughening can result in a large regional SW radiative effect and a small but nonnegligible increase in the global LW cloud radiative effect.

The computer codes that calculate the energy budget of solar and thermal radiation in Global Climate Models (GCMs), our most advanced tools for predicting climate change, have to be computationally efficient in order to not impose undue computational burden to climate simulations. By using approximations to gain execution speed, these codes sacrifice accuracy compared to more accurate, but also much slower, alternatives. International efforts to evaluate the approximate schemes have taken place in the past, but they have suffered from the drawback that the accurate standards were not validated themselves for performance. The manuscript summarizes the main results of the first phase of an effort called "Continual Intercomparison of Radiation Codes" (CIRC) where the cases chosen to evaluate the approximate models are based on observations and where we have ensured that the accurate models perform well when compared to solar and thermal radiation measurements. The effort is endorsed by international organizations such as the GEWEX Radiation Panel and the International Radiation Commission and has a dedicated website (i.e., http://circ.gsfc.nasa.gov) where interested scientists can freely download data and obtain more information about the effort's modus operandi and objectives. In a paper published in the March 2010 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society only a brief overview of CIRC was provided with some sample results. In this paper the analysis of submissions of 11 solar and 13 thermal infrared codes relative to accurate reference calculations obtained by so-called "line-by-line" radiation codes is much more detailed. We demonstrate that, while performance of the approximate codes continues to improve, significant issues still remain to be addressed for satisfactory performance within GCMs. We hope that by identifying and quantifying shortcomings, the paper will help establish performance standards to objectively assess radiation code quality, and will guide the development of future phases of CIRC

The simulation of changes in the Earth's climate due to solar and thermal radiative processes with global climate models (GCMs) is highly complex, depending on the parameterization of a multitude of nonlinearly coupled physical processes. In contrast, the germ of global climate change, the radiative forcing from enhanced abundances of greenhouse gases, is relatively well understood. The impressive agreement between detailed radiation calculations and highly resolved spectral radiation measurements in the thermal infrared under cloudless conditions (see, for example, Fig. 1) instills confidence in our knowledge of the sources of gaseous absorption. That the agreement spans a broad range of temperature and humidity regimes using instruments mounted on surface, aircraft, and satellite platforms not only attests to our capability to accurately calculate radiative fluxes under present conditions, but also provides confidence in the spectroscopic basis for computation of fluxes under conditions that might characterize future global climate (e.g., radiative forcing). Alas, the computational costs of highly resolved spectral radiation calculations cannot be afforded presently in GCMs. Such calculations have instead been used as the foundation for approximations implemented in fast but generally less accurate algorithms performing the needed radiative transfer (RT) calculations in GCMs. Credible climate simulations by GCMs cannot be ensured without accurate solar and thermal radiative flux calculations under all types of sky conditions: pristine cloudless, aerosol-laden, and cloudy. The need for accuracy in RT calculations is not only important for greenhouse gas forcing scenarios, but is also profoundly needed for the robust simulation of many other atmospheric phenomena, such as convective processes.

CIRC aspires to be the successor to ICRCCM (Intercomparison of Radiation Codes in Climate Models). It is envisioned as an evolving and regularly updated reference source for GCM-type radiative transfer (RT) code evaluation with the principle goal to contribute in the improvement of RT parameterizations. CIRC is jointly endorsed by DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program and the GEWEX Radiation Panel (GRP). CIRC's goal is to provide test cases for which GCM RT algorithms should be performing at their best, i.e, well characterized clear-sky and homogeneous, overcast cloudy cases. What distinguishes CIRC from previous intercomparisons is that its pool of cases is based on observed datasets. The bulk of atmospheric and surface input as well as radiative fluxes come from ARM observations as documented in the Broadband Heating Rate Profile (BBHRP) product. BBHRP also provides reference calculations from AER's RRTM RT algorithms that can be used to select the most optimal set of cases and to provide a first-order estimate of our ability to achieve radiative flux closure given the limitations in our knowledge of the atmospheric state.

This paper describes a radiative transfer model developed to accurately predict the atmospheric radiant flux in both the infrared and the solar spectrum with a minimum of computational effort. We use a newly developed k-distribution model for both the thermal and solar parts of the spectrum. We employ a generalized two-stream approximation for the scattering by aerosol and clouds. To assess the accuracy of the model, the results are compared to other more detailed models for several standard cases in the solar and thermal spectrum. We perform several calculations focussing primarily on the question of absorption of solar radiation by gases and aerosols. We estimate the accuracy of the k-distribution to be approx. 1 W/sq m for the gaseous absorption in the solar spectrum. We estimate the accuracy of the two-stream method to be 3-12 W/sq m for the downward solar flux and 1-5 W/sq m for the upward solar flux at the top of atmosphere depending on the optical depth of the aerosol layer. We also show that the effect of ignoring aerosol absorption on the downward solar flux at the surface is 50 W/sq m for the TARFOX aerosol for an optical depth of 0.5 and 150 W/sq m for a highly absorbing mineral aerosol. Thus, we conclude that the uncertainty introduced by the aerosol solar radiative properties (and merely assuming some "representative" model) can be considerably larger than the error introduced by the use of a two-stream method.

This paper presents a radiative transfer model that has been developed to accurately predict the atmospheric radiant flux in both the infrared and the solar spectrum with a minimum of computational effort. The model is designed to be included in numerical climate models. To assess the accuracy of the model, the results are compared to other more detailed models for several standard cases in the solar and thermal spectrum. As the thermal spectrum has been treated in other publications, we focus here on the solar part of the spectrum. We perform several example calculations focussing on the question of absorption of solar radiation by gases and aerosols.

This paper presents a radiative transfer model that has been developed to accurately predict the atmospheric radiant flux in both the infrared and the solar spectrum with a minimum of computational effort. The model is designed to be included in numerical climate models To assess the accuracy of the model, the results are compared to other more detailed models for several standard cases in the solar and thermal spectrum. As the thermal spectrum has been treated in other publications, we focus here on the solar part of the spectrum. We perform several example calculations focussing on the question of absorption of solar radiation by gases and aerosols.

The demands of accurate predictions of radiative transfer for climate applications are well-documented. While much effort is being devoted to evaluating the accuracy of the GCM radiative transfer schemes, the problem of developing accurate, computationally efficient schemes for climate models still remains. This paper discusses our efforts in developing accurate and fast computational methods for global and regional climate models.