Pierre Gentine , Mike Pritchard, Stephan Rasp, Gael Reinaudi, Galen Yacalis

Modeling and representing moist convection in coarse-scale climate models remains one of the main bottlenecks of current climate simulations. Many of the biases present with parameterized convection are strongly reduced when convection is explicitly resolved (in cloud resolving models at high spatial resolution ~ a kilometer or so). We here present a novel approach to convective parameterization based on machine learning over an aquaplanet with prescribed sea surface temperatures. The machine learning is trained over a superparameterized version of a climate model in which convection is resolved by an embedded 2D cloud resolving models. The machine learning representation of convection, called Cloud Brain (CBRAIN) replicates many of the convective features of the superparameterized climate model, yet reduces its inherent stochasticity. The approach presented here opens up a new possibility and a first step towards better representing convection in climate models and reducing uncertainties in climate predictions.