Observationally based evaluation of NWP reanalyses on cloud vertical properties and their link to atmospheric radiation estimation over the Southern Great Plains

 

Author

Wei Wu — NOAA National Ocean Service

Category

Cloud Properties

Description

Cloud vertical properties (e.g., cloud top/base height) are critical to the estimation of atmospheric radiation. For understanding the linkage between model biases on cloud vertical properties and model biases on estimated atmospheric radiation, we use available reanalyses (e.g., ERA-Interim, NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis I, NCEP/DOE Reanalysis II, MERRA, and NARR) to first investigate the model biases on the cloud properties and estimated atmospheric radiation, by using the observations from the U. S. Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. After that, the relationships between the model biases are examined. Connections to the common meteorological variables (e.g., temperature and relative humidity) are also discussed.