A multi-diagnostic approach to cloud evaluation

Williams, Keith D.; Bodas-Salcedo, Alejandro

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2547-2017

Articles | Volume 10, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2547-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2547-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 10, issue 7

Model evaluation paper

|

06 Jul 2017

Model evaluation paper |

| 06 Jul 2017

A multi-diagnostic approach to cloud evaluation

Keith D. Williams and Alejandro Bodas-Salcedo

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2547-2017-supplement

Data sets

CERES EBAF data NASA https://doi.org/10.5067/Terra+Aqua/CERES/EBAF-TOA_L3B.002.8

CALIPSO-GOCCP data IPSL ClimServ Data Centre http://climserv.ipsl.polytechnique.fr/cfmip-obs.html

CloudSat data CloudSat Data Processing Center http://www.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/

Model code and software

Versions 8.6 (for GA6) and 10.3 (for GA7) MetOffice http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/collaboration/um-collaboration

Short summary

The simulation of cloud is problematic for general circulation models. As clouds come in differing types, areal coverage, altitude and reflectivity, it is possible for a model to appear to perform well against a particular observational dataset through a compensation of errors. Here we evaluate a model's cloud simulation against a range of observational datasets, globally and across weather–climate timescales, in order to provide a comprehensive assessment.