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.
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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
A multi-diagnostic approach to cloud evaluation
Keith D. Williams
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
Alejandro Bodas-Salcedo
Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
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Recent global climate models simulate historical global mean surface temperatures which are too cold, possibly to due to excessive aerosol cooling. This raises questions about the models' ability to simulate important climate processes and reduces confidence in future climate predictions. We present a new version of the UK Earth System Model, which has an improved aerosols simulation and a historical temperature record. Interestingly, the long-term response to CO2 remains largely unchanged.
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Walters, D., Boutle, I., Brooks, M., Melvin, T., Stratton, R., Vosper, S., Wells, H., Williams, K., Wood, N., Allen, T., Bushell, A., Copsey, D., Earnshaw, P., Edwards, J., Gross, M., Hardiman, S., Harris, C., Heming, J., Klingaman, N., Levine, R., Manners, J., Martin, G., Milton, S., Mittermaier, M., Morcrette, C., Riddick, T., Roberts, M., Sanchez, C., Selwood, P., Stirling, A., Smith, C., Suri, D., Tennant, W., Vidale, P. L., Wilkinson, J., Willett, M., Woolnough, S., and Xavier, P.: The Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 6.0/6.1 and JULES Global Land 6.0/6.1 configurations, Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 1487–1520, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-1487-2017, 2017a.
Walters, D. N., Baran, A., Boutle, I., Brooks, M. E., Furtado, K., Hill, P., Lock, A., Manners, J., Morcrette, C., Mulchay, J., Sanchez, C., Smith, C., Stratton, R., Tennant, W., Van Weverberg, K., Vosper, S., Ashton, H., Essery, R., Gedney, N., Williams, K. D., and Zerroukat, M.: The Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 7.0/7.1 and JULES Global Land 7.0 configurations, Geosci. Model Dev., in preparation, 2017b.
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Williams, K. D. and Brooks, M. E.: Initial tendencies of cloud regimes in the Met Office Unified Model, J. Clim., 21, 833–840, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1900.1, 2008.
Williams, K. D. and Tselioudis, G.: GCM intercomparison of global cloud regimes: Present-day evaluation and climate change response, Clim. Dynam., 29, 231–250, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-007-0232-2, 2007.
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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.
The simulation of cloud is problematic for general circulation models. As clouds come in...