Sensitivity of cloud structure and precipitation to cloud microphysics schemes in ICON and implications for global km-scale simulations

Sela, Maor; Weiss, Philipp; Stier, Philip

doi:10.5194/gmd-19-8191-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8191-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8191-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 17

Model evaluation paper

|

04 Sep 2026

Model evaluation paper |

| 04 Sep 2026

Sensitivity of cloud structure and precipitation to cloud microphysics schemes in ICON and implications for global km-scale simulations

Maor Sela, Philipp Weiss, and Philip Stier

Data sets

Data for "Sensitivity of cloud structure and precipitation to cloud microphysics schemes in ICON and implications for global km-scale simulations" Maor Sela https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17592760

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Model code and software

Code for "Sensitivity of cloud structure and precipitation to cloud microphysics schemes in ICON and implications for global km-scale simulations" Maor Sela et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17581721

Short summary

Clouds play a key role in Earth’s climate, but their representation in models remains uncertain. We use high-resolution simulations to examine how two statistical representations of cloud processes influence cloud and rain formation, and how these effects manifest in global models. We find that simulated clouds are highly sensitive to the chosen representation, and that the behaviour of features such as rain, fog, and ice becomes even more variable when moving to the global scale.