ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data - A new data product for climate modelers

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/2009BAMS2891.1· OSTI ID:976983

Xie, Shaocheng; McCoy, Renata; Klein, Stephen A; Cederwall, Richard T; Wiscombe, Warren J; Clothiaux, Eugene E; Gaustad, Krista L; Golaz, Jean-Christophe; Hall, Stefanie; Jensen, Michael; Johnson, Karen L; Lin, Yanluan; Long, Charles N; Mather, James H; McCord, Raymond A; McFarlane, Sally A; Palanisamy, Giriprakash; Shi, Yan; Turner, David D

This paper provides an overview of a new data product, named the Climate Modeling Best Estimate (CMBE) dataset, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program in order to better serve the need of climate model developers and encourage greater use of ARM data by modelers. The CMBE dataset contains those quantities that are often used in model evaluation and reflect unique ARM measurements of clouds and radiation (e.g., cloud occurrence, liquid water path, and surface radiative fluxes) from the highest quality data that ARM has for many years. The data are averaged over one hour period, which is comparable to a typical temporal resolution used in climate model output. They are currently available at five ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) sites located at the Southern Great Plains, North Slope of Alaska, and Tropic Western Pacific, and can be obtained from the ACRF data archive. The long-term continuous ARM data provide invaluable information to improve our understanding of the interaction between clouds and radiation and a solid observational basis for model validation and improvement. This paper shows some examples to demonstrate its unique values in studies of cloud processes, climate variability and change, and climate modeling. Plans for future enhancements of the CMBE product are also discussed.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 976983
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-66188; KP1704010
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 91; ISSN 0003-0007; ISSN BAMIAT
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATES
CLOUDS
EVALUATION
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
SIMULATION
VALIDATION
WATER