Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Evaluating Cloud Properties at Scott Base: Comparing Ceilometer Observations With ERA5, JRA55, and MERRA2 Reanalyses Using an Instrument Simulator

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Univ. of Canterbury, Christchurch (New Zealand)
  2. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)
  3. Univ. of Oslo (Norway)
+ Show Author Affiliations

This study compares CL51 ceilometer observations made at Scott Base, Antarctica, with statistics from the ERA5, JRA55, and MERRA2 reanalyses. To enhance the comparison we use a lidar instrument simulator to derive cloud statistics from the reanalyses which account for instrumental factors. The cloud occurrence in the three reanalyses is slightly overestimated above 3 km, but displays a larger underestimation below 3 km relative to observations. Unlike previous studies, we see no relationship between relative humidity and cloud occurrence biases, suggesting that the cloud biases do not result from the representation of moisture. We also show that the seasonal variation of cloud occurrence and cloud fraction, defined as the vertically integrated cloud occurrence, are small in both the observations and the reanalyses. We also examine the quality of the cloud representation for a set of weather states derived from ERA5 surface winds. The variability associated with grouping cloud occurrence based on weather state is much larger than the seasonal variation, highlighting weather state is a strong control of cloud occurrence. All the reanalyses continue to display underestimates below 3 km and overestimates above 3 km for each weather state. But the variability in ERA5 statistics matches the changes in the observations better than the other reanalyses. We also use a machine learning scheme to estimate the quantity of supercooled liquid water cloud from the ceilometer observations. Ceilometer low-level supercooled liquid water cloud occurrences are considerably larger than values derived from the reanalyses, further highlighting the poor representation of low-level clouds in the reanalyses.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
Deep South National Science Challenge; European Research Council (ERC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Contributing Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2513246
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 130; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union; WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (53)

Mixed-phase cloud radiative properties over Ross Island, Antarctica: The influence of various synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation regimes journal June 2014
Unique manifestations of mixed‐phase cloud microphysics over Ross Island and the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica journal March 2016
Evaluating and improving cloud phase in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 using spaceborne lidar observations: CAM Cloud Phase Evaluation with CALIPSO journal April 2016
Oceanic single‐layer warm clouds missed by the Cloud Profiling Radar as inferred from MODIS and CALIOP measurements journal November 2016
Cloud liquid water path and radiative feedbacks over the Southern Ocean: MIDLATITUDE FEEDBACKS journal October 2016
A twentieth century perspective on summer Antarctic pressure change and variability and contributions from tropical SSTs and ozone depletion journal October 2017
Artifacts in Century‐Length Atmospheric and Coupled Reanalyses Over Antarctica Due To Historical Data Availability journal January 2018
Cloud Properties Observed From the Surface and by Satellite at the Northern Edge of the Southern Ocean: SOUTHERN OCEAN CLOUDS journal January 2018
Validation of the diurnal cycles in atmospheric reanalyses over Antarctic sea ice: DIURNAL CYCLES IN REANALYSES journal May 2013
Climatology and recent increase of westerly winds over the Amundsen Sea derived from six reanalyses journal March 2012
Synoptic climatology of the Ross Ice Shelf and Ross Sea region of Antarctica: k -means clustering and validation : SYNOPTIC CLIMATE OF THE ROSS ICE SHELF AND ROSS SEA REGION, ANTARCTICA journal November 2013
Validation of eight atmospheric reanalyses in the Antarctic Peninsula region: Validation of Eight Atmospheric Reanalyses in the Antarctic Peninsula Region journal December 2015
The ERA5 global reanalysis journal June 2020
A scheme for predicting layer clouds and their water content in a general circulation model journal January 1990
An assessment of recent global atmospheric reanalyses for Antarctic near surface air temperature journal September 2019
Estimate of the global distribution of stratiform supercooled liquid water clouds using the LITE lidar: SUPERCOOLED CLOUDS DETECTED BY LITE journal March 2004
Global distribution of cirrus clouds from CloudSat/Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) measurements journal January 2008
CloudSat mission: Performance and early science after the first year of operation journal January 2008
Combined CloudSat-CALIPSO-MODIS retrievals of the properties of ice clouds journal January 2010
Seasonal variations of Antarctic clouds observed by CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites: ANTARCTIC CLOUDS, CLOUDSAT AND CALIPSO journal February 2012
Tropospheric clouds in Antarctica journal January 2012
Antarctic Cloud Macrophysical, Thermodynamic Phase, and Atmospheric Inversion Coupling Properties at McMurdo Station: I. Principal Data Processing and Climatology journal June 2018
Cluster‐Based Evaluation of Model Compensating Errors: A Case Study of Cloud Radiative Effect in the Southern Ocean journal March 2019
A New Method to Evaluate Reanalyses Using Synoptic Patterns: An Example Application in the Ross Sea/Ross Ice Shelf Region journal January 2020
Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models journal January 2020
Comparing Satellite‐ and Ground‐Based Observations of Cloud Occurrence Over High Southern Latitudes journal March 2021
The Contribution of Drifting Snow to Cloud Properties and the Atmospheric Radiative Budget Over Antarctica journal November 2021
Evaluation of the CAM6 Climate Model Using Cloud Observations at McMurdo Station, Antarctica journal August 2021
The Southern Ocean Radiative Bias, Cloud Compensating Errors, and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models journal November 2021
Evaluating EAMv2 Simulated High Latitude Clouds Using ARM Measurements in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres journal July 2023
Spurious Trends in High Latitude Southern Hemisphere Precipitation Observations journal March 2024
An Assessment of Southern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclones in ERA5 Using WindSat journal November 2023
Ship‐Based Observations and Climate Model Simulations of Cloud Phase Over the Southern Ocean journal May 2023
Strong control of Southern Ocean cloud reflectivity by ice-nucleating particles journal February 2018
The self-organizing map journal January 1990
The MODIS cloud products: algorithms and examples from terra journal February 2003
Hydrometeor Detection Using Cloudsat —An Earth-Orbiting 94-GHz Cloud Radar journal April 2008
Cloud Detection with MODIS. Part I: Improvements in the MODIS Cloud Mask for Collection 5 journal July 2008
An Analysis of Low-Level Jets in the Greater Ross Ice Shelf Region Based on Numerical Simulations journal November 2008
Simulation of Present-Day and Twenty-First-Century Energy Budgets of the Southern Oceans journal January 2010
Overview of the CALIPSO Mission and CALIOP Data Processing Algorithms journal November 2009
COSP: Satellite simulation software for model assessment journal August 2011
The Three-Dimensional Distribution of Clouds over the Southern Hemisphere High Latitudes journal November 2011
Major Characteristics of Southern Ocean Cloud Regimes and Their Effects on the Energy Budget journal October 2011
Advancing Polar Prediction Capabilities on Daily to Seasonal Time Scales journal September 2016
AWARE: The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment journal July 2020
Rain Reevaporation, Boundary Layer–Convection Interactions, and Pacific Rainfall Patterns in an AGCM journal December 2006
The Ability of MM5 to Simulate Ice Clouds: Systematic Comparison between Simulated and Measured Fluxes and Lidar/Radar Profiles at the SIRTA Atmospheric Observatory journal March 2006
The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) journal July 2017
On the Representation of High-Latitude Boundary Layer Mixed-Phase Cloud in the ECMWF Global Model journal September 2014
The JRA-55 Reanalysis: General Specifications and Basic Characteristics journal January 2015
ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present dataset January 2023
MERRA-2 inst3_3d_asm_Nv: 3d,3-Hourly,Instantaneous,Model-Level,Assimilation,Assimilated Meteorological Fields V5.12.4 dataset November 2015

Similar Records

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES