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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 110,
D15S03,
25 PP., 2005
doi:10.1029/2004JD005119
Simulations of midlatitude frontal clouds by single-column and cloud-resolving models during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement March 2000 cloud intensive operational period
Atmospheric Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA
Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Atmospheric Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York, USA
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Atmospheric Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Environmental Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Uplan, New York, USA
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Atmospheric Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA
Department of Meteorology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Environmental Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Uplan, New York, USA
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Climate and Radiation Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Climate and Radiation Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York, USA
Department of Geological and Atmospheric Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA
Atmospheric Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
This study quantitatively evaluates the overall performance of nine single-column models (SCMs) and four cloud-resolving models (CRMs) in simulating a strong midlatitude frontal cloud system taken from the spring 2000 Cloud Intensive Observational Period at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site. The evaluation data are an analysis product of constrained variational analysis of the ARM observations and the cloud data collected from the ARM ground active remote sensors (i.e., cloud radar, lidar, and laser ceilometers) and satellite retrievals. Both the selected SCMs and CRMs can typically capture the bulk characteristics of the frontal system and the frontal precipitation. However, there are significant differences in detailed structures of the frontal clouds. Both CRMs and SCMs overestimate high thin cirrus clouds before the main frontal passage. During the passage of a front with strong upward motion, CRMs underestimate middle and low clouds while SCMs overestimate clouds at the levels above 765 hPa. All CRMs and some SCMs also underestimated the middle clouds after the frontal passage. There are also large differences in the model simulations of cloud condensates owing to differences in parameterizations; however, the differences among intercompared models are smaller in the CRMs than the SCMs. In general, the CRM-simulated cloud water and ice are comparable with observations, while most SCMs underestimated cloud water. SCMs show huge biases varying from large overestimates to equally large underestimates of cloud ice. Many of these model biases could be traced to the lack of subgrid-scale dynamical structure in the applied forcing fields and the lack of organized mesoscale hydrometeor advections. Other potential reasons for these model errors are also discussed in the paper.
Received 11 June 2004; accepted 10 September 2004; published 25 March 2005.
Citation: (2005), Simulations of midlatitude frontal clouds by single-column and cloud-resolving models during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement March 2000 cloud intensive operational period, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D15S03, doi:10.1029/2004JD005119.
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