DOI: 10.1002/jgrd.50121
论文题名: Comparison of observed and simulated tropical cumuliform clouds by CloudSat and NICAM
作者: Dodson J.B. ; Randall D.A. ; Suzuki K.
刊名: Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
ISSN: 21698996
出版年: 2013
卷: 118, 期: 4 起始页码: 1852
结束页码: 1867
语种: 英语
Scopus关键词: Atmospheric temperature
; Atmospheric thermodynamics
; Climate change
; Radar
; Reflection
; Tropics
; Convective clouds
; Deep convective clouds
; Environmental conditions
; Environmental variables
; Planetary boundary layers
; Radar reflectivities
; Sea surface temperature (SST)
; Total precipitable water
; Clouds
; atmospheric modeling
; boundary layer
; CloudSat
; convective cloud
; cumulonimbus
; numerical model
; precipitation (climatology)
; sea surface temperature
; thermodynamics
; tropical environment
; Sorbus aucuparia
英文摘要: We use CloudSat observations of boreal summer tropical ocean cumuliform clouds to evaluate the behavior of the non-parameterized cumuliform clouds in the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), with a particular emphasis on deep convective clouds (DCCs). The CloudSat cloud mask and radar reflectivity profiles for cumuliform clouds are sorted by large-scale environmental variables taken from the Aqua satellite and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The variables are total precipitable water (TPW), sea surface temperature (SST), and 500 hPa vertical velocity (W500), representing the dynamical and thermodynamical environment in which the clouds form. The sorted CloudSat profiles are then compared with NICAM profiles simulated with the Quickbeam CloudSat simulator. We first use the cloud mask to examine the transition between shallow clouds and deep clouds rooted in the planetary boundary layer. We find that NICAM simulates this transition fairly realistically. However, the transition occurs at slightly higher TPW and W500 values than the observations show. This may be indication of NICAM's inability to represent the formation of isolated narrow DCCs in marginally favorable environments. We then use simple metrics of the DCC-only radar reflectivity profiles (cloud top height, cloud top reflectivity gradient, maximum reflectivity) to quantitatively compare the observations with NICAM. The results show that while the observed and simulated results agree generally, there are some disagreements in key respects. There is disagreement on the sensitivity of cloud top height to environmental conditions and on the transition between shallow and deep clouds in environments marginally suitable for deep convection. CloudSat observations are used to evaluate tropical convective clouds in NICAMCloud variables are evaluated relative to changes in environmental variablesNICAM shows mostly realistic cloud behavior, with a few minor disagreements © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/63920
Appears in Collections: 影响、适应和脆弱性 气候减缓与适应
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作者单位: Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1371, United States; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
Recommended Citation:
Dodson J.B.,Randall D.A.,Suzuki K.. Comparison of observed and simulated tropical cumuliform clouds by CloudSat and NICAM[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres,2013-01-01,118(4)