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A Regime‐Based Investigation Into the Errors of CMIP6 Simulated Cloud Radiative Effects Using Satellite Observations
Author(s) -
Miao Hao,
Wang Xiaocong,
Liu Yimin,
Wu Guoxiong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2021gl095399
Subject(s) - longwave , environmental science , shortwave , cloud cover , radiative transfer , cloud top , satellite , cloud computing , atmospheric sciences , liquid water path , meteorology , liquid water content , cloud height , remote sensing , precipitation , physics , computer science , geology , optics , astronomy , operating system
Using a variety of CloudSat/CALIPSO products, this study synergistically examines the performance of clouds and their radiative effects (CRE) for models participating in CMIP6. Results show virtually all models overestimate the net cooling effect of clouds, which is caused by the overestimation of shortwave CRE and the underestimation of longwave CRE. By dividing clouds into regimes jointly sorted by cloud water path and cloud cover, we found models commonly underestimate the relative frequency of occurrence (RFO) for clouds that are geometrically thick, and the bias of RFO is dominant over that of within‐regime CRE in an error decomposition of total CRE. This results in underestimations of CRE in geometrically thick clouds, which are partially offset by overestimations in the remaining cloud regimes, leading to the globally averaged CRE being less biased. The consideration of regime‐based CRE gives important information that could be used for correction of cloud parameterization in models.