Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis
Clouds regulate the Earth's radiation budget, both by reflecting part of the incoming sunlight leading to cooling and by absorbing and emitting infrared radiation which tends to have a warming effect. Globally averaged, at the top of the atmosphere the cloud radiative effect is to cool the clim...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7414af29a1724e9bb9b4c7f6dc9a1497 2023-05-15T14:57:51+02:00 Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis M. Zygmuntowska T. Mauritsen J. Quaas L. Kaleschke 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 https://doaj.org/article/7414af29a1724e9bb9b4c7f6dc9a1497 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/6667/2012/acp-12-6667-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 https://doaj.org/article/7414af29a1724e9bb9b4c7f6dc9a1497 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 12, Iss 14, Pp 6667-6677 (2012) Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 article 2012 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 2022-12-31T02:58:46Z Clouds regulate the Earth's radiation budget, both by reflecting part of the incoming sunlight leading to cooling and by absorbing and emitting infrared radiation which tends to have a warming effect. Globally averaged, at the top of the atmosphere the cloud radiative effect is to cool the climate, while at the Arctic surface, clouds are thought to be warming. Here we compare a passive instrument, the AVHRR-based retrieval from CM-SAF, with recently launched active instruments onboard CloudSat and CALIPSO and the widely used ERA-Interim reanalysis. We find that in particular in winter months the three data sets differ significantly. While passive satellite instruments have serious difficulties, detecting only half the cloudiness of the modeled clouds in the reanalysis, the active instruments are in between. In summer, the two satellite products agree having monthly means of 70–80 percent, but the reanalysis are approximately ten percent higher. The monthly mean long- and shortwave components of the surface cloud radiative effect obtained from the ERA-Interim reanalysis are about twice that calculated on the basis of CloudSat's radar-only retrievals, while ground based measurements from SHEBA are in between. We discuss these differences in terms of instrument-, retrieval- and reanalysis characteristics, which differ substantially between the analyzed datasets. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 12 14 6667 6677 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 M. Zygmuntowska T. Mauritsen J. Quaas L. Kaleschke Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
topic_facet |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
description |
Clouds regulate the Earth's radiation budget, both by reflecting part of the incoming sunlight leading to cooling and by absorbing and emitting infrared radiation which tends to have a warming effect. Globally averaged, at the top of the atmosphere the cloud radiative effect is to cool the climate, while at the Arctic surface, clouds are thought to be warming. Here we compare a passive instrument, the AVHRR-based retrieval from CM-SAF, with recently launched active instruments onboard CloudSat and CALIPSO and the widely used ERA-Interim reanalysis. We find that in particular in winter months the three data sets differ significantly. While passive satellite instruments have serious difficulties, detecting only half the cloudiness of the modeled clouds in the reanalysis, the active instruments are in between. In summer, the two satellite products agree having monthly means of 70–80 percent, but the reanalysis are approximately ten percent higher. The monthly mean long- and shortwave components of the surface cloud radiative effect obtained from the ERA-Interim reanalysis are about twice that calculated on the basis of CloudSat's radar-only retrievals, while ground based measurements from SHEBA are in between. We discuss these differences in terms of instrument-, retrieval- and reanalysis characteristics, which differ substantially between the analyzed datasets. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. Zygmuntowska T. Mauritsen J. Quaas L. Kaleschke |
author_facet |
M. Zygmuntowska T. Mauritsen J. Quaas L. Kaleschke |
author_sort |
M. Zygmuntowska |
title |
Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
title_short |
Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
title_full |
Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
title_fullStr |
Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic Clouds and Surface Radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the ERA-Interim reanalysis |
title_sort |
arctic clouds and surface radiation – a critical comparison of satellite retrievals and the era-interim reanalysis |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 https://doaj.org/article/7414af29a1724e9bb9b4c7f6dc9a1497 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 12, Iss 14, Pp 6667-6677 (2012) |
op_relation |
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/6667/2012/acp-12-6667-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 https://doaj.org/article/7414af29a1724e9bb9b4c7f6dc9a1497 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-6667-2012 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
14 |
container_start_page |
6667 |
op_container_end_page |
6677 |
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1766329961496444928 |