An evaluation of the surface radiation budget over North America for a suite of regional climate models against surface station observations (original) (raw)

Abstract

Components of the surface radiation budget (SRB) [incoming shortwave radiation (ISR) and downwelling longwave radiation (DLR)] and cloud cover are assessed for three regional climate models (RCM) forced by analysed boundary conditions, over North America. We present a comparison of the mean seasonal and diurnal cycles of surface radiation between the three RCMs, and surface observations. This aids in identifying in what type of sky situation simulated surface radiation budget errors arise. We present results for total-sky conditions as well as overcast and clear-sky conditions separately. Through the analysis of normalised frequency distributions we show the impact of varying cloud cover on the simulated and observed surface radiation budget, from which we derive observed and model estimates of surface cloud radiative forcing. Surface observations are from the NOAA SURFRAD network. For all models DLR all-sky biases are significantly influenced by cloud-free radiation, cloud emissivity and cloud cover errors. Simulated cloud-free DLR exhibits a systematic negative bias during cold, dry conditions, probably due to a combination of omission of trace gas contributions to the DLR and a poor treatment of the water vapor continuum at low water vapor concentrations. Overall, models overestimate ISR all-sky in summer, which is primarily linked to an underestimate of cloud cover. Cloud-free ISR is relatively well simulated by all RCMs. We show that cloud cover and cloud-free ISR biases can often compensate to result in an accurate total-sky ISR, emphasizing the need to evaluate the individual components making up the total simulated SRB.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the grant provided by the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, grant number 61209 which funded the Canadian Regional Climate Modeling and Diagnostics network.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal, Ouranos, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B9, Canada
   Marko Markovic, Colin G. Jones, Katja Winger & Danahé Paquin-Ricard
2. Recherche en Prévision Numérique, Meteorological Research Division, 2121 Route Transcanadienne, Dorval, QC, H9P 1J3, Canada
   Paul A. Vaillancourt
3. Consortium Ouranos, 550 Sherbrooke West, 19th floor, West Tower, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B9, Canada
   Dominique Paquin

Authors

1. Marko Markovic
2. Colin G. Jones
3. Paul A. Vaillancourt
4. Dominique Paquin
5. Katja Winger
6. Danahé Paquin-Ricard

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Correspondence toColin G. Jones.

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Markovic, M., Jones, C.G., Vaillancourt, P.A. et al. An evaluation of the surface radiation budget over North America for a suite of regional climate models against surface station observations.Clim Dyn 31, 779–794 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0378-6

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• Received: 05 June 2007
• Accepted: 30 January 2008
• Published: 27 February 2008
• Issue date: December 2008
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-008-0378-6

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