TY - RPRT
AU - Richard Forbes
AU - O. Stiller
AU - S. Di Michele
AU - J. Delanoë
AB - The current space-borne radar and lidar onboard the CloudSat and CALIPSO satellite missions provide an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the representation of clouds and precipitation in global atmospheric models and demonstrate the utility of such observations for improvement of NWP and climate models. At ECMWF, the IFS global forecast model is used across a range of resolutions for operational medium-range Numerical Weather Prediction, seasonal forecasting and re-analysis, and appropriate parametrizations are vital for representing the hydrological, radiative and dynamical impacts of cloud and precipitation. This report describes a first evaluation of the ECMWF IFS model with observations from the CloudSat radar and CALIPSO lidar. Different aspects of the model cloud and precipitation fields are investigated with a focus on regional and regime-based statistical comparisons to assess the model and potential improvements to the representation of physical processes. Many of the problems of model-observation comparison due to the different spatial scales in the observations and the model, differences between the parameters observed and prognosed by the model, and uncertainties in the observations are explored, with relevance to both the current active radar/lidar satellite instruments and future missions such as EarthCARE.
BT - WP-2100 Report for ESA contract 1-5576/07/NL/CB: Project QuARL - Quantitative Assessment of the Operational Value of Space-Borne Radar and Lidar Measurements of Cloud and Aerosol Profiles
C1 - Research
CY - Shinfield Park, Reading
DA - 12/2009
LA - eng
M1 - 2009:WP-2100 contract 1-5576/07/NL/CB
N2 - The current space-borne radar and lidar onboard the CloudSat and CALIPSO satellite missions provide an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the representation of clouds and precipitation in global atmospheric models and demonstrate the utility of such observations for improvement of NWP and climate models. At ECMWF, the IFS global forecast model is used across a range of resolutions for operational medium-range Numerical Weather Prediction, seasonal forecasting and re-analysis, and appropriate parametrizations are vital for representing the hydrological, radiative and dynamical impacts of cloud and precipitation. This report describes a first evaluation of the ECMWF IFS model with observations from the CloudSat radar and CALIPSO lidar. Different aspects of the model cloud and precipitation fields are investigated with a focus on regional and regime-based statistical comparisons to assess the model and potential improvements to the representation of physical processes. Many of the problems of model-observation comparison due to the different spatial scales in the observations and the model, differences between the parameters observed and prognosed by the model, and uncertainties in the observations are explored, with relevance to both the current active radar/lidar satellite instruments and future missions such as EarthCARE.
PB - ECMWF
PP - Shinfield Park, Reading
PY - 2009
T2 - WP-2100 Report for ESA contract 1-5576/07/NL/CB: Project QuARL - Quantitative Assessment of the Operational Value of Space-Borne Radar and Lidar Measurements of Cloud and Aerosol Profiles
T3 - ESA Contract Report
TI - Validation of cloud parametrization
ER -