Science Use Cases Example 6: Evaluation of NCAR CAM5 model with MODIS total cloud fraction

Services Used: Difference Plot of Two Variables

Datasets used: NCAR CAM Total Cloud Fraction and MODIS Total Cloud Fraction

Scientific Highlights: The CAM5 model overall does a fairly decent job at simulating total cloud cover, though simulates too few clouds especially near and offshore of the eastern ocean basins (Atlantic, Pacific, and Australian) where low clouds are dominant, and also further away in the trade cumulus/shallow cumulus regimes. Some of these differences were documented in Kubar et al. (2015), and also tend to represent some biases found in climate models.

Reference: Kubar, T. L., G. L. Stephens, M. Lebsock, and V. E. Larson, 2015: Regional assessments of low clouds against large-scale stability in CAM5 and CAM-CLUBB using MODIS and ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Journal of Climate, 28, 1685-1706.

Top: MODIS Total Cloud Fraction; Middle: NCAR-CAM5 Total Cloud Fraction; Lower: CAM5 MODIS (difference)