Evaluation of Southern Ocean cloud in the HadGEM3 general circulation model and MERRA-2 reanalysis using ship-based observations

Kuma, Peter; McDonald, Adrian J.; Morgenstern, Olaf; Alexander, Simon P.; Cassano, John J.; Garrett, Sally; Halla, Jamie; Hartery, Sean; Harvey, Mike J.; Parsons, Simon; Plank, Graeme; Varma, Vidya; Williams, Jonny

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6607-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6607-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6607-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

Research article

|

05 Jun 2020

Research article |

| 05 Jun 2020

Evaluation of Southern Ocean cloud in the HadGEM3 general circulation model and MERRA-2 reanalysis using ship-based observations

Peter Kuma, Adrian J. McDonald, Olaf Morgenstern, Simon P. Alexander, John J. Cassano, Sally Garrett, Jamie Halla, Sean Hartery, Mike J. Harvey, Simon Parsons, Graeme Plank, Vidya Varma, and Jonny Williams

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Final revised paper (published on 05 Jun 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 05 Apr 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of “Evaluation of Southern Ocean cloud in the HadGEM3 general circulation model and MERRA-2 reanalysis using ship-based observations” by Kuma et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 May 2019
RC2: 'Review of Kuma et al: ‘ Evaluation of Southern Ocean cloud in the HadGEM3 general circulation model and MERRA-2 reanalysis using ship-based observations’', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Jun 2019
AC1: 'Response to referees', Peter Kuma, 21 Sep 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Peter Kuma on behalf of the Authors (09 Oct 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (24 Oct 2019) by Patrick Chuang

AR by Peter Kuma on behalf of the Authors (01 Nov 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Jan 2020) by Patrick Chuang

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (02 Mar 2020)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (06 Apr 2020) by Patrick Chuang

AR by Peter Kuma on behalf of the Authors (23 Apr 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (28 Apr 2020) by Patrick Chuang

AR by Peter Kuma on behalf of the Authors (05 May 2020) Manuscript

Short summary

We evaluate clouds over the Southern Ocean in the climate model HadGEM3 and reanalysis MERRA-2 using ship-based ceilometer and radiosonde observations. We find the models underestimate cloud cover by 18–25 %, with clouds below 2 km dominant in reality but lacking in the models. We find a strong link between clouds, atmospheric stability and sea surface temperature in observations but not in the models, implying that sub-grid processes do not generate enough cloud in response to these conditions.