Articles | Volume 25, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11689-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11689-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
30 Sep 2025
Research article |
| 30 Sep 2025
| 30 Sep 2025
Variation in shortwave water vapour continuum and impact on clear-sky shortwave radiative feedback
Department of Physics, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
Meteorological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Stefan A. Buehler
Meteorological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Lukas Kluft
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Robin J. Hogan
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, UK
Florian E. Roemer
Meteorological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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Johanna Mayer, Daniele Gasbarra, Robin J. Hogan, Edward Malina, Shannon L. Mason, and Blanka Piskala Gvozdikova
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 14085–14110, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-14085-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-14085-2026, 2026
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We investigate transitions from closed to open stratocumulus cells using synergistic observations from the EarthCARE and GOES satellites. Microphysical changes and increasing rain up to 25 hours before transitions support a precipitation-driven pathway. These findings provide new observational constraints on the processes driving stratocumulus breakup and its radiative impact.
Florian E. Roemer, Erich M. Fischer, Robin Noyelle, and Reto Knutti
Weather Clim. Dynam., 7, 1919–1949, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-1919-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-1919-2026, 2026
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Climate model based storylines of future extreme events are a useful tool to inform disaster preparations, but it is often unclear whether such events are plausible to occur in the real world. We present an approach that evaluates the plausibility of climate storylines based on process understanding and historical precedents. We demonstrate our approach for long-lasting heatwaves in Western Europe; it can also be applied other types of extreme events.
Woosub Roh, Masaki Satoh, Romain Fiévet, Mark D. Fielding, Robin J. Hogan, Bjorn Stevens, Takuji Kubota, and Hajime Okamoto
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3606, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3606, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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Clouds and rainfall are still difficult to represent accurately in weather and climate models. We introduce a new project called the EarthCARE–ORCESTRA Model Intercomparison Project (ECOMIP), which uses observations from the new Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) satellite and a tropical field campaign to compare and improve atmospheric models. Initial results show that different models can reproduce the same storm system but differ in its size and structure.
Zhipeng Qu, Cuong Nguyen, Paloma Borque, Alexei Korolev, Howard W. Barker, Keyvan Ranjbar, Lei Liu, Zen Mariani, Meriem Kacimi, Melissa Cholette, Ivan Heckman, Kenny Bala, Natalia Bliankinshtein, Leonid Nichman, Benjamin Riot-Bretêcher, Yi Huang, Jason N. S. Cole, Raphaël Peroni, Stephen Holden, Robert Reed, Robert Crawford, Daniel Michelson, Eve Bigras, Michael Wheeler, John Gyakum, Jason A. Milbrandt, Julie M. Thériault, Kaley A. Walker, Mengistu Wolde, Jean-Pierre Blanchet, Yann Blanchard, Jonas von Bismark, Rob Koopman, Montserrat Piñol Solé, Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras, Robin J. Hogan, and Shannon L. Mason
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5347, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5347, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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The ECALOT campaign brought together aircraft and ground-based observations in the Ottawa–Montreal region to help evaluate the European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite, which studies clouds, aerosols, radiation, and their interactions. By comparing satellite measurements with multi-platform remote-sensing and in situ observations collected during the campaign, ECALOT provides an integrated approach to evaluating EarthCARE products at different stages of the data processing chain.
Robin J. Hogan, Bernat Puigdomenech Treserras, Shannon L. Mason, Alexei Korolev, Zhipeng Qu, Kamil Mroz, David P. Donovan, Pavlos Kollias, and Mark D. Fielding
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5054, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5054, 2026
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The EarthCARE satellite carries advanced instruments that allow it to accurately infer vertical profiles of the properties of ice clouds, important for understanding their role in the climate system. Here we use detailed observations from meteorological research aircraft flying underneath the satellite to evaluate EarthCARE’s estimates of the mass of ice in the clouds, the average particle size, and even how fast the air is rising and falling within the cloud due to atmospheric gravity waves.
Paolo Andreozzi, Mark D. Fielding, Robin J. Hogan, Richard M. Forbes, Adrian A. Hill, Samuel Rémy, Birger Bohn, and Ulrich Löhnert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 11309–11338, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11309-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11309-2026, 2026
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Aerosols significantly contribute to the Earth’s climate, but models still struggle to represent them. Here we use satellite observations of clouds to constrain aerosol processes in a weather and air-quality model. We show that African wildfires lead to overly bright simulated clouds and that the model removes too much aerosol in mixed-phase clouds. This demonstrates how cloud observations can target weakly constrained aerosol processes, with potential benefits for weather and climate modelling.
Ákos Horváth, David Adams, Jorge Díaz, Sam Rigby, Stefan Buehler, and Mirjana Sakradzija
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3997, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3997, 2026
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The 2022 Hunga eruption generated a fast-moving pressure wave that warmed and cooled the air as it rippled through Earth’s atmosphere. Using video footage and satellite imagery, we show that these temperature variations periodically darkened and brightened liquid clouds as they shrank and expanded due to evaporation and condensation. Cloud brightness variations caused by the Hunga pressure wave remained globally detectable in satellite imagery for approximately six days after the eruption.
Hans Segura, Allison A. Wing, Heike Kalesse-Los, Ruben Carrasco, James H. Ruppert Jr., Anna Trosits, Louise Nuijens, Felix Ament, Daniel Blandfort, Michael M. Bell, Pierre Bosser, Delián Colón-Burgos, Geet George, Joelle Habib, Jochen Horstmann, Friedhelm Jansen, Lukas Kluft, Robert Kopte, Klas Ove Möller, Peristera Paschou, Hauke Schmidt, Michael Schlundt, Ilya Serikov, Martin Stelzner, Elizabeth J. Thompson, Werenfrid Wimmer, Marcus Dengler, and Daniel Klocke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-343, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-343, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
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BOWTIE (Beobachtung von Ozean und Wolken - Das Trans ITCZ Experiment) was an observational campaign occurring in summer 2024, which intensively took measurements from the upper ocean to the upper troposphere in the wettest region of the tropical Atlantic. Here, we provide an overview of the measurements and instrumentation, including remote sensing and conventional, which targeted small-scale processes under different weather regimes, from calm doldrums to gusty, precipitating events.
Helene Marie Gloeckner, Theresa Mieslinger, Nina Robbins-Blanch, Geet George, Lukas Kluft, Tobias Kölling, Sandrine Bony, Julia Miriam Windmiller, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 4425–4450, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4425-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4425-2026, 2026
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As part of the ORCESTRA (Organized Convection and EarthCARE Studies over the Tropical Atlantic) measurement field campaign in August and September 2024, 1191 dropsondes were deployed over the tropical Atlantic. They measure temperature, humidity, and horizontal winds throughout the atmosphere. Here, we present the resulting datasets, which contain different levels of quality controls as well as derived vertical winds. The data will help to understand processes within the tropical rain belt in the Atlantic.
Benedict Pery, Helen Brindley, Jonathan Murray, Sophie Mosselmans, Sanjeevani Panditharatne, Laura Warwick, Robin Hogan, Yi Huang, Benjamin Riot-Bretêcher, Hilke Oetjen, Dirk Schuettemeyer, and Tristan L'Ecuyer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2443, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2443, 2026
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The Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment (PREFIRE) satellite mission measures the Earth in a rarely measured part of the electromagnetic spectrum. To build confidence in these new measurements, we test them with an experiment observing the same atmosphere as PREFIRE but from the ground. We find that the PREFIRE measurements agree with what we expect from our ground-based observations, with some unexplained differences needing further study.
Francisco J. Doblas-Reyes, Jenni Kontkanen, Irina Sandu, Mario Acosta, Mohammed Hussam Al Turjmam, Ivan Alsina-Ferrer, Miguel Andrés-Martínez, Costanza Anerdi, Leo Arriola, Marvin Axness, Marc Batlle Martín, Peter Bauer, Tobias Becker, Daniel Beltrán, Sebastian Beyer, Hendryk Bockelmann, Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière, Sebastien Cabaniols, Silvia Caprioli, Miguel Castrillo, Aparna Chandrasekar, Suvarchal Cheedela, Victor Correal, Emanuele Danovaro, Paolo Davini, Jussi Enkovaara, Claudia Frauen, Barbara Früh, Aina Gaya Àvila, Paolo Ghinassi, Rohit Ghosh, Supriyo Ghosh, Iker González, Katherine Grayson, Matthew Griffith, Ioan Hadade, Christopher Haine, Carl Hartick, Utz-Uwe Haus, Shane Hearne, Heikki Järvinen, Bernat Jiménez, Amal John, Marlin Juchem, Thomas Jung, Jessica Kegel, Matthias Kelbling, Kai Keller, Bruno Kinoshita, Theresa Kiszler, Daniel Klocke, Lukas Kluft, Nikolay Koldunov, Tobias Kölling, Joonas Kolstela, Luis Kornblueh, Sergey Kosukhin, Aleksander Lacima-Nadolnik, Jeisson Javier Leal Rojas, Jonni Lehtiranta, Tuomas Lunttila, Anna Luoma, Pekka Manninen, Alexey Medvedev, Sebastian Milinski, Ali Mohammed, Sebastian Müller, Devaraju Naryanappa, Natalia Nazarova, Sami Niemelä, Bimochan Niraula, Henrik Nortamo, Aleksi Nummelin, Matteo Nurisso, Pablo Ortega, Stella Paronuzzi, Xabier Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Charles Pelletier, Carlos Peña, Suraj Polade, Himansu Kesari Pradhan, Rommel Quintanilla, Tiago Quintino, Thomas Rackow, Jouni Räisänen, Maqsood Mubarak Rajput, René Redler, Balthasar Reuter, Nuno Rocha Monteiro, Francesc Roura-Adserias, Silva Ruppert, Susan Sayed, Reiner Schnur, Tanvi Sharma, Dmitry Sidorenko, Outi Sievi-Korte, Albert Soret, Christian Steger, Bjorn Stevens, Jan Streffing, Jaleena Sunny, Luiggi Tenorio, Stephan Thober, Ulf Tigerstedt, Oriol Tinto, Juha Tonttila, Heikki Tuomenvirta, Lauri Tuppi, Ginka Van Thielen, Emanuele Vitali, Jost von Hardenberg, Ingo Wagner, Nils Wedi, Jan Wehner, Sven Willner, Xavier Yepes-Arbós, Florian Ziemen, and Janos Zimmermann
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 2821–2848, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2821-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2821-2026, 2026
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The Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (Climate DT) pioneers the operationalisation of global climate projections. It produces global simulations with local granularity for adaptation decision-making. Applications are embedded to generate tailored indicators. A unified workflow orchestrates all components in several supercomputers. Data management ensures consistency and streaming enables real-time use. It is a complementary innovation to initiatives like CMIP, CORDEX, and climate services.
Michael Kahnert, Melanie Ades, Mickaël Bacles, Johannes Flemming, Vincent Guidard, Alexander Haefele, Robin J. Hogan, Samuel Rémy, and Eric Sauvageat
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6077, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6077, 2026
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The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides quality-controlled information related to air quality and health. We explore the possibility to constrain the CAMS global forecasting model by use of ground-based observations of laser light backscattered by particulate matter. We find that the vertical distribution of particulate matter can be predicted more faithfully with this approach, which can have implications for air quality forecasts provided by CAMS to end users.
Patrick Eriksson, Alejandro Baró Pérez, Nils Müller, Hanna Hallborn, Eleanor May, Manfred Brath, Stefan A. Buehler, and Luisa Ickes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 2741–2768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2741-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2741-2026, 2026
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Our study shows that accurately representing atmospheric ice mass remains a major challenge. We compared climate models to satellite data, finding that conventional models consistently underestimate the amount of ice. While new, higher-resolution models perform better, both models and observations still have significant discrepancies. These shortcomings limit our confidence in cloud-related climate feedbacks, which are critical for our predictions of the future climate.
Hans Segura, Xabier Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Philipp Weiss, Sebastian K. Müller, Thomas Rackow, Junhong Lee, Edgar Dolores-Tesillos, Imme Benedict, Matthias Aengenheyster, Razvan Aguridan, Gabriele Arduini, Alexander J. Baker, Jiawei Bao, Swantje Bastin, Eulàlia Baulenas, Tobias Becker, Sebastian Beyer, Hendryk Bockelmann, Nils Brüggemann, Lukas Brunner, Suvarchal K. Cheedela, Sushant Das, Jasper Denissen, Ian Dragaud, Piotr Dziekan, Madeleine Ekblom, Jan Frederik Engels, Monika Esch, Richard Forbes, Claudia Frauen, Lilli Freischem, Diego García-Maroto, Philipp Geier, Paul Gierz, Álvaro González-Cervera, Katherine Grayson, Matthew Griffith, Oliver Gutjahr, Helmuth Haak, Ioan Hadade, Kerstin Haslehner, Shabeh ul Hasson, Jan Hegewald, Lukas Kluft, Aleksei Koldunov, Nikolay Koldunov, Tobias Kölling, Shunya Koseki, Sergey Kosukhin, Josh Kousal, Peter Kuma, Arjun U. Kumar, Rumeng Li, Nicolas Maury, Maximilian Meindl, Sebastian Milinski, Kristian Mogensen, Bimochan Niraula, Jakub Nowak, Divya Sri Praturi, Ulrike Proske, Dian Putrasahan, René Redler, David Santuy, Domokos Sármány, Reiner Schnur, Patrick Scholz, Dmitry Sidorenko, Dorian Spät, Birgit Sützl, Daisuke Takasuka, Adrian Tompkins, Alejandro Uribe, Mirco Valentini, Menno Veerman, Aiko Voigt, Sarah Warnau, Fabian Wachsmann, Marta Wacławczyk, Nils Wedi, Karl-Hermann Wieners, Jonathan Wille, Marius Winkler, Yuting Wu, Florian Ziemen, Janos Zimmermann, Frida A.-M. Bender, Dragana Bojovic, Sandrine Bony, Simona Bordoni, Patrice Brehmer, Marcus Dengler, Emanuel Dutra, Saliou Faye, Erich Fischer, Chiel van Heerwaarden, Cathy Hohenegger, Heikki Järvinen, Markus Jochum, Thomas Jung, Johann H. Jungclaus, Noel S. Keenlyside, Daniel Klocke, Heike Konow, Martina Klose, Szymon Malinowski, Olivia Martius, Thorsten Mauritsen, Juan Pedro Mellado, Theresa Mieslinger, Elsa Mohino, Hanna Pawłowska, Karsten Peters-von Gehlen, Abdoulaye Sarré, Pajam Sobhani, Philip Stier, Lauri Tuppi, Pier Luigi Vidale, Irina Sandu, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 7735–7761, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7735-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-7735-2025, 2025
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The Next Generation of Earth Modeling Systems project (nextGEMS) developed two Earth system models that use horizontal grid spacing of 10 km and finer, giving more fidelity to the representation of local phenomena, globally. In its fourth cycle, nextGEMS simulated the Earth System climate over the 2020–2049 period under the SSP3-7.0 scenario. Here, we provide an overview of nextGEMS, insights into the model development, and the realism of multi-decadal, kilometer-scale simulations.
Lukas Kluft, Bjorn Stevens, Manfred Brath, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 9075–9084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9075-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9075-2025, 2025
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Using a single-column model, we investigate the effect of the vertical distribution of clouds on climate sensitivity. We show that, depending on their height, clouds can mask or unmask the radiative response of the clear-sky atmosphere. Our single-column model yields an all-sky climate sensitivity of 2.2 K, slightly less than the clear-sky value. This value can be interpreted as a baseline to which changes in surface albedo and an assumed reduction in cloud albedo would add.
Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Najda Villefranque, Zhipeng Qu, Almudena Velázquez Blázquez, Carlos Domenech, Shannon L. Mason, and Robin J. Hogan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3095–3107, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3095-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3095-2025, 2025
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Measurements made by three instruments aboard EarthCARE are used to retrieve estimates of cloud and aerosol properties. A radiative closure assessment of these retrievals is performed by the ACMB-DF processor. Radiative transfer models acting on retrieved information produce broadband radiances commensurate with measurements made by EarthCARE’s broadband radiometer. Measured and modelled radiances for small domains are compared, and the likelihood of them differing by 10 W m2 defines the closure.
Jean-François Grailet, Robin J. Hogan, Nicolas Ghilain, David Bolsée, Xavier Fettweis, and Marilaure Grégoire
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1965–1988, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1965-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1965-2025, 2025
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The MAR (Modèle Régional Atmosphérique) is a regional climate model used for weather forecasting and studying the climate over various regions. This paper presents an update of MAR thanks to which it can precisely decompose solar radiation, in particular in the UV (ultraviolet) and photosynthesis ranges, both being critical to human health and ecosystems. As a first application of this new capability, this paper presents a method for predicting UV indices with MAR.
Robert Schoetter, Robin James Hogan, Cyril Caliot, and Valéry Masson
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 405–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-405-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-405-2025, 2025
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Radiation is relevant to the atmospheric impact on people and infrastructure in cities as it can influence the urban heat island, building energy consumption, and human thermal comfort. A new urban radiation model, assuming a more realistic form of urban morphology, is coupled to the urban climate model Town Energy Balance (TEB). The new TEB is evaluated with a reference radiation model for a variety of urban morphologies, and an improvement in the simulated radiative observables is found.
Thomas Rackow, Xabier Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Tobias Becker, Sebastian Milinski, Irina Sandu, Razvan Aguridan, Peter Bechtold, Sebastian Beyer, Jean Bidlot, Souhail Boussetta, Willem Deconinck, Michail Diamantakis, Peter Dueben, Emanuel Dutra, Richard Forbes, Rohit Ghosh, Helge F. Goessling, Ioan Hadade, Jan Hegewald, Thomas Jung, Sarah Keeley, Lukas Kluft, Nikolay Koldunov, Aleksei Koldunov, Tobias Kölling, Josh Kousal, Christian Kühnlein, Pedro Maciel, Kristian Mogensen, Tiago Quintino, Inna Polichtchouk, Balthasar Reuter, Domokos Sármány, Patrick Scholz, Dmitry Sidorenko, Jan Streffing, Birgit Sützl, Daisuke Takasuka, Steffen Tietsche, Mirco Valentini, Benoît Vannière, Nils Wedi, Lorenzo Zampieri, and Florian Ziemen
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 33–69, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-33-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-33-2025, 2025
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Detailed global climate model simulations have been created based on a numerical weather prediction model, offering more accurate spatial detail down to the scale of individual cities ("kilometre-scale") and a better understanding of climate phenomena such as atmospheric storms, whirls in the ocean, and cracks in sea ice. The new model aims to provide globally consistent information on local climate change with greater precision, benefiting environmental planning and local impact modelling.
Johannes Röttenbacher, André Ehrlich, Hanno Müller, Florian Ewald, Anna E. Luebke, Benjamin Kirbus, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8085–8104, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8085-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8085-2024, 2024
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Weather prediction models simplify the physical processes related to light scattering by clouds consisting of complex ice crystals. Whether these simplifications are the cause for uncertainties in their prediction can be evaluated by comparing them with measurement data. Here we do this for Arctic ice clouds over sea ice using airborne measurements from two case studies. The model performs well for thick ice clouds but not so well for thin ones. This work can be used to improve the model.
Robin J. Hogan, Anthony J. Illingworth, Pavlos Kollias, Hajime Okamoto, and Ulla Wandinger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3081–3083, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3081-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3081-2024, 2024
Hanno Müller, André Ehrlich, Evelyn Jäkel, Johannes Röttenbacher, Benjamin Kirbus, Michael Schäfer, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4157–4175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4157-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4157-2024, 2024
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A weather model is used to compare solar radiation with measurements from an aircraft campaign in the Arctic. Model and observations agree on the downward radiation but show differences in the radiation reflected by the surface and the clouds, which in the model is too low above sea ice and too high above open ocean. The model–observation bias is reduced above open ocean by a realistic fraction of clouds and less cloud liquid water and above sea ice by less dark sea ice and more cloud droplets.
Hauke Schmidt, Sebastian Rast, Jiawei Bao, Amrit Cassim, Shih-Wei Fang, Diego Jimenez-de la Cuesta, Paul Keil, Lukas Kluft, Clarissa Kroll, Theresa Lang, Ulrike Niemeier, Andrea Schneidereit, Andrew I. L. Williams, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1563–1584, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, 2024
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A recent development in numerical simulations of the global atmosphere is the increase in horizontal resolution to grid spacings of a few kilometers. However, the vertical grid spacing of these models has not been reduced at the same rate as the horizontal grid spacing. Here, we assess the effects of much finer vertical grid spacings, in particular the impacts on cloud quantities and the atmospheric energy balance.
Shannon L. Mason, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Nicole Docter, David P. Donovan, Robin J. Hogan, Anja Hünerbein, Pavlos Kollias, Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras, Zhipeng Qu, Ulla Wandinger, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 875–898, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-875-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-875-2024, 2024
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When the EarthCARE mission enters its operational phase, many retrieval data products will be available, which will overlap both in terms of the measurements they use and the geophysical quantities they report. In this pre-launch study, we use simulated EarthCARE scenes to compare the coverage and performance of many data products from the European Space Agency production model, with the intention of better understanding the relation between products and providing a compact guide to users.
Bjorn Stevens and Lukas Kluft
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14673–14689, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14673-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14673-2023, 2023
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A simple model is introduced to account for the spectral diversity of radiant energy transfer. It provides an improved basis for assessing the different ways in which clouds influence Earth’s climate sensitivity, demonstrating how many cloud effects depend on the existing cloud climatology. Given existing assessments of changes in cloud albedo with warming, it is determined that clouds reduce Earth's climate sensitivity as compared to what it would be in a counterfactual world without clouds.
Megan A. Stretton, William Morrison, Robin J. Hogan, and Sue Grimmond
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5931–5947, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5931-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5931-2023, 2023
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Cities' materials and forms impact radiative fluxes. We evaluate the SPARTACUS-Urban multi-layer approach to modelling longwave radiation, describing realistic 3D geometry statistically using the explicit DART (Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer) model. The temperature configurations used are derived from thermal camera observations. SPARTACUS-Urban accurately predicts longwave fluxes, with a low computational time (cf. DART), but has larger errors with sunlit/shaded surface temperatures.
Shannon L. Mason, Robin J. Hogan, Alessio Bozzo, and Nicola L. Pounder
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3459–3486, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3459-2023, 2023
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We present a method for accurately estimating the contents and properties of clouds, snow, rain, and aerosols through the atmosphere, using the combined measurements of the radar, lidar, and radiometer instruments aboard the upcoming EarthCARE satellite, and evaluate the performance of the retrieval, using test scenes simulated from a numerical forecast model. When EarthCARE is in operation, these quantities and their estimated uncertainties will be distributed in a data product called ACM-CAP.
Peter Ukkonen and Robin J. Hogan
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 3241–3261, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3241-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3241-2023, 2023
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Climate and weather models suffer from uncertainties resulting from approximated processes. Solar and thermal radiation is one example, as it is computationally too costly to simulate precisely. This has led to attempts to replace radiation codes based on physical equations with neural networks (NNs) that are faster but uncertain. In this paper we use global weather simulations to demonstrate that a middle-ground approach of using NNs only to predict optical properties is accurate and reliable.
Abdanour Irbah, Julien Delanoë, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, David P. Donovan, Pavlos Kollias, Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras, Shannon Mason, Robin J. Hogan, and Aleksandra Tatarevic
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2795–2820, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2795-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2795-2023, 2023
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The Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) and ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) aboard the EarthCARE satellite are used to probe the Earth's atmosphere by measuring cloud and aerosol profiles. ATLID is sensitive to aerosols and small cloud particles and CPR to large ice particles, snowflakes and raindrops. It is the synergy of the measurements of these two instruments that allows a better classification of the atmospheric targets and the description of the associated products, which are the subject of this paper.
Cathy Hohenegger, Peter Korn, Leonidas Linardakis, René Redler, Reiner Schnur, Panagiotis Adamidis, Jiawei Bao, Swantje Bastin, Milad Behravesh, Martin Bergemann, Joachim Biercamp, Hendryk Bockelmann, Renate Brokopf, Nils Brüggemann, Lucas Casaroli, Fatemeh Chegini, George Datseris, Monika Esch, Geet George, Marco Giorgetta, Oliver Gutjahr, Helmuth Haak, Moritz Hanke, Tatiana Ilyina, Thomas Jahns, Johann Jungclaus, Marcel Kern, Daniel Klocke, Lukas Kluft, Tobias Kölling, Luis Kornblueh, Sergey Kosukhin, Clarissa Kroll, Junhong Lee, Thorsten Mauritsen, Carolin Mehlmann, Theresa Mieslinger, Ann Kristin Naumann, Laura Paccini, Angel Peinado, Divya Sri Praturi, Dian Putrasahan, Sebastian Rast, Thomas Riddick, Niklas Roeber, Hauke Schmidt, Uwe Schulzweida, Florian Schütte, Hans Segura, Radomyra Shevchenko, Vikram Singh, Mia Specht, Claudia Christine Stephan, Jin-Song von Storch, Raphaela Vogel, Christian Wengel, Marius Winkler, Florian Ziemen, Jochem Marotzke, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 779–811, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-779-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-779-2023, 2023
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Models of the Earth system used to understand climate and predict its change typically employ a grid spacing of about 100 km. Yet, many atmospheric and oceanic processes occur on much smaller scales. In this study, we present a new model configuration designed for the simulation of the components of the Earth system and their interactions at kilometer and smaller scales, allowing an explicit representation of the main drivers of the flow of energy and matter by solving the underlying equations.
Marc Prange, Stefan A. Buehler, and Manfred Brath
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 725–741, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-725-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-725-2023, 2023
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We investigate the representation of elevated moist layers (EMLs) in two satellite retrieval products and ERA5 reanalysis. EMLs occur in the vicinity of tropical convective storms and are thought to have an impact on their evolution through radiative heating. We provide a first dedicated assessment of EMLs in long-term data products in terms of moist layer strength, vertical thickness and altitude by comparing to collocated radiosondes over the western Pacific, a region where EMLs often occur.
Lei Shi, Carl J. Schreck III, Viju O. John, Eui-Seok Chung, Theresa Lang, Stefan A. Buehler, and Brian J. Soden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6949–6963, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6949-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6949-2022, 2022
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Four upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) datasets derived from satellite microwave and infrared sounders are evaluated to assess their consistency as part of the activities for the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) water vapor assessment project. The study shows that the four datasets are consistent in the interannual temporal and spatial variability of the tropics. However, differences are found in the magnitudes of the anomalies and in the changing rates during the common period.
Ákos Horváth, James L. Carr, Dong L. Wu, Julia Bruckert, Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12311–12330, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12311-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12311-2022, 2022
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We estimate plume heights for the April 2021 La Soufrière daytime eruptions using GOES-17 near-limb side views and GOES-16–MODIS stereo views. These geometric heights are then compared with brightness-temperature-based radiometric height estimates to characterize the biases of the latter. We also show that the side view method can be applied to infrared imagery and thus nighttime eruptions, albeit with larger uncertainty.
Theresa Mieslinger, Bjorn Stevens, Tobias Kölling, Manfred Brath, Martin Wirth, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6879–6898, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6879-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6879-2022, 2022
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The trades are home to a plethora of small cumulus clouds that are often barely visible to the human eye and difficult to detect with active and passive remote sensing methods. With the help of a new method and by means of high-resolution data we can detect small and particularly thin clouds. We find that optically thin clouds are a common phenomenon in the trades, covering a large area and influencing the radiative effect of clouds if they are undetected and contaminate the cloud-free signal.
Beatriz M. Monge-Sanz, Alessio Bozzo, Nicholas Byrne, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Michail Diamantakis, Johannes Flemming, Lesley J. Gray, Robin J. Hogan, Luke Jones, Linus Magnusson, Inna Polichtchouk, Theodore G. Shepherd, Nils Wedi, and Antje Weisheimer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4277–4302, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4277-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4277-2022, 2022
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The stratosphere is emerging as one of the keys to improve tropospheric weather and climate predictions. This study provides evidence of the role the stratospheric ozone layer plays in improving weather predictions at different timescales. Using a new ozone modelling approach suitable for high-resolution global models that provide operational forecasts from days to seasons, we find significant improvements in stratospheric meteorological fields and stratosphere–troposphere coupling.
Simon Pfreundschuh, Stuart Fox, Patrick Eriksson, David Duncan, Stefan A. Buehler, Manfred Brath, Richard Cotton, and Florian Ewald
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 677–699, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-677-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-677-2022, 2022
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We test a novel method to remotely measure ice particles in clouds. This is important because such measurements are required to improve climate and weather models. The method combines a radar with newly developed sensors measuring microwave radiation at very short wavelengths. We use observations made from aircraft flying above the cloud and compare them to real measurements from inside the cloud. This works well given that one can model the ice particles in the cloud sufficiently well.
Marc Prange, Manfred Brath, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7025–7044, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7025-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7025-2021, 2021
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We investigate the ability of the hyperspectral infrared satellite instrument IASI to resolve moist layers in the tropical free troposphere in a model framework. Previous observational results indicated major deficiencies of passive satellite instruments in resolving moist layers around the freezing level. We conduct a first systematic hyperspectral infrared retrieval analysis of such moist layers and conclude that no inherent satellite blind spot for moist layers exists.
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Short summary
We investigated the impact of the shortwave water vapour continuum absorption on clear-sky shortwave radiative feedback. For current temperatures, the impact is modest (<2%). In a warmer world, continuum-induced uncertainty in estimated feedback would be up to ~5%. Representing continuum absorption with the widely used semi-empirical model in radiative transfer calculations leads to an underestimation of this feedback. Constraining the shortwave continuum will help reduce these discrepancies.
We investigated the impact of the shortwave water vapour continuum absorption on clear-sky...
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