Articles | Volume 25, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3269-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3269-2025
Research article
 | 
17 Mar 2025
Research article |  | 17 Mar 2025

Too cold, too saturated? Evaluating climate models at the gateway to the Arctic

Felix Pithan, Ann Kristin Naumann, and Marion Maturilli

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Cited articles

Ali, S. M. and Pithan, F.: Following moist intrusions into the Arctic using SHEBA observations in a Lagrangian perspective, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 146, 3522–3533, 2020. a
Baldauf, M., Seifert, A., Förstner, J., Majewski, D., Raschendorfer, M., and Reinhardt, T.: Operationl convective-scale numerical weather prediction with the COSMO model: Description and sensitivities, Mon. Weather Rev., 139, 3887–3905, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-10-05013.1, 2011. a
Beheng, K.: Numerical study on the combined action of droplet coagulation, ice particle riming and the splintering process concerning maritime cumuli, Contributions to Atmospheric Physics, 55, 201–214, 1982. a
Bergeron, T.: Über die dreidimensional Verknüpfende Wetteranalyse. Erster Teil. Prinzipielle Einführung in das Problem der Luftmassen- und Frontenbildung, in: Vol. 5: Geofys. Publ., Cammermeyers boghandel, 1928. a
Boeke, R. C., Taylor, P. C., and Sejas, S. A.: On the nature of the Arctic's positive lapse-rate feedback, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL091109, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091109, 2021. a
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Representing the exchange of air masses between the Arctic and mid-latitudes and the associated cloud formation is difficult for climate models. We compare climate model output to temperature and humidity measurements from weather balloons to provide suggestions for model improvements. Cold biases mostly occur in air that is exported from the Arctic. Models that compute the number of ice particles in a cloud better represent humidity than models that assume a fixed number of ice particles.
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