Shuvalova, J.; Chubarova, N.; Shatunova, M. Cloud Characteristics and Their Effects on Solar Irradiance According to the ICON Model, CLOUDNET and BSRN Observations. Atmosphere2023, 14, 1769.
Shuvalova, J.; Chubarova, N.; Shatunova, M. Cloud Characteristics and Their Effects on Solar Irradiance According to the ICON Model, CLOUDNET and BSRN Observations. Atmosphere 2023, 14, 1769.
Shuvalova, J.; Chubarova, N.; Shatunova, M. Cloud Characteristics and Their Effects on Solar Irradiance According to the ICON Model, CLOUDNET and BSRN Observations. Atmosphere2023, 14, 1769.
Shuvalova, J.; Chubarova, N.; Shatunova, M. Cloud Characteristics and Their Effects on Solar Irradiance According to the ICON Model, CLOUDNET and BSRN Observations. Atmosphere 2023, 14, 1769.
Abstract
We investigated the liquid water path and global solar irradiance at ground (Q) according to the ICON model, CLOUDNET measurements in Lindenberg, Munich, Jülich, and BSRN observations in Lindenberg. The liquid water path is underestimated, while global irradiance is overestimated. The lower liquid water path is due to liquid water content underestimation practically in all atmosphere layers and lower frequency of liquid clouds occurrence compare to observations. The latter is partly associated with a reduced model’ sensitivity to the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). An increase in CCN from 250 cm-3 (typical background value for the region of interest) to 1700 cm-3 (characteristic of polluted continental clouds) leads to an increase in grid-scale liquid water path by 40% and a decrease in Q under overcast conditions by 12%. However, we also showed that liquid water path is not a key factor of Q overestimation. The main factor is an inaccurate description of the cloud spatial structure, where the correct prediction of the direct to global irradiance ratio as a spatial characteristic of clouds plays the most important role compared to standard cloud fraction.
Keywords
cloud condensation nuclei; solar irradiance; ICON model; CLOUDNET; MODIS; BSRN
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
