Ship‐Based Observations and Climate Model Simulations of Cloud Phase Over the Southern Ocean

Abstract

AbstractThe Southern Ocean (SO) clouds exert a significant influence on the Earth's radiation budget. We analyzed ship‐based remote sensing observations of SO clouds over a 5‐month long Department of Energy (DOE) ARM Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation and Clouds over the Southern Oceans (MARCUS) field campaign to better understand cloud phase variability. We developed a method to classify eight categories of hydrometeors (ice, liquid, mixed phase, rain, drizzle, snow, aerosols, and clear sky) based on measurements of lidar, radar and radiosondes. Cloud thermodynamic phases (liquid, ice and mixed phase) at coarser scales were further derived to compare with the DOE Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1 (E3SMv1) simulation and the Earth Model Column Collaboratory (EMC2) instrument simulator. For a scale‐aware comparison with climate model simulations, we found that spatially averaging the raw remote sensing data (e.g., backscatter and reflectivity) results in increased cloud cover and cloud liquid, whereas, directly averaging cloud phase from higher to lower resolution maintains clear air regions and is thus recommended for in‐cloud frequency comparisons. For cloud thermodynamic phases in stratiform clouds, the E3SMv1 underestimates cloud ice and overestimates cloud liquid at temperatures between −40°C and 0°C. When latitudes increase, both observations and simulations show a transition of dominant phase from liquid to ice for cloud tops as well as for the entire cloud columns, but the model underestimation of ice phase is more severe at higher latitudes. Such model bias is unlikely caused by spatial scale differences or lack of heterogeneity in cloud vertical structure in the simulation.