Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model Research Articles

Simulating Long Range Transport of Radioactive Aerosols Using a Global Aerosol Transport Model

ABSTRACTStudy of long range transport of radioactive gases and aerosols is necessary to estimate radiological impact to the members of public and environment during nuclear reactor accidents. In the present work, an attempt has been made to employ an atmospheric circulation model that predicts meteorological parameters at the regional and global scales, and a transport model that utilizes these meteorological parameters for the radioactive aerosol dispersion. Non-hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) coupled with Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS) is adapted to fulfil this objective, which is used for simulating effects of conventional aerosols on atmospheric pollution and climate system. As an illustrative case study, global simulation is carried out for a horizontal resolution of ~110 km to model the dispersion of radioactive aerosol (35S, 131I and 137Cs) releases from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident. The results obtained from this case study are compared with the available literature data and other simulation results. The statistical analyses show that the comparisons are better for locations far away (> 150 km) from the emission location, and the results are further discussed. Continuous run of this system will help in predicting the activity concentration in forecast mode, and it may be used for decision support, particularly in the case of long range transport (> 100 km).

Improvement of a Cloud Microphysics Scheme for a Global Nonhydrostatic Model Using TRMM and a Satellite Simulator

Abstract The cloud and precipitation simulated by a global nonhydrostatic model with a 3.5-km horizontal resolution, the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), are evaluated using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and a satellite simulator. A previous study by Roh and Satoh evaluated the single-moment bulk microphysics and established the modified microphysics scheme for the specific tropical open ocean using a regional version of NICAM. In this study, the authors expanded the evaluation over the entire tropics and parts of the midlatitude areas (20°–36°S, 20°–36°N) using a joint histogram of the cloud-top temperature and precipitation echo-top heights and contoured frequency by altitude diagrams of the deep convective systems. The modified microphysics simulation improves the joint probability density functions of the cloud-top temperatures and precipitation cloud-top heights over not only the tropical ocean but also the land and midlatitude areas. Compared with the default microphysics simulation, the modified microphysics simulation shows a clearer distinction between the land and ocean in the tropics, which is related to the contrast between the shallow and the deep clouds. In addition, the two microphysics simulation methods were also compared over the tropics using joint histograms of the cloud-top and precipitation cloud-top heights on the basis of CloudSat measurements. It was found that the microphysics scheme that was modified for the tropical ocean displayed general cloud and precipitation improvements in the global domain over the tropics.

Influence of topography on temperature variations in the tropical tropopause layer

AbstractTemperature variations in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) play an important role in dehydration in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Equatorial Kelvin waves associated with the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) are known to induce remarkable temperature variations in the TTL. In this study, the influence of topography on temperature variations in the TTL is investigated by using radiosonde data, satellite data, reanalysis data, and numerically simulated data. When MJO convection passes over the radiosonde sites, temperature variations near mountainous regions are larger than those measured in regions of lower elevation. The difference in temperature amplitude reaches ~1–2 K. Large temperature variations over mountainous regions were also found in other data sets. Numerically simulated data from the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) are also used to investigate the temperature variations in the TTL. The results show that the temperature variations associated with Kelvin waves become large over mountainous regions. A sensitivity test using the stretched version of NICAM gave two important results: (i) the height of mountains affects the magnitude of the temperature variations in the TTL, and (ii) the terrain‐following coordinate system used in the model produces the artificially high‐temperature variation in the TTL. When Kelvin waves pass over mountainous regions, topographic gravity waves are excited and superimposed on the Kelvin waves, thereby producing large temperature variations over these regions. The mountainous region of the Indonesian Maritime Continent is a favorable location for large temperature variations in the TTL.

High Cloud Responses to Global Warming Simulated by Two Different Cloud Microphysics Schemes Implemented in the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM)

Abstract This study examines cloud responses to global warming using a global nonhydrostatic model with two different cloud microphysics schemes. The cloud microphysics schemes tested here are the single- and double-moment schemes with six water categories: these schemes are referred to as NSW6 and NDW6, respectively. Simulations of one year for NSW6 and one boreal summer for NDW6 are performed using the nonhydrostatic icosahedral atmospheric model with a mesh size of approximately 14 km. NSW6 and NDW6 exhibit similar changes in the visible cloud fraction under conditions of global warming. The longwave (LW) cloud radiative feedbacks in NSW6 and NDW6 are within the upper half of the phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5)–Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project 2 (CFMIP2) range. The LW cloud radiative feedbacks are mainly attributed to cirrus clouds, which prevail more in the tropics under global warming conditions. For NDW6, the LW cloud radiative feedbacks from cirrus clouds also extend to midlatitudes. The changes in cirrus clouds and their effects on LW cloud radiative forcing (LWCRF) are assessed based on changes in the effective radii of ice hydrometeors () and the cloud fraction. It was determined that an increase in has a nonnegligible impact on LWCRF compared with an increase in cloud fraction.

Performance evaluation of a throughput-aware framework for ensemble data assimilation: the case of NICAM-LETKF

Abstract. In this paper, we propose the design and implementation of an ensemble data assimilation (DA) framework for weather prediction at a high resolution and with a large ensemble size. We consider the deployment of this framework on the data throughput of file input/output (I/O) and multi-node communication. As an instance of the application of the proposed framework, a local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) was used with a Non-hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) for the DA system. Benchmark tests were performed using the K computer, a massive parallel supercomputer with distributed file systems. The results showed an improvement in total time required for the workflow as well as satisfactory scalability of up to 10 K nodes (80 K cores). With regard to high-performance computing systems, where data throughput performance increases at a slower rate than computational performance, our new framework for ensemble DA systems promises drastic reduction of total execution time.

Evaluating Arctic cloud radiative effects simulated by NICAM with A‐train

AbstractEvaluation of cloud radiative effects (CREs) in global atmospheric models is of vital importance to reduce uncertainties in weather forecasting and future climate projection. In this paper, we describe an effective way to evaluate CREs from a 3.5 km mesh global nonhydrostatic model by comparing it against A‐train satellite data. The model is the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), and its output is run through a satellite‐sensor simulator (Joint Simulator for satellite sensors) to produce the equivalent CloudSat radar, CALIPSO lidar, and Aqua Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) data. These simulated observations are then compared to real observations from the satellites. We focus on the Arctic, which is a region experiencing rapid climate change over various surface types. The NICAM simulation significantly overestimates the shortwave CREs at top of atmosphere and surface as large as 24 W m−2 for the month of June. The CREs were decomposed into cloud fractions and footprint CREs of cloud types that are defined based on the CloudSat‐CALIPSO cloud top temperature and maximum radar reflectivity. It turned out that the simulation underestimates the cloud fraction and optical thickness of mixed‐phase clouds due to predicting too little supercooled liquid and predicting overly large snow particles with too little mass content. This bias was partially offset by predicting too many optically thin high clouds. Offline sensitivity experiments, where cloud microphysical parameters, surface albedo, and single scattering parameters are varied, support the diagnosis. Aerosol radiative effects and nonspherical single scattering of ice particles should be introduced into the NICAM broadband calculation for further improvement.

Tropical intraseasonal oscillation simulated in an AMIP-type experiment by NICAM

It is the first time for the non-hydrostatic icosahedral atmospheric model (NICAM), at a horizontal mesh size of approximately 14-km, to conduct a continuous long-term Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project-type simulation. This study examines the performance of NICAM in simulating the tropical intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) from a statistical point of view using 30-year data (1979–2008) in the context of the bimodal ISO representation concept proposed by Kikuchi et al., which allows us to examine the seasonally varying behavior of the ISO in great detail, in addition to the MJO working group level 2 diagnostics. It is found that many of the fundamental features of the ISO are well captured by NICAM. The evolution of the ISO convection as well as large-scale circulation over the course of its life cycle is reasonably well reproduced throughout the year. As in the observation, the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) mode, characterized by prominent eastward propagation of convection, is predominant during boreal winter, whereas the boreal summer ISO (BSISO) mode, by a combination of pronounced eastward and northward propagation, during summer. The overall shape of the seasonal cycle as measured by the numbers of significant MJO and BSISO days in a month is relatively well captured. Two major biases, however, are also identified. The amplitude of the simulated ISO is weaker by a factor of ~2. Significant BSISO events sometimes appear even during winter (December–April), amounting to ~30 % of the total significant ISO days as opposed to ~2 % in the observation. The results here warrant further studies using the simulation dataset to understand not only many aspects of the dynamics and physics of the ISO but also its role in weather and climate. It is also demonstrated that the concept of the bimodal ISO representation provides a useful framework for assessing model’s capability to simulate, and illuminating model’s deficiencies in reproducing, the ISO. The nature and causes of the two major biases are also discussed.

Error and Energy Budget Analysis of a Nonhydrostatic Stretched-Grid Global Atmospheric Model

AbstractA nonhydrostatic stretched-grid (SG) model is used to analyze the large-scale errors generated by stretching horizontal grids and their influence on a region of interest. Simulations by a fully compressible, nonhydrostatic global atmospheric model, the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), and its SG regional model, stretched-NICAM, were performed for the months of March, April, and May of 2011 using various resolutions and stretching factors. A comparison of week-long accumulative precipitation amounts between the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data and the quasi-uniform and SG simulations showed that a stretched run better represents storms and associated precipitation because the errors generated in the outer regions with coarser grid spacing do not significantly affect the inner domain centered at the focal point. For season-long simulations, in one particular set of stretched runs with the focal point located in the eastern United States, the artificial suppression of baroclinic development of midlatitude eddies in the Southern Hemisphere weakened the eddy-driven polar-front jet (PFJ), which yielded a cold bias at mid- to high latitudes. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, in contrast, the aforementioned changes are less apparent. Therefore, for the SG runs, the mean temperature was maintained at the region of interest, and an increased amount of moderate to heavy precipitation, which is also frequently found in the TRMM data, was observed; thus, the benefits of increased resolution were realized. However, careful attention must be given when applying the SG model because a regional climate response to the change in the large-scale circulations may not be fully accounted for.

Effects of data assimilation on the global aerosol key optical properties simulations

We present the one month results of global aerosol optical properties for April 2006, using the Spectral Radiation Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS) coupled with the Non-hydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), by assimilating Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) with Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF). The simulated AOD, Ångström Exponent (AE) and single scattering albedo (SSA) are validated by independent Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations over the global sites. The data assimilation has the strongest positive effect on the AOD simulation and slight positive influences on the AE and SSA simulations. For the time-averaged globally spatial distribution, the data assimilation increases the model skill score (S) of AOD, AE, and SSA from 0.55, 0.92, and 0.75 to 0.79, 0.94, and 0.80, respectively. Over the North Africa (NAF) and Middle East region where the aerosol composition is simple (mainly dust), the simulated AODs are best improved by the data assimilation, indicating the assimilation correctly modifies the wrong dust burdens caused by the uncertainties of the dust emission parameterization. Assimilation also improves the simulation of the temporal variations of the aerosol optical properties over the AERONET sites, with improved S at 60 (62%), 45 (55%) and 11 (50%) of 97, 82 and 22 sites for AOD, AE and SSA. By analyzing AOD and AE at five selected sites with best S improvement, this study further indicates that the assimilation can reproduce short duration events and ratios between fine and coarse aerosols more accurately.

An evaluation of simulated particulate sulfate over East Asia through global model intercomparison

AbstractSulfate aerosols simulated by an aerosol module coupled to the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) at a spatial resolution (220 km) widely used by global climate models were evaluated by a comparison with in situ observations and the same aerosol module coupled to the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate (MIROC) over East Asia for January, April, July, and October 2006. The results indicated that a horizontal gradient of sulfate from the source over China to the outflow over Korea‐Japan was present in both the simulations and the observations. At the observation sites, the correlation coefficients of the sulfate concentrations between the simulations and the observations were high (NICAM: 0.49–0.89, MIROC: 0.61–0.77), whereas the simulated sulfate concentrations were lower than those obtained by the observation with the normalized mean bias of NICAM being −68 to −54% (all), −77 to −63% (source), and −67 to −30% (outflow) and that of MIROC being −61 to −28% (all), −77 to −63% (source), and −60 to +2% (outflow). Both NICAM and MIROC strongly underpredict surface SO2 over China source regions and Korea‐Japan outflow regions, but the MIROC SO2 is much higher than NICAM SO2 over both regions. These differences between the models were mainly explained by differences in the sulfate formation within clouds and the dry deposition of SO2. These results indicated that the uncertainty of the meteorological and cloud fields as well as the vertical transport patterns between the different host climate models has a substantial impact on the simulated sulfate distribution.

Vertical Wind Disturbances during a Strong Wind Event Observed by the PANSY Radar at Syowa Station, Antarctica

Abstract Characteristically strong vertical wind disturbances (VWDs) with magnitudes larger than 1 m s−1 were observed in the Antarctic troposphere using a new mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar called the Program of the Antarctic Syowa MST/incoherent scatter (IS) Radar (PANSY) during 15–19 June 2012 at Syowa Station (69.0°S, 39.6°E). In the same period, two synoptic-scale cyclones approached Syowa Station and caused a strong wind event (SWE) at the surface. The VWDs observed during the SWE at Syowa Station had a nearly standing (i.e., no phase tilt with height) phase structure up to the tropopause and a power spectrum proportional to the − power of frequency. On the other hand, the observed VWDs were not associated with systematic horizontal momentum fluxes. Meteorological fields around Syowa Station during the SWE were successfully simulated using the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM). A strong VWD was also simulated at the model grid of 70.0°S, 40.0°E in NICAM, which had a standing phase structure similar to the observed ones. An analysis based on the Froude number showed that the simulated VWD was likely due to a hydraulic jump leeward of the coastal mountain ridge. The Scorer parameter analysis indicated that the observed VWDs at Syowa Station during 16–17 June 2012 were likely due to the hydraulic jump similar to that in NICAM. On the other hand, a possibility of lee waves was also suggested for the VWD observed on 18 June 2012.

Tropical synoptic-scale wave disturbances over the western Pacific simulated by a global cloud-system resolving model

Lower-tropospheric tropical synoptic-scale disturbances (TSDs) are associated with severe weather systems in the Asian Monsoon region. Therefore, exact prediction of the development and behavior of TSDs using atmospheric general circulation models is expected to improve weather forecasting for this region. Recent state-of-the art global cloud-system resolving modeling approaches using a Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) may improve representation of TSDs. This study evaluates TSDs over the western Pacific in output from an Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP)-like control experiment using NICAM. Data analysis compared the simulated and observed fields. NICAM successfully simulates the average activity, three-dimensional structures, and characteristics of the TSDs during the Northern summer. The variance statistics and spectral analysis showed that the average activity of the simulated TSDs over the western Pacific during Northern summer broadly captures that of observations. The composite analysis revealed that the structures of the simulated TSDs resemble the observed TSDs to a large degree. The simulated TSDs exhibited a typical southeast- to northwest-oriented wave-train pattern that propagates northwestward from near the equator around 150 ∘ E toward the southern coast of China. However, the location of the simulated wave train and wave activity center was displaced northward by approximately a few degrees of latitude from that in the observation. This displacement can be attributed to the structure and strength of the background basic flow in the simulated fields. Better representation of the background basic states is required for more successful simulation of TSDs.

Analysis and evaluation of the global aerosol optical properties simulated by an online aerosol-coupled non-hydrostatic icosahedral atmospheric model

Abstract Aerosol optical properties are simulated using the Spectral Radiation Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS) coupled with the Non-hydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM). The 3-year global mean all-sky aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 550 nm, the Ångström Exponent (AE) based on AOTs at 440 and 870 nm, and the single scattering albedo (SSA) at 550 nm are estimated at 0.123, 0.657 and 0.944, respectively. For each aerosol species, the mean AOT is within the range of the AeroCom models. Both the modeled all-sky and clear-sky results are compared with observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). The simulated spatiotemporal distributions of all-sky AOTs can generally reproduce the MODIS retrievals, and the correlation and model skill can be slightly improved using the clear-sky results over most land regions. The differences between clear-sky and all-sky AOTs are larger over polluted regions. Compared with observations from AERONET, the modeled and observed all-sky AOTs and AEs are generally in reasonable agreement, whereas the SSA variation is not well captured. Although the spatiotemporal distributions of all-sky and clear-sky results are similar, the clear-sky results are generally better correlated with the observations. The clear-sky AOT and SSA are generally lower than the all-sky results, especially in those regions where the aerosol chemical composition is contributed to mostly by sulfate aerosol. The modeled clear-sky AE is larger than the all-sky AE over those regions dominated by hydrophilic aerosol, while the opposite is found over regions dominated by hydrophobic aerosol.

Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter Experiments with the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model NICAM

Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter Experiments with the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model NICAM

The Non-hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model: description and development

This article reviews the development of a global non-hydrostatic model, focusing on the pioneering research of the Non-hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM). Very high resolution global atmospheric circulation simulations with horizontal mesh spacing of approximately O (km) were conducted using recently developed supercomputers. These types of simulations were conducted with a specifically designed atmospheric global model based on a quasi-uniform grid mesh structure and a non-hydrostatic equation system. This review describes the development of each dynamical and physical component of NICAM, the assimilation strategy and its related models, and provides a scientific overview of NICAM studies conducted to date.

Scalable rank-mapping algorithm for an icosahedral grid system on the massive parallel computer with a 3-D torus network

Abstract In this paper, we develop a rank-mapping algorithm for an icosahedral grid system on a massive parallel computer with the 3-D torus network topology, specifically on the K computer. Our aim is to improve the weak scaling performance of the point-to-point communications for exchanging grid-point values between adjacent grid regions on a sphere. We formulate a new rank-mapping algorithm to reduce the maximum number of hops for the point-to-point communications. We evaluate both the new algorithm and the standard ones on the K computer, using the communication kernel of the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), a global atmospheric model with an icosahedral grid system. We confirm that, unlike the standard algorithms, the new one achieves almost perfect performance in the weak scaling on the K computer, even for 10,240 nodes. Results of additional experiments imply that the high scalability of the new rank-mapping algorithm on the K computer is achieved by reducing network congestion in the links between adjacent nodes.

Simulated aerosol key optical properties over global scale using an aerosol transport model coupled with a new type of dynamic core

Aerosol optical depth (AOD), Ångström Exponent (AE), and single scattering albedo (SSA) simulated by a new aerosol-coupled version of Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) have been compared with corresponding AERONET retrievals over a total of 196 sites during the 2006–2008 period. The temporal and spatial distributions of the modeled AODs and AEs match those of the AERONET retrievals reasonably well. For the 3-year mean AODs and AEs for all sites show the correlations between model and AERONET of 0.753 and 0.735, respectively, and 82.1% of the modeled AODs agree within a factor of two with the retrieved AODs. The primary model deficiency is an underestimation of fine mode aerosol AOD and a corresponding underestimation of AE over pollution region. Compared to the retrievals, the model underestimates the global 3-year mean AOD and AE by 0.022 (10.5%) and 0.329 (31.2%), respectively. The probability distribution function (PDF) of the modeled AODs is comparable to that of the retrieved ones, however, the model overestimates the occurrence frequencies of small AEs and SSAs.

Rapid development of arctic cyclone in June 2008 simulated by the cloud resolving global model NICAM

In this study, we conducted a numerical simulation of a rapid development of an arctic cyclone (AC) that appeared in June 2008 using a cloud resolving global model, Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM). We investigated the three dimensional structure and intensification mechanism of the simulated AC that developed to the minimum sea level pressure of 971 hPa in the model. According to the result, the AC indicates a barotropic structure with a warm core in the lower stratosphere and a cold core in the troposphere. The development of the AC is accompanied by an intense mesoscale cyclone (MC) showing baroclinic structure with a marked local arctic front. The upper level warm core of the AC is formed by an adiabatic heating associated with the downdraft in the lower stratosphere. The rapid development of the AC is caused by the combination of the intensification of the upper level warm core and the merging with the baroclinically growing MC in the lower level. The merging of the AC and MC and the vertical vortex coupling with the upper air polar vortex are the most important mechanisms for the rapid development of the arctic cyclone.

Vertical structure of ice cloud layers from CloudSat and CALIPSO measurements and comparison to NICAM simulations

AbstractThe shape of the vertical profile of ice cloud layers is examined using 4 months of CloudSat and Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) global measurements taken on January, April, July, and October 2007. Ice clouds are selected using temperature profiles when the cloud base is located above the 253 K temperature level. The obtained ice water content (IWC), effective radius, or extinction coefficient profiles are normalized by their layer mean values and are expressed in the normalized vertical coordinate, which is defined as 0 and 1 at the cloud base and top heights, respectively. Both CloudSat and CALIPSO observations show that the maximum in the IWC and extinction profiles shifts toward the cloud bottom, as the cloud depth increases. In addition, clouds with a base reaching the surface in a high‐latitude region show that the maximum peak of the IWC and extinction profiles occurs near the surface, which is presumably due to snow precipitation. CloudSat measurements show that the seasonal difference in normalized cloud vertical profiles is not significant, whereas the normalized cloud vertical profile significantly varies depending on the cloud type and the presence of precipitation. It is further examined if the 7 day Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) simulation results from 25 December 2006 to 1 January 2007 generate similar cloud profile shapes. NICAM IWC profiles also show maximum peaks near the cloud bottom for thick cloud layers and maximum peaks at the cloud bottom for low‐level clouds near the surface. It is inferred that oversized snow particles in the NICAM cloud scheme produce a more vertically inhomogeneous IWC profile than observations due to quick sedimentation.

Evaluating cloud microphysics from NICAM against CloudSat and CALIPSO

We describe a method to evaluate cloud microphysics simulated with a global cloud‐resolving model against CloudSat and Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite data. Output from the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) is run through a satellite‐sensor simulator (Joint Simulator for Satellite Sensors), then directly compared to the radar and lidar signals from CloudSat and CALIPSO. The forward approach allows for consistency in cloud microphysical assumption involved in the evaluation. To investigate the dependence of the signals on the temperature, we use temperature extensively as the vertical coordinate. The global statistical analysis of the radar reflectivity shows that the simulation overestimates all the percentiles above −50°C and that snow category contributes significantly to low reflectivity values between −80 and −40°C. The simulated lidar signals have two modes associated with cloud ice and snow categories, though the observations have only one mode. The synergetic use of radar reflectivity and lidar backscatter enables us to determine the relative magnitudes of ice/liquid water contents and effective radii without use of retrievals. The radar‐and‐lidar diagnosis for cloud tops shows that, due to snow category, NICAM overestimates the mass‐equivalent effective radius and underestimates ice water content. Also, the diagnosis was shown to be useful to investigate sensitivities of the parameters of bulk microphysical schemes on the water contents and sizes. The nonspherical scattering of ice particles was shown to affect the above radar‐and‐lidar diagnosis for large reflectivity ranges but not to alter most of the other diagnoses for this simulation.