Evaluation of the Earth Radiation Budget in NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis with ERBE

Yang, Seungmi; Hou, Yu-Tai; Miller, A. J.; Campana, Kenneth A.

doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<0477:eoterb>2.0.co;2

Cited by 48 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…On a 14-year basis (1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997), the Earth is found to reflect back-to-space 101.2 Wm −2 from the global mean received 341.5 Wm −2 , resulting in a long-term planetary albedo equal to 29.6%. The inter-hemispherical differences are equal to 0.34 Wm −2 for ISR, 1.1 Wm −2 for OSR, 1.43 Wm −2 for the (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989) 101.0 100.8 100.9 30.10 29.10 29.6 Hatzianastassiou and Vardavas (2001) 103.0 29.6 Hatzianastassiou and Vardavas (1999) 100.8 29.6 NCEP Reanalysis (1982-1994 115.7 33.87 ECMWF Reanalysis (1985Reanalysis ( -1993 103.7 30.36 NASA Reanalysis (1981Reanalysis ( -1992 94.7 27.72 Yang et al (1999) 115.3 Wild et al (1998-ECHAM4) 105.0 30.7 Wild et al (1998-ECHAM3) 107.0 31.29 Li et al (1997) 94.8-111.5 27.6-32.6 Chen and Roeckner (1996) 106.4 31.0 Rossow and Zhang (1995) 111.5 32.6 Vardavas and Koutoulaki (1995) 30.6 Kiehl et al (1994) 96.6 28 Hartmann (1993) 29.20 Liou (1992) 30.0 111.0 Rossow and Lacis (1990) 33.0 Smith and Smith (1987) 29.0 Stephens et al (1981) 30.0 29.7 29.85 Peng et al (1982) 31.0 Ohring and Addler (1978) 31.3 Hoyt (1976) 32.1 34.7 Bridgman (1969) 40.0 …”

Section: Time Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, global circulation models (GCMs) still have difficulties in computing the TOA SWRB components, especially under all-sky (clear plus cloudy sky) conditions (Harshvardhan et al, 1989;Kiehl et al, 1994;Ridout et al, 1994;Chen and Roeckner, 1996;Fowler et al, 2000;Loeb et al, 2002). Furthermore, although data from global reanalyses projects give good results for the TOA SWRB for clear-skies, they fail under all-sky conditions (Yang et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term global distribution of earth's shortwave radiation budget at the top of atmosphere

et al. 2004

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Abstract. The mean monthly shortwave (SW) radiation budget at the top of atmosphere (TOA) was computed on 2.5 • longitude-latitude resolution for the 14-year period from 1984 to 1997, using a radiative transfer model with long-term climatological data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP-D2) supplemented by data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction -National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) Global Reanalysis project, and other global data bases such as TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) and Global Aerosol Data Set (GADS). The model radiative fluxes at TOA were validated against Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) S4 scanner satellite data (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989). The model is able to predict the seasonal and geographical variation of SW TOA fluxes. On a mean annual and global basis, the model is in very good agreement with ERBE, overestimating the outgoing SW radiation at TOA (OSR) by 0.93 Wm −2 (or by 0.92%), within the ERBE uncertainties. At pixel level, the OSR differences between model and ERBE are mostly within ±10 Wm −2 , with ±5 Wm −2 over extended regions, while there exist some geographic areas with differences of up to 40 Wm −2 , associated with uncertainties in cloud properties and surface albedo. The 14-year average model results give a planetary albedo equal to 29.6% and a TOA OSR flux of 101.2 Wm −2 . A significant linearly decreasing trend in OSR and planetary albedo was found, equal to 2.3 Wm −2 and 0.6% (in absolute values), respectively, over the 14-year period (from January 1984 to December 1997)

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Section: Time Seriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term global distribution of earth's shortwave radiation budget at the top of atmosphere

et al. 2004

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“…A comparison by Yang et al (1999) of NCEP reanalysis radiation products with two years of ERBE data (1985 and 1986) found good agreement with clear sky solar radiation but too much re¯ected solar radiation for the all sky case (by 12.6 W m À2 ), and indicated problems with clouds and moisture. Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) dierences were strongly seasonal and reanalysis values were 1.5% too high overall.…”

Section: Toa Radiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The atmospheric energy budget and implications for surface fluxes and ocean heat transports

Trenberth¹,

Caron²,

Stepaniak³

2001

Climate Dynamics

208

163

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Comprehensive diagnostic comparisons and evaluations have been carried out with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) and European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalyses of the vertically integrated atmospheric energy budgets. For 1979 to 1993 the focus is on the monthly means of the divergence of the atmospheric energy transports. For February 1985 to April 1989, when there are reliable top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) radiation data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), the implied monthly mean surfacē uxes are derived and compared with those from the assimilating models and from the Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (COADS), both locally and zonally integrated, to deduce the implied ocean meridional heat transports.While broadscale aspects and some details of both the divergence of atmospheric energy and the surface¯ux climatological means are reproducible, especially in the zonal means, dierences are also readily apparent. Systematic dierences are typically $20 W m À2 . The evaluation highlights the poor results over land. Land imbalances indicate local errors in the divergence of the atmospheric energy transports for monthly means on scales of 500 km (T31) of 30 W m À2 in both reanalyses and $50 W m À2 in areas of high topography and over Antarctica for NCEP/NCAR. Over the oceans in the extratropics, the monthly mean anomaly time series of the vertically integrated total energy divergence from the two reanalyses correspond reasonably well, with correlations exceeding 0.7. A common monthly mean climate signal of about 40 W m À2 is inferred along with local errors of 25 to 30 W m À2 in most extratropical regions.Except for large scales, there is no useful common signal in the tropics, and reproducibility is especially poor in regions of active convection and where stratocumulus prevails. Although time series of monthly anomalies of surface bulk¯uxes from the two models and COADS agree very well over the northern extratropical oceans, the total ®elds all contain large systematic biases which make them unsuitable for determining ocean heat transports. TOA biases in absorbed shortwave, outgoing longwave and net radiation from both reanalysis models are substantial (>20 W m À2 in the tropics) and indicate that clouds are a primary source of problems in the model¯uxes, both at the surface and the TOA. Time series of monthly COADS surface¯uxes are shown to be unreliable south of about 20 N where there are fewer than 25 observations per 5 square per month. Only the derived surface¯uxes give reasonable implied meridional ocean heat transports.

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“…Ramanathan et al 1989;Wielicki et al 2002;Wong et al 2006), especially in the evaluation of climate models and cloud feedback studies (e.g. Allan et al 2004;Allan & Ringer 2003;Raval et al 1994;Slingo et al 1998;Wielicki et al 2002;Yang et al 1999). In the development of a GCM for climate studies, one inevitable and important step is "tuning" in which poorly constrained parameters are adjusted using observations and physical principles to ensure energy balance at the top of atmosphere (TOA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longwave Band-By-Band Cloud Radiative Effect and Its Application in GCM Evaluation

Huang

Cole

et al. 2013

Journal of Climate

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The cloud radiative effect (CRE) of each longwave (LW) absorption band of a GCM's radiation code is uniquely valuable for GCM evaluation because (1) comparing band-by-band CRE avoids the compensating biases in the broadband CRE comparison and (2) the fractional contribution of each band to the LW broadband CRE (f CRE ) is sensitive to cloud top height but largely insensitive to cloud fraction, presenting thus a diagnostic metric to separate the two macroscopic properties of clouds. Recent studies led by the first author have established methods to derive such band-by-band quantities from collocated AIRS and CERES observations. We present here a study that compares the observed band-by-band CRE over the tropical oceans with those simulated by three different atmospheric GCMs (GFDL AM2, NASA GEOS-5, and CCCma CanAM4) forced by observed SST. The models agree with observation on the annual-mean LW broadband CRE over the tropical oceans within ±1Wm . However, the differences among these three GCMs in some bands can be as large as or even larger than ±1Wm -2. Observed seasonal cycles of f CRE in major bands are shown to be consistent with the seasonal cycle of cloud top pressure for both the amplitude and the phase. However, while the three simulated seasonal cycles of f CRE agree with observations on the phase, the amplitudes are underestimated. Simulated interannual anomalies from GFDL AM2 and CCCma CanAM4 are in phase with observed anomalies. The spatial distribution of f CRE highlights the discrepancies between models and observation over the low-cloud regions and the compensating biases from different bands.3

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Evaluation of the Earth Radiation Budget in NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis with ERBE

Cited by 48 publications

References 28 publications

Long-term global distribution of earth's shortwave radiation budget at the top of atmosphere

Long-term global distribution of earth's shortwave radiation budget at the top of atmosphere

The atmospheric energy budget and implications for surface fluxes and ocean heat transports

Longwave Band-By-Band Cloud Radiative Effect and Its Application in GCM Evaluation

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