Cloud, radiation, and precipitation climatologies from observations and CMIP3/IPCC AR4 models
One-Line Description:
Climatological cloud, TOA radiation, and surface precipitation fields from satelite observations and from IPCC AR4/CMIP3 models
Temporal Coverage:
Long term monthly means. Most models climatologies are for years 1979 to 2000; exceptions are the CSU MMF (1986-1999) and the ECMWF C32R1 (1 Dec 1991 - 1 Dec 2001). The epoch for each observational climatology is described in the reference.
Spatial Coverage:
- 2.5 degree latitude x 2.5 degree longitude global grid (144x72).
- 88.75N - 88.75S, 1.25E - 358.75E.
Levels:
Single levels: Radiation variables at TOA; precipitation at surface; cloud fraction is column integrated.
Update Schedule:
None scheduled.
Usage Restrictions:
Please don't redistribute these files.
Detailed Description:
These climatologies are computed by interpolating bi-linearly from the data's native grid to a 2.5 by 2.5 degree regular latitude/longitude grid, then averaging each month across the length of the available data.
Caveats:
From time to time errors are discovered in the CMIP3 model output that is the basis for the model climatologies. Although as of November 2007 there are no known problems with the CMIP3 model output used here, it is possible that problems will be discovered and corrected in the original source data sometime in the future. To check whether changes have been made in the CMIP3 source data, see the errata page at PCMDI.
Related File Naming & Structure Information:
File Naming convention: /Datasets.other/cmip3-clouds-rad-precip/INST_MODEL_RUN.nc where INST is the institution's acronym, MODEL is the model's CMIP3 model ID, and RUN is AMIP or 20thC.
Dataset Format and Size: PSL standard NetCDF 4.5 Mbyte file for each climatology containing 9 real variables.
Missing Data: Missing data is flagged with a very large, negative real number (-3.402823e+38)
Citation:
- Pincus et al, 2008: Evaluating the present-day simulation of clouds, precipitation, and radiation in climate models.
- Please also acknowledge the PCMDI CMIP-3 Multi-model data set following this example.
References:
For details on how the climatologies were constructed see Pincus et al, 2008: Evaluating the present-day simulation of clouds, precipitation, and radiation in climate models. See the references therein for descriptions of how the observations were obtained. See the PCMIDI site for links to documentation on each model.
Original Sources:
- Most model climatologies are derived from the CMIP3 Multi-model dataset hosted by
Project for Model Diagnosis and Intercomparision (PCMDI)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94551
URL: http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/ipcc/about_ipcc.php.
- Results for ERA-40 and the ECMWF C32R1 Integrated Forecast System were provided by Thomas Jung and Adrian Tompkins at
European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts
Shinfield Park
Reading, Berks, RG2 9AX UK
URL: http://ecmwf.int.
- Fields from the super-parameterized CAM (CSU MMF) were provided by
Marat Khairoutindov
School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook NY 11794-5000
- ISCCP (cloud fraction) and ERBE and CERES radiation data were obtained from http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov
- MODIS cloud data were obtained from http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- GPCP precipitation data were obtained from http://precip.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- CMAP precipitation data were obtained from http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/catalog/surface/precip/arkin.html They are also available on our server.
Download Data:
Files are available via anonymous ftp from host ftp.cdc.noaa.gov in directory /Datasets.other/cmip3-clouds-rad-precip/.
The primary observational climatology includes CERES, GPCP, and ISCCP. The secondary observational climatology includes ERBE, CMAP, and MODIS.
Climatologies constructed from model data are listed in this table:
Contact:
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