Preliminary comparison of high cloud cover between CALIPSO and ECMWF data over the South China Sea

The high cloud cover modeled by the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) is compared against Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations(CALIPSO) observations over the South China Sea from March 2018 to February 2019. The annual total high cloud amount is analyzed and compared between CALIOP and ERA-Interim at day and night, and the monthly comparison between the two products is also conducted. The results show that the distributions of high cloudiness in CALIPSO and ECMWF are in fairly good agreement over the specific areas both day and night. The correlation coefficient between the two products is 0.72 at day, 0.71 at night. There are some differences between the two in annual total high cloud amount. The high cloud amount from ECMWF, which is 54.2%, is 8.8% lower than that from CALIPSO (63%) at day, and 14.9% at night, 57.4%, 72.3%, respectively