The coupling of cloud base height and surface fluxes: a transferability intercomparison

This paper presents an evaluation of the simulated coupling between cloud base height (CBH) and surface fluxes over selected Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) reference stations by five regional climate models as part of a transferability intercomparison experiment. The model results are compared with station data obtained during the first phase of the CEOP measuring campaigns. The models gave a credible simulation of both diurnal and seasonal cycles of cloud base height and surface variables over the stations. However, the models exhibited some difficulty in reproducing the diurnal and seasonal temperatures over the tropical stations. The study used principal component analysis to show that three factors account for most of the variability in the observed and simulated data and to investigate the coupling between cloud base height and surface fluxes in the data. In the observations, CBH is well coupled with the surface fluxes over Cabauw, Bondville, Lamont, and Berms, but coupled only with temperature over Lindenberg and Tongyu. All models but GEMLAM simulate substantial coupling between CBH and surface fluxes at all stations; GEMLAM does not couple CBH with surface fluxes, but with surface temperature and specific humidity.