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Abstract Clouds and radiation play an important role in warming events over the Southern Ocean (SO). Here we evaluate European Center for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) and Polar Weather Research Forecast (PWRF) output through comparison to surface‐based measurements of clouds, radiation, and the atmospheric state over the SO during 2017–2023 at Escudero Station (62.2°S, 58.97°W) on King George Island. ERA5 mean monthly downward shortwave (DSW) radiative fluxes are found to be 38–50 W m−2higher than observations in summer, whereas ERA5 mean monthly downward longwave (DLW) is biased by −18 to −22 W m−2in summer and −16 W m−2on average over the year. Comparisons of temperature, humidity, and lowest‐cloud base heights between ERA5 and observations rule these factors out as large contributors to the DLW flux biases. The similarity between observed DLW cloud forcing distributions for atmospheric columns containing low‐level liquid and ice‐only clouds suggests limited influence of cloud phase errors on DLW biases. Thus the most likely explanation for DLW flux biases in ERA5 is underestimated cloud optical depth, which is also consistent with DSW flux biases. Similar biases in ERA5 are found during atmospheric river (AR) events. By contrast, PWRF flux bias magnitudes are much smaller during AR events (−12 W m−2for DSW and −2 W m−2for DLW). After bias correction, ERA5 monthly average net cloud forcing over 2017–2023 is found to be a minimum of −107 W m−2in January and a maximum of 65 W m−2in June.
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Impact of downward longwave radiative deficits on Antarctic sea-ice extent predictability during the sea ice growth period
Abstract Forecasting Antarctic atmospheric, oceanic, and sea ice conditions on subseasonal to seasonal scales remains a major challenge. During both the freezing and melting seasons current operational ensemble forecasting systems show a systematic overestimation of the Antarctic sea-ice edge location. The skill of sea ice cover prediction is closely related to the accuracy of cloud representation in models, as the two are strongly coupled by cloud radiative forcing. In particular, surface downward longwave radiation (DLW) deficits appear to be a common shortcoming in atmospheric models over the Southern Ocean. For example, a recent comparison of ECMWF reanalysis 5th generation (ERA5) global reanalysis with the observations from McMurdo Station revealed a year-round deficit in DLW of approximately 50 Wm−2in marine air masses due to model shortages in supercooled cloud liquid water. A comparison with the surface DLW radiation observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative mooring in the South Pacific at 54.08° S, 89.67° W, for the time period January 2016–November 2018, confirms approximately 20 Wm−2deficit in DLW in ERA5 well north of the sea-ice edge. Using a regional ocean model, we show that when DLW is artificially increased by 50 Wm−2in the simulation driven by ERA5 atmospheric forcing, the predicted sea ice growth agrees much better with the observations. A wide variety of sensitivity tests show that the anomalously large, predicted sea-ice extent is not due to limitations in the ocean model and that by implication the cause resides with the atmospheric forcing.
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- PAR ID:
- 10369124
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Volume:
- 17
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 1748-9326
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- Article No. 084008
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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