A joint satellite and global cloud-resolving model analysis of a Madden-Julian Oscillation event: Model diagnosis

In this study, a methodology to diagnose a global cloud-resolving model (GCRM) is explored on the basis of a joint analysis with satellite measurements. The Madden-Julian Oscillation experiment carried out with the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) is used as the test bed. The NICAM output is compared with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and CloudSat measurements in terms of composite analysis, contoured frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs), and the joint histogram of cloud top and precipitation top heights. It is found in the composite diagram that the GCRM reproduces a slow, eastward migration of a convective envelope well comparable to the satellite measurement. The GCRM CFAD qualitatively reproduces TRMM and CloudSat CFADs, except that the GCRM tends to overly produce snow in deep convection. The joint histograms reveal that, while the overproduction of snow is evident, NICAM-simulated snow is incapable of producing 94-GHz radar echoes higher than 5 dBZ. This deficiency can be mitigated by a modification to microphysical parameterization in the way that a proportion of small particles is enhanced in the snow mass spectrum.