Evaluation of model-generated cloudiness: satellite-observed and model-generated diurnal variability of brightness temperature

Abstract

On an instantaneous basis, clear-sky brightness temperatures from the model are generally in good agreement with observations, but errors arise from inaccuracies of the radiation transfer scheme, uncertainties in the input temperature and humidity profiles, and inadequate retrieval of the surface brightness temperature. The diurnal cycles of surface temperature and cloudiness, over a number of limited 10° × 10° areas representative of different cloud regimes, are studied using evolution histograms of window brightness temperature. -from Author