Comparison of TOA and BOA LW radiation fluxes inferred from ground-based
sensors, A-Train satellite observations and ERA reanalyses at the High
Arctic Station Eureka over the 2002 to 2020 period
Abstract
This paper focuses on the accuracy of longwave radiation flux retrievals
at the top and bottom of the atmosphere at Eureka station, Canada, in
the high Arctic. We report comparisons between seven products derived
from (1) calculations based on a combination of ground-based and
space-based lidar and radar observations, (2) standard radiometric
observations from the CERES satellite, (3) direct observations at the
surface from a broadband radiation station and (4) the ERA-Interim and
ERA5 reanalyses. Statistical, independent analyses are first performed
to look at recurring bias and trends in fluxes at Top and Bottom of the
Atmosphere. The analysis is further refined comparing fluxes derived
from coincident observations decomposed by scene types. Results show
that radiative transfer calculations using ground-based lidar-radar
profiles derived at Eureka agree well with TOA LW fluxes observed by
CERES and with BOA LW fluxes reference. CloudSat-CALIPSO also show good
agreement with calculations from ground-based sensor observations, with
a relatively small bias. This bias is shown to be largely due to low and
thick cloud occurrences that the satellites are insensitive to owing to
attenuation from clouds above and surface clutter. These conditions of
opaque low clouds, cause an even more pronounced bias for CERES BOA flux
calculation in winter, due to the deficit of low clouds identified by
MODIS. ERA-I and ERA5 fluxes behave differently, the large positive bias
observed with ERA-I is much reduced in ERA5. ERA5 is closer to reference
observations due to a better behaviour of low and mid-level clouds.