Skip to main content

CIRC Cases

Phase I cases

  1.  Clear sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 1.4.1 SGP 9/25/2000, julian day=269; low precipitable water, low aerosol loading, SZA=47.9° 
  2. Clear sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 1.4.1 SGP 7/19/2000, julian day=201; high precipitable water, moderately high aerosol loading, SZA=64.6° 
  3. Clear sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 1.4.1tK SGP 5/4/2000, julian day=125; moderate precipitable water, moderately high aerosol loading, SZA=40.6° 
  4. Clear sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 2.3tF NSA 5/3/2004, julian day=124; very low precipitable water, moderate aerosol loading, SZA=55.1° 
  5. Clear sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 2.3tF NSA 5/3/2004, julian day=124; same as case no. 4, except CO2 has been doubled 
  6. Cloudy sky case, adapted from BBHRP v. 1.4.1 SGP 3/17/2000, julian day=77; thick overcast liquid cloud, moderate precipitable water, SZA=45.5° 
  7. Cloudy sky case from Pt. Reyes AMF deployment, 7/6/2005, julian day=187; moderately thin overcast liquid cloud, moderate precipitable water, SZA=41.2° 
  • See how  LW and SW reference calculations compare with the broadband observations.

Additional Phase I cases ("subcases")

In addition to the above cases, additional variants were requested from participants in January 2010. These "subcases" will help in the interpretation of the results of the main cases, but because of their idealized atmospheric and surface conditions, they are no longer constrained by the radiative observations. The list of subcases is:
 

  • SW Case 1a: SW Case 1, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.196
  • SW Case 1b: SW Case 1, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.196
  • SW Case 2a: SW Case 2, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.188
  • SW Case 2b: SW Case 2, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.188
  • SW Case 3a: SW Case 3, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.171
  • SW Case 3b: SW Case 3, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.171
  • SW Case 4a: SW Case 4, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.670
  • SW Case 4b: SW Case 4, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.670
  • SW Case 5a: SW Case 5, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.670
  • SW Case 5b: SW Case 5, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.670
  • SW Case 6a: SW Case 6, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.136
  • SW Case 6b: SW Case 6, remove the aerosol, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.136
  • SW Case 6c: SW Case 6, remove the cloud, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.136
  • SW Case 6d: SW Case 6, remove the aerosol and the cloud, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.136
  • SW Case 7a: SW Case 7, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.164
  • SW Case 7b: SW Case 7, remove the cloud, use spectrally constant albedo = 0.164
  • LW Case 6a: LW Case 6, remove the cloud
  • LW Case 7a: LW Case 7, remove the cloud

The spectrally constant albedo comes from weighing the spectral albedo by the CHARTS spectral flux reaching the surface. A summary of the spectrally integrated (broadband) output for the SW subcases from reference CHARTS calculations can be downloaded here. The spectrally detailed CHARTS files for the subcases can be downloaded here, while the results for the two LW subcases are now also available.

Questions?

For questions or problems reading/interpreting the input/output dataset please contact Lazaros Oreopoulos. For specific questions on LBLRTM or CHARTS performance contact Eli Mlawer.