Evaluation of Modeled Hyperspectral Infrared Spectra Against All-Sky AIRS Observations Using Different Cloud Overlap Schemes

Research summary

This study tests alternative cloud-overlap assumptions in the Community Radiative Transfer Model against AIRS satellite spectra. Instead of relying only on correlation, it compares modeled and observed brightness-temperature distributions using the first Wasserstein distance. An average overlap treatment performs best for the non-frozen ocean scenarios examined. The results show why representations of unresolved cloud structure matter when evaluating all-sky infrared radiation simulations.