Analysis of tropical radiative heating profiles: A comparison of models and observations

The vertical distribution of radiative heating in the atmosphere is an important driver of atmospheric circulation. Evaluation of model simulations of the Earth's radiation budget typically focus only on performance at the top of the atmosphere or at the surface. In this study, we compare the vertical distribution of cloud properties and radiative heating rates calculated from observations at the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites on the islands of Nauru and Manus to simulations performed using the Multiscale Modeling Framework (MMF) and the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM). Significant differences are found in the vertical profiles and diurnal cycle of cloud amount, condensed water content, and cloud effect on heating rates between the two models and between the models and the observations. The differences in the heating rates between the models and ARM results depend partly on the details of the parameterization of effective radius and absorption coefficients used and partly on differences in cloud frequency, vertical location of clouds, and optical thickness. Since the same radiative model is used in the CAM and MMF, differences in the effect of clouds on heating rates between the two models are due to the differing treatment of cloud processes in the models and the interaction of clouds and radiation on the local scale in the MMF.