Evaluations of Surface Shortwave and Longwave Radiation from Earth System Models of CMIP5

Surface shortwave radiation (Rs) and longwave radiation (Ld) are the key components of energy budget in the climate system. Studies have shown that the biases of simulated clouds display significant spatial pattern, which may introduce an important spatial pattern of the biases of simulated Rs and Ld. Therefore the evaluation results of global climate model Rs and Ld simulations may depend on the location of the ground observations. In this study, comprehensive ground-based observations were used to evaluate the Rs and Ld simulations from Earth System Models (ESMs) in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). We found that CMIP5 still overestimate Rs and underestimate Ld. We also quantified the representation of ground-based observations and their uncertainties in the global estimations of Rs and Ld. After removing the biases of CMIP5 ESMs, the globally averaged Rs is estimated to be 185 W m-2 from 2000 to 2005, and the globally averaged Ld from 1992 to 2005 is estimated to be 341 W m-2.