Simulation of Arctic thin ice clouds with Canadian regional Climate Model version 6: Validation and comparison with ClouSat-CALIPSO retrieved data

Clouds in Polar Regions are poorly known compared to those at lower latitudes owing to the paucity of in situ observations. This contributes to the large uncertainties in present-day simulations and future projections of the polar climate. The ability of climate models to simulate feedback between various components of the climate system depends on the level of understanding of the processes that govern it. In this study, a reanalysis-driven simulation of the GEM4-based Canadian Regional Climate Model version 6 (CRCM6) was used to make high-resolution (3 km) simulations during the Arctic polar night. A newly developed sophisticated cloud microphysics scheme, the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) of Milbrandt and Morrison (2016), was used in this simulation. The simulated cloud properties and other meteorological fields are compared with satellite observations from CloudSat and CALIPSO. The result shows that the model tends to locate clouds at lower altitudes in the atmosphere, with less ice-crystal sedimentation. Overall, this study contributes to better understand the physical processes of clouds in the polar regions, to improve model simulations and their role on the atmospheric energetic and circulation.