Evaluation of a general circulation model by the CERES Flux-by-cloud type simulator.

In this work, we use the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) FluxByCloudTyp data product, which calculates TOA shortwave and longwave fluxes for cloud categories defined by cloud optical depth () and cloud top pressure ( ), to evaluate the HadGEM2-A model with a simulator. The CERES Flux-by-cloud type simulator is comprised of a cloud generator that produces subcolumns with profiles of binary cloud fraction, a cloud property simulator that determines the (, ) cloud type for each subcolumn, and a radiative transfer model that calculates TOA fluxes. The identification of duplicate atmospheric profiles reduces the number of radiative transfer calculations required by approximately 97.