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Model meets reality: SGP three-case summary

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Model meets reality: SGP three-case summary

Three case days at the ARM SGP site: 2019-05-17, 2018-07-09), 2019-09-29.
Two models: SCREAM (5 km doubly-periodic) and WRF-LASSO (250 m reference LES).
Observations: ARM ARSCL cloud mask, MWR liquid-water path, downwelling shortwave radiation, and rawinsonde soundings.

Setup done.
Helpers ready.
  0709  2018-07-09  ok
  0517  2019-05-17  ok
  0929  2019-09-29  ok
SW radiation loaded.

Fig 1 — Cloud-fraction curtains

Time–height fields for the full diurnal cycle (6–23 LST). Columns: SCREAM cldfrac_tot, WRF-LASSO cloud_fraction, ARSCL cloud_fraction_mask_arscl. Shared 0–1 colour scale; white = high fraction, dark blue = none.

<Figure size 1820x1300 with 10 Axes>

Fig 2 & 3 — Liquid water path and low cloud fraction

Both metrics use one panel per case with three sources in fixed order (SCREAM → WRF-LASSO → ARM obs). SCREAM low cloud fraction is cldfrac_tot_for_analysis.where(z_mid < 5000 m).max(lev).mean(ncol); WRF-LASSO and ARSCL values come from the pre-computed low_cloud_fraction_arscl field in the obsmod VAP.

<Figure size 1820x624 with 3 Axes>
<Figure size 1820x624 with 3 Axes>

Fig 4 — Surface downwelling shortwave radiation

SCREAM outputs hourly averages; WRF wrfout files are also hourly. QCRAD observations are resampled to 10-minute means. Clouds suppress SW↓ relative to clear-sky — deviations from the smooth clear-sky curve diagnose cloud radiative effect.

<Figure size 1820x624 with 3 Axes>

Fig 5 — Potential temperature profiles

Three time snapshots (07, 12, 17 LST) for each case. Solid blue = SCREAM domain mean, solid orange = WRF-LASSO. The initial sounding (ARM rawinsonde) is shown only at 07 LST (dashed black). Horizontal lines mark the observed LCL (dashed green) and cloud-base height (dotted purple) at each snapshot time.

<Figure size 1820x1820 with 9 Axes>

Fig 6 — WRF-LASSO thermodynamic curtains

Time–height evolution of potential temperature (top row) and water-vapour mixing ratio (bottom row) from WRF-LASSO. The diurnal boundary-layer growth is clearest in θ; the moistening aloft during convective periods appears in qᵥ.

<Figure size 1820x1040 with 8 Axes>

Fig 7 & 8 — Cloud-water budget diagnostics

Fig 7 normalises all cloud-occurrence metrics to the LASSO reference. A bar at 1 means model = LASSO. Blue bars use SCREAM’s internal cloud label (cldfrac_tot); orange bars count SCREAM cells that actually carry real condensate (qc + qr > 1×10⁻⁷ kg/kg).

Fig 8 tests the Zhang et al. (2024 GRL) mechanism: afternoon (12–18 LST) SCREAM columns, each plotted as boundary-layer height vs column LWP. A positive slope means taller BL → more condensate.

<Figure size 1430x715 with 1 Axes>
<Figure size 1300x715 with 1 Axes>

Fig 9 — Model vs. observation scatter: boundary-layer state and low cloud fraction

Each point is one matched time step across all three cases (CASE_COLOR not used here — cases are pooled). SCREAM (blue circles) vs. WRF-LASSO (orange triangles) on the same axes; 1:1 line dashed black. Unit conversions applied: SCREAM RH × 100 (fraction → %).

<Figure size 1820x676 with 3 Axes>
<Figure size 1820x676 with 3 Axes>
<Figure size 1820x676 with 3 Axes>