Riley Dellaripa, Emily M.Funk, AaronSchumacher, CourtneyBai, HedanqiuSpangehl, Thomas2021-06-012021-06-012021https://hdl.handle.net/10217/232461http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/232461This dataset includes the global 2° and 1° CAM5 output variables for June 2017 that were used as input into our version of the COSP simulator package as described in the publication. A README file is included to describe the unix scripts used to prepare the data files for input into COSP.Department of Atmospheric ScienceComparisons of precipitation between general circulation models (GCMs) and observations are often confounded by a mismatch between model output and instrument measurements, including variable type and temporal and spatial resolution. To mitigate these differences, the radar-simulator Quickbeam within the Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) Observation Simulator Package (COSP) simulates reflectivity from model variables at the sub-grid scale. This work adapts Quickbeam to the dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) onboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite. The longer wavelength of the DPR is used to evaluate moderate-to-heavy precipitation in GCMs, which is missed when Quickbeam is used as a cloud radar simulator. Latitudinal and land/ocean comparisons are made between COSP output from the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) and DPR data. Additionally, this work improves the COSP sub-grid algorithm by applying a more realistic, non-deterministic approach to assigning GCM grid box convective cloud cover when convective cloud is not provided as a model output. Instead of assuming a static 5% convective cloud coverage, DPR convective precipitation coverage is used as a proxy for convective cloud coverage. For example, DPR observations show that convective rain typically only covers about 1% of a 2°grid box, but that the median convective rain area increases to over 10% in heavy rain cases. In our CAM5 tests, the updated sub-grid algorithm improved the comparison between reflectivity distributions when the convective cloud cover is provided versus the default 5% convective cloud cover assumption.NetCDFTARGZIPTXTSHengCAM5COSPGPMDatasetThe material is open access and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Public Domain "No rights reserved" (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).