Data for the 'Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei number, with implications for cloud droplet formation'

All numerical data used in the manuscript “Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle number and cloud condensation nuclei, and implications for cloud droplet formation” by G. S. Fanourgakis et al. ACP (2019) are categorized and provided in a number of files. All files are in the hdf format. A readme file is also provided.

These data files have been created by G. S. Fanourgakis (fanourg@uoc.gr)

Details on the data are provided in Fanourgakis et al. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1340  (e-mail to mariak@uoc.gr ; athanasios.nenes@epfl.ch )

For an in-depth understanding of the description below, a study of the above mentioned manuscript is required.

(A) Station model results

The station results can be found in files with filenames of the form:

station $MODEL.nc

The “$MODEL” (as well as all names starting with “$”) indicates a variable, and more specifically one of the models participated in the present study. The values of this variable are tabulated in Table 1 in the readme file.

In each file a number of computational results are provided by the specified model for all nine (9) stations that provided observational data. The name of the variable is formed as:

st $STATION $FIELDhour st $STATION $FIELD month

where all possible values of the variables $STATION and $FIELD are tabulated in Tables 2 and 3 in the readme file, respectively. The extension _hour denotes that hourly values for the field are provided, while the extension _month the monthly average of this quantity. For example, the variable

st Finokalia CCN02 hour

found in the file station_TM4-ECPL.nc, contains the hourly values of the CCN_0.2 at the Finokalia station as computed by the TM4-ECPL model. In a similar way, in the file station_EMAC.nc, the variable below gives the monthly values of dust at Vavihill as computed with the EMAC model.

st Vavihill DU month

Notice also that in all files hourly and monthly data are provided for the time period from 1-1-2011 up to 31-12-2015 (60 months and 43,824 hours)

(B) Station observational results

There is one file that contains all observational data from Schmale et al., SCIENTIFIC DATA | 4:170003 | DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.3, 2017 (julia.schmale@psi.ch) and the data that were computed based on the observations (i.e. number of cloud droplets) (contact person: athanasios.nenes@epfl.ch). The file is

station observations.nc

while the following fields are contained in there:

st $STATION $FIELDhour

st $STATION $FIELD month

The values of variables are given in the Tables 2 and 3 in the readme file. The time period covered is from 1-1-2011 up to 31-12-2015. Notice that due to the lack of observations a lot of data are missing. For missing observational data the value -9999.999 is given. Contact person for the observational data is Julia Schmale (julia.schmale@psi.ch).

(C) Station Multi-model Median

Monthly averages of the models can be found in the file

station MMM.nc

The following fields can be found in the file

st $STATION $FIELD month median

st $STATION$FIELD month quart25

st $STATION$FIELD month quart75

where the values of the variables $STATION and $FIELD can be found in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. The extension median corresponds to the multi-model median, while the quart25 and quart75 to the 25 % and 75 % quartiles, respectively.

(D) Global model results

In the following single file can be found for each of the models the surface distribution of various fields.

results global models year2011.nc

They correspond to the annual mean of the year 2011. The resolution of the grid is 1^◦ × 1^◦. The file contains the following variables:

$FIELD $MODEL

The $FIELD and $MODEL can be found in Tables 3 and 1, respectively.

(E) Global average results

In the file

surface_ global_average_year2011.nc

can be found in 5^◦×5^◦ resolution, the Multi-model median of surface distribution of the various fields denoted in Table 3 and their corresponding diversity. The names of the variables are formed as:

med $FIELD

div $FIELD

where, ‘med’ stands for median and ‘div’ for diversity calculated as standard deviation divided by the mean of the model results.

Tables and details on the fields provided are given in the readme file.