Continuous single-column model evaluation at a permanent meteorological supersite

A facility in the Netherlands has brought together simulations and observations, helping scientists improve efficiency and statistical significance of process-level evaluations of numerical weather and climate prediction models. The project, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) Parametrization Testbed (KPT), is part of a general move toward more statistically significant process-level evaluation. A key goal of the KPT is to apply LES on a continuous basis and simulate multiyear periods, enabled for the first time by the use of GPUs. The cloud structure and time development evaluated at Cabauw on 8 April 2008 show the passage of individual cumuli that is distinguished in the high-frequency ceilometer observations. Relatively small deviations in the vertical thermodynamic structure can be associated with large deviations in cloud state.