SRFRAD

[jsmankin@ldeo_columbia_edu]

Hi,I'm new to CAM fluxes. The field name SRFRAD (W/m2) is titled the "net radiative flux at the surface". However, its values are really large and never negative, leading me to believe that it doesn't represent the surface radiation budget balance as I thought. Is that correct?What does SRFRAD represent, and how I estimate net surface upward radiation with CAM5 fields? Would I need the four radiation files (LW down and up and SW down and up) to calculate this or is there an output field provided in the LENS experiment that does this?Thanks!

 

[hannay]

SRFRAD was a meaningless quantity and it was removed form recent version of CAM. I think it was computed:
cam_out%srfrad(:ncol) = fsns(:ncol) + cam_out%flwds(:ncol)but it should becam_out%srfrad(:ncol) = fsns(:ncol) - flns(:ncol)SRFRAD doesn't need to be included because it can be calculated from FLNS and FSNS after the fact.

 

[jsmankin@ldeo_columbia_edu]

Hi Cécile, Thanks for your help. Huh, I would have—wrongly, I guess—thought net suface radiation was their sum (FSNS + FLNS) rather than their difference (FSNS - FLNS). Best,