Review of cloud simulator terms

[martinjuckes]

CMIP6 included output from ISCCP and MISR simulators. MODIS will be added in CMIP7. Discussion of standard names has revealed errors in the usage of standard names in CMIP6 which need to be corrected. The key issue is that the satellites do not see liquid water path and ice water path: rather, they see liquid water path of ice-topped cloud and liquid water path of liquid-topped clouds.

[martinjuckes]

For CMIP6, the following MODIS variables where requested:

Emon.jpdftaureliqmodis
Emon.jpdftaureicemodis
Emon.clwmodis
Emon.cltmodis
Emon.climodis
Eday.jpdftaureliqmodis
Eday.jpdftaureicemodis

The following additional ones are proposed for CMIP7:

CFmon.clwvimodis
CFmon.cltmodis
CFmon.clmodisliquid_dup
CFmon.clmodisliquid
CFmon.clmodisice_dup
CFmon.clmodisice
CFmon.clmodis
CFmon.clivimodis

Q1: Are they really additional? For example, should CFmon.clmodis replace Emon.clmodis?
Q2: How do the variables proposed by Lisa relate to those proposed by Brandon? Is there duplication here?

For MISR we have a single variable, Emon.clmisr, requested on 16 altitudes and 7 optical depth categories.

Q3: From the CF discussion I gather that the altitude refers to the cloud top altitude and the optical depth refers to the optical depth of the cloud. I.e. is a a property of the cloud, not a coordinate used to describe locations within the cloud. Is this correct?

[LisaBock]

Q2: How do the variables proposed by Lisa relate to those proposed by Brandon? Is there duplication here?

The two variables (CFmon.clwvimodis and CFmon.clivimodis) we proposed are the only ones which are not about any cloud fraction but the total cloud and ice water path seen by MODIS. There is no overlap to already exisiting variables.