Comparison of the Height of the 0°C Isotherm With Several ERA5 Cloud Parameters

Abstract

The 0°C isotherm height is used in rain attenuation prediction models to calculate the rain height, as proposed in ITU-R Recommendations. In previous studies, the 0°C isotherm obtained for Madrid was compared with the 0° isotherm height provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts fifth-generation climate reanalysis (ERA5). In this paper, the comparison is extended to several ERA5 cloud parameters: cloud base height, total cloud liquid water content and total cloud ice water content. The results presented here include the monthly average, histograms of each parameter and binned scatter plots of pairs of parameters.