Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

Special Section: Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Intercomparison of Longwave and Shortwave radiation (GERBILS)

GERBILS was an observational field experiment over North Africa during June 2007, with primary objectives to characterise the microphysical and optical properties of mineral dust and to use these observations to develop and validate satellite retrievals and model simulations of mineral dust. This Special Section includes eight papers that document the results from the GERBILS experiment.

Edited by J. M. Haywood

Read the editorial here.

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Special Issue: Advances in the understanding of convective processes and precipitation over low-mountain regions through the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS)

Edited by V. Wulfmeyer, C. Flamant, A. Behrendt, A. Blyth, A. Brown, M. Dorninger, A. Illingworth, P. Mascart, A. Montani, T. Weckwerth

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ERA-Interim is the latest global atmospheric reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The ERA-Interim project was conducted in part to prepare for a new atmospheric reanalysis to replace ERA-40, and this article describes the forecast model, data assimilation method, and input datasets used to produce ERA-Interim, discussing the performance of the system with special emphasis placed on various difficulties encountered in the production of ERA-40.

The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project

G. P. Compo et al.

This review article describes an international effort to produce a comprehensive global atmospheric circulation dataset spanning the twentieth century, seeking to provide researchers with key historical comparisons for our own changing climate.

Read the press release here.

Recent developments in gravity-wave effects in climate models and the global distribution of gravity-wave momentum flux from observations and models

M. J. Alexander et al.

From molecules to meteorology via turbulent scale invariance

A. F. Tuck