TY - JOUR A1 - Heinze, Rieke A1 - Dipankar, Anurag A1 - Henken, Cintia Carbajal A1 - Moseley, Christopher A1 - Sourdeval, Odran A1 - Trömel, Silke A1 - Xie, Xinxin A1 - Adamidis, Panos A1 - Ament, Felix A1 - Baars, Holger A1 - Barthlott, Christian A1 - Behrendt, Andreas A1 - Blahak, Ulrich A1 - Bley, Sebastian A1 - Brdar, Slavko A1 - Brueck, Matthias A1 - Crewell, Susanne A1 - Deneke, Hartwig A1 - Di Girolamo, Paolo A1 - Evaristo, Raquel A1 - Fischer, Jürgen A1 - Frank, Christopher A1 - Friederichs, Petra A1 - Göcke, Tobias A1 - Gorges, Ksenia A1 - Hande, Luke A1 - Hanke, Moritz A1 - Hansen, Akio A1 - Hege, Hans-Christian A1 - Hose, Corinna A1 - Jahns, Thomas A1 - Kalthoff, Norbert A1 - Klocke, Daniel A1 - Kneifel, Stefan A1 - Knippertz, Peter A1 - Kuhn, Alexander A1 - van Laar, Thriza A1 - Macke, Andreas A1 - Maurer, Vera A1 - Mayer, Bernhard A1 - Meyer, Catrin I. A1 - Muppa, Shravan K. A1 - Neggers, Roeland A. J. A1 - Orlandi, Emiliano A1 - Pantillon, Florian A1 - Pospichal, Bernhard A1 - Röber, Niklas A1 - Scheck, Leonhard A1 - Seifert, Axel A1 - Seifert, Patric A1 - Senf, Fabian A1 - Siligam, Pavan A1 - Simmer, Clemens A1 - Steinke, Sandra A1 - Stevens, Bjorn A1 - Wapler, Kathrin A1 - Weniger, Michael A1 - Wulfmeyer, Volker A1 - Zängl, Günther A1 - Zhang, Dan A1 - Quaas, Johannes T1 - Large-eddy simulations over Germany using ICON: a comprehensive evaluation JF - Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society N2 - Large-eddy simulations (LES) with the new ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic atmosphere model (ICON) covering Germany are evaluated for four days in spring 2013 using observational data from various sources. Reference simulations with the established Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) numerical weather prediction model and further standard LES codes are performed and used as a reference. This comprehensive evaluation approach covers multiple parameters and scales, focusing on boundary-layer variables, clouds and precipitation. The evaluation points to the need to work on parametrizations influencing the surface energy balance, and possibly on ice cloud microphysics. The central purpose for the development and application of ICON in the LES configuration is the use of simulation results to improve the understanding of moist processes, as well as their parametrization in climate models. The evaluation thus aims at building confidence in the model's ability to simulate small- to mesoscale variability in turbulence, clouds and precipitation. The results are encouraging: the high-resolution model matches the observed variability much better at small- to mesoscales than the coarser resolved reference model. In its highest grid resolution, the simulated turbulence profiles are realistic and column water vapour matches the observed temporal variability at short time-scales. Despite being somewhat too large and too frequent, small cumulus clouds are well represented in comparison with satellite data, as is the shape of the cloud size spectrum. Variability of cloud water matches the satellite observations much better in ICON than in the reference model. In this sense, it is concluded that the model is fit for the purpose of using its output for parametrization development, despite the potential to improve further some important aspects of processes that are also parametrized in the high-resolution model. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2947 VL - 143 IS - 702 SP - 69 EP - 100 ER -