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A dataset of 9 years in duration (2009–17) of clouds and radiation was obtained at the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) in the Netherlands. Cloud radiative forcings (CRF) were derived from the dataset and related to cloud cover and temperature. Also, the data were compared with RCM output. Results indicate that there is a seasonal cycle (i.e., winter, spring, summer, and autumn) in longwave (CRF-LW: 48.3, 34.4, 30.8, and 38.7 W m−2) and shortwave (CRF-SW: −23.6, −60.9, −67.8, and −32.9 W m−2) forcings at CESAR. Total CRF is positive in winter and negative in summer. The RCM has a cold bias with respect to the observations, but the model CRF-LW corresponds well to the observed CRF-LW as a result of compensating errors in the difference function that makes up the CRF-LW. The absolute value of model CRF-SW is smaller than the observed CRF-SW in summer, mostly because of albedo differences. The majority of clouds from above 2 km are present at the same time as low clouds, so the higher clouds have only a small impact on CRF whereas low clouds dominate their values. CRF-LW is a function of fractional cloudiness. CRF-SW is also a function of fractional cloudiness, if the values are normalized by the cosine of solar zenith angle. Expressions for CRF-LW and CRF-SW were derived as functions of temperature, fractional cloudiness, and solar zenith angle, indicating that CRF is the largest when fractional cloudiness is the highest but is also large for low temperature and high sun angle.

This paper describes and interprets the 1987 data from Cabauw, the Netherlands, which can be used to test land surface schemes in stand-alone mode. The data are available from the authors for model development and research. It consists of half-hour averages of forcing data (wind, temperature, specific humidity at 20-m height, downward solar and thermal radiation, and precipitation) and validation data (net radiation, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, ground heat flux, and soil temperature). To obtain a continuous time series of the forcing parameters and the surface energy fluxes, it was necessary to use a model to fill in the missing observations. The quality of the observations and the reliability of model data are assessed by exploiting the redundancy in the observations and by comparing the model output with the data when both are available. The monthly averages of sensible heat flux are believed to be accurate to within ±5 W m−2 and the monthly means of net radiation and latent heat flux...