Comparison of CMIP5 cloud cover simulation with remote sensing data for African cordex domain

In this work, a comparison between cloud cover data obtained from ISCCP database and different simulation results from GCMs included in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) has been conducted, to evaluate the skills of these models to reproduce the climatological behaviour of cloud cover over the African continent during approximately two decades, 1984 to 2005. The behaviour of all the models is very similar, they underestimate the total cloud cover but show a good space-time correlation with satellite data. However, the separate analysis of low, mid and high cloud cover produces worse results. One of the areas that show important differences correspond to marine boundary layer clouds near the coast of Namibia.