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Title: An observational study of entrainment rate in deep convection

Abstract

This study estimates entrainment rate and investigates its relationships with cloud properties in 156 deep convective clouds based on in-situ aircraft observations during the TOGA-COARE (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment) field campaign over the western Pacific. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the probability density function of entrainment rate, the relationships between entrainment rate and cloud microphysics, and the effects of dry air sources on the calculated entrainment rate in deep convection from an observational perspective. Results show that the probability density function of entrainment rate can be well fitted by lognormal, gamma or Weibull distribution, with coefficients of determination being 0.82, 0.85 and 0.80, respectively. Entrainment tends to reduce temperature, water vapor content and moist static energy in cloud due to evaporative cooling and dilution. Inspection of the relationships between entrainment rate and microphysical properties reveals a negative correlation between volume-mean radius and entrainment rate, suggesting the potential dominance of homogeneous mechanism in the clouds examined. The entrainment rate and environmental water vapor content show similar tendencies of variation with the distance of the assumed environmental air to the cloud edges. Their variation tendencies are non-monotonic due to the relatively shortmore » distance between adjacent clouds.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing (China); Jiangsu Research Institute of Meteorological Science, Nanjing (China)
  2. Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing (China)
  3. Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  4. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1222608
Report Number(s):
BNL-108399-2015-JA
Journal ID: ISSN 2073-4433; ATMOCZ; R&D Project: 2016-BNL-EE631EECA-Budg; KP1703020
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC00112704
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Atmosphere (Basel)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2073-4433
Publisher:
MDPI
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; entrainment rate; deep convection; aircraft observations

Citation Formats

Guo, Xiaohao, Lu, Chunsong, Zhao, Tianliang, Zhang, Guang Jun, and Liu, Yangang. An observational study of entrainment rate in deep convection. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.3390/atmos6091362.
Guo, Xiaohao, Lu, Chunsong, Zhao, Tianliang, Zhang, Guang Jun, & Liu, Yangang. An observational study of entrainment rate in deep convection. United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos6091362
Guo, Xiaohao, Lu, Chunsong, Zhao, Tianliang, Zhang, Guang Jun, and Liu, Yangang. 2015. "An observational study of entrainment rate in deep convection". United States. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos6091362. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1222608.
@article{osti_1222608,
title = {An observational study of entrainment rate in deep convection},
author = {Guo, Xiaohao and Lu, Chunsong and Zhao, Tianliang and Zhang, Guang Jun and Liu, Yangang},
abstractNote = {This study estimates entrainment rate and investigates its relationships with cloud properties in 156 deep convective clouds based on in-situ aircraft observations during the TOGA-COARE (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment) field campaign over the western Pacific. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the probability density function of entrainment rate, the relationships between entrainment rate and cloud microphysics, and the effects of dry air sources on the calculated entrainment rate in deep convection from an observational perspective. Results show that the probability density function of entrainment rate can be well fitted by lognormal, gamma or Weibull distribution, with coefficients of determination being 0.82, 0.85 and 0.80, respectively. Entrainment tends to reduce temperature, water vapor content and moist static energy in cloud due to evaporative cooling and dilution. Inspection of the relationships between entrainment rate and microphysical properties reveals a negative correlation between volume-mean radius and entrainment rate, suggesting the potential dominance of homogeneous mechanism in the clouds examined. The entrainment rate and environmental water vapor content show similar tendencies of variation with the distance of the assumed environmental air to the cloud edges. Their variation tendencies are non-monotonic due to the relatively short distance between adjacent clouds.},
doi = {10.3390/atmos6091362},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1222608}, journal = {Atmosphere (Basel)},
issn = {2073-4433},
number = 9,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Parameterization of Entrainment Rate and Mass Flux in Continental Cumulus Clouds: Inference From Large Eddy Simulation
journal, December 2019