Drizzle and Turbulence Below Closed Cellular Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

Ghate, Virendra P.; Cadeddu, Maria P.

doi:10.1029/2018JD030141

Title: Drizzle and Turbulence Below Closed Cellular Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

Journal Article · Tue Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD030141· OSTI ID:1670845

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Argonne National Laboratory Lemont IL USA

Abstract Drizzle is ubiquitous in marine boundary layer stratocumulus clouds with much of it evaporating before reaching the surface. Ten days of observations made at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement's Eastern North Atlantic site during closed cellular stratocumulus cloud conditions are used to characterize drizzle below the cloud base and its impact on the boundary layer turbulence. Cloud and drizzle microphysical and macrophysical properties were retrieved by combining the data from vertically pointing Doppler cloud radar, ceilometer, and microwave radiometer. On average, the drizzle shafts were 28.14 km wide, with cloud base rain rate and modal diameter of 0.98 mm/day and 138.62 μm, respectively. The rain rate at the surface was negligible yielding an average diabatic cooling of −28.68 W/m ² in the subcloud layer. The liquid water path and turbulence within the boundary layer increased with an increase in the cloud top radiative cooling; however, none of these variables exhibited any relationship with cloud base rain rate. For a similar amount of radiative cooling at the cloud top, the average variance of vertical velocity in the subcloud layer was about 16% lower during strongly precipitating conditions as compared to lightly precipitating conditions. The reduction in the variance of vertical velocity due to drizzle evaporation was primarily confined to the upper half of the subcloud layer and was due to reduction in the strengths of the downdrafts. Collectively, our results show substantial impact of drizzle evaporation on turbulence below stratocumulus clouds, necessitating its accurate representation in the Earth system models.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: DE‐AC02‐06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1670845

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1670847

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Vol. 124 Journal Issue: 11; ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 15 works

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