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A new approach for simultaneous estimation of entrainment and detrainment rates in non-precipitating shallow cumulus

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2021gl093817· OSTI ID:1798696

A new approach is developed for estimating entrainment and detrainment rates in cumulus clouds based on aircraft observations. Equations relating entrainment and detrainment rates to gross entrainment and detrainment are derived. This approach is applied to the Holistic Interactions of Shallow Clouds, Aerosols, and Land-Ecosystems (HI-SCALE) field campaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program. In this work, the results show that both entrainment and detrainment rates decrease with increasing height. Sensitivity tests with different detrained air assumptions yield similar results. The entrainment and detrainment rates can reproduce the cloud thermodynamic variables. Partial correlation analysis indicates that entrainment rate is positively correlated with environmental relative humidity, and detrainment rate is negatively correlated with environmental relative humidity and positively correlated with entrainment rate. This new approach can be applied to other cloud observations to obtain a dataset of entrainment and detrainment rates in cumulus clouds.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Contributing Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1798696
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1805258
OSTI ID: 2563394
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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