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 field campaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program. 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 (RH), and detrainment rate is negatively correlated with environmental RH and positively correlated with entrainment rate. This new approach can be applied to other cloud observations to obtain a data set of entrainment and detrainment rates in cumulus clouds.
Zhu, Lei, et al. "A New Approach for Simultaneous Estimation of Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Non- Precipitating Shallow Cumulus." Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 48, no. 15, Aug. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093817
Zhu, Lei, Lu, Chunsong, Yan, Shuqi, Liu, Yangang, Zhang, Guang J., Mei, Fan, Zhu, Bin, Fast, Jerome D., Matthews, Alyssa A., & Pekour, Mikhail S. (2021). A New Approach for Simultaneous Estimation of Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Non- Precipitating Shallow Cumulus. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(15). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093817
Zhu, Lei, Lu, Chunsong, Yan, Shuqi, et al., "A New Approach for Simultaneous Estimation of Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Non- Precipitating Shallow Cumulus," Geophysical Research Letters 48, no. 15 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093817
@article{osti_2563394,
author = {Zhu, Lei and Lu, Chunsong and Yan, Shuqi and Liu, Yangang and Zhang, Guang J. and Mei, Fan and Zhu, Bin and Fast, Jerome D. and Matthews, Alyssa A. and Pekour, Mikhail S.},
title = {A New Approach for Simultaneous Estimation of Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Non- Precipitating Shallow Cumulus},
annote = {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 field campaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program. 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 (RH), and detrainment rate is negatively correlated with environmental RH and positively correlated with entrainment rate. This new approach can be applied to other cloud observations to obtain a data set of entrainment and detrainment rates in cumulus clouds.},
doi = {10.1029/2021GL093817},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2563394},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = {15},
volume = {48},
place = {United States},
year = {2021},
month = {08}}