Skill of ship‐following large‐eddy simulations in reproducing MAGIC observations across the northeast P acific stratocumulus to cumulus transition region
Abstract
Abstract During the Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) in October 2011 to September 2012, a container ship making periodic cruises between Los Angeles, CA, and Honolulu, HI, was instrumented with surface meteorological, aerosol and radiation instruments, a cloud radar and ceilometer, and radiosondes. Here large‐eddy simulation (LES) is performed in a ship‐following frame of reference for 13 four day transects from the MAGIC field campaign. The goal is to assess if LES can skillfully simulate the broad range of observed cloud characteristics and boundary layer structure across the subtropical stratocumulus to cumulus transition region sampled during different seasons and meteorological conditions. Results from Leg 15A, which sampled a particularly well‐defined stratocumulus to cumulus transition, demonstrate the approach. The LES reproduces the observed timing of decoupling and transition from stratocumulus to cumulus and matches the observed evolution of boundary layer structure, cloud fraction, liquid water path, and precipitation statistics remarkably well. Considering the simulations of all 13 cruises, the LES skillfully simulates the mean diurnal variation of key measured quantities, including liquid water path (LWP), cloud fraction, measures of decoupling, and cloud radar‐derived precipitation. The daily mean quantities are well represented, and daily mean LWP and cloud fraction showmore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1]
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1351638
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1351640; OSTI ID: 1393515
- Grant/Contract Number:
- DE‐SC0011602; SC0011602
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Volume: 9 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1942-2466
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; LES; marine boundary layer; clouds; stratocumulus; cumulus; large-eddy simulation
Citation Formats
McGibbon, J., and Bretherton, C. S. Skill of ship‐following large‐eddy simulations in reproducing MAGIC observations across the northeast P acific stratocumulus to cumulus transition region. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2017MS000924.
McGibbon, J., & Bretherton, C. S. Skill of ship‐following large‐eddy simulations in reproducing MAGIC observations across the northeast P acific stratocumulus to cumulus transition region. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000924
McGibbon, J., and Bretherton, C. S. Thu .
"Skill of ship‐following large‐eddy simulations in reproducing MAGIC observations across the northeast P acific stratocumulus to cumulus transition region". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000924.
@article{osti_1351638,
title = {Skill of ship‐following large‐eddy simulations in reproducing MAGIC observations across the northeast P acific stratocumulus to cumulus transition region},
author = {McGibbon, J. and Bretherton, C. S.},
abstractNote = {Abstract During the Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) in October 2011 to September 2012, a container ship making periodic cruises between Los Angeles, CA, and Honolulu, HI, was instrumented with surface meteorological, aerosol and radiation instruments, a cloud radar and ceilometer, and radiosondes. Here large‐eddy simulation (LES) is performed in a ship‐following frame of reference for 13 four day transects from the MAGIC field campaign. The goal is to assess if LES can skillfully simulate the broad range of observed cloud characteristics and boundary layer structure across the subtropical stratocumulus to cumulus transition region sampled during different seasons and meteorological conditions. Results from Leg 15A, which sampled a particularly well‐defined stratocumulus to cumulus transition, demonstrate the approach. The LES reproduces the observed timing of decoupling and transition from stratocumulus to cumulus and matches the observed evolution of boundary layer structure, cloud fraction, liquid water path, and precipitation statistics remarkably well. Considering the simulations of all 13 cruises, the LES skillfully simulates the mean diurnal variation of key measured quantities, including liquid water path (LWP), cloud fraction, measures of decoupling, and cloud radar‐derived precipitation. The daily mean quantities are well represented, and daily mean LWP and cloud fraction show the expected correlation with estimated inversion strength. There is a −0.6 K low bias in LES near‐surface air temperature that results in a high bias of 5.6 W m −2 in sensible heat flux (SHF). Overall, these results build confidence in the ability of LES to represent the northeast Pacific stratocumulus to trade cumulus transition region.},
doi = {10.1002/2017MS000924},
journal = {Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems},
number = 2,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Thu Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000924
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017MS000924
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 26 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
A Multipurpose Radar Simulation Package: QuickBeam
journal, November 2007
- Haynes, J. M.; Marchand, R. T.; Luo, Z.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 88, Issue 11
Cloud Resolving Modeling of the ARM Summer 1997 IOP: Model Formulation, Results, Uncertainties, and Sensitivities
journal, February 2003
- Khairoutdinov, Marat F.; Randall, David A.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 60, Issue 4
Clouds, Precipitation, and Marine Boundary Layer Structure during the MAGIC Field Campaign
journal, March 2015
- Zhou, Xiaoli; Kollias, Pavlos; Lewis, Ernie R.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 28, Issue 6
On the Structure of the Lower Troposphere in the Summertime Stratocumulus Regime of the Northeast Pacific
journal, March 2007
- Stevens, Bjorn; Beljaars, Anton; Bordoni, Simona
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 135, Issue 3
Confronting Models with Data: The GEWEX Cloud Systems Study: The GEWEX Cloud Systems Study
journal, April 2003
- Randall, David; Krueger, Steven; Bretherton, Christopher
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 84, Issue 4
Methods for determining the height of the atmospheric boundary layer
report, February 1999
- Sugiyama, Gayle; Nasstrom, John S.
The Seasonal Cycle of Low Stratiform Clouds
journal, August 1993
- Klein, Stephen A.; Hartmann, Dennis L.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 6, Issue 8
On the Relationship between Stratiform Low Cloud Cover and Lower-Tropospheric Stability
journal, December 2006
- Wood, Robert; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 24
Large-eddy simulation of the transient and near-equilibrium behavior of precipitating shallow convection: LES OF PRECIPITATING SHALLOW CONVECTION
journal, December 2015
- Seifert, Axel; Heus, Thijs; Pincus, Robert
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 7, Issue 4
Coupled vs. decoupled boundary layers in VOCALS-REx
journal, January 2011
- Jones, C. R.; Bretherton, C. S.; Leon, D.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 14
Determining the Susceptibility of Cloud Albedo to Changes in Droplet Concentration with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
journal, March 1994
- Platnick, S.; Twomey, S.
- Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 33, Issue 3
A New Double-Moment Microphysics Parameterization for Application in Cloud and Climate Models. Part I: Description
journal, June 2005
- Morrison, H.; Curry, J. A.; Khvorostyanov, V. I.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 62, Issue 6
Assessment of MODIS cloud effective radius and optical thickness retrievals over the Southeast Pacific with VOCALS-REx in situ measurements: MODIS VALIDATION DURING VOCALS-REx
journal, December 2011
- Painemal, David; Zuidema, Paquita
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 116, Issue D24
Evaluation of Large-Eddy Simulations via Observations of Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus
journal, June 2005
- Stevens, Bjorn; Moeng, Chin-Hoh; Ackerman, Andrew S.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 133, Issue 6
Marine low cloud sensitivity to an idealized climate change: The CGILS LES intercomparison: CGILS LES Intercomparison
journal, May 2013
- Blossey, Peter N.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Zhang, Minghua
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 5, Issue 2
Steady-State Large-Eddy Simulations to Study the Stratocumulus to Shallow Cumulus Cloud Transition
journal, November 2012
- Chung, D.; Matheou, G.; Teixeira, J.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 69, Issue 11
Large-Eddy Simulations of EUCLIPSE–GASS Lagrangian Stratocumulus-to-Cumulus Transitions: Mean State, Turbulence, and Decoupling
journal, June 2016
- de Roode, Stephan R.; Sandu, Irina; van der Dussen, Johan J.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 73, Issue 6
A comparison of cloud-resolving model simulations of trade wind cumulus with aircraft observations taken during RICO
journal, January 2007
- Abel, S. J.; Shipway, B. J.
- Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 133, Issue 624
Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave
journal, July 1997
- Mlawer, Eli J.; Taubman, Steven J.; Brown, Patrick D.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 102, Issue D14
Aerosol variability, synoptic-scale processes, and their link to the cloud microphysics over the northeast Pacific during MAGIC: NE PACIFIC CCN AND CLOUD MICROPHYSICS
journal, May 2015
- Painemal, David; Minnis, Patrick; Nordeen, Michele
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 10
On the Fidelity of Large-Eddy Simulation of Shallow Precipitating Cumulus Convection
journal, September 2011
- Matheou, Georgios; Chung, Daniel; Nuijens, Louise
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 139, Issue 9
On the Factors Modulating the Stratocumulus to Cumulus Transitions
journal, September 2011
- Sandu, Irina; Stevens, Bjorn
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 68, Issue 9
On the Relationships among Low-Cloud Structure, Sea Surface Temperature, and Atmospheric Circulation in the Summertime Northeast Pacific
journal, May 1995
- Klein, Stephen A.; Hartmann, Dennis L.; Norris, Joel R.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 8, Issue 5
The Epic 2001 Stratocumulus Study
journal, July 2004
- Bretherton, Christopher S.; Uttal, Taneil; Fairall, Christopher W.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 85, Issue 7
The role of precipitation and spatial organization in the response of trade-wind clouds to warming: WARMING RESPONSE OF SHALLOW CONVECTION
journal, June 2016
- Vogel, Raphaela; Nuijens, Louise; Stevens, Bjorn
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 2
The GASS/EUCLIPSE model intercomparison of the stratocumulus transition as observed during ASTEX: LES results: Astex SCU Transition-LES Results
journal, July 2013
- van der Dussen, J. J.; de Roode, S. R.; Ackerman, A. S.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 5, Issue 3
Cloud Modeling Tests of the ULTIMATE–MACHO Scalar Advection Scheme
journal, October 2011
- Yamaguchi, Takanobu; Randall, David A.; Khairoutdinov, Marat F.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 139, Issue 10