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Title: The Life Cycle of Anvil Clouds and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Balance over the Tropical West Pacific

Abstract

Observations from a geostationary satellite are used to study the life cycle of mesoscale convective systems (MCS), their associated anvil clouds, and their effects on the radiation balance over the warm pool of the tropical western Pacific Ocean. In their developing stages, MCS primarily consist of clouds that are optically thick and have a negative net cloud radiative effect (CRE). As MCS age, ice crystals in the anvil become larger, the cloud top lowers somewhat, and cloud radiative effects decrease in magnitude. Shading from anvils causes cool anomalies in the underlying sea surface temperature (SST) of up to –0.6°C. MCS often occur in clusters that are embedded within large westward-propagating disturbances, and therefore shading from anvils can cool SSTs over regions spanning hundreds of kilometers. Triggering of convection is more likely to follow a warm SST anomaly than a cold SST anomaly on a time scale of several days. This information is used to evaluate hypotheses for why, over the warm pool, the average shortwave and longwave CRE are individually large but nearly cancel. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the cancellation in CRE is caused by feedbacks among cloud albedo, large-scale circulation, and SST.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  2. Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, Virginia
  3. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1483738
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1611886
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012580
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Climate
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Volume: 31 Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; meteorology & atmospheric sciences; atmosphere-ocean interaction; clouds; radiation budgets

Citation Formats

Wall, Casey J., Hartmann, Dennis L., Thieman, Mandana M., Smith, Jr., William L., and Minnis, Patrick. The Life Cycle of Anvil Clouds and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Balance over the Tropical West Pacific. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0154.1.
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Wall, Casey J., Hartmann, Dennis L., Thieman, Mandana M., Smith, Jr., William L., & Minnis, Patrick. The Life Cycle of Anvil Clouds and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Balance over the Tropical West Pacific. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0154.1
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Wall, Casey J., Hartmann, Dennis L., Thieman, Mandana M., Smith, Jr., William L., and Minnis, Patrick. Sat . "The Life Cycle of Anvil Clouds and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Balance over the Tropical West Pacific". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0154.1.
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@article{osti_1483738,
title = {The Life Cycle of Anvil Clouds and the Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Balance over the Tropical West Pacific},
author = {Wall, Casey J. and Hartmann, Dennis L. and Thieman, Mandana M. and Smith, Jr., William L. and Minnis, Patrick},
abstractNote = {Observations from a geostationary satellite are used to study the life cycle of mesoscale convective systems (MCS), their associated anvil clouds, and their effects on the radiation balance over the warm pool of the tropical western Pacific Ocean. In their developing stages, MCS primarily consist of clouds that are optically thick and have a negative net cloud radiative effect (CRE). As MCS age, ice crystals in the anvil become larger, the cloud top lowers somewhat, and cloud radiative effects decrease in magnitude. Shading from anvils causes cool anomalies in the underlying sea surface temperature (SST) of up to –0.6°C. MCS often occur in clusters that are embedded within large westward-propagating disturbances, and therefore shading from anvils can cool SSTs over regions spanning hundreds of kilometers. Triggering of convection is more likely to follow a warm SST anomaly than a cold SST anomaly on a time scale of several days. This information is used to evaluate hypotheses for why, over the warm pool, the average shortwave and longwave CRE are individually large but nearly cancel. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the cancellation in CRE is caused by feedbacks among cloud albedo, large-scale circulation, and SST.},
doi = {10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0154.1},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
number = 24,
volume = 31,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0154.1
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