Thermodynamic Constraints on the Size Distributions of Tropical Clouds

Garrett, Timothy J.; Glenn, Ian B.; Krueger, Steven K.

doi:10.1029/2018jd028803

Title: Thermodynamic Constraints on the Size Distributions of Tropical Clouds

Journal Article · 23 July 2018 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018jd028803 · OSTI ID:1539761

^[1];

^[2];

^[2]

Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); DOE/OSTI
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

Tropical convective clouds evolve over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, which makes them difficult to simulate numerically. Here we propose that cloud statistical properties can be derived within a simplified time-independent coordinate system of cloud number n, saturated static energy h^★, and cloud perimeter λ. Under the constraint that circulations around cloud edge compete with each other for total buoyant energy and air, we show that the product of cloud number and cloud perimeter nλ is invariant with λ and that cloud number follows a negative exponential with respect to cloud-edge deviations of h^★; with respect to the mean. Overall, the summed perimeter of all clouds scales as the square root of the atmospheric static stability. These theoretical results suggest that the complexity of cloud field structures can be viewed statistically as an emergent property of atmospheric bulk thermodynamics. Comparison with a detailed tropical cloud field simulation shows general agreement to within ≤13%. For the sake of developing hypotheses about cloud temporal evolution that are testable in high resolution simulations, the shapes of tropical cloud perimeter distributions are predicted to be invariant as climate warms, although with a modest increase in total cloud amount.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0016282

OSTI ID:: 1539761

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 123; ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (49)

Tissue Distribution and Metabolism of Drugs VI: Effect of Second Drugs on Pancreatic Distribution and Insulin-Releasing Activity of Sulfonylureas in Perfused Rat Pancreas Okumura, Katsuhiko; Arakawa, Masato; Hori, Ryohei Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vol. 69, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.2600690210	journal	February 1980
Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity Locey, Kenneth J.; Lennon, Jay T. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1521291113	journal	May 2016
Thermodynamic control of anvil cloud amount Bony, Sandrine; Stevens, Bjorn; Coppin, David Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 32 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601472113	journal	July 2016
Area-Perimeter Relation for Rain and Cloud Areas Lovejoy, S. Science, Vol. 216, Issue 4542 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.216.4542.185	journal	April 1982
Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review Stephens, Graeme L. Journal of Climate, Vol. 18, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-3243.1	journal	January 2005
Statistical theory on the analytical form of cloud particle size distributions Wu, Wei; McFarquhar, Greg M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1801.03468	preprint	January 2018
Downdrafts in the near cloud environment of deep convective updrafts: Deep Convection Subsiding Shells Glenn, Ian B.; Krueger, Steven K. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013MS000261	journal	January 2014
On the size distribution of cloud holes in stratocumulus and their relationship to cloud-top entrainment: ENTRAINMENT IN STRATOCUMLUS CLOUD HOLES Yamaguchi, Takanobu; Feingold, Graham Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50442	journal	May 2013
Observational validation of the compensating mass flux through the shell around cumulus clouds Heus, Thijs; J. Pols, C. Freek; J. Jonker, Harm J. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 135, Issue 638 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.358	journal	January 2009
Water's two height scales: The moist adiabat and the radiative troposphere Mapes, Brian E. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 127, Issue 577 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49712757708	journal	October 2001
Large-scale length and time-scales for use with stochastic convective parametrization Keane, R. J.; Plant, R. S. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 138, Issue 666 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.992	journal	December 2011
Clustering, randomness, and regularity in cloud fields: 5. The nature of regular cumulus cloud fields Nair, U. S.; Weger, R. C.; Kuo, K. S. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 103, Issue D10 https://doi.org/10.1029/98JD00088	journal	May 1998
Scaling of tropical-cyclone dissipation Corral, Álvaro; Ossó, Albert; Llebot, Josep Enric Nature Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1725	journal	July 2010
Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity Locey, Kenneth J.; Lennon, Jay T. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1521291113	journal	May 2016
Thermodynamic control of anvil cloud amount Bony, Sandrine; Stevens, Bjorn; Coppin, David Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 32 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601472113	journal	July 2016
Tropical anvil clouds and climate sensitivity Hartmann, Dennis L. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 32 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1610455113	journal	August 2016
Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf's law Newman, Mej Contemporary Physics, Vol. 46, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1080/00107510500052444	journal	September 2005
Simple approximations for condensational growth Kostinski, A. B. Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/1/015005	journal	January 2009
Atmospheric Diffusion Shown on a Distance-Neighbour Graph Richardson, L. F. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 756 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1926.0043	journal	April 1926
Modes of growth in dynamic systems Garrett, Timothy J. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 468, Issue 2145 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2012.0039	journal	April 2012
Neuronal Oscillations in Cortical Networks Buzsaki, G. Science, Vol. 304, Issue 5679 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1099745	journal	June 2004
Area-Perimeter Relation for Rain and Cloud Areas Lovejoy, S. Science, Vol. 216, Issue 4542 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.216.4542.185	journal	April 1982
The Theory of Hurricanes Emanuel, Kerry A. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.fl.23.010191.001143	journal	January 1991
Cumulus Cloud Field Morphology and Spatial Patterns Derived from High Spatial Resolution Landsat Imagery Sengupta, S. K.; Welch, R. M.; Navar, M. S. Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 29, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1990)029<1245:CCFMAS>2.0.CO;2	journal	December 1990
Improvements of an Ice-Phase Microphysics Parameterization for Use in Numerical Simulations of Tropical Convection Krueger, Steven K.; Fu, Qiang; Liou, K. N. Journal of Applied Meteorology, Vol. 34, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450-34.1.281	journal	January 1995
Interaction of a Cumulus Cloud Ensemble with the Large-Scale Environment, Part I Arakawa, Akio; Schubert, Wayne Howard Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 31, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1974)031<0674:IOACCE>2.0.CO;2	journal	April 1974
Conditional Instability of the First Kind Upside-Down Randall, David A. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 37, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1980)037<0125:CIOTFK>2.0.CO;2	journal	January 1980
Cumulonimbus Vertical Velocity Events in GATE. Part I: Diameter, Intensity and Mass Flux LeMone, Margaret A.; Zipser, Edward J. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 37, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1980)037<2444:CVVEIG>2.0.CO;2	journal	November 1980
Interaction of a Cumulus Cloud Ensemble with the Large-Scale Environment. Part II Lord, Stephen J.; Arakawa, Akio Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 37, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1980)037<2677:IOACCE>2.0.CO;2	journal	December 1980
A Stochastic Mixing Model for Nonprecipitating Cumulus Clouds Raymond, David J.; Blyth, Alan M. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 43, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1986)043<2708:ASMMFN>2.0.CO;2	journal	November 1986
Natural Convection as a Heat Engine: A Theory for CAPE Rennó, Nilton O.; Ingersoll, Andrew P. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 53, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1996)053<0572:NCAAHE>2.0.CO;2	journal	February 1996
Modeling Entrainment and Finescale Mixing in Cumulus Clouds Krueger, Steven K.; Su, Chwen-Wei; McMurtry, Patrick A. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 54, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1997)054<2697:MEAFMI>2.0.CO;2	journal	December 1997
The Spherical Harmonics Discrete Ordinate Method for Three-Dimensional Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Evans, K. Franklin Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 55, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1998)055<0429:TSHDOM>2.0.CO;2	journal	February 1998
Subsiding Shells around Shallow Cumulus Clouds Heus, Thijs; Jonker, Harm J. J. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 65, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JAS2322.1	journal	March 2008
Mixing in Shallow Cumulus Clouds Studied by Lagrangian Particle Tracking Heus, Thijs; van Dijk, Gertjan; Jonker, Harm J. J. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 65, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JAS2572.1	journal	August 2008
Dynamics of the Cumulus Cloud Margin: An Observational Study Wang, Yonggang; Geerts, Bart; French, Jeffrey Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JAS3129.1	journal	December 2009
The Distribution of Cloud Horizontal Sizes Wood, Robert; Field, Paul R. Journal of Climate, Vol. 24, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JCLI4056.1	journal	September 2011
Measurements of Turbulent Mixing and Subsiding Shells in Trade Wind Cumuli Katzwinkel, Jeannine; Siebert, Holger; Heus, Thijs Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 71, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-13-0222.1	journal	August 2014
First-Passage-Time Prototypes for Precipitation Statistics Stechmann, Samuel N.; Neelin, J. David Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 71, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-13-0268.1	journal	September 2014
Size Distributions of Hydrometeors: Analysis with the Maximum Entropy Principle Yano, Jun-Ichi; Heymsfield, Andrew J.; Phillips, Vaughan T. J. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 73, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-15-0097.1	journal	January 2016
Methods for Estimating 2D Cloud Size Distributions from 1D Observations Romps, David M.; Vogelmann, Andrew M. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 74, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-17-0105.1	journal	October 2017
Fluctuations in an Equilibrium Convective Ensemble. Part I: Theoretical Formulation Craig, George C.; Cohen, Brenda G. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 63, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS3709.1	journal	August 2006
Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review Stephens, Graeme L. Journal of Climate, Vol. 18, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-3243.1	journal	January 2005
How Well Do We Understand and Evaluate Climate Change Feedback Processes? Bony, Sandrine; Colman, Robert; Kattsov, Vladimir M. Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3819.1	journal	August 2006
Modes of Growth in Dynamic Systems Garrett, Timothy J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1202.0564	text	January 2012
Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf's law Newman, M. E. J. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0412004	text	January 2004
Cloud macroscopic organization: order emerging from randomness Yuan, T. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-7483-2011	journal	January 2011
A new convective cloud field model based on principles of self-organisation Nober, F. J.; Graf, H. F. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-5-2749-2005	journal	January 2005
A First Course in Turbulence Tennekes, Henk; Lumley, John L. MIT Press https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/3014.001.0001		January 1972

Similar Records

Investigation of the Residual in Column-Integrated Atmospheric Energy Balance Using Cloud Objects

Journal Article · 2016 · Journal of Climate · OSTI ID:1537000

Kato, Seiji; Xu, Kuan-Man; Wong, Takmeng; +4 more

A sensitivity study of radiative-convective equilibrium in the tropics with a convection-resolving model

Journal Article · 1999 · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences · OSTI ID:20001054

Xu, K M; Randall, D A

Land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics – a review

Journal Article · 2019 · Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (Online) · OSTI ID:1802206

Gentine, Pierre; Massmann, Adam; Lintner, Benjamin R.; +5 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences

Title: Thermodynamic Constraints on the Size Distributions of Tropical Clouds

Citation Formats

References (49)

Similar Records

Related Subjects