Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations
Abstract
Modeling marine low clouds and fog in coastal environments remains an outstanding challenge due to the inherently complex ocean–land–atmosphere system. This is especially important in the context of global circulation models due to the profound radiative impact of these clouds. This study utilizes aircraft and satellite measurements, in addition to numerical simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, to examine three well-observed coastally trapped disturbance (CTD) events from June 2006, July 2011, and July 2015. Cloud water-soluble ionic and elemental composition analyses conducted for two of the CTD cases indicate that anthropogenic aerosol sources may impact CTD cloud decks due to synoptic-scale patterns associated with CTD initiation. In general, the dynamics and thermodynamics of the CTD systems are well represented and are relatively insensitive to the choice of physics parameterizations; however, a set of WRF simulations suggests that the treatment of model physics strongly influences CTD cloud field evolution. Specifically, cloud liquid water path (LWP) is highly sensitive to the choice of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme; in many instances, the PBL scheme affects cloud extent and LWP values as much as or more than the microphysics scheme. Results suggest that differences in the treatment of entrainmentmore »
- Authors:
-
- Research Applications Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado
- Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
- Department of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
- Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1561342
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1612493
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016354; AGS-1439515; N00014-17-1-2719; N00014-10-1-0811; N00014-16-1-2567
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Journal Volume: 76 Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-4928
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; meteorology & atmospheric sciences; North Pacific Ocean; marine boundary layer; stratiform clouds; cloud parameterizations; numerical analysis/modeling; marine chemistry
Citation Formats
Juliano, Timothy W., Coggon, Matthew M., Thompson, Gregory, Rahn, David A., Seinfeld, John H., Sorooshian, Armin, and Lebo, Zachary J. Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1.
Juliano, Timothy W., Coggon, Matthew M., Thompson, Gregory, Rahn, David A., Seinfeld, John H., Sorooshian, Armin, & Lebo, Zachary J. Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1
Juliano, Timothy W., Coggon, Matthew M., Thompson, Gregory, Rahn, David A., Seinfeld, John H., Sorooshian, Armin, and Lebo, Zachary J. Sun .
"Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1.
@article{osti_1561342,
title = {Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations},
author = {Juliano, Timothy W. and Coggon, Matthew M. and Thompson, Gregory and Rahn, David A. and Seinfeld, John H. and Sorooshian, Armin and Lebo, Zachary J.},
abstractNote = {Modeling marine low clouds and fog in coastal environments remains an outstanding challenge due to the inherently complex ocean–land–atmosphere system. This is especially important in the context of global circulation models due to the profound radiative impact of these clouds. This study utilizes aircraft and satellite measurements, in addition to numerical simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, to examine three well-observed coastally trapped disturbance (CTD) events from June 2006, July 2011, and July 2015. Cloud water-soluble ionic and elemental composition analyses conducted for two of the CTD cases indicate that anthropogenic aerosol sources may impact CTD cloud decks due to synoptic-scale patterns associated with CTD initiation. In general, the dynamics and thermodynamics of the CTD systems are well represented and are relatively insensitive to the choice of physics parameterizations; however, a set of WRF simulations suggests that the treatment of model physics strongly influences CTD cloud field evolution. Specifically, cloud liquid water path (LWP) is highly sensitive to the choice of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme; in many instances, the PBL scheme affects cloud extent and LWP values as much as or more than the microphysics scheme. Results suggest that differences in the treatment of entrainment and vertical mixing in the Yonsei University (nonlocal) and Mellor–Yamada–Janjic (local) PBL schemes may play a significant role. Finally, the impact of using different driving models—namely, the North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM) 12-km analysis and the NCEP North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) 32-km products—is also investigated.},
doi = {10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1},
journal = {Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences},
number = 9,
volume = 76,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1
Web of Science
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