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Title: Distinct dynamical and structural properties of marine stratocumulus and shallow cumulus clouds in the Eastern North Atlantic

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
  2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL); Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA (United States)
  3. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL)
  4. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Low-level clouds in a marine environment are examined using multiple ground-based instruments. Here, we used Doppler radar and Doppler lidar measurements (1) to examine cloud properties including cloud base and top height and thickness and (2) to investigate vertical velocity (w) statistics throughout the subcloud and in-cloud layers. Marine stratocumulus (Sc) and shallow cumulus (Cu) clouds have distinct properties in their horizontal and vertical extent. We also find that the two cloud types have different thermodynamic (coupled and decoupled conditions) and dynamical characteristics for the first four moments of the w distributions (mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis). We identify a strong dependence of subcloud mean w on near-surface horizontal wind direction, implying that topographic effects exert a substantial impact on boundary layer dynamics and cloud properties at Graciosa Island. Our findings strongly suggest that care must be taken when interpreting island-based observations as representative of a generic marine dynamical environment. This information also can be useful for guiding and constraining the future global model development using observational dataset.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Data Center
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0012704; SC0020332
OSTI ID:
1889211
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Atmospheres Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 127; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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dlprofwstats4news.c1
  • Shippert, Tim; Newsom, Rob; Riihimaki, Laura
  • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Archive, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (US); https://doi.org/10.5439/1178583
dataset January 2010
KAZRARSCL-c0-All-inclusive data stream
  • Johnson, Karen; Giangrande, Scott; Toto, Tami
  • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Archive, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (US); ARM Data Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States) https://doi.org/10.5439/1393437
dataset January 2014

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