Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: The Effects of Shallow Cumulus Cloud Shape on Interactions Among Clouds and Mixing With Near-Cloud Environments

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Cloud lifecycles are influenced by interactions among clouds and mixing with cloud-free environments. Cloud shapes dictate the length of cloud boundaries, which affects these interactions. This study uses a large eddy simulation to examine the relationships between the shallow cumulus cloud shapes, processes at their boundaries, and lifecycles. To characterize the shape of clouds, two metrics are newly defined: one reflects the overall horizontal cloud shape, and the other defines the cloud edge irregularity. Simulated clouds experience increased irregularity, but little changes in aspect ratio. Irregularity-driven cloud perimeter growth strongly indicates cloud splitting, with a more pronounced effect than aspect ratio-driven perimeter growth. Smaller cloud-shell gradients of properties across cloud boundaries are associated with more irregular clouds, suggesting enhanced mixing of clouds with the cloud-free environment. These findings indicate that the shallow cumulus evolution is partly driven by the irregularity of the cloud edge through lateral mixing and cloud splitting.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Archive
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
Contributing Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
2274736
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2274830; OSTI ID: 2280617
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 24 Vol. 50; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (56)

Small-scale cloud processes and climate journal January 2008
Convective Self‐Aggregation As a Cold Pool‐Driven Critical Phenomenon journal April 2019
Multifractals, cloud radiances and rain journal May 2006
Amazonian mesoscale convective systems: Life cycle and propagation characteristics journal March 2021
GLEAM v3: satellite-based land evaporation and root-zone soil moisture journal January 2017
Statistics on the macrophysical properties of trade wind cumuli over the tropical western Atlantic: MACROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF CUMULI journal May 2007
The Fractal Nature of Clouds in Global Storm‐Resolving Models journal December 2021
Area-Perimeter Relation for Rain and Cloud Areas journal April 1982
Formation and maintenance of subsiding shells around non‐precipitating and precipitating cumulus clouds journal December 2020
Corrigendum: Cloud patterns and mixing properties in shallow moist Rayleigh–Bénard convection journal July 2012
Influences of an entrainment–mixing parameterization on numerical simulations of cumulus and stratocumulus clouds journal April 2022
Large-eddy simulation of organized precipitating trade wind cumulus clouds journal January 2013
NCEP FNL Operational Model Global Tropospheric Analyses, continuing from July 1999
  • Commerce, National Centers For Environmental Prediction/National Weather Service/NOAA/U. S. Department Of
  • UCAR/NCAR - Research Data Archive https://doi.org/10.5065/d6m043c6
dataset January 2000
Entrainment-mixing parameterization in shallow cumuli and effects of secondary mixing events journal January 2014
The effects of the shape of shallow cumulus clouds on their growth and interactions with their environment journal June 2023
Structure and Evolution of Mesoscale Convective Systems: Sensitivity to Cloud Microphysics in Convection‐Permitting Simulations Over the United States journal July 2018
Global Comparisons of Regional Life Cycle Properties and Motion of Multiday Convective Systems: Tropical and Midlatitude Land and Ocean journal July 2016
On the Roles of Precipitation and Entrainment in Stratocumulus Transitions between Mesoscale States journal December 2023
Improving Parameterization of Entrainment Rate for Shallow Convection with Aircraft Measurements and Large-Eddy Simulation journal February 2016
Characterization of Surface Heterogeneity‐Induced Convection Using Cluster Analysis journal October 2020
A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Model Version 4 text January 2019
On Which Microphysical Time Scales to Use in Studies of Entrainment‐Mixing Mechanisms in Clouds journal April 2018
The influence of merging and individual storm splitting on mesoscale convective system formation journal July 2009
The Role of Cloud–Cloud Interactions in the Life Cycle of Shallow Cumulus Clouds journal March 2023
A Machine‐Learning‐Assisted Stochastic Cloud Population Model as a Parameterization of Cumulus Convection journal July 2022
Anomalous Scaling of Cumulus Cloud Boundaries journal July 2000
PyFLEXTRKR: a flexible feature tracking Python software for convective cloud analysis journal May 2023
The Dependence of Shallow Cumulus Macrophysical Properties on Large‐Scale Meteorology as Observed in ASTER Imagery journal November 2019
Entrainment in a Simulated Supercell Thunderstorm. Part III: The Influence of Decreased Environmental Humidity and General Effects upon Precipitation Efficiency journal April 2023
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
What Determines the Number and the Timing of Pulses in Afternoon Precipitation in the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon) Observations? journal January 2022
The Impact of Variable Land‐Atmosphere Coupling on Convective Cloud Populations Observed During the 2016 HI‐SCALE Field Campaign journal August 2019
Statistical analysis of an LES shallow cumulus cloud ensemble using a cloud tracking algorithm journal January 2012
Entrainment Makes Pollution More Likely to Weaken Deep Convective Updrafts Than Invigorate Them journal June 2023
Life cycle of Sahelian mesoscale convective cloud systems journal January 2001
Factors Affecting Entrainment Rate in Deep Convective Clouds and Parameterizations journal August 2021
Multiscale Analysis of Surface Heterogeneity–Induced Convection on Isentropic Coordinates journal April 2023
The Changing Character of Precipitation journal September 2003
Scale dependence of entrainment-mixing mechanisms in cumulus clouds: Scale dependence of mixing mechanisms journal December 2014
What Controls Local Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Simulated Shallow Convection? journal November 2022
Thermodynamic Constraints on the Size Distributions of Tropical Clouds journal August 2018
Consideration of Initial Cloud Droplet Size Distribution Shapes in Quantifying Different Entrainment‐Mixing Mechanisms journal June 2021
Life Cycle of Numerically Simulated Shallow Cumulus Clouds. Part I: Transport journal May 2005
Parametrizing cloud geometry and its application in a subgrid cloud‐edge erosion scheme
  • Fielding, Mark D.; Schäfer, Sophia A. K.; Hogan, Robin J.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 146, Issue 729 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3758
journal February 2020
The ‘1/3’ power law between effective radius and liquid-water content journal July 1997
Large-Eddy Simulations of Trade Wind Cumuli: Investigation of Aerosol Indirect Effects journal June 2006
Entrainment in a Simulated Supercell Thunderstorm, part i: the Evolution of Different Entrainment Mechanisms and Their Dilutive Effects journal June 2021
The Influence of the Cloud Shell on Tracer Budget Measurements of LES Cloud Entrainment journal December 2011
Estimation of entrainment rate in simple models of convective clouds journal January 2001
A Lagrangian Study of Interfaces at the Edges of Cumulus Clouds journal August 2021
Entrainment processes in the diurnal cycle of deep convection over land journal December 2011
Highly buoyant bent-over plumes in a boundary layer journal April 2016
Overview of the HI-SCALE Field Campaign: A New Perspective on Shallow Convective Clouds journal May 2019
Unified Entrainment and Detrainment Closures for Extended Eddy‐Diffusivity Mass‐Flux Schemes journal September 2020
A New Approach for Simultaneous Estimation of Entrainment and Detrainment Rates in Non‐Precipitating Shallow Cumulus journal August 2021
Entrainment and detrainment in cumulus convection: an overview
  • de Rooy, Wim C.; Bechtold, Peter; Fröhlich, Kristina
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 139, Issue 670 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.1959
journal June 2012

Similar Records

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES