scholarly journals Wind speed response of marine non-precipitating stratocumulus clouds over a diurnal cycle in cloud-system resolving simulations

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 5811-5839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kazil ◽  
Graham Feingold ◽  
Takanobu Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Layer Growth ◽  
Radiative Properties ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Latent Heat Release ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Boundary Layer Growth

Abstract. Observed and projected trends in large-scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how do marine stratocumulus clouds and their radiative properties respond to changes in large-scale wind speed? Wind speed drives the surface fluxes of sensible heat, moisture, and momentum and thereby acts on cloud liquid water path (LWP) and cloud radiative properties. We present an investigation of the dynamical response of non-precipitating, overcast marine stratocumulus clouds to different wind speeds over the course of a diurnal cycle, all else equal. In cloud-system resolving simulations, we find that higher wind speed leads to faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment. The dynamical driver is enhanced buoyant production of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from latent heat release in cloud updrafts. LWP is enhanced during the night and in the morning at higher wind speed, and more strongly suppressed later in the day. Wind speed hence accentuates the diurnal LWP cycle by expanding the morning–afternoon contrast. The higher LWP at higher wind speed does not, however, enhance cloud top cooling because in clouds with LWP ⪆ 50 g m−2, longwave emissions are insensitive to LWP. This leads to the general conclusion that in sufficiently thick stratocumulus clouds, additional boundary layer growth and entrainment due to a boundary layer moistening arises by stronger production of TKE from latent heat release in cloud updrafts, rather than from enhanced longwave cooling. We find that large-scale wind modulates boundary layer decoupling. At nighttime and at low wind speed during daytime, it enhances decoupling in part by faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment and in part because shear from large-scale wind in the sub-cloud layer hinders vertical moisture transport between the surface and cloud base. With increasing wind speed, however, in decoupled daytime conditions, shear-driven circulation due to large-scale wind takes over from buoyancy-driven circulation in transporting moisture from the surface to cloud base and thereby reduces decoupling and helps maintain LWP. The total (shortwave + longwave) cloud radiative effect (CRE) responds to changes in LWP and cloud fraction, and higher wind speed translates to a stronger diurnally averaged total CRE. However, the sensitivity of the diurnally averaged total CRE to wind speed decreases with increasing wind speed.

scholarly journals Wind speed response of marine non-precipitating stratocumulus clouds over a diurnal cycle in cloud-system resolving simulations

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (20) ◽  
pp. 28395-28452 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kazil ◽  
G. Feingold ◽  
T. Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Layer Growth ◽  
Radiative Properties ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Latent Heat Release ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Boundary Layer Growth

Abstract. Observed and projected trends in large scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how might marine stratocumulus clouds and their radiative properties respond to future changes in large scale wind speed? Wind speed drives the surface fluxes of sensible heat, moisture, and momentum, and thereby acts on cloud liquid water path (LWP) and cloud radiative properties. We present an investigation of the dynamical response of non-precipitating, overcast marine stratocumulus clouds to different wind speeds, all else equal. In cloud-system resolving simulations, we find that higher wind speed leads to faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment. The dynamical driver is enhanced buoyant production of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from latent heat release in cloud updrafts. LWP is enhanced during the night and in the morning at higher wind speed, and more strongly suppressed later in the day. Wind speed hence accentuates the diurnal LWP cycle by expanding the morning – afternoon contrast. The higher LWP at higher wind speed does not, however, enhance cloud top cooling because in clouds with LWP ⪆ 50 g m−2, long wave emissions are very insensitive to LWP. This leads to the more general conclusion that in sufficiently thick stratocumulus clouds, additional boundary layer growth and entrainment due to a boundary layer moistening arises by stronger production of TKE from latent heat release in cloud updrafts, rather than from enhanced longwave cooling. We find furthermore that large scale wind modulates boundary layer decoupling. At nighttime and at low wind speed during daytime, it enhances decoupling in part by faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment, and in part because circulation driven by shear from large scale wind in the sub-cloud layer hinders vertical moisture transport between the surface and cloud base. With increasing wind speed, however, in decoupled daytime conditions, shear-driven circulation due to large scale wind takes over from buoyancy-driven circulation in transporting moisture from the surface to cloud base, and thereby reduces decoupling and helps maintain LWP. The cloud radiative effect (CRE) responds to changes in LWP and cloud fraction, and higher wind speed translates to a stronger diurnally averaged CRE. However, the sensitivity of the diurnally averaged CRE to wind speed decreases with increasing wind speed.

scholarly journals Aerosol Impacts on the Diurnal Cycle of Marine Stratocumulus

2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (8) ◽  
pp. 2705-2718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Sandu ◽  
Jean-Louis Brenguier ◽  
Olivier Geoffroy ◽  
Odile Thouron ◽  
Valery Masson
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cloud Microphysics ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Liquid Water Path ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Water Path ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Recent large-eddy simulation (LES) studies of the impact of aerosol on the dynamics of nocturnal marine stratocumulus revealed that, depending on the large-scale forcings, an aerosol-induced increase of the droplet concentration can lead to either an increase or a decrease of the liquid water path, hence contrasting with the cloud thickening that is expected from a reduction of the precipitation efficiency. In this study, the aerosol impacts on cloud microphysics are examined in the context of the boundary-layer diurnal cycle using 36-h LES simulations of pristine and polluted clouds. These simulations corroborate previous findings that during nighttime aerosol-induced liquid water path changes are sensitive to the large-scale forcings via enhancement of cloud-top entrainment such that, ultimately, the liquid water path may be reduced when the free-tropospheric-entrained air is drier. During the day, however, enhanced entrainment, inhibition of drizzle evaporation below cloud base, and reduced sensible heat flux from the surface lead to a more pronounced decoupling of the boundary layer, which significantly amplifies the liquid water path reduction of the polluted clouds. At night the sign of the liquid water path difference between pristine and polluted clouds depends upon large-scale forcings, while during the day the liquid water path of polluted clouds is always smaller than the one of the pristine clouds. Suggestions are made on how observational studies could be designed for validation of these simulations.

scholarly journals A comprehensive numerical study of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in marine stratocumulus

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 15497-15550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.-C. Chen ◽  
L. Xue ◽  
Z. J. Lebo ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
R. M. Rasmussen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Thickness Effect ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Dispersion Effect ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Cloud Optical Depth ◽  
Aerosol Cloud ◽  
Cloud Thickness

Abstract. Three-dimensional large-eddy simulations (LES) with detailed bin-resolved microphysics are performed to explore the diurnal variation of marine stratocumulus (MSc) clouds under clean and polluted conditions. The sensitivity of the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions to variation of sea surface temperature, free tropospheric humidity, large-scale divergence rate, and wind speed is assessed. The comprehensive set of simulations corroborates previous studies that (1) with moderate/heavy drizzle, an increase in aerosol leads to an increase in cloud thickness; and (2) with non/light drizzle, an increase in aerosol results in a thinner cloud, due to the pronounced effect on entrainment. It is shown that for higher SST, stronger large-scale divergence, drier free troposphere, or lower wind speed, the cloud thins and precipitation decreases. The sign and magnitude of the Twomey effect, droplet dispersion effect, cloud thickness effect, and overall cloud optical depth susceptibility to aerosol perturbations are evaluated by LES experiments and compared with analytical formulations. The Twomey effect emerges as dominant in total cloud susceptibility to aerosol perturbations. The dispersion effect, that of aerosol perturbations on the cloud droplet size spectrum, is positive (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to spectral narrowing) and accounts for 3 % to 10 % of the total cloud susceptibility at nighttime, with the largest influence in heavier drizzling clouds. The cloud thickness effect is negative (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to thinner cloud) for non/light drizzling cloud and positive for moderate/heavy drizzling clouds; the cloud thickness effect contributes 5 % to 22 % of the nighttime cloud susceptibility. The range of magnitude for each effect is more variable in the daytime owing to cloud thinning and decoupling. Overall, the cloud susceptibility is ~0.28 to 0.53 at night; an increase in aerosol concentration enhances cloud optical depth, especially with heavier precipitation and in a more pristine environment. The good agreement between LES experiments and analytical formulations suggests that the latter may be useful in evaluations of cloud susceptibility. The ratio of the magnitude of the cloud thickness effect to that of the Twomey effect depends on cloud base height and cloud thickness in unperturbed (clean) clouds.

scholarly journals Assessing regional scale predictions of aerosols, marine stratocumulus, and their interactions during VOCALS-REx using WRF-Chem

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 22663-22718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Yang ◽  
J. D. Fast ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
R. C. Easter ◽  
H. Morrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Model Assessment ◽  
Microphysics Scheme ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Aerosol Cloud ◽  
Southeastern Pacific ◽  
Temperature And Humidity ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Aerosol Cloud Interactions

Abstract. In the recent chemistry version (v3.3) of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Chem) model, we have coupled the Morrison double-moment microphysics scheme with interactive aerosols so that two-way aerosol-cloud interactions are included in the simulations. We have used this new WRF-Chem functionality in a study focused on assessing predictions of aerosols, marine stratocumulus clouds, and their interactions over the Southeast Pacific using measurements from the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) and satellite retrievals. This study also serves as a detailed analysis of our WRF-Chem simulations contributed to the VOCALS model Assessment (VOCA) project. The WRF-Chem 31-day (15 October–16 November 2008) simulation with aerosol-cloud interactions (AERO hereafter) is also compared to a simulation (MET hereafter) with fixed cloud droplet number concentrations assumed by the default in Morrison microphysics scheme with no interactive aerosols. The well-predicted aerosol properties such as number, mass composition, and optical depth lead to significant improvements in many features of the simulated stratocumulus clouds: cloud optical properties and microphysical properties such as cloud top effective radius, cloud water path, and cloud optical thickness, and cloud macrostructure such as cloud depth and cloud base height. In addition to accounting for the aerosol direct and semi-direct effects, these improvements feed back to the prediction of boundary-layer characteristics and energy budgets. Particularly, inclusion of interactive aerosols in AERO strengthens the temperature and humidity gradients within the capping inversion layer and lowers the marine boundary layer depth by 150 m from that of the MET simulation. Mean top-of-the-atmosphere outgoing shortwave fluxes, surface latent heat, and surface downwelling longwave fluxes are in better agreement with observations in AERO, compared to the MET simulation. Nevertheless, biases in some of the simulated meteorological quantities (e.g., MBL temperature and humidity over the remote ocean) and aerosol quantities (e.g., overestimations of supermicron sea salt mass) might affect simulated stratocumulus and energy fluxes over the southeastern Pacific Ocean, and require further investigations. Although not perfect, the overall performance of the regional model in simulating mesoscale aerosol-cloud interactions is encouraging and suggests that the inclusion of spatially varying aerosol characteristics is important when simulating marine stratocumulus over the southeastern Pacific.

scholarly journals A comprehensive numerical study of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in marine stratocumulus

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 9749-9769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.-C. Chen ◽  
L. Xue ◽  
Z. J. Lebo ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
R. M. Rasmussen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Thickness Effect ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Dispersion Effect ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Cloud Optical Depth ◽  
Aerosol Cloud ◽  
Cloud Thickness

Abstract. Three-dimensional large-eddy simulations (LES) with detailed bin-resolved microphysics are performed to explore the diurnal variation of marine stratocumulus (MSc) clouds under clean and polluted conditions. The sensitivity of the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions to variation of sea surface temperature, free tropospheric humidity, large-scale divergence rate, and wind speed is assessed. The comprehensive set of simulations corroborates previous studies that (1) with moderate/heavy drizzle, an increase in aerosol leads to an increase in cloud thickness; and (2) with non/light drizzle, an increase in aerosol results in a thinner cloud, due to the pronounced effect on entrainment. It is shown that for higher SST, stronger large-scale divergence, drier free troposphere, or lower wind speed, the cloud thins and precipitation decreases. The sign and magnitude of the Twomey effect, droplet dispersion effect, cloud thickness effect, and cloud optical depth susceptibility to aerosol perturbations (i.e., change in cloud optical depth to change in aerosol number concentration) are evaluated by LES experiments and compared with analytical formulations. The Twomey effect emerges as dominant in total cloud optical depth susceptibility to aerosol perturbations. The dispersion effect, that of aerosol perturbations on the cloud droplet size spectrum, is positive (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to spectral narrowing) and accounts for 3% to 10% of the total cloud optical depth susceptibility at nighttime, with greater influence in heavier drizzling clouds. The cloud thickness effect is negative (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to thinner cloud) for non/light drizzling cloud and positive for a moderate/heavy drizzling clouds; the cloud thickness effect contributes 5% to 22% of the nighttime total cloud susceptibility. Overall, the total cloud optical depth susceptibility ranges from ~0.28 to 0.53 at night; an increase in aerosol concentration enhances cloud optical depth, especially with heavier precipitation and in a more pristine environment. During the daytime, the range of magnitude for each effect is more variable owing to cloud thinning and decoupling. The good agreement between LES experiments and analytical formulations suggests that the latter may be useful in evaluations of the total cloud susceptibility. The ratio of the magnitude of the cloud thickness effect to that of the Twomey effect depends on cloud base height and cloud thickness in unperturbed (clean) clouds.

scholarly journals Factors Controlling Rapid Stratocumulus Cloud Thinning

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 655-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. van der Dussen ◽  
S. R. de Roode ◽  
A. P. Siebesma
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Steady State Solution ◽  
Cloud Layer ◽  
Cloud Base ◽  
Liquid Water Path ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Buoyancy Reversal ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Budget Equation ◽  
Heat And Moisture

Abstract The relationship between the inversion stability and the liquid water path (LWP) tendency of a vertically well-mixed, adiabatic stratocumulus cloud layer is investigated in this study through the analysis of the budget equation for the LWP. The LWP budget is mainly determined by the turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture at the top and the base of the cloud layer, as well as by the source terms due to radiation and precipitation. Through substitution of the inversion stability parameter κ into the budget equation, it immediately follows that the LWP tendency will become negative for increasing values of κ due to the entrainment of increasingly dry air. Large κ values are therefore associated with strong cloud thinning. Using the steady-state solution for the LWP, an equilibrium value κeq is formulated, beyond which the stratocumulus cloud will thin. The Second Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus field study (DYCOMS-II) is used to illustrate that, depending mainly on the magnitude of the moisture flux at cloud base, stratocumulus clouds can persist well within the buoyancy reversal regime.

Can Marine Cloud Brightening Reduce Sea-Surface Temperatures to Moderate Extreme Hurricanes and Typhoons?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salter SH ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Marine Boundary Layer ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Temperatures ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Stratocumulus Clouds ◽  
Cloud Tops

Elevated sea-surface temperatures are a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the formation of hurricanes and typhoons. This paper suggests a way to exploit this. Twomey [1] showed that cloud reflectivity depends on the size-distribution of cloud drops, with a large number of small drops reflecting more than a smaller number of larger ones. Mid-ocean air is cleaner than over land. Latham [2-4] suggested that reflectivity of marine stratocumulus clouds could be increased by releasing a submicron spray of filtered sea water into the bottom of the marine boundary layer. The salt residues left after evaporation would be mixed by turbulence through the full depth of the marine boundary layer and would be ideal cloud condensation nuclei. Those that reached a height where the air had a super-saturation above 100% by enough to get over the peak of the Köhler curve would produce an increased number of cloud drops and so trigger the Twomey effect. The increase in reflection from cloud tops back out to space would cool sea-surface water. We are not trying to increase cloud cover; we just want to make existing cloud tops whiter. The spray could be produced by wind-driven vessels cruising chosen ocean regions. The engineering design of sea-going hardware is well advanced. This paper suggests a way to calculate spray quantities and the number and cost of spray vessels to achieve a hurricane reduction to a more acceptable intensity. It is intended to show the shape of a possible calculation with credible if not exact assumptions. Anyone with better assumptions should be able to follow the process.

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