A modelling perspective on anvil evolution differences between day and night

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blaž Gasparini ◽  
Adam Sokol ◽  
Casey Wall ◽  
Dennis Hartmann ◽  
Peter Blossey
Keyword(s):  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Cloud Fraction ◽  
Number Concentration ◽  
Shortwave Radiation ◽  
Ice Crystal ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
Environmental Air ◽  
Ice Water

<p>Geostationary satellite observations of tropical maritime convection indicate an afternoon maximum in anvil cloud fraction that cannot be explained by the diurnal cycle of deep convection peaking in the night. This implies that the daytime anvils must be more widespread and/or long lived compared with the anvils that are formed during the night.</p><p>We study the decay of anvil clouds in an idealized cloud resolving modelling setup in which a cloud is initialized in the middle of the model domain to identify what causes differences in the evolution depending on the time of the day in which the cloud is detrained from a deep convective core. We show that daytime anvils are both longer lived and more widespread. The main reason for their longevity is the heating due to absorption of shortwave radiation, which leads to a mesoscale ascent within the cloud, helping to loft and spread the cloud further than the nighttime anvils. The nighttime anvil cloud top is dominated by longwave radiative cooling, which drives a circulation that erodes the cloud top by entrainment of drier environmental air and leads to a cloud descent and shorter lifetime. </p><p>Additional simulations in radiative convective equilibrium setup with a realistic diurnal cycle of insolation confirm the crucial role of shortwave heating in increasing the daytime anvil cloud top and anvil longevity. In addition, the mesoscale ascent also modifies daytime anvil properties, leading to an increased ice water content, higher ice crystal number concentration and larger ice crystal radius near cloud top.</p>

scholarly journals Diagnosing the average spatio-temporal impact of convective systems – Part 1: A methodology for evaluating climate models

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 13653-13684
Author(s):  
M. S. Johnston ◽  
P. Eriksson ◽  
S. Eliasson ◽  
M. D. Zelinka ◽  
R. M. Forbes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Content ◽  
Outgoing Longwave Radiation ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Cloud Fraction ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Cloud Ice ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. A~method to determine the mean response of upper tropospheric water to localised deep convective (DC) events is improved and applied to the EC-Earth climate model. Following Zelinka and Hartmann (2009), several fields related to moist processes and radiation are composited with respect to local maxima in rain rate to determine their spatio-temporal evolution with deep convection in the central Pacific Ocean. Major improvements to the above study are the isolation of DC events in time so as to prevent multiple sampling of the same event, and a revised definition of the mean background state that allows for better characterization of the DC-induced anomalies. The DC events observed in this study propagate westward at ~ 4 m s−1. Both the upper tropospheric relative humidity and outgoing longwave radiation are substantially perturbed over a broad horizontal extent during peak convection and for long periods of time. Cloud fraction anomaly increases throughout the upper troposphere, especially in the 200–250 hPa layer, reaching peak coverage following deep convection. Cloud ice water content anomaly confined to pressures greater than about 250 hPa and peaks near 450 hPa within a few hours of the DC event but remain enhanced following the DC event. Consistent with the large increase in upper tropospheric cloud ice, albedo increases dramatically and persists for sometime following the DC event. Applying the method to the model demonstrates that it is able to capture the large-scale responses to DC events, most notably for outgoing longwave radiation, but there are a number of important differences. For example, the DC signature of upper tropospheric humidity consistently covers a broader horizontal area than what is observed. In addition, the DC events move eastward in the model, but westward in the observations, and exhibit an unrealistic 24 h repeat cycle. Moreover, the modeled upper tropospheric cloud fraction anomalies – despite being of comparable magnitude and exhibiting similar longevity – are confined to a thinner layer that is closer to the tropopause and peak earlier than in observations. Finally, the modeled ice water content anomalies at pressures greater than about 350 hPa are about twice as large as in the observations and do not persist as long after peak convection.

scholarly journals Observations and modelling of microphysical variability, aggregation and sedimentation in tropical anvil cirrus outflow regions

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 6609-6628 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Gallagher ◽  
P. J. Connolly ◽  
I. Crawford ◽  
A. Heymsfield ◽  
K. N. Bower ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electric Fields ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Average Particle Size ◽  
Average Particle ◽  
Ice Crystal ◽  
Crystal Aggregation ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
Differential Sedimentation ◽  
High Electric Fields ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. Aircraft measurements of the microphysics of a tropical convective anvil (at temperatures ~−60 °C) forming above the Hector storm, over the Tiwi Islands, Northern Australia, have been conducted with a view to determining ice crystal aggregation efficiencies from in situ measurements. The observed microphysics have been compared to an explicit bin-microphysical model of the anvil region, which includes crystal growth by vapour diffusion and aggregation and the process of differential sedimentation. It has been found in flights made using straight and level runs perpendicular to the storm that the number of ice crystals initially decreased with distance from the storm as aggregation took place resulting in larger crystals, followed by their loss from the cloud layer due to sedimentation. The net result was that the mass (i.e. Ice Water Content) in the anvil Ci cloud decreased, but also that the average particle size (weighted by number) remained relatively constant along the length of the anvil outflow. Comparisons with the explicit microphysics model showed that the changes in the shapes of the ice crystal spectra as a function of distance from the storm could be explained by the model if the aggregation efficiency was set to values of Eagg~0.5 and higher. This result is supported by recent literature on aggregation efficiencies for complex ice particles and suggests that either the mechanism of particle interlocking is important to the aggregation process, or that other effects are occuring, such as enhancement of ice-aggregation by high electric fields that arise as a consequence of charge separation within the storm. It is noteworthy that this value of the ice crystal aggregation efficiency is much larger than values used in cloud resolving models at these temperatures, which typically use E~0.0016. These results are important to understanding how cold clouds evolve in time and for the treatment of the evolution of tropical Ci in numerical models.

scholarly journals A Prototype Method for Diagnosing High Ice Water Content Probability Using Satellite Imager Data

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Yost ◽  
Kristopher M. Bedka ◽  
Patrick Minnis ◽  
Louis Nguyen ◽  
J. Walter Strapp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Content ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Engine Performance ◽  
Aircraft Engine ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Cloud Optical Depth ◽  
Geo Satellite ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. Recent studies have found that flight through deep convective storms and ingestion of high mass concentrations of ice crystals, also known as high ice water content (HIWC), into aircraft engines can adversely impact aircraft engine performance. These aircraft engine icing events caused by HIWC have been documented during flight in weak reflectivity regions near convective updraft regions that do not appear threatening in onboard weather radar data. Three airborne field campaigns were conducted in 2014 and 2015 to better understand how HIWC is distributed in deep convection, both as a function of altitude and proximity to convective updraft regions, and to facilitate development of new methods for detecting HIWC conditions, in addition to many other research and regulatory goals. This paper describes a prototype method for detecting HIWC conditions using geostationary (GEO) satellite imager data coupled with in-situ total water content (TWC) observations collected during the flight campaigns. Three satellite-derived parameters were determined to be most useful for determining HIWC probability: 1) the horizontal proximity of the aircraft to the nearest overshooting convective updraft or textured anvil cloud, 2) tropopause-relative infrared brightness temperature, and 3) daytime-only cloud optical depth. Statistical fits between collocated TWC and GEO satellite parameters were used to determine the membership functions for the fuzzy logic derivation of HIWC probability. The products were demonstrated using data from several campaign flights and validated using a subset of the satellite-aircraft collocation database. The daytime HIWC probability was found to agree quite well with TWC time trends and identified extreme TWC events with high probability. Discrimination of HIWC was more challenging at night with IR-only information. The products show the greatest capability for discriminating TWC ≥ 0.5 g m−3. Product validation remains challenging due to vertical TWC uncertainties and the typically coarse spatio-temporal resolution of the GEO data.

scholarly journals Dust aerosol impact on North Africa climate: a GCM investigation of aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions using A-Train satellite data

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 31401-31432
Author(s):  
Y. Gu ◽  
K. N. Liou ◽  
J. H. Jiang ◽  
H. Su ◽  
X. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Direct Effect ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Ice Crystal ◽  
Ir Radiation ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
Cloud Forcing ◽  
Dust Aerosols ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. The climatic effects of dust aerosols in North Africa have been investigated using the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) developed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The model includes an efficient and physically based radiation parameterization scheme developed specifically for application to clouds and aerosols. Parameterization of the effective ice particle size in association with the aerosol first indirect effect based on ice cloud and aerosol data retrieved from A-Train satellite observations have been employed in climate model simulations. Offline simulations reveal that the direct solar, IR, and net forcings by dust aerosols at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) generally increase with increasing aerosol optical depth (AOD). When the dust semi-direct effect is included with the presence of ice clouds, positive IR radiative forcing is enhanced since ice clouds trap substantial IR radiation, while the positive solar forcing with dust aerosols alone has been changed to negative values due to the strong reflection of solar radiation by clouds, indicating that cloud forcing associated with aerosol semi-direct effect could exceed direct aerosol forcing. With the aerosol first indirect effect, the net cloud forcing is generally reduced for an ice water path (IWP) larger than 20 g m−2. The magnitude of the reduction increases with IWP. AGCM simulations show that the reduced ice crystal mean effective size due to the aerosol first indirect effect results in less OLR and net solar flux at the top of the atmosphere over the cloudy area of the North Africa region because ice clouds with smaller size trap more IR radiation and reflect more solar radiation. The precipitation in the same area, however, increases due to the aerosol indirect effect on ice clouds, corresponding to the enhanced convection as indicated by reduced OLR. The increased precipitation appears to be associated with enhanced ice water content in this region. The 200 mb radiative heating rate shows more cooling with the aerosol first indirect effect since greater cooling is produced at the cloud top with smaller ice crystal size. The 500 mb omega indicates stronger upward motion, which, together with the increased cooling effect, results in the increased ice water content. Adding the aerosol direct effect into the model simulation reduces the precipitation in the normal rainfall band over North Africa, where precipitation is shifted to the south and the northeast produced by the absorption of sunlight and the subsequent heating of the air column by dust particles. As a result, rainfall is drawn further inland to the northeast. This study represents the first attempt to quantify the climate impact of the aerosol indirect effect using a GCM in connection with A-train satellite data. The parameterization for the aerosol first indirect effect developed in this study can be readily employed for application to other GCMs.

scholarly journals A statistical analysis of the influence of deep convection on water vapor variability in the tropical upper troposphere

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
pp. 5847-5864 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Wright ◽  
R. Fu ◽  
A. J. Heymsfield
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Ambient Relative Humidity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Ice Water ◽  
Tropical Upper Troposphere

Abstract. The factors that control the influence of deep convective detrainment on water vapor in the tropical upper troposphere are examined using observations from multiple satellites in conjunction with a trajectory model. Deep convection is confirmed to act primarily as a moisture source to the upper troposphere, modulated by the ambient relative humidity (RH). Convective detrainment provides strong moistening at low RH and offsets drying due to subsidence across a wide range of RH. Strong day-to-day moistening and drying takes place most frequently in relatively dry transition zones, where between 0.01% and 0.1% of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar observations indicate active convection. Many of these strong moistening events in the tropics can be directly attributed to detrainment from recent tropical convection, while others in the subtropics appear to be related to stratosphere-troposphere exchange. The temporal and spatial limits of the convective source are estimated to be about 36–48 h and 600–1500 km, respectively, consistent with the lifetimes of detrainment cirrus clouds. Larger amounts of detrained ice are associated with enhanced upper tropospheric moistening in both absolute and relative terms. In particular, an increase in ice water content of approximately 400% corresponds to a 10–90% increase in the likelihood of moistening and a 30–50% increase in the magnitude of moistening.

scholarly journals Mesoscale Processes during the Genesis of Hurricane Karl (2010)

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (8) ◽  
pp. 2235-2255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael M. Bell ◽  
Michael T. Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Doppler Radar ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Tropical Cyclogenesis ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Stratiform Precipitation ◽  
Environmental Air ◽  
Mesoscale Processes

Abstract Observations from the Pre-Depression Investigation of Cloud Systems in the Tropics (PREDICT), Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP), and Intensity Forecast Experiment (IFEX) field campaigns are analyzed to investigate the mesoscale processes leading to the tropical cyclogenesis of Hurricane Karl (2010). Research aircraft missions provided Doppler radar, in situ flight level, and dropsonde data documenting the structural changes of the predepression disturbance. Following the pre-Karl wave pouch, variational analyses at the meso-β and meso-α scales suggest that the convective cycle in Karl alternately built the low- and midlevel circulations leading to genesis episodically rather than through a sustained lowering of the convective mass flux from increased stabilization. Convective bursts that erupt in the vorticity-rich environment of the recirculating pouch region enhance the low-level meso-β- and meso-α-scale circulation through vortex stretching. As the convection wanes, the resulting stratiform precipitation strengthens the midlevel circulation through convergence associated with ice microphysical processes, protecting the disturbance from the intrusion of dry environmental air. Once the column saturation fraction returns to a critical value, a subsequent convective burst below the midlevel circulation further enhances the low-level circulation, and the convective cycle repeats. The analyses suggest that the onset of deep convection and associated low-level spinup were closely related to the coupling of the vorticity and moisture fields at low and midlevels. Our interpretation of the observational analysis presented in this study reaffirms a primary role of deep convection in the genesis process and provides a hypothesis for the supporting role of stratiform precipitation and the midlevel vortex.

scholarly journals Ice crystal number concentration estimates from lidar-radar satellite retrievals. Part 2: Controls on the ice crystal number concentration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gryspeerdt ◽  
Odran Sourdeval ◽  
Johannes Quaas ◽  
Julien Delanoë ◽  
Philipp Kühne
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Number Concentration ◽  
Ice Crystal ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
Ice Cloud ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Radar Satellite ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. The ice crystal number concentration (Ni) is a key property of ice clouds, both radiatively and microphysically. However, due to sparse in-situ measurements of ice cloud properties, the controls on the Ni have remained difficult to determine. As more advanced treatments of ice clouds are included in global models, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop strong observational constraints on the processes involved. This work uses the DARDAR-LIM Ni retrieval described in part one to investigate the controls of the Ni at a global scale. The retrieved clouds are separated by type. The effects of temperature, proxies for in-cloud updraught and aerosol concentrations are investigated. Variations in the cloud top Ni (Ni(top)) consistent with both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation are observed and along with a possible role of aerosol both increasing and decreasing the Ni(top) depending on the prevailing meteorological situation. Away from the cloud top, the Ni displays a different sensitivity to these controlling factors, providing a possible explanation to the low Ni sensitivity to temperature and INP observed in previous in-situ studies. This satellite dataset provides a new way of investigating the response of cloud properties to meteorological and aerosol controls. The results presented in this work increase our confidence in the retrieved Ni and will form the basis for further study into the processes influencing ice and mixed phase clouds.

scholarly journals Ice injected into the tropopause by deep convection – Part 1: In the austral convective tropics

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 6459-6479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris-Amata Dion ◽  
Philippe Ricaud ◽  
Peter Haynes ◽  
Fabien Carminati ◽  
Thibaut Dauhut
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Tropical Ocean ◽  
Linear Coefficient ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. The contribution of deep convection to the amount of water vapour and ice in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) from the tropical upper troposphere (UT; around 146 hPa) to the tropopause level (TL; around 100 hPa) is investigated. Ice water content (IWC) and water vapour (WV) measured in the UT and the TL by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS; Version 4.2) are compared to the precipitation (Prec) measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM; Version 007). The two datasets, gridded within 2∘ × 2∘ horizontal bins, have been analysed during the austral convective season, December, January, and February (DJF), from 2004 to 2017. MLS observations are performed at 01:30 and 13:30 local solar time, whilst the Prec dataset is constructed with a time resolution of 1 h. The new contribution of this study is to provide a much more detailed picture of the diurnal variation of ice than is provided by the very limited (two per day) MLS observations. Firstly, we show that IWC represents 70 % and 50 % of the total water in the tropical UT and TL, respectively, and that Prec is spatially highly correlated with IWC in the UT (Pearson's linear coefficient R=0.7). We propose a method that uses Prec as a proxy for deep convection bringing ice up to the UT and TL during the growing stage of convection, in order to estimate the amount of ice injected into the UT and the TL, respectively. We validate the method using ice measurements from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) during the period DJF 2009–2010. Next, the diurnal cycle of injection of IWC into the UT and the TL by deep convection is calculated by the difference between the maximum and the minimum in the estimated diurnal cycle of IWC in these layers and over selected convective zones. Six tropical highly convective zones have been chosen: South America, South Africa, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the Maritime Continent region, split into land (MariCont-L) and ocean (MariCont-O). IWC injection is found to be 2.73 and 0.41 mg m−3 over tropical land in the UT and TL, respectively, and 0.60 and 0.13 mg m−3 over tropical ocean in the UT and TL, respectively. The MariCont-L region has the greatest ice injection in both the UT and TL (3.34 and 0.42–0.56 mg m−3, respectively). The MariCont-O region has less ice injection than MariCont-L (0.91 mg m−3 in the UT and 0.16–0.34 mg m−3 in TL) but has the highest diurnal minimum value of IWC in the TL (0.34–0.37 mg m−3) among all oceanic zones.

scholarly journals High ice water content at low radar reflectivity near deep convection – Part 2: Evaluation of microphysical pathways in updraft parcel simulations

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (20) ◽  
pp. 11729-11751 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Ackerman ◽  
A. M. Fridlind ◽  
A. Grandin ◽  
F. Dezitter ◽  
M. Weber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Radar Reflectivity ◽  
Doppler Velocity ◽  
Diffusional Growth ◽  
Ice Particles ◽  
Ice Water Content ◽  
Water Drops ◽  
Ice Water

Abstract. The aeronautics industry has established that a threat to aircraft is posed by atmospheric conditions of substantial ice water content (IWC) where equivalent radar reflectivity (Ze) does not exceed 20–30 dBZ and supercooled water is not present; these conditions are encountered almost exclusively in the vicinity of deep convection. Part 1 (Fridlind et al., 2015) of this two-part study presents in situ measurements of such conditions sampled by Airbus in three tropical regions, commonly near 11 km and −43 °C, and concludes that the measured ice particle size distributions are broadly consistent with past literature with profiling radar measurements of Ze and mean Doppler velocity obtained within monsoonal deep convection in one of the regions sampled. In all three regions, the Airbus measurements generally indicate variable IWC that often exceeds 2 g m-3 with relatively uniform mass median area-equivalent diameter (MMDeq) of 200–300 μm. Here we use a parcel model with size-resolved microphysics to investigate microphysical pathways that could lead to such conditions. Our simulations indicate that homogeneous freezing of water drops produces a much smaller ice MMDeq than observed, and occurs only in the absence of hydrometeor gravitational collection for the conditions considered. Development of a mass mode of ice aloft that overlaps with the measurements requires a substantial source of small ice particles at temperatures of about −10 °C or warmer, which subsequently grow from water vapor. One conceivable source in our simulation framework is Hallett–Mossop ice production; another is abundant concentrations of heterogeneous ice freezing nuclei acting together with copious shattering of water drops upon freezing. Regardless of the production mechanism, the dominant mass modal diameter of vapor-grown ice is reduced as the ice-multiplication source strength increases and as competition for water vapor increases. Both mass and modal diameter are reduced by entrainment and by increasing aerosol concentrations. Weaker updrafts lead to greater mass and larger modal diameters of vapor-grown ice, the opposite of expectations regarding lofting of larger ice particles in stronger updrafts. While stronger updrafts do loft more dense ice particles produced primarily by raindrop freezing, we find that weaker updrafts allow the warm rain process to reduce competition for diffusional growth of the less dense ice expected to persist in convective outflow.

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