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Wang, Dié

Publications and source records attributed to Wang, Dié.

14 records
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DOE OSTI2025

Investigating Aerosol and Meteorological Influences on Convective Clouds in Houston, Texas, during the TRACER/ESCAPE Field Campaigns

Aerosols serve as cloud condensation nuclei, shaping the microphysical properties of cloud droplets. Aerosol effects on convective clouds are complex and remain controversial. The debate centers around the process of aerosol-induced invigoration of deep convection, a phenomenon that could significantly affect convective cloud properties but lacks robust evidence due to methodological limitations in observational approaches and questions about the robustness of modeling studies. Resolving these discrepancies is crucial for understanding how aerosols affect the atmosphere. Here, this study examines the effects of meteorological and aerosol parameters in a weakly synoptic-driven convective environment, where the influence of aerosols may be more pronounced and observable. Daily atmospheric soundings and aerosol concentrations from several ground instruments collected during the summer of 2022 in Houston, Texas, as part of the Tracking Aerosol Convection interactions Experiment (TRACER) and Experiment of Sea Breeze Convection, Aerosols, Precipitation, and Environment (ESCAPE) field campaigns are analyzed. Statistical learning methods are applied to uncover the complex relationships between aerosols, meteorology, and convective cloud characteristics, such as cell area and echo-top height. The findings reveal that higher aerosol concentrations are associated with narrower convective cells, which we argue contradicts the idea of stronger convection with increased aerosol loading. However, once the data are clustered by the synoptic environment, the relationship between aerosol loading and convective cell area diminishes, indicating that the covariablity between synoptic-scale weather patterns, local thermodynamics, and aerosol loading makes it challenging to draw definitive conclusions about the specific impacts of aerosols on convective cloud properties.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Closed Bay-Breeze Circulation and Its Lifecycle From TRACER With a New Orienteering Tape Recorder Diagram

A closed bay-breeze circulation (BBC) followed by a gulf-breeze front (GBF) was observed on 10 September 2022 during the Department of Energy's (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) TRACER campaign. Using high-resolution X-band Scanning Cloud Radar (XSACR) and a newly developed orienteering tape recorder diagram, the study analyzed radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity to identify anomalies and track the evolution of these circulations. The BBC, a mesoscale system approximately 30-km long, 30-km wide, and 2-km deep, formed from enhanced horizontal convective rolls along the Galveston Bay coast, progressing northwestward under a 6 m s−1 onshore flow anomaly and reaching 1.5 km depth with return flow aloft. The inland penetration speed was 2 m s−1, driven by an observed 6-9 K land-water temperature contrast. The GBF, coupled to the BBC, intensified with additional southerly flow, penetrating further inland after the BBC collapsed. Passing over the TRACER field site, both fronts significantly impacted boundary layer thermodynamics, dynamics, and aerosol concentration. The BBC event exhibited four lifecycle stages-formation, development, maturation, and dissipation-driven by solar heating, wind field rotation, and interactions with convective eddies and the GBF. This study provides insights into the inland evolution of coastal breeze circulations and their interactions with environmental processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights

This study investigates how environmental factors influence the level of maximum detrainment (LMD) in deep convective clouds. Through a novel application of the Linear Non‐Gaussian Acyclic Model (LiNGAM), we discover causal structures between environmental variables and LMD, observed at six tropical sites operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. LiNGAM effectively identifies causal directions among variables of interest, revealing robust relationships such as those among the lifting condensation level (LCL), level of free convection (LFC), and convective inhibition (CIN), aligning with prior knowledge. Relative humidity is shown to directly influence LMD; however, this relationship exhibits strong nonlinearity and becomes difficult to detect when the contrast between oceanic and continental environments is excluded from the analysis. This study highlights the importance of establishing causal relationships before performing statistical inference.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

OpenCRUMS USA: An Open Machine Learning Framework for Characterizing Variability in Aerosol Reanalysis Data

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have called for exploring how these techniques can be used for exploring patterns in large climate datasets. To that regard, the U.S. Department of Energy AI for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP) supported a pilot initiative called the Open Classification of Regimes in the Southeast USA (OpenCRUMS USA) project to explore how AI can be used to characterize modes of spatial variability in large climate datasets. For this study, we focus on comparing two methods for characterizing the modes of spatial variability of surface aerosol concentration over the Houston region: empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and layerwise relevance propagation (LRP) applied to a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier. We show that EOF analysis typically attributes spatial variability modes that span all of southeast Texas, prohibiting the attribution of spatial variability to localized regions. However, using LRP on the CNN classifier resolves the explanatory parameters at a finer spatial resolution than EOFs. This allows for the attribution of the spatial variability of surface aerosols to local regions of organic carbon which was not possible using EOFs. In addition, the LRP analysis also suggests that synoptic-scale transport of dust is most prevalent during anticyclonic and pretrough synoptic conditions as categorized by self-organizing maps.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

TRACER Perspectives on Gulf-Breeze and Bay-Breeze Circulations and Coastal Convection

Abstract This study explores gulf-breeze circulations (GBCs) and bay-breeze circulations (BBCs) in Houston–Galveston, investigating their characteristics, large-scale weather influences, and impacts on surface properties, boundary layer updrafts, and convective clouds. The results are derived from a combination of datasets, including satellite observations, ground-based measurements, and reanalysis datasets, using machine learning, changepoint detection method, and Lagrangian cell tracking. We find that anticyclonic synoptic patterns during the summer months (June–September) favor GBC/BBC formation and the associated convective cloud development, representing 74% of cases. The main Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) site located close to the Galveston Bay is influenced by both GBC and BBC, with nearly half of the cases showing evident BBC features. The site experiences early frontal passages ranging from 1040 to 1630 local time (LT), with 1300 LT being the most frequent. These fronts are stronger than those observed at the ancillary site which is located further inland from the Galveston Bay, including larger changes in surface temperature, moisture, and wind speed. Furthermore, these fronts trigger boundary layer updrafts, likely promoting isolated convective precipitating cores that are short lived (average convective lifetime of 63 min) and slow moving (average propagation speed of 5 m s −1 ), primarily within 20–40 km from the coast.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Lifecycle of updrafts and mass flux in isolated deep convection over the Amazon rainforest: insights from cell tracking

Long-term observations of deep convective cloud (DCC) vertical velocity and mass flux were collected during the Observations and Modelling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5) experiment. Precipitation echoes from a surveillance weather radar near Manaus, Brazil, are tracked to identify and evaluate the isolated DCC lifecycle evolution during the dry and wet seasons. A radar wind profiler (RWP) provides precipitation and air motion profiles to estimate the vertical velocity, mass flux, and mass transport rates within overpassing DCC cores as a function of the tracked cell lifecycle stage. The average radar reflectivity factor (Z), DCC area (A), and surface rainfall rate (R) increased with DCC lifetime as convective cells were developing, reached a peak as the cells matured, and decreased thereafter as cells dissipated. As the convective cells mature, cumulative DCC properties exhibit stronger updraft behaviors with higher upward mass flux and transport rates above the melting layer (compared with initial and later lifecycle stages). In comparison, developing DCCs have the lowest Z associated with weak updrafts, as well as negative mass flux and transport rates above the melting layer. Over the DCC lifetime, the height of the maximum downward mass flux decreased, whereas the height of the maximum net mass flux increased. During the dry season, the tracked DCCs had higher Z, propagation speed, and DCC area, and were more isolated spatially compared with the wet season. Dry season DCCs exhibit higher Z, mass flux, and mass transport rate while developing, whereas wet season DCCs exhibit higher Z, mass flux, and mass transport rates at later stages.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sharp decline of dust events induces regional wetting over arid and semi-arid Northwest China in the NCAR Community atmosphere model

Abstract Multiple lines of observational evidence have indicated a significant wetting over the arid and semi-arid Northwest China (NWC) during recent decades, coinciding with a simultaneous sharp decline of dust events. Although recent studies have attributed NWC wetting to different anthropogenic and natural forcings, the mechanisms are not definitive and the regional wetting has been greatly underestimated in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project historical simulations. Based on sensitivity experiments with different dust emission amounts using the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5), here we find that decreasing dusts exert significant impacts on mixed-phase clouds through reducing the concentration of ice nucleating particles, increase the NWC precipitation and thus induce regional wetting through enhancing convection precipitation. A possible convection invigoration mechanism whereby the atmospheric vertical temperature gradient and convective instability are strengthened by reduced dusts, leading to convection invigoration and increased precipitation. These results are reinforced by simulations over the dust region in North Africa where mixed-phase and ice clouds are rare and reduced dusts do not increase precipitation. This study highlights the possible mechanism of dust-ice cloud interactions in recent NWC wetting and future regional climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Convective Updraft and Downdraft Characteristics of Continental Mesoscale Convective Systems in the Model Gray Zone

Here, the "gray zone" of convective modeling is defined as the range of horizontal grid spacings (Δx) at which turbulent transport processes are only partially resolved by the dynamics of the numerical model. This zone typically covers Δx from a few kilometers to several hundred meters, wherein the realistic representation of convective cloud processes can be challenging. This study characterizes the convective draft behaviors at multiple Δx across the gray zone and determines the appropriate Δx that can reliably capture these salient convective properties. We perform an ensemble of idealized simulations of mesoscale convective systems (MCS) using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at various Δx from 4 km to 250 m over the central U.S. An evaluation of key MCS kinematic properties is constrained using unique, long-term vertical velocity estimates obtained by radar wind profilers deployed by the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility. MCS simulations for all Δx tested overestimate (underestimate) the probabilities of convective updrafts (downdrafts) compared to the observations. In terms of the convective draft intensity, finer-Δx models overestimate the updraft intensity, while the opposite is found for downdrafts. Moving from Δx = 4 km to 250 m, downdrafts become stronger and more frequent especially at middle and upper levels, attributed to additional drag from an increasing graupel frequency and compensation of enhanced updraft velocity. Simulated draft characteristics, including core size, intensity, and probability of occurrence, exhibit pronounced changes at Δx greater than 500 m, but suggest less sensitivity when Δx is reduced below 500 m.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Towards a Unified Setup to Simulate Mid‐Latitude and Tropical Mesoscale Convective Systems at Kilometer‐Scales

Abstract Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) are the main source of precipitation in the tropics and parts of the mid‐latitudes and are responsible for high‐impact weather worldwide. Studies showed that deficiencies in simulating mid‐latitude MCSs in state‐of‐the‐art climate models can be alleviated by kilometer‐scale models. However, whether these models can also improve tropical MCSs and whether we can find model settings that perform well in both regions is understudied. We take advantage of high‐quality MCS observations collected over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facilities in the US Southern Great Plains (SGP) and the Amazon basin near Manaus (MAO) to evaluate a perturbed physics ensemble of simulated MCSs with 4 km horizontal grid spacing. A new model evaluation method is developed that enables to distinguish biases stemming from spatiotemporal displacements of MCSs from biases in their reflectivity and cloud shield. Amazon MCSs are similarly well simulated across these evaluation metrics than SGP MCSs despite the challenges anticipated from weaker large‐scale forcing in the tropics. Generally, SGP MCSs are more sensitive to the choice of model microphysics, while Amazon cases are more sensitive to the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme. Although our tested model physics combinations had strengths and weaknesses, combinations that performed well for SGP simulations result in worse results in the Amazon basin and vice versa. However, we identified model settings that perform well at both locations, which include the Thompson and Morrison microphysics coupled with the Yonsei University (YSU) PBL scheme and the Thompson scheme coupled with the Mellor‐Yamada‐Janjic PBL scheme.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Linking Synoptic Patterns to Cloud Properties and Local Circulations Over Southeastern Texas

This report classifies meteorological regimes in the southeastern Texas region to identify environmental conditions that favor sea-breeze induced convection. The classification is accomplished using a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) approach. We applied SOM to 10 years of 700-hPa geopotential height anomalies during the summer months from reanalysis data to distinguish three dominant synoptic regimes, with a continuum of transitional states between those. The primary regimes include: (a) a pre-trough regime associated with a synoptic trough, (b) a post-trough regime with upper-level northerly flow, and (c) an anticyclonic regime within the westward extent of the Bermuda High. We project the data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite and the Next Generation Weather Radar system onto each SOM node to investigate the characteristics of cloud and precipitation properties in different regimes. When southeastern Texas is positioned to the southwest quadrant of a maritime high pressure system, an increased cloud frequency is observed over the region during the afternoon hours due to significant moisture advection. A confluence of synoptic southerly flow and sea-breeze circulation commonly occurs in this regime. When a high pressure system is over southeastern Texas, the area is dominated by large-scale subsidence with weak pressure gradients and moderate precipitable water vapor. This weak synoptic forcing is favorable for the formation of a sea-breeze circulation. This is confirmed by an enhanced onshore flow and a decreased temperature at the surface in the early afternoon, as well as a sharp increase in radar echo top height.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improved Convective Ice Microphysics Parameterization in the NCAR CAM Model

Partitioning deep convective cloud condensates into components that sediment and detrain, known to be a challenge for global climate models, is important for cloud vertical distribution and anvil cloud formation. In this study, we address this issue by improving the convective microphysics scheme in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model version 5.3 (CAM5.3). The improvements include: (1) considering sedimentation for cloud ice crystals that do not fall in the original scheme, (2) applying a new terminal velocity parameterization that depends on the environmental conditions for convective snow, (3) adding a new hydrometeor category, “rimed ice,” to the original four-class (cloud liquid, cloud ice, rain, and snow) scheme, and (4) allowing convective clouds to detrain snow particles into stratiform clouds. Results from the default and modified CAM5.3 models were evaluated against observations from the U.S. Department of Energy Tropical Warm Pool-International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) field campaign. The default model overestimates ice amount, which is largely attributed to the underestimation of convective ice particle sedimentation. By considering cloud ice sedimentation and rimed ice particles and applying a new convective snow terminal velocity parameterization, the vertical distribution of ice amount is much improved in the midtroposphere and upper troposphere when compared to observations. The vertical distribution of ice condensate also agrees well with observational best estimates upon considering snow detrainment. Further, comparison with observed convective updrafts reveals that current bulk model fails to reproduce the observed updraft magnitude and occurrence frequency, suggesting spectral distributions be required to simulate the subgrid updraft heterogeneity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Satellite-Based Estimate of Convective Vertical Velocity and Convective Mass Flux: Global Survey and Comparison with Radar Wind Profiler Observations

Convective vertical velocity (w c ) and convective mass flux (M c ) lie at the heart of GCM cumulus parameterizations, but few observations of these critical parameters are available. In this paper, we develop and evaluate a novel, satellite-based method for estimating profiles of w c and M c . Here, comparisons with collocated ground-based radar wind profiler (RWP) observations show that satellite estimated median w c is slightly greater than the RWP estimates, but they show solid agreement when compared at the 95th percentiles (intense updrafts). RWP-derived and satellite estimated M c are broadly comparable in the lower and middle troposphere, with some differences in the upper troposphere due to differences in convective core sampling. A k-means cluster analysis of multiple years of w c data shows that convective characteristics are distinctly different among extratropical convection, tropical land convection, and tropical oceanic convection. Tropical land convection is significantly more intense and more variable than the oceanic counterpart.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗