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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2022

Impact of Clouds and Blowing Snow on Surface and Atmospheric Boundary Layer Properties over Dome C, Antarctica

Clouds and blowing snow (BLSN) occur frequently over Antarctica, where it is critical to understand their feedbacks to surface and atmospheric boundary layer processes. Dome C, an elevated East Antarctic station, dominated by lengthy periods of surface longwave (LW) radiative cooling, is selected to reveal cloud and BLSN impacts within a largely stable environment. The sky condition is classified as clear, cloudy, or BLSN, using 3 years of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations satellite data. Co-located and contemporaneous in situ observations are used to investigate the relationship of sky condition with surface and atmospheric boundary layer thermal structure, focusing on seasonal variability. Results show that increased downwelling LW radiation from clouds abate surface radiative cooling losses, contributing to warming during all seasons. An increase of 3°C in the mean surface air temperature is observed during spring, whereas, a more dramatic rise (around 10°C), due to accompanying large-scale subsidence, is observed during fall and winter in association with clouds. For all seasons, the wind speed and wind speed shear are strongest during BLSN events, and the surface-based inversion is weakened by cooling which peaks in a shallow above-surface turbulent layer. The stronger background stability during fall and winter seasons, restricts turbulence and BLSN depths generally to the lowest tens of meters. The Earth's cryosphere is among the most rapidly evolving yet least well-observed regions, and knowledge of clouds and BLSN interactions with the typical stable atmospheric boundary layer can help further understand energy and moisture exchanges.

CALIPSO↗
NASA NTRS1990

Specification of the scale and magnitude of thermals used to initiate convection in cloud models

Boundary layer similarity techniques are employed to specify the scale and intensity of a thermal perturbation used to initialize a cloud in a numerical cloud model. Techniques are outlined to specify the needed similarity variables from external information. Finally, the cloud model respone using the similarity scaled thermal is analyzed employing variations in the similarity variables giving an indication of the importance of the correct specification of the initiating thermal.

Mcnider, Richard T.↗
DOE OSTI2024

ARM Trajectories Data Set Value-Added Product Report

The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s ARM Trajectories Data Set (ARMTRAJ) Value-Added Product (VAP) provides trajectory data sets initialized at ARM deployment coordinates and configured using ARM data sets. The six trajectory data sets support aerosol, cloud, planetary boundary layer, and related research (aerosol-cloud interactions, etc.), as well as studies using ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) and tethered balloon system (TBS) measurements. Trajectory calculations use the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model informed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) fifth-generation atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5) data set at its highest spatial resolution (~31 km). HYSPLIT also runs at multiple initial starting locations surrounding ARM deployments (in latitude/longitude and/or vertical coordinates), facilitating an ensemble for each sample in the data sets. The ensemble mean and variability reported in ARMTRAJ improve the fidelity and provide uncertainty estimates of trajectory coordinates, thermodynamic properties, and other output fields.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2015

How Difficult is it to Reduce Low-Level Cloud Biases With the Higher-Order Turbulence Closure Approach in Climate Models?

Low-level clouds cover nearly half of the Earth and play a critical role in regulating the energy and hydrological cycle. Despite the fact that a great effort has been put to advance the modeling and observational capability in recent years, low-level clouds remains one of the largest uncertainties in the projection of future climate change. Low-level cloud feedbacks dominate the uncertainty in the total cloud feedback in climate sensitivity and projection studies. These clouds are notoriously difficult to simulate in climate models due to its complicated interactions with aerosols, cloud microphysics, boundary-layer turbulence and cloud dynamics. The biases in both low cloud coverage/water content and cloud radiative effects (CREs) remain large. A simultaneous reduction in both cloud and CRE biases remains elusive. This presentation first reviews the effort of implementing the higher-order turbulence closure (HOC) approach to representing subgrid-scale turbulence and low-level cloud processes in climate models. There are two HOCs that have been implemented in climate models. They differ in how many three-order moments are used. The CLUBB are implemented in both CAM5 and GDFL models, which are compared with IPHOC that is implemented in CAM5 by our group. IPHOC uses three third-order moments while CLUBB only uses one third-order moment while both use a joint double-Gaussian distribution to represent the subgrid-scale variability. Despite that HOC is more physically consistent and produces more realistic low-cloud geographic distributions and transitions between cumulus and stratocumulus regimes, GCMs with traditional cloud parameterizations outperform in CREs because tuning of this type of models is more extensively performed than those with HOCs. We perform several tuning experiments with CAM5 implemented with IPHOC in an attempt to produce the nearly balanced global radiative budgets without deteriorating the low-cloud simulation. One of the issues in CAM5-IPHOC is that cloud water content is much higher than in CAM5, which is combined with higher low-cloud coverage to produce larger shortwave CREs in some low-cloud prevailing regions. Thus, the cloud-radiative feedbacks are exaggerated there. The turning exercise is focused on microphysical parameters, which are also commonly used for tuning in climate models. The results will be discussed in this presentation.

Xu, Kuan-Man↗
NASA NTRS2021

Preconditioning of overcast-to-broken cloud transitions by riming in marine cold air outbreaks

Marine cold air outbreaks (CAOs) commonly form overcast cloud decks that transition into broken cloud fields downwind, dramatically altering the local radiation budget. In this study, we investigate the impact of frozen hydrometeors on these transitions. We focus on a CAO case in the NW Atlantic, the location of the multi-year flight campaign ACTIVATE (Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment). We use MERRA-2 (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2) reanalysis fields to drive large eddy simulations with mixed-phase two-moment microphysics in a Lagrangian framework. We find that transitions are triggered by substantial rain (rainwater paths >25 g m−2), and only simulations that allow for aerosol depletion result in sustained breakups, as observed. Using a range of diagnostic ice nucleating particle concentrations, Ninp, we find that increasing ice progressively accelerates transitions, thus abbreviating the overcast state. Ice particles affect the cloud-topped boundary layer evolution, primarily through riming-related processes prior to substantial rain, leading to (1) a reduction in cloud liquid water, (2) early consumption of cloud condensation nuclei, and (3) early and light precipitation cooling and moistening below cloud. We refer to these three effects collectively as “preconditioning by riming”. Greater boundary layer aerosol concentrations available as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) delay the onset of substantial rain. However, cloud breakup and low CCN concentration final stages are found to be inevitable in this case, due, primarily, to liquid water path buildup. An ice-modulated cloud transition speed suggests the possibility of a negative cloud–climate feedback. To address prevailing uncertainties in the model representation of mixed-phase processes, the magnitude of ice formation and riming impacts and, thereby, the strength of an associated negative cloud–climate feedback process, requires further observational evaluation by targeting riming hot spots with in situ imaging probes that allow for both the characterization of ice particles and abundance of supercooled droplets.

Marine cold air outbreaks↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tethered balloon measurements reveal enhanced aerosol occurrence aloft interacting with Arctic low-level clouds

Low-level clouds in the Arctic affect the surface energy budget and vertical transport of heat and moisture. The limited availability of cloud-droplet-forming aerosol particles strongly impacts cloud properties and lifetime. Vertical particle distributions are required to study aerosol–cloud interaction over sea ice comprehensively. This article presents vertically resolved measurements of aerosol particle number concentrations and sizes using tethered balloons. The data were collected during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate expedition in the summer of 2020. Thirty-four profiles of aerosol particle number concentration were observed in 2 particle size ranges: 12–150 nm (N 12−150 ) and above 150 nm (N >150 ). Concurrent balloon-borne meteorological measurements provided context for the continuous profiles through the cloudy atmospheric boundary layer. Radiosoundings, cloud remote sensing data, and 5-day back trajectories supplemented the analysis. The majority of aerosol profiles showed more particles above the lowest temperature inversion, on average, double the number concentration compared to below. Increased N 12−150 up to 3,000 cm −3 were observed in the free troposphere above low-level clouds related to secondary particle formation. Long-range transport of pollution increased N >150 to 310 cm −3 in a warm, moist air mass. Droplet activation inside clouds caused reductions of N >150 by up to 100%, while the decrease in N 12−150 was less than 50%. When low-level clouds were thermodynamically coupled with the surface, profiles showed 5 times higher values of N 12−150 in the free troposphere than below the cloud-capping temperature inversion. Enhanced N 12−150 and N >150 interacting with clouds were advected above the lowest inversion from beyond the sea ice edge when clouds were decoupled from the surface. Vertically discontinuous aerosol profiles below decoupled clouds suggest that particles emitted at the surface are not transported to clouds in these conditions. It is concluded that the cloud-surface coupling state and free tropospheric particle abundance are crucial when assessing the aerosol budget for Arctic low-level clouds over sea ice.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Vertical dependence of horizontal variation of cloud microphysics: observations from the ACE-ENA field campaign and implications for warm-rain simulation in climate models

Abstract. In the current global climate models (GCMs), the nonlinearity effect of subgrid cloud variations on the parameterization of warm-rain process, e.g., the autoconversion rate, is often treated by multiplying the resolved-scale warm-rain process rates by a so-called enhancement factor (EF). In this study, we investigate the subgrid-scale horizontal variations and covariation of cloud water content (qc) and cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds based on the in situ measurements from a recent field campaign and study the implications for the autoconversion rate EF in GCMs. Based on a few carefully selected cases from the field campaign, we found that in contrast to the enhancing effect of qc and Nc variations that tends to make EF > 1, the strong positive correlation between qc and Nc results in a suppressing effect that tends to make EF < 1. This effect is especially strong at cloud top, where the qc and Nc correlation can be as high as 0.95. We also found that the physically complete EF that accounts for the covariation of qc and Nc is significantly smaller than its counterpart that accounts only for the subgrid variation of qc, especially at cloud top. Although this study is based on limited cases, it suggests that the subgrid variations of Nc and its correlation with qc both need to be considered for an accurate simulation of the autoconversion process in GCMs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Response of marine post-frontal clouds to Gulf Stream variability

Understanding how Gulf Stream variation influences cloud morphology is critical for evaluating cloud feedback in the western North Atlantic Ocean and beyond, where mesoscale air-sea interactions dominate. This study investigates the impact of altered mean sea surface temperature (SST) and SST gradients on post-frontal cloud characteristics during cold-air outbreaks, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Three sensitivity experiments are conducted: a control simulation (default SST), Plus4 (uniform SST increase of 4 K), and Gradplus (SST gradient enhanced by 25 %, centered around mean SST). Results reveal distinctly different responses in boundary layer dynamics and cloud macro-physics. In Plus4, a warmer and moister boundary layer reduces total cloud cover but promotes larger cloud sizes and elongated cloud streets, with diminished liquid water and enhanced ice-phase hydrometeors. Conversely, Gradplus amplifies impacts in the upwind colder SST regions, yielding a drier, colder boundary layer, weaker energy transport, and higher liquid water path but reduced ice water content and cloud lines. Tracer analysis highlights that SST modifications alter airmass sources near cloud tops due to the entrainment of ambient air, with Plus4 amplifying boundary layer contributions to cloud-top regions. These findings underscore the spatially varying effects of SST gradients and mean SST on cloud organization and microphysics, emphasizing the need to resolve ocean-atmosphere coupling in global models to improve the prediction of marine cloud feedback under warming scenarios.

AIR-SEA INTERACTION↗
NASA NTRS2007

Simulation of Boundary-Layer Cumulus and Stratocumulus Clouds using a Cloud-Resolving Model With Low- and Third-Order Turbulence Closures

The effects of subgrid-scale condensation and transport become more important as the grid spacings increase from those typically used in large-eddy simulation (LES) to those typically used in cloud-resolving models (CRMs). Incorporation of these effects can be achieved by a joint probability density function approach that utilizes higher-order moments of thermodynamic and dynamic variables. This study examines how well shallow cumulus and stratocumulus clouds are simulated by two versions of a CRM that is implemented with low-order and third-order turbulence closures (LOC and TOC) when a typical CRM horizontal resolution is used and what roles the subgrid-scale and resolved-scale processes play as the horizontal grid spacing of the CRM becomes finer. Cumulus clouds were mostly produced through subgrid-scale transport processes while stratocumulus clouds were produced through both subgrid-scale and resolved-scale processes in the TOC version of the CRM when a typical CRM grid spacing is used. The LOC version of the CRM relied upon resolved-scale circulations to produce both cumulus and stratocumulus clouds, due to small subgrid-scale transports. The mean profiles of thermodynamic variables, cloud fraction and liquid water content exhibit significant differences between the two versions of the CRM, with the TOC results agreeing better with the LES than the LOC results. The characteristics, temporal evolution and mean profiles of shallow cumulus and stratocumulus clouds are weakly dependent upon the horizontal grid spacing used in the TOC CRM. However, the ratio of the subgrid-scale to resolved-scale fluxes becomes smaller as the horizontal grid spacing decreases. The subcloud-layer fluxes are mostly due to the resolved scales when a grid spacing less than or equal to 1 km is used. The overall results of the TOC simulations suggest that a 1-km grid spacing is a good choice for CRM simulation of shallow cumulus and stratocumulus.

Xu, Kuan-Man↗
NASA NTRS2009

Intraseasonal Variations in Tropical Deep Convection, Tropospheric Mean Temperature and Cloud-Induced Radiative Fluxes

Intraseasonal variability of deep convection represents a fundamental mode of variability in the organization of tropical convection. While most studies of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) have focused on the spatial propagation and dynamics of convectively coupled circulations, we examine the projection of ISOs on the tropically-averaged temperature and energy budget. The area of interest is the global oceans between 20oN/S. Our analysis then focuses on these questions: (i) How is tropospheric temperature related to tropical deep convection and the associated ice cloud fractional amount (ICF) and ice water path (IWP)? (ii) What is the source of moisture sustaining the convection and what role does deep convection play in mediating the PBL - free atmospheric temperature equilibration? (iii) What affect do convectively generated upper-tropospheric clouds have on the TOA radiation budget? Our methodology is similar to that of Spencer et al., (2007) with some modifications and some additional diagnostics of both clouds and boundary layer thermodynamics. A composite ISO time series of cloud, precipitation and radiation quantities built from nearly 40 events during a six-year period is referenced to the atmospheric temperature signal. The increase of convective precipitation cannot be sustained by evaporation within the domain, implying strong moisture transports into the tropical ocean area. While there is a decrease in net TOA radiation that develops after the peak in deep convective rainfall, there seems little evidence that an "Infrared Iris"- like mechanism is dominant. Rather, the cloud-induced OLR increase seems largely produced by weakened convection with warmer cloud tops. Tropical ISO events offer an accessible target for studying ISOs not just in terms of propagation mechanisms, but on their global signals of heat, moisture and radiative flux feedback processes.

Ramey, Holly S.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Relationships Between Tropical Deep Convection, Tropospheric Mean Temperature and Cloud-Induced Radiative Fluxes on Intraseasonal Time Scales

Intraseasonal variability of deep convection represents a fundamental mode of variability in the organization of tropical convection. While most studies of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) have focused on the spatial propagation and dynamics of convectively coupled circulations, we examine the projection of ISOs on the tropically-averaged temperature and energy budget. The area of interest is the global oceans between 20oN/S. Our analysis then focuses on these questions: (i) How is tropospheric temperature related to tropical deep convection and the associated ice cloud fractional amount (ICF) and ice water path (IWP)? (ii) What is the source of moisture sustaining the convection and what role does deep convection play in mediating the PBL - free atmospheric temperature equilibration? (iii) What affect do convectively generated upper-tropospheric clouds have on the TOA radiation budget? Our methodology is similar to that of Spencer et al., (2007) with some modifications and some additional diagnostics of both clouds and boundary layer thermodynamics. A composite ISO time series of cloud, precipitation and radiation quantities built from nearly 40 events during a six-year period is referenced to the atmospheric temperature signal. The increase of convective precipitation cannot be sustained by evaporation within the domain, implying strong moisture transports into the tropical ocean area. While there is a decrease in net TOA radiation that develops after the peak in deep convective rainfall, there seems little evidence that an "Infrared Iris"- like mechanism is dominant. Rather, the cloud-induced OLR increase seems largely produced by weakened convection with warmer cloud tops. Tropical ISO events offer an accessible target for studying ISOs not just in terms of propagation mechanisms, but on their global signals of heat, moisture and radiative flux feedback processes.

Ramey, Holly S.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Relationships Between Tropical Deep Convection, Tropospheric Mean Temperature and Cloud-Induced Radiative Fluxes on Intraseasonal Time Scales

Intraseasonal variability of deep convection represents a fundamental mode of variability in the organization of tropical convection. While most studies of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) have focused on the spatial propagation and dynamics of convectively coupled circulations, we examine the projection of ISOs on the tropically-averaged temperature and energy budget. The area of interest is the global oceans between 20degN/S. Our analysis then focuses on these questions: (i) How is tropospheric temperature related to tropical deep convection and the associated ice cloud fractional amount (ICF) and ice water path (IWP)? (ii) What is the source of moisture sustaining the convection and what role does deep convection play in mediating the PBL - free atmospheric temperature equilibration? (iii) What affect do convectively generated upper-tropospheric clouds have on the TOA radiation budget? Our methodology is similar to that of Spencer et al., (2007) with some modifications and some additional diagnostics of both clouds and boundary layer thermodynamics. A composite ISO time series of cloud, precipitation and radiation quantities built from nearly 40 events during a six-year period is referenced to the atmospheric temperature signal. The increase of convective precipitation cannot be sustained by evaporation within the domain, implying strong moisture transports into the tropical ocean area. While there is a decrease in net TOA radiation that develops after the peak in deep convective rainfall, there seems little evidence that an "Infrared Iris"- like mechanism is dominant. Rather, the cloud-induced OLR increase seems largely produced by weakened convection with warmer cloud tops. Tropical ISO events offer an accessible target for studying ISOs not just in terms of propagation mechanisms, but on their global signals of heat, moisture and radiative flux feedback processes.

Ramey, Holly S.↗
NASA NTRS2013

A 19-Month Climatology of Marine Aerosol-Cloud-Radiation Properties Derived From DOE ARM AMF Deployment at the Azores: Part I: Cloud Fraction and Single-Layered MBL Cloud Properties

A 19-month record of total, and single-layered low (0-3 km), middle (3-6 km), and high (> 6 km) cloud fractions (CFs), and the single-layered marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud macrophysical and microphysical properties has been generated from ground-based measurements taken at the ARM Azores site between June 2009 and December 2010. It documents the most comprehensive and longest dataset on marine cloud fraction and MBL cloud properties to date. The annual means of total CF, and single-layered low, middle, and high CFs derived from ARM radar-lidar observations are 0.702, 0.271, 0.01 and 0.106, respectively. More total and single-layered high CFs occurred during winter, while single-layered low CFs were greatest during summer. The diurnal cycles for both total and low CFs are stronger during summer than during winter. The CFs are bimodally distributed in the vertical with a lower peak at approx. 1 km and higher one between 8 and 11 km during all seasons, except summer, when only the low peak occurs. The persistent high pressure and dry conditions produce more single-layered MBL clouds and fewer total clouds during summer, while the low pressure and moist air masses during winter generate more total and multilayered-clouds, and deep frontal clouds associated with midlatitude cyclones.

Dong, Xiquan↗
NASA NTRS1990

NRL tethered balloon measurements at San Nicolas Island during FIRE IFO 1987

An overview is given of the tethered balloon measurements made during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) marine stratocumulus intensive field observations (IFO) at San Nicolas Island in 1987. The instrument utilized on the balloon flights, the 17 flights over a 10 day period, the state of the data analysis, and some preliminary results are described. A goal of the measurements with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) balloon was to give a unique and greatly improved look at the microphysics of the clear and cloud-topped boundary layer. For this goal, collocated measurements were made of turbulence, aerosol, cloud particles, and meteorology. Two new instruments which were expected to make significant contributions to this effort were the saturation hygrometer, capable of measuring 95 percent less than RH 105 percent (with an accuracy of 0.05 percent near 100 percent) and used for the first time in clouds; and the forward scatter meter which gives in situ LWC measurements at more than 10 Hz. The data set, while unfortunately only partially simultaneous with the bulk of the FIRE stratocumulus observations, is unique and worthwhile in its own right. For the first time accurate RH measurements near 100 percent have been made in-cloud; although, the use of the saturation hygrometer reflected a learning experience which will result is substantially better performance the next time. These measurements were made in conjunction with other microphysical measurements such as aerosol and cloud droplet spectra, and perhaps most important of all, they were all collocated with bivane turbulence measurements thus permitting flux calculations. Thus the analysis of this data set, which consisted of about 50 percent stratocumulus cases including increasing and decreasing partial cloud cover, should lead to new insights on the physical mechanisms which drive the boundary-layer/cloud/turbulence system.

Gerber, Hermann↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cloud processing of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oxidation products limits sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and carbonyl sulfide (OCS) production in the eastern North Atlantic marine boundary layer

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is the major sulfur species emitted from the ocean. The gas-phase oxidation of DMS by hydroxyl radicals proceeds through the stable, soluble intermediate hydroperoxymethyl thioformate (HPMTF), eventually forming carbonyl sulfide (OCS) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ). Recent work has shown that HPMTF is efficiently lost to marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds, thus arresting OCS and SO 2 production and their contributions to new-particle formation and growth events. To date, no long-term field studies exist to assess the extent to which frequent cloud processing impacts the fate of HPMTF. Here, we present 6 weeks of measurements of the cloud fraction and the marine sulfur species methanethiol, DMS, and HPMTF made at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) research facility on Graciosa Island, Azores, Portugal. Using an observationally constrained chemical box model, we determine that cloud loss is the dominant sink of HPMTF in this region of the MBL during the study, accounting for 79 %–91 % of HPMTF loss on average. When accounting for HPMTF uptake to clouds, we calculate campaign average reductions in DMS-derived MBL SO 2 and OCS of 52 %–60 % and 80 %–92 % for the study period. Using yearly measurements of the site- and satellite-measured 3D cloud fraction and DMS climatology, we infer that HPMTF cloud loss is the dominant sink of HPMTF in the eastern North Atlantic during all seasons and occurs on timescales faster than what is prescribed in global chemical transport models. Accurately resolving this rapid loss of HPMTF to clouds has important implications for constraining drivers of MBL new-particle formation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗