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Model output for the journal article "A Model Intercomparison Study of Aerosol-cloud-turbulence Interactions in A Cloud Chamber"
The mean diurnal cycle of cloud entrainment rate (w e ) over the northeast Pacific region is for the first time computed by combining, in a mixed-layer model framework, the hourly composited GOES-15 satellite-based cloud top height (H T ) tendency, advection, and large-scale vertical velocity (w) during May to September 2013, with horizontal winds and w taken from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model. The tendency term dominates the magnitude and phase of the w e diurnal cycle, with a secondary role of w, and a modest advective contribution. The peak and minimum in w e occur between 20:00–22:00 LT and 9:00–11:00 LT, respectively, in close agreement with the diurnal cycle of turbulence driven by cloud top longwave cooling. Uncertainties in H T and ECMWF fields are assessed with in situ observations and three meteorological reanalysis data sets. This study provides the basis for constructing nearly global climatologies of w e by combining a suite of well-calibrated geostationary satellites.
Large-scale forcing data, such as vertical velocity and advective tendencies, are required to drive single-column models (SCMs), cloud-resolving models, and large-eddy simulations. Previous studies suggest that some errors of these model simulations could be attributed to the lack of spatial variability in the specified domain-mean large-scale forcing. This study investigates the spatial variability of the forcing and explores its impact on SCM simulated precipitation and clouds. A gridded large-scale forcing data during the March 2000 Cloud Intensive Operational Period at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program's Southern Great Plains site is used for analysis and to drive the single-column version of the Community Atmospheric Model Version 5 (SCAM5). When the gridded forcing data show large spatial variability, such as during a frontal passage, SCAM5 with the domain-mean forcing is not able to capture the convective systems that are partly located in the domain or that only occupy part of the domain. This problem has been largely reduced by using the gridded forcing data, which allows running SCAM5 in each subcolumn and then averaging the results within the domain. This is because the subcolumns have a better chance to capture the timing of the frontal propagation and the small-scale systems. As a result, other potential uses of the gridded forcing data, such as understanding and testing scale-aware parameterizations, are also discussed.
A 5-year, 1-minute resolution observational dataset of clouds and solar radiation was produced that includes two metrics of the variability in surface solar irradiance due to cloud type and fractional sky cover. Multiple regression models were trained to fit observations of surface solar irradiance variability from those two cloud property predictors. We found that ensemble tree-based methods, Random Forest and Gradient Boosting Machine, have the least overfitting issues and showed the best performance with an R2 of 0.42. While the observational data trained in this study was only from one site, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in Oklahoma, initial comparisons of the seasonality of the statistics suggest that these results are relatively weather regime independent; the generality of such a finding across sites will be tested in future work. The observational data and developed machine learning model are being used to create a numerical weather prediction model parameterization to enable day-ahead solar variability prediction in a computationally efficient way. This is a first step towards creating a new paradigm of predicting day-ahead variability with the potential to provide a new tool to improve grid operation, planning, and resilience.
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The formation mechanism of the jet-aligned CO clouds found by NANTEN CO observations is studied by magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations taking into account the cooling of the interstellar medium. Motivated by the association of the CO clouds with the enhancement of H I gas density, we carried out MHD simulations of the propagation of a supersonic jet injected into the dense H I gas. We found that the H I gas compressed by the bow shock ahead of the jet is cooled down by growth of the cooling instability triggered by the density enhancement. As a result, a cold dense sheath is formed around the interface between the jet and the H I gas. The radial speed of the cold, dense gas in the sheath is a few km s{sup –1} almost independent of the jet speed. Molecular clouds can be formed in this region. Since the dense sheath wrapping the jet reflects waves generated in the cocoon, the jet is strongly perturbed by the vortices of the warm gas in the cocoon, which breaks up the jet and forms a secondary shock in the H I-cavity drilled by the jet. The particle acceleration at the shock can be the origin of radio and X-ray filaments observed near the eastern edge of the W50 nebula surrounding the galactic jet source SS433.
We present an analysis of the H I and CO gas in conjunction with the Planck/IRAS submillimeter/far-infrared dust properties toward the most outstanding high latitude clouds MBM 53, 54, 55 and HLCG 92 – 35 at b = –30° to – 45°. The CO emission, dust opacity at 353 GHz (τ{sub 353}), and dust temperature (T {sub d}) show generally good spatial correspondence. On the other hand, the correspondence between the H I emission and the dust properties is less clear than in CO. The integrated H I intensity W{sub H} {sub I} and τ{sub 353} show a large scatter with a correlation coefficient of ∼0.6 for a T {sub d} range from 16 K to 22 K. We find, however, that W{sub H} {sub I} and τ{sub 353} show better correlation for smaller ranges of T {sub d} every 0.5 K, generally with a correlation coefficient of 0.7-0.9. We set up a hypothesis that the H I gas associated with the highest T {sub d} ≥ 21.5 K is optically thin, whereas the H I emission is generally optically thick for T {sub d} lower than 21.5 K. We have determined a relationship for the optically thin H I gas between atomic hydrogen column density and τ{sub 353}, N{sub H} {sub I} (cm{sup −2})=(1.5×10{sup 26})⋅τ{sub 353}, under the assumption that the dust properties are uniform and we have applied this to estimate N{sub H} {sub I} from τ{sub 353} for the whole cloud. N{sub H} {sub I} was then used to solve for T {sub s} and τ{sub H} {sub I} over the region. The result shows that the H I is dominated by optically thick gas having a low spin temperature of 20-40 K and a density of 40-160 cm{sup –3}. The H I envelope has a total mass of ∼1.2 × 10{sup 4} M {sub ☉}, an order of magnitude larger than that of the CO clouds. The H I envelope properties derived by this method do not rule out a mixture of H I and H{sub 2} in the dark gas, but we present indirect evidence that most of the gas mass is in the atomic state.
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cloud-fs (Cloud File System Utilities) is a generalized file-system handler that will dynamically determine if files are local or on the cloud (currently AWS) and perform basic file-system operations.
cloud-fs (Cloud File System Utilities) is a generalized file-system handler that will dynamically determine if files are local or on the cloud (currently AWS) and perform basic file-system operations.
We report an all-in-one platform – ScanDrop – for the rapid and specific capture, detection, and identification of bacteria in drinking water. The ScanDrop platform integrates droplet microfluidics, a portable imaging system, and cloud-based control software and data storage. The cloud-based control software and data storage enables robotic image acquisition, remote image processing, and rapid data sharing. These features form a “cloud” network for water quality monitoring. We have demonstrated the capability of ScanDrop to perform water quality monitoring via the detection of an indicator coliform bacterium, Escherichia coli, in drinking water contaminated with feces. Magnetic beads conjugated with antibodies to E. coli antigen were used to selectively capture and isolate specific bacteria from water samples. The bead-captured bacteria were co-encapsulated in pico-liter droplets with fluorescently-labeled anti-E. coli antibodies, and imaged with an automated custom designed fluorescence microscope. The entire water quality diagnostic process required 8 hours from sample collection to online-accessible results compared with 2–4 days for other currently available standard detection methods.
Methods of convective/stratiform precipitation classification and surface rain rate estimation based on the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program cloud radar measurements were developed and evaluated. Simultaneous and collocated observations of the Ka-band ARM zenith radar (KAZR), two scanning precipitation radars (NCAR S-PolKa and Texas A&M University SMART-R), and surface precipitation during the DYNAMO/AMIE field campaign were used. The motivation of this study is to apply the unique long-term ARM cloud radar observations without accompanying precipitation radars to the study of cloud lifecycle and precipitation features under different weather and climate regimes.
The molecular cloud associated with the S235 H II region has been studied by means of molecular lines and near-infrared observations. The cloud consists of two components, one of which partly surrounds the S235 H II region. The other component contains a dense, hot region of active star formation, marked by self-reversed CO profiles, compact H II regions, masers, and infrared sources. From the molecular line data, the size and mass of the two components are estimated to be 6-8 pc and 3000-4000 solar masses. More detailed studies near the region of active star formation yield estimates of density (approximately 200,000-500,000/cu cm) and the abundances of H2CO, HCO(+), HCN, and (C-13)O. Analysis of the energetics suggests that the cloud is heated by the exciting star of S235 and by the exciting stars of the compact H II regions. Assuming that the gas is heated by collisions with warm dust grains, the far-infrared luminosity has been predicted. The observations of far-infrared emission are in reasonable agreement with predictions.
The S88 molecular cloud has been observed in several molecular lines and at infrared wavelengths from 1 to 100 microns. The CO emission has a single, sharp peak which is near the H-alpha emission region S88 B and centered on a compact H II region observed in the radio continuum. The infrared observations indicate that the principal luminosity source is located near the radio continuum peak and is hidden behind substantial extinction, presumably from the molecular cloud. The molecular cloud has a size of about 6.5 pc and a mass of about 5,000 solar masses at an assumed distance of 2 kpc. Regions of very high density (more than 10,000/cu cm) do not seem to be present. Analysis of the energetics leads to a predicted dust cooling rate in good agreement with the infrared observations, which indicate L = 180,000 solar luminosities. A more detailed examination of the energetics indicates that densities may be insufficient for collisions of molecules with warm dust grains to heat the gas to the observed kinetic temperature.
The molecular clouds of S37, which coincides with a region of visual obscuration, is observed at several molecular transition frequencies and at IR wavelengths in the 2-125 micron range. It is found that the temperature and the column density peak near the reflection nebulae vdB 118 and 119, with line splitting and possible self-absorption being observed near the latter. Although many 2-micron sources are observed in the direction of the cloud, no bright, 10-micron sources are seen, and far-IR emission is found over an extensive region in the cloud. An energetics analysis leads to the prediction of a dust cooling rate consistent with the far-IR observations, which indicate not less than 15,000-35,000 solar luminosities, and more detailed energetics examinations show that the conditions necessary for collision heating of the gas by warm dust exist.
Pioneer Venus Orbiter images obtained in 1982 indicate a marked solar-locked dependence of cloud level circulation in both averaged cloud motions and cloud layer UV reflectivity. An apparent relationship is noted between horizontal divergence and UV reflectivity: the highest reflectivities are associated with regions of convergence at high latitudes, while lower values are associated with equatorial latitude regions where the motions are divergent. In solar-locked coordinates, the rms deviation of normalized UV brightness is higher at 45-deg latitudes than in equatorial regions.
The chemical evolution of oxygen and sulfur species in shocked dense clouds is studied. Reaction rate constants for several important neutral reactions are examined, and revised values are suggested. The one-fluid magnetohydrodynamic shock structure and postshock chemical evolution are calculated for shocks of velocity v(s) = 10 km/s through clouds of initial number density n(0) = 100,000/cu cm and of molecule/atom ratios H2/H = 10, 1000, and 100,000 with most sulfur contained initially in molecules SO2 and SO. Abundances of SO2, SO, CS, and OCS remain near their preshock values, except in clouds containing substantial amounts of atomic hydrogen, where significant destruction of sulfur-oxygen species occurs. Abundances of shock-enhanced molecules HS and H2O are sensitive to the molecule/atom ratio. Nonthermal oxygen-hydrogen chemistry has a minor effect on oxygen-sulfur molecules in the case H2/H = 10.