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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-10947-DND

There are large uncertainties in quantifying dust effects on the climate because of the limitations on the measurements and observations of dust-cloud-precipitation-dynamics interactions. As a major terrestrial source of atmospheric aerosols, dusts may serve as a significant climate forcing for the changing climate due to its effect on solar and thermal radiation as well as on clouds and precipitation processes. Latest satellites measurements enable us to determine dust loadings and cloud distributions and can potentially be used to reduce the uncertainties in the estimations of aerosol effects on climate. This study uses sensors on various satellites to investigate the impact of mineral dust on cloud microphysical and precipitation processes in convective systems. A trans-Atlantic dust outbreak of Saharan origin occurring in early March 2004 is considered. For the observed convective systems under a given convective strength, small hydrometeors were found more prevalent in the dusty stratiform regions than in those regions that were dust free. Evidence of abundant cloud ice particles in the dust regions, particularly at altitudes where heterogeneous nucleation of mineral dust prevails, further supports the observed changes of clouds and precipitation. These microphysical effects of the dusts on clouds are to shift the size spectrum of precipitation-sized hydrometeors from heavy precipitation to light precipitation and ultimately to suppress precipitation and increase the lifecycle of cloud systems, especially for stratiform clouds.

B Lin↗
NASA NTRS2020

High Ice Water Content Associated with a Darwin, Austrailia, Mesoscale Convective System

A mesoscale convective complex that occurred during the 2014 Darwin, Australia, flight campaign is examined via a three-dimensional, numerical simulation. The focus of the study is to better understand the presence and development of High Ice Water Content (HIWC) that was observed in the actual storm. Although peak values of ice water content may occur early in the storm lifetime, large areas of high concentrations expand with time and persist even when the storm tops begin to warm. The storm canopy which contains HIWC, has low radar reflectivity factor and is fed by an ensemble of regenerating thermal plumes. Detection via weather radar of the aviation hazard associated HIWC is challenging due the low values of radar reflectivity factor.

Aviation hazards↗
NASA NTRS2020

High Ice Water Content in Tropical Cyclones during NASA/FAA Radar Flight Campaigns with Comparison to Numerical Simulations

Results from two recent flight campaigns into High Ice Water Content (HIWC) are summarized. HIWC was detected with airborne radar and measured via microphysical probes mounted on NASA’s DC-8. Results from the campaign demonstrate detectability of HIWC using airborne radar. In the cases examined, tropical storms are more proficient at producing large areas of HIWC than hurricanes. Three-dimensional, numerical simulations of tropical cyclones encountered during the campaign are also presented and are compared to measurements in order to understand conditions associated with HIWC. Within Hurricane Lane (2018), the highest ice water contents were found in regenerating thermal plumes located in the eye wall and in feeder bands. Within Tropical Storm Danny (2015), large areas of ice water content greater than 1 g m-3 were fed by broad-areas of convection occurring downwind from the center of circulation.

Aviation hazards↗
NASA NTRS2003

Archetypal TRMM Radar Profiles Identified Through Cluster Analysis

It is widely held that identifiable 'convective regimes' exist in nature, although precise definitions of these are elusive. Examples include land / Ocean distinctions, break / monsoon beahvior, seasonal differences in the Amazon (SON vs DJF), etc. These regimes are often described by differences in the realized local convective spectra, and measured by various metrics of convective intensity, depth, areal coverage and rainfall amount. Objective regime identification may be valuable in several ways: regimes may serve as natural 'branch points' in satellite retrieval algorithms or data assimilation efforts; one example might be objective identification of regions that 'should' share a similar 2-R relationship. Similarly, objectively defined regimes may provide guidance on optimal siting of ground validation efforts. Objectively defined regimes could also serve as natural (rather than arbitrary geographic) domain 'controls' in studies of convective response to environmental forcing. Quantification of convective vertical structure has traditionally involved parametric study of prescribed quantities thought to be important to convective dynamics: maximum radar reflectivity, cloud top height, 30-35 dBZ echo top height, rain rate, etc. Individually, these parameters are somewhat deficient as their interpretation is often nonunique (the same metric value may signify different physics in different storm realizations). Individual metrics also fail to capture the coherence and interrelationships between vertical levels available in full 3-D radar datasets. An alternative approach is discovery of natural partitions of vertical structure in a globally representative dataset, or 'archetypal' reflectivity profiles. In this study, this is accomplished through cluster analysis of a very large sample (0[107) of TRMM-PR reflectivity columns. Once achieved, the rainconditional and unconditional 'mix' of archetypal profile types in a given location and/or season provides a description of the local convective spectrum which retains vertical structure information. A further cluster analysis of these 'mixes' can identify recurrent convective spectra. These are a first step towards objective identification of convective regimes, and towards answering the question: 'What are the most convectively similar locations in the world?'

Boccippio, Dennis J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Shallow and Deep Latent Heating Modes Over Tropical Oceans Observed with TRMM PR Spectral Latent Heating Data

The global hydrological cycle is central to the Earth's climate system, with rainfall and the physics of its formation acting as the key links in the cycle. Two-thirds of global rainfall occurs in the Tropics. Associated with this rainfall is a vast amount of heat, which is known as latent heat. It arises mainly due to the phase change of water vapor condensing into liquid droplets; three-fourths of the total heat energy available to the Earth's atmosphere comes from tropical rainfall. In addition, fresh water provided by tropical rainfall and its variability exerts a large impact upon the structure and motions of the upper ocean layer. Three-dimensional distributions of latent heating estimated from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM PR)utilizing the Spectral Latent Heating (SLH) algorithm are analyzed. Mass-weighted and vertically integrated latent heating averaged over the tropical oceans is estimated as approx.72.6 J/s (approx.2.51 mm/day), and that over tropical land is approx.73.7 J/s (approx.2.55 mm/day), for 30degN-30degS. It is shown that non-drizzle precipitation over tropical and subtropical oceans consists of two dominant modes of rainfall systems, deep systems and congestus. A rough estimate of shallow mode contribution against the total heating is about 46.7 % for the average tropical oceans, which is substantially larger than 23.7 % over tropical land. While cumulus congestus heating linearly correlates with the SST, deep mode is dynamically bounded by large-scale subsidence. It is notable that substantial amount of rain, as large as 2.38 mm day-1 in average, is brought from congestus clouds under the large-scale subsiding circulation. It is also notable that even in the region with SST warmer than 28 oC, large-scale subsidence effectively suppresses the deep convection, remaining the heating by congestus clouds. Our results support that the entrainment of mid-to-lower-tropospheric dry air, which accompanies the large-scale subsidence is the major factor suppressing the deep convection. Therefore, representation of the realistic entrainment is very important for proper reproduction of precipitation distribution and resultant large-scale circulation.

Takayabu, Yukari N.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Diagnosing Warm Frontal Cloud Formation in a GCM: A Novel Approach Using Conditional Subsetting

This study analyzes characteristics of clouds and vertical motion across extratropical cyclone warm fronts in the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model. The validity of the modeled clouds is assessed using a combination of satellite observations from CloudSat, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), and the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis. The analysis focuses on developing cyclones, to test the model's ability to generate their initial structure. To begin, the extratropical cyclones and their warm fronts are objectively identified and cyclone-local fields are mapped into a vertical transect centered on the surface warm front. To further isolate specific physics, the cyclones are separated using conditional subsetting based on additional cyclone-local variables, and the differences between the subset means are analyzed. Conditional subsets are created based on 1) the transect clouds and 2) vertical motion; 3) the strength of the temperature gradient along the warm front, as well as the storm-local 4) wind speed and 5) precipitable water (PW). The analysis shows that the model does not generate enough frontal cloud, especially at low altitude. The subsetting results reveal that, compared to the observations, the model exhibits a decoupling between cloud formation at high and low altitudes across warm fronts and a weak sensitivity to moisture. These issues are caused in part by the parameterized convection and assumptions in the stratiform cloud scheme that are valid in the subtropics. On the other hand, the model generates proper covariability of low-altitude vertical motion and cloud at the warm front and a joint dependence of cloudiness on wind and PW.

cyclones↗
NASA NTRS2009

Studying Precipitation Processes in WRF with Goddard Bulk Microphysics in Comparison with Other Microphysical Schemes

A Goddard bulk microphysical parameterization is implemented into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This bulk microphysical scheme has three different options, 2ICE (cloud ice & snow), 3ICE-graupel (cloud ice, snow & graupel) and 3ICE-hail (cloud ice, snow & hail). High-resolution model simulations are conducted to examine the impact of microphysical schemes on different weather events: a midlatitude linear convective system and an Atlantic hurricane. The results suggest that microphysics has a major impact on the organization and precipitation processes associated with a summer midlatitude convective line system. The Goddard 3ICE scheme with the cloud ice-snow-hail configuration agreed better with observations ill of rainfall intensity and having a narrow convective line than did simulations with the cloud ice-snow-graupel and cloud ice-snow (i.e., 2ICE) configurations. This is because the Goddard 3ICE-hail configuration has denser precipitating ice particles (hail) with very fast fall speeds (over 10 m/s) For an Atlantic hurricane case, the Goddard microphysical scheme (with 3ICE-hail, 3ICE-graupel and 2ICE configurations) had no significant impact on the track forecast but did affect the intensity slightly. The Goddard scheme is also compared with WRF's three other 3ICE bulk microphysical schemes: WSM6, Purdue-Lin and Thompson. For the summer midlatitude convective line system, all of the schemes resulted in simulated precipitation events that were elongated in southwest-northeast direction in qualitative agreement with the observed feature. However, the Goddard 3ICE-hail and Thompson schemes were closest to the observed rainfall intensities although the Goddard scheme simulated more heavy rainfall (over 48 mm/h). For the Atlantic hurricane case, none of the schemes had a significant impact on the track forecast; however, the simulated intensity using the Purdue-Lin scheme was much stronger than the other schemes. The vertical distributions of model-simulated cloud species (e.g., snow) are quite sensitive to the microphysical schemes, which is an issue for future verification against satellite retrievals. Both the Purdue-Lin and WSM6 schemes simulated very little snow compared to the other schemes for both the midlatitude convective line and hurricane case. Sensitivity tests with these two schemes showed that increasing the snow intercept, turning off the auto-conversion from snow to graupel, eliminating dry growth, and reducing the transfer processes from cloud-sized particles to precipitation-sized ice collectively resulted in a net increase in those schemes' snow amounts.

Tao, W.K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Optical characteristics of lightning

A study of the optical characteristics of cloud-to-ground dischargers and how they compare with intracloud flashes was completed. Time resolved optical (7774A) and electric field-change waveforms were measured above clouds from a U2 airplane coincident with ground-based measurements of lightning. The optical pulse trains are studied for within and between flash variability. Specifically, for each flash researchers examine the 10, 50 (full width half maximum), and 90 percent pulse widths; the 10-10, 10-50, 10-90, and 10-peak percent amplitude rise times; the radiances (optical power densities); radiant energy densities; and pulse intervals. The optical pulse characteristics of first strokes, subsequent strokes, the intracloud components of cloud-to-ground flashes and intracloud flashes as viewed from above cloud are shown to exhibit very similar waveshapes, radiances and radiant energy densities. Descriptive statistics on these pulse categories were tabulated for 25 visually confirmed cloud-to-ground flashes (229 optical pulses) and 232 intracloud flashes (3126 optical pulses). A companion study of lightning observations above and below cloud in storms, storm complexes, and mesoscale convective systems has also been completed. Researchers compared the mapping of total lightning activity from above clouds with ground-based measurements and storm evolution. Although the total (IC + CG) lightning activity is the more representative indication of thunderstorm growth and decay, the ground strike data can be used to locate, diagnose, and track storm evolution in a number of instances.

Goodman, S. J.↗
NASA NTRS2007

New, Improved Goddard Bulk-Microphysical Schemes for Studying Precipitation Processes in WRF

An improved bulk microphysical parameterization is implemented into the Weather Research and Forecasting ()VRF) model. This bulk microphysical scheme has three different options, 2ICE (cloud ice & snow), 3ICE-graupel (cloud ice, snow & graupel) and 3ICE-hail (cloud ice, snow & hail). High-resolution model simulations are conducted to examine the impact of microphysical schemes on two different weather events (a midlatitude linear convective system and an Atlantic hurricane). The results suggest that microphysics has a major impact on the organization and precipitation processes associated with a summer midlatitude convective line system. The Goddard 3ICE scheme with a cloud ice-snow-hail configuration agreed better with observations in terms of rainfall intensity and a narrow convective line than did simulations with a cloud ice-snow-graupel or cloud ice-snow (i.e., 2ICE) configuration. This is because the 3ICE-hail scheme includes dense ice precipitating (hail) particle with very fast fall speed (over 10 in For an Atlantic hurricane case, the Goddard microphysical schemes had no significant impact on the track forecast but did affect the intensity slightly. The improved Goddard schemes are also compared with WRF's three other 3ICE bulk microphysical schemes: WSM6, Purdue-Lin and Thompson. For the summer midlatitude convective line system, all of the schemes resulted in simulated precipitation events that were elongated in the southwest-northeast direction in qualitative agreement with the observed feature. However, the Goddard 3ICE scheme with the hail option and the Thompson scheme agree better with observations in terms of rainfall intensity, expect that the Goddard scheme simulated more heavy rainfall (over 48 mm/h). For the Atlantic hurricane case, none of the schemes had a significant impact on the track forecast; however, the simulated intensity using the Purdue-Lin scheme was much stronger than the other schemes. The vertical distributions of model simulated cloud species (i.e., snow) are quite sensitive to microphysical schemes, which is an important issue for future verification against satellite retrievals. Both the Purdue-Lin and WSM6 schemes simulated very little snow compared to the other schemes for both the midlatitude convective line and hurricane cases. Sensitivity tests are performed for these two WRF schemes to identify that snow productions could be increased by increasing the snow intercept, turning off the auto-conversion from snow to graupel and reducing the transfer processes from cloud-sized particles to precipitation-sized ice.

Tao, Wei-Kuo↗
NASA NTRS1988

Dynamics of convective scale interaction

Several of the mesoscale dynamic and thermodynamic aspects of convective scale interaction are examined. An explanation of how sounding data can be coupled with satellite observed cumulus development in the warm sector and the arc cloud line's time evolution to develop a short range forecast of expected convective intensity along an arc cloud line. The formative, mature and dissipating stages of the arc cloud line life cycle are discussed. Specific properties of convective scale interaction are presented and the relationship between arc cloud lines and tornado producing thunderstorms is considered.

Purdom, James F. W.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Use of satellite data in a diagnostic parameterization of convective heating

Heating estimates derived from a diagnostic technique using observed rainfall and GOES IR digital imagery were completed and evaluated for accuracy. A sensitivity analysis was done to examine assumptions regarding shape of the normalized mass flux profile, cloud precipitation efficiency, and existence of convective scale downdrafts. The results, which were derived using what are felt to be bounding limits of the assumptions, indicate that the heating estimates are reliable for use in diagnostic available potential energy (APE) budgets. Comparison to heating estimates derived as residuals in the thermodynamic equation show the level of maximum heating (near 300 mb) to be the same on a time averaged basis. Heating estimates were used to study the response of the large scale environment to the cumulus scale thermodynamic forcing. An analysis of the thermally forced component of vertical motion through the omega equation showed that a significant fraction of the total grid scale upward motion results from the heating provided by the condensation and vertical eddy heat transport in the convective cells.

Robertson, F. R.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Observational Evidence of Aerosol Enhancement of Lightning Activity and Convective Invigoration

Lightning activity over the West Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines is usually much less frequent than over the nearby maritime continents. However, in 2005 the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) aboard the TRMM satellite observed anomalously high lightning activity in that area. In the same year the Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measured anomalously high aerosol loading. The high aerosol loading was traced to volcanic activity, and not to any factor linked to meteorology, disentangling the usual convolution between aerosols and meteorology. We show that in general lightning activity is tightly correlated with aerosol loadings at both inter-annual and biweekly time scales. We estimate that a approximately 60% increase in aerosol loading leads to more than 150% increase in lightning flashes. Aerosols increase lightning activity through modification of cloud microphysics. Cloud ice particle sizes are reduced and cloud glaciation is delayed to colder temperature when aerosol loading is increased. TRMM precipitation radar measurements indicate that anomalously high aerosol loading is associated with enhanced cloud mixed phase activity and invigorated convection over the maritime ocean. These observed associations between aerosols, cloud microphysics, morphology and lightning activity are not related to meteorological variables or ENSO events. The results have important implications for understanding the variability of lightning and resulting aerosol-chemistry interactions.

Yuan, Tianle↗
NASA NTRS2006

Enhanced Positive Water Vapor Feedback Associated with Tropical Deep Convection: New Evidence from Aura MLS

Recent simultaneous observations of upper tropospheric (UT) water vapor and cloud ice from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite provide new evidence for tropical convective influence on UT water vapor and its associated greenhouse effect. The observations show that UT water vapor increases as cloud ice water content increases. They also show that, when sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds approx.300 K, UT cloud ice associated with tropical deep convection increases sharply with increasing SST. The moistening of the upper troposphere by deep convection leads to an enhanced positive water vapor feedback, about 3 times that implied solely by thermodynamics. Over tropical oceans when SST greater than approx.300 K, the 'convective UT water vapor feedback' inferred from the MLS observations contributes approximately 65% of the sensitivity of the clear-sky greenhouse parameter to SST.

upper tropospheric (UT)↗
NASA NTRS2008

Role of Gravity Waves in Determining Cirrus Cloud Properties

Cirrus clouds are important in the Earth's radiation budget. They typically exhibit variable physical properties within a given cloud system and from system to system. Ambient vertical motion is a key factor in determining the cloud properties in most cases. The obvious exception is convectively generated cirrus (anvils), but even in this case, the subsequent cloud evolution is strongly influenced by the ambient vertical motion field. It is well know that gravity waves are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and occur over a wide range of scales and amplitudes. Moreover, researchers have found that inclusion of statistical account of gravity wave effects can markedly improve the realism of simulations of persisting large-scale cirrus cloud features. Here, we use a 1 -dimensional (z) cirrus cloud model, to systematically examine the effects of gravity waves on cirrus cloud properties. The model includes a detailed representation of cloud microphysical processes (bin microphysics and aerosols) and is run at relatively fine vertical resolution so as to adequately resolve nucleation events, and over an extended time span so as to incorporate the passage of multiple gravity waves. The prescribed gravity waves "propagate" at 15 m s (sup -1), with wavelengths from 5 to 100 km, amplitudes range up to 1 m s (sup -1)'. Despite the fact that the net gravity wave vertical motion forcing is zero, it will be shown that the bulk cloud properties, e.g., vertically-integrated ice water path, can differ quite significantly from simulations without gravity waves and that the effects do depend on the wave characteristics. We conclude that account of gravity wave effects is important if large-scale models are to generate realistic cirrus cloud property climatology (statistics).

OCStarr, David↗
NASA NTRS2002

Cloud Thickness from Offbeam Returns (THOR) Validation Campaign on NASA's P3B Over the ARM/SGP

Physical thickness of a cloud layer, sometimes multiple cloud layers, is a crucial controller of solar heating of the Earth- atmosphere system, which drives the convective processes that produce storm systems. Yet clouds of average optical thickness are opaque to conventional lidar, so their thickness is well estimated only by combining a lidar above and another below cloud, or a radar and lidar on the same side, dual facilities not widely available. Here we report initial observations of a new airborne multiple field of view lidar, capable of determining physical thickness of cloud layers from time signatures of off-beam returns from a I kHz micropulse lidar at 540 rim. For a single layer, the time delay of light returning from the outer diffuse halo of light surrounding the beam entry point, relative to the time delay at beam center, determines the cloud physical thickness. The delay combined with the pulse stretch gives the optical thickness. This halo method requires cloud optical thickness exceeding 2, and improves with cloud thickness, thus complimenting conventional lidar, which cannot penetrate thick clouds. Results are presented from March 25, 2002, when THOR flew a butterfly pattern over the ARM site at 8.3 km, above a thin ice cloud at 5 km, and a thick boundary-layer stratus deck with top at 1.3 km, as shown by THOR channel 1, and a base at about 0.3 km as shown by the ground-based MPL. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

Cahalan, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Vector representation of trade cumulus thermodynamic fluxes

A tephigram of BOMEX averaged thermodynamic flux vectors, developed from two tradewind budgets, is presented. The parametric model, which is utilized to represent the fluxes in the tradewind layer of the product as a mass flux and a cloud-environment difference, is examined. A table of mean structure and fluxes of a dataset for the BOMEX ship array, and the Bowen ratio and convective mass flux for a nonmixing and a cloud-top mixing model is provided. The fluxes which are displayed in a simple vector format, using the saturation point notation of Betts (1982) reveal a coupling of fluxes and the relationship between Bowen ratio and height. It is concluded that with good tradewind budget data about the statistics of cloud mixing and radiative-convective coupling can be expressed.

Betts, A. K.↗