Abstract

Data obtained from the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, during the Atlantic Stratocumulus Transition Experiment (ASTEX) are used to describe cloud and boundary-layer structure for a 24-h period on 15 June 1992 over the east-central Atlantic (37°N, 25°10′W). The evolution of the mesoscale cloud structure during a 24-h period in the vertical column above the surface site was characterized using a 94-GHz radar, a laser ceilometer, 3-h radiosonde ascents, and surface micrometeorological instrumentation. Mesoscale circulations and drizzle were found to be key elements of the boundary-layer clouds observed in this region.

During the late-night and predawn hours of the study period, a single layer of stratocumulus that averaged ∼200 m in thickness topped a well-mixed marine boundary layer. Mesoscale cellular convection (MCC), which had ascending regions with horizontal dimensions of ∼7 km, was observed during this period. At sunrise, decoupling was imposed on this MCC, and extreme mesoscale variations in the cloud thickness and surface precipitation rate were observed. These variations included mesoscale patches of cumulus that rose from the surface-lifting condensation level into the overlying stratocumulus (cumulus–stratocumulus interaction), co-existing with patches of decoupled stratocumulus that occasionally had small, shallow cumulus beneath. The average horizontal scale of cumulus–stratocumulus interaction regions was found to be on the order of ∼12 km, and mesoscale variations in the cloud thickness of as much as 400 m were indicated in the remote sensor data during the daytime.

Major drizzle events observed at the surface were shown to correspond with the deepening of the cumulus layer. Evidence was presented that mesoscale cumulus-stratocumulus interaction regions were affecting the surrounding decoupled regions through (i) the vertical transport of properties of the surface moist layer to decoupled stratocumulus by nearby cumulus and (ii) the extended influence of subcloud-layer wakes induced by major precipitation events to nearby decoupled regions. It was suggested that the enhanced precipitation due to cumulus convection may be an important feedback mechanism between the cloud and subcloud layers in the transition region.

Abstract

Summertime remote sensor and in situ data from 2016 to 2019 collected at the ARM Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) Observatory are combined with aircraft measurements from the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign to quantify marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud, thermodynamic, and drizzle morphology in the region. A radar reflectivity–rainfall rate relationship (Z–R) is developed from aircraft data and 6-h cloud morphological regimes are identified from ENA data using a k-means algorithm driven by three independent inputs quantifying cloud thickness, drizzle intensity, and cloud field geometric complexity. Four separate MBL structural regimes representing non- or weakly drizzling single-layer stratocumulus, drizzling stratocumulus and cumulus-coupled stratocumulus, deep convection, and broken clouds embedded in northerly flow are identified. Single-layer stratocumulus is indicated when weak subtropical anticyclones are significantly west of the ENA site, and the MBL is cooler and drier than when drizzling and cumulus-coupled stratocumulus and broken clouds are observed. Drizzling and cumulus-coupled stratocumulus clouds are observed on the eastern flank of strong subtropical anticyclones in deep warm moist air masses with wind speeds exceeding 7 m s⁻¹ and strong near-surface wind shear. Broken clouds exhibit strong wind shear near the inversion, while single-layer stratocumulus clouds have lower wind speeds and minimal shear. Net latent heat fluxes in the subcloud layer resulting from a combination of the ocean surface heat flux and evaporating drizzle average near zero over long periods in drizzling and cumulus-coupled stratocumulus. The ECMWF reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) is found to accurately represent single-layer stratocumulus properties, while producing significant discrepancies when drizzling stratocumulus and cumulus-coupled stratocumulus are observed.

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) was recently developed to enable collection of detailed climate data in locations not currently sampled by ARM's five fixed sites. The AMF includes a comprehensive suite of active and passive remote sensors, including cloud radar, that sample the atmosphere in a narrow column above its location. Surface radiation, aerosols, and fluxes are also measured and there is an ancillary measurement facility to help quantify local gradients. The AMF is deployed at no cost to the principal investigator or institution for periods from six months to one year on the basis of an international proposal competition judged by a nonpartisan board. The proposal to ARM that led to the initial international deployment of the AMF in Niamey, Niger, was titled “Radiative Atmospheric Divergence Using the AMF, GERB Data, and AMMA Stations (RADAGAST).” This paper provides a description of the instruments that compose the AMF, its charter, a description of its deployment in support of RADAGAST, and examples of data that have been collected in Africa.

Abstract

Marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud morphology associated with two summertime cold fronts over the eastern North Atlantic (ENA) is investigated using high-resolution simulations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) ENA Climate Research Facility. Lagrangian trajectories are used to study the evolution of post-cold-frontal MBL clouds from solid stratocumulus to broken cumulus. Clouds within specified domains in the vicinity of transitions are classified according to their degree of decoupling, and cloud-base and cloud-top breakup processes are evaluated. The Lagrangian derivative of the surface latent heat flux is found to be strongly correlated with that of the cloud fraction at cloud base in the simulations. Cloud-top entrainment instability (CTEI) is shown to operate only in the decoupled MBL. A new indicator of inversion strength at cloud top that employs the vertical gradients of equivalent potential temperature and saturation equivalent potential temperature, which can be computed directly from soundings, is proposed as an alternative to CTEI. Overall, results suggest that the deepening–warming hypothesis suggested by Bretherton and Wyant explains many of the characteristics of the summertime postfrontal MBL evolution of cloud structure over the ENA, thereby widening the phase space over which the hypothesis may be applied. A subset of the deepening–warming hypothesis involving warming initially dominating over moistening is proposed. It is postulated that changes in climate change–induced modifications in cold-frontal structure over the ENA may be accompanied by coincident changes in the location and timing of MBL cloud transitions in the post-cold-frontal environment.

Abstract

The Kalman filter is implemented and tested for a simple model of sea level anomalies in the tropical Pacific, using tide gauge data from six selected island stations to update the model. The Kalman filter requires detailed statistical assumptions about the errors in the model and the data. In this study, it is assumed that the model errors are dominated by the errors in the wind stress analysis. The error model is a simple covariance function with parameters fit from the observed differences between the tide gauge data and the model output. The fitted parameters are consistent with independent estimates of the errors in the wind stress analysis. The calibrated error model is used in a Kalman filtering scheme to generate monthly sea level height anomaly maps for the tropical Pacific. The filtered maps, i.e., those which result from data assimilation, exhibit fine structure that is absent from the unfiltered model output, even in regions removed from the data insertion points. Error estimates, an important byproduct of the scheme, suggest that the filter reduces the error in the equatorial wave guide by about 1 cm. The few independent verification points available are consistent with this estimate. Given that only six data points participate in the data assimilation, the results are encouraging, but it is obvious that model errors cannot be substantially reduced without more data.

Abstract

Changes in the climate system of the Amazon rain forest of Brazil can impact factors that influence the radiation budget such as clouds, atmospheric moisture, and the surface albedo. This study examines the relationships between clouds and radiation in this region using surface observations from the first year of the deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program’s Mobile Facility 1 (AMF1) in Manacapuru, Brazil, and satellite measurements from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). The seasonal cycles of the radiation budget and cloud radiative effects (CREs) are evaluated at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), at the surface, and within the atmospheric column using these observations and are placed into a regional context using the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2). Water vapor and clouds are abundant throughout the year, even though slight decreases are observed in the dry season. The column water vapor load is large enough that the longwave radiative flux divergence is nearly constant throughout the year. Clouds produce a significant shortwave CRE at the surface and TOA, exceeding 200 W m⁻² during the wet season. Discrepancies, especially in column shortwave radiative absorption, between the observations and MERRA-2 are demonstrated that warrant additional analysis of the microphysical and macrophysical cloud properties in MERRA-2. More trustworthy fields in the MERRA-2 product suggest that the expansive nearby river system impacts the regional radiation budget and thereby renders AMF1 observations potentially biased relative to regions farther removed from rivers within the Amazon rain forest.

Abstract

Marine nonprecipitating cumulus topped boundary layers (CTBLs) observed in a tropical and in a trade wind region are contrasted based on their cloud macrophysical, dynamical, and radiative structures. Data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) observational site previously operating at Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, and data collected during the deployment of ARM Mobile Facility at the island of Graciosa, in the Azores, were used in this study. The tropical marine CTBLs were deeper, had higher surface fluxes and boundary layer radiative cooling, but lower wind speeds compared to their trade wind counterparts. The radiative velocity scale was 50%–70% of the surface convective velocity scale at both locations, highlighting the prominent role played by radiation in maintaining turbulence in marine CTBLs. Despite greater thicknesses, the chord lengths of tropical cumuli were on average lower than those of trade wind cumuli, and as a result of lower cloud cover, the hourly averaged (cloudy and clear) liquid water paths of tropical cumuli were lower than the trade wind cumuli. At both locations ~70% of the cloudy profiles were updrafts, while the average amount of updrafts near cloud base stronger than 1 m s⁻¹ was ~22% in tropical cumuli and ~12% in the trade wind cumuli. The mean in-cloud radar reflectivity within updrafts and mean updraft velocity was higher in tropical cumuli than the trade wind cumuli. Despite stronger vertical velocities and a higher number of strong updrafts, due to lower cloud fraction, the updraft mass flux was lower in the tropical cumuli compared to the trade wind cumuli. The observations suggest that the tropical and trade wind marine cumulus clouds differ significantly in their macrophysical and dynamical structures.

Abstract

Continuous measurements of the shortwave (SW), longwave (LW), and net cross-atmosphere radiation flux divergence over the West African Sahel were made during the year 2006 using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) and the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) satellite. Accompanying AMF measurements enabled calculations of the LW, SW, and net top of the atmosphere (TOA) and surface cloud radiative forcing (CRF), which quantifies the radiative effects of cloud cover on the column boundaries. Calculations of the LW, SW, and net cloud radiative effect (CRE), which is the difference between the TOA and surface radiative flux divergences in all-sky and clear-sky conditions, quantify the radiative effects on the column itself. These measurements were compared to predictions in four global climate models (GCMs) used in the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4). All four GCMs produced wet and dry seasons, but reproducing the SW column radiative flux divergence was problematic in the GCMs and SW discrepancies translated into discrepancies in the net radiative flux divergence. Computing cloud-related quantities from the measurements produced yearly averages of the SW TOA CRF, surface CRF, and CRE of ~−19, −83, and 47 W m⁻², respectively, and yearly averages of the LW TOA CRF, surface CRF, and CRE of ~39, 37, and 2 W m⁻². These quantities were analyzed in two GCMs and compensating errors in the SW and LW clear-sky, cross-atmosphere radiative flux divergence were found to conspire to produce somewhat reasonable predictions of the net clear-sky divergence. Both GCMs underestimated the surface LW and SW CRF and predicted near-zero SW CRE when the measured values were substantially larger (~70 W m⁻² maximum).

Abstract

This paper describes the design, calibration, and deployment of a fast-rotating shadowband radiometer (FRSR) that accurately decomposes downward shortwave (solar) irradiance into direct-beam and diffuse components from a moving platform, such as a ship on the ocean. The FRSR has seven channels, one broad-band silicone detector, and six 10-nm-wide channels at 415, 500, 610, 660, 860, and 940 nm. The shadowband technique produces estimates of the direct-beam normal irradiance, the diffuse irradiance (sky component), and the total irradiance. The direct-beam normal irradiances produce time series of aerosol optical thickness. A proven ability to derive meaningful at-sea estimates of aerosol optical depth from an economical, automated, and reliable instrument opens the way to a distributed network of such measurements from volunteer observing ships in all areas of the World Ocean. The processing algorithms are key to the instrument’s ability to derive direct-normal beam irradiance without gimbals and a gyro-stabilized table. At-sea Langley plots were produced during the Aerosols99 cruise of the R/V Ronald H. Brown from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cape Town, South Africa. A Langley calibration of the instrument at the Mauna Loa Observatory confirmed prior calibrations and demonstrated that the calibration was stable over the duration of the cruise. The standard deviation in all plots was of the order 2% for all channels.

Abstract

An analytical uncertainty propagation model is used in conjunction with laboratory and field data to quantify the uncertainty in measurements of the direct-normal irradiance, aerosol optical thickness, and Ångström exponent made with a ship-mounted fast-rotating shadow-band radiometer (FRSR). Total uncertainties in FRSR measurements of aerosol optical thickness are found to be 0.02–0.03 at the 95% confidence level (two standard deviations). The “lever-arm” effect, a salient characteristic of the Langely technique in which uncertainties in aerosol optical thickness measurements are reduced as the solar zenith angle increases, is essentially offset by orientation uncertainty. Lack of a lever-arm effect precludes Langley calibration of FRSRs while at sea; they must be calibrated on land. Uncertainties in FRSR measurements of the two-wavelength Ångström exponent are shown to depend strongly on the aerosol optical thickness, with the maximum uncertainty of 0.6 associated with clean, maritime air masses.