The 1997 Pan American Climate Studies Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study. Part II: Stratocumulus Region

Sandra E. Yuter Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Search for other papers by Sandra E. Yuter in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
,
Yolande L. Serra Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Search for other papers by Yolande L. Serra in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
, and
Robert A. Houze Jr. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Search for other papers by Robert A. Houze Jr. in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Full access

An ad hoc experiment in the marine stratocumulus region to the west of Mexico was conducted from 29 August to 6 September 1997 as part of the Pan American Climate Studies Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study cruise on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Ronald H. Brown after a medical emergency cut short the planned time in the eastern Pacific ITCZ. The joint variation of cloud structure, drizzle, and tropospheric stratification was documented by a combination of three hourly upper air soundings, scanning C-band radar, hourly cloud photography, and visual observation. The sensitive C-band Doppler radar mounted on the ship was able to obtain observations of drizzle cells with regions of greater than 10 dBZ of 2–3-km scale in the horizontal and peak reflectivities of greater than 25 dBZ.

*JISAO Contribution Number 639.

Corresponding author address: Professor Sandra Yuter, Atmospheric Sciences, Box 351640, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1640. E-mail: yuter@atmos.washington.edu

An ad hoc experiment in the marine stratocumulus region to the west of Mexico was conducted from 29 August to 6 September 1997 as part of the Pan American Climate Studies Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study cruise on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Ronald H. Brown after a medical emergency cut short the planned time in the eastern Pacific ITCZ. The joint variation of cloud structure, drizzle, and tropospheric stratification was documented by a combination of three hourly upper air soundings, scanning C-band radar, hourly cloud photography, and visual observation. The sensitive C-band Doppler radar mounted on the ship was able to obtain observations of drizzle cells with regions of greater than 10 dBZ of 2–3-km scale in the horizontal and peak reflectivities of greater than 25 dBZ.

*JISAO Contribution Number 639.

Corresponding author address: Professor Sandra Yuter, Atmospheric Sciences, Box 351640, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1640. E-mail: yuter@atmos.washington.edu
Save