Sample records for cloud layer due
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RACORO Extended-Term Aircraft Observations of Boundary-Layer Clouds
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Vogelmann, Andrew M.; McFarquhar, Greg M.; Ogren, John A.; Turner, David D.; Comstock, Jennifer M.; Feingold, Graham; Long, Charles N.; Jonsson, Haflidi H.; Bucholtz, Anthony; Collins, Don R.;
2012-01-01
Small boundary-layer clouds are ubiquitous over many parts of the globe and strongly influence the Earths radiative energy balance. However, our understanding of these clouds is insufficient to solve pressing scientific problems. For example, cloud feedback represents the largest uncertainty amongst all climate feedbacks in general circulation models (GCM). Several issues complicate understanding boundary-layer clouds and simulating them in GCMs. The high spatial variability of boundary-layer clouds poses an enormous computational challenge, since their horizontal dimensions and internal variability occur at spatial scales much finer than the computational grids used in GCMs. Aerosol-cloud interactions further complicate boundary-layer cloud measurement and simulation. Additionally, aerosols influence processes such as precipitation and cloud lifetime. An added complication is that at small scales (order meters to 10s of meters) distinguishing cloud from aerosol is increasingly difficult, due to the effects of aerosol humidification, cloud fragments and photon scattering between clouds.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wang, H.; Kravitz, B.; Rasch, P. J.; Morrison, H.; Solomon, A.
2014-12-01
Previous process-oriented modeling studies have highlighted the dependence of effectiveness of cloud brightening by aerosols on cloud regimes in warm marine boundary layer. Cloud microphysical processes in clouds that contain ice, and hence the mechanisms that drive aerosol-cloud interactions, are more complicated than in warm clouds. Interactions between ice particles and liquid drops add additional levels of complexity to aerosol effects. A cloud-resolving model is used to study aerosol-cloud interactions in the Arctic triggered by strong aerosol emissions, through either geoengineering injection or concentrated sources such as shipping and fires. An updated cloud microphysical scheme with prognostic aerosol and cloud particle numbers is employed. Model simulations are performed in pure super-cooled liquid and mixed-phase clouds, separately, with or without an injection of aerosols into either a clean or a more polluted Arctic boundary layer. Vertical mixing and cloud scavenging of particles injected from the surface is still quite efficient in the less turbulent cold environment. Overall, the injection of aerosols into the Arctic boundary layer can delay the collapse of the boundary layer and increase low-cloud albedo. The pure liquid clouds are more susceptible to the increase in aerosol number concentration than the mixed-phase clouds. Rain production processes are more effectively suppressed by aerosol injection, whereas ice precipitation (snow) is affected less; thus the effectiveness of brightening mixed-phase clouds is lower than for liquid-only clouds. Aerosol injection into a clean boundary layer results in a greater cloud albedo increase than injection into a polluted one, consistent with current knowledge about aerosol-cloud interactions. Unlike previous studies investigating warm clouds, the impact of dynamical feedback due to precipitation changes is small. According to these results, which are dependent upon the representation of ice nucleation processes in the employed microphysical scheme, Arctic geoengineering/shipping could have substantial local radiative effects, but is unlikely to be effective as the sole means of counterbalancing warming due to climate change.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Ham, Seung-Hee; Sohn, Byung-Ju; Kato, Seiji; Satoh, Masaki
2013-01-01
The shape of the vertical profile of ice cloud layers is examined using 4 months of CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) global measurements taken on January, April, July, and October 2007. Ice clouds are selected using temperature profiles when the cloud base is located above the 253K temperature level. The obtained ice water content (IWC), effective radius, or extinction coefficient profiles are normalized by their layer mean values and are expressed in the normalized vertical coordinate, which is defined as 0 and 1 at the cloud base and top heights, respectively. Both CloudSat and CALIPSO observations show that the maximum in the IWC and extinction profiles shifts toward the cloud bottom, as the cloud depth increases. In addition, clouds with a base reaching the surface in a high-latitude region show that the maximum peak of the IWC and extinction profiles occurs near the surface, which is presumably due to snow precipitation. CloudSat measurements show that the seasonal difference in normalized cloud vertical profiles is not significant, whereas the normalized cloud vertical profile significantly varies depending on the cloud type and the presence of precipitation. It is further examined if the 7 day Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) simulation results from 25 December 2006 to 1 January 2007 generate similar cloud profile shapes. NICAM IWC profiles also show maximum peaks near the cloud bottom for thick cloud layers and maximum peaks at the cloud bottom for low-level clouds near the surface. It is inferred that oversized snow particles in the NICAM cloud scheme produce a more vertically inhomogeneous IWC profile than observations due to quick sedimentation.
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Process-model Simulations of Cloud Albedo Enhancement by Aerosols in the Arctic
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Kravitz, Benjamin S.; Wang, Hailong; Rasch, Philip J.
2014-11-17
A cloud-resolving model is used to simulate the effectiveness of Arctic marine cloud brightening via injection of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). An updated cloud microphysical scheme is employed, with prognostic CCN and cloud particle numbers in both liquid and mixed-phase marine low clouds. Injection of CCN into the marine boundary layer can delay the collapse of the boundary layer and increase low-cloud albedo. Because nearly all of the albedo effects are in the liquid phase due to the removal of ice water by snowfall when ice processes are involved, albedo increases are stronger for pure liquid clouds than mixed-phase clouds.more » Liquid precipitation can be suppressed by CCN injection, whereas ice precipitation (snow) is affected less; thus the effectiveness of brightening mixed-phase clouds is lower than for liquid-only clouds. CCN injection into a clean regime results in a greater albedo increase than injection into a polluted regime, consistent with current knowledge about aerosol-cloud interactions. Unlike previous studies investigating warm clouds, dynamical changes in circulation due to precipitation changes are small.« less
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Zheng, Xue; Klein, S. A.; Ma, H. -Y.
To assess marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud simulations in three versions of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), three sets of short-term global hindcasts are performed and compared to Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) observations on Graciosa Island in the Azores from June 2009 to December 2010. Here, the three versions consist of CAM5.3 with default schemes (CAM5.3), CAM5.3 with Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB-MG1), and CAM5.3 with CLUBB and updated microphysics scheme (CLUBB-MG2). Our results show that relative to CAM5.3 default schemes, simulations with CLUBB better represent MBL cloud base height, the height of the major cloud layer, andmore » the daily cloud cover variability. CLUBB also better simulates the relationship of cloud fraction to cloud liquid water path (LWP) most likely due to CLUBB's consistent treatment of these variables through a probability distribution function (PDF) approach. Subcloud evaporation of precipitation is substantially enhanced in simulations with CLUBB-MG2 and is more realistic based on the limited observational estimate. Despite these improvements, all model versions underestimate MBL cloud cover. CLUBB-MG2 reduces biases in in-cloud LWP (clouds are not too bright) but there are still too few of MBL clouds due to an underestimate in the frequency of overcast scenes. Thus, combining CLUBB with MG2 scheme better simulates MBL cloud processes, but because biases remain in MBL cloud cover CLUBB-MG2 does not improve the simulation of the surface shortwave cloud radiative effect (CRE SW).« less
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Zheng, Xue; Klein, S. A.; Ma, H. -Y.; ...
2016-07-19
To assess marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud simulations in three versions of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), three sets of short-term global hindcasts are performed and compared to Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) observations on Graciosa Island in the Azores from June 2009 to December 2010. Here, the three versions consist of CAM5.3 with default schemes (CAM5.3), CAM5.3 with Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB-MG1), and CAM5.3 with CLUBB and updated microphysics scheme (CLUBB-MG2). Our results show that relative to CAM5.3 default schemes, simulations with CLUBB better represent MBL cloud base height, the height of the major cloud layer, andmore » the daily cloud cover variability. CLUBB also better simulates the relationship of cloud fraction to cloud liquid water path (LWP) most likely due to CLUBB's consistent treatment of these variables through a probability distribution function (PDF) approach. Subcloud evaporation of precipitation is substantially enhanced in simulations with CLUBB-MG2 and is more realistic based on the limited observational estimate. Despite these improvements, all model versions underestimate MBL cloud cover. CLUBB-MG2 reduces biases in in-cloud LWP (clouds are not too bright) but there are still too few of MBL clouds due to an underestimate in the frequency of overcast scenes. Thus, combining CLUBB with MG2 scheme better simulates MBL cloud processes, but because biases remain in MBL cloud cover CLUBB-MG2 does not improve the simulation of the surface shortwave cloud radiative effect (CRE SW).« less
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Meyer, Kerry; Platnick, Steven
2012-01-01
Clouds, aerosols, and their interactions are widely considered to be key uncertainty components in our current understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and radiation budget. The work presented here is focused on the quasi-permanent marine boundary layer . (MBL) clouds off the southern Atlantic coast of Africa and the effects on MODIS cloud optical property retrievals (MOD06) of an overlying absorbing smoke layer. During much of August and September, a persistent smoke layer resides over this region, produced from extensive biomass burning throughout the southern African savanna. The resulting absorption, which increases with decreasing wavelength, potentially introduces biases into the MODIS cloud optical property retrievals of the underlying MBL clouds. This effect is more pronounced in the cloud optical thickness retrievals, which over ocean are derived from the wavelength channel centered near 0.86 micron (effective particle size retrievals are derived from the longer-wavelength near-IR channels at 1.6, 2.1, and 3.7 microns). Here, the spatial distributions of the scalar statistics of both the cloud and aerosol layers are first determined from the CALIOP 5 km layer products. Next, the MOD06 look-up tables (LUTs) are adjusted by inserting an absorbing smoke layer of varying optical thickness over the cloud. Retrievals are subsequently performed for a subset of MODIS pixels collocated with the CALIOP ground track, using smoke optical thickness from the CALIOP 5km aerosol layer product to select the appropriate LUT. The resulting differences in cloud optical property retrievals due to the inclusion of the smoke layer in the LUTs will be examined. In addition, the direct radiative forcing of this smoke layer will be investigated from the perspective of the cloud optical property retrieval differences.
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Comparison Between CCCM and CloudSat Radar-Lidar (RL) Cloud and Radiation Products
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Ham, Seung-Hee; Kato, Seiji; Rose, Fred G.; Sun-Mack, Sunny
2015-01-01
To enhance cloud properties, LaRC and CIRA developed each combination algorithm for obtained properties from passive, active and imager in A-satellite constellation. When comparing global cloud fraction each other, LaRC-produced CERES-CALIPSO-CloudSat-MODIS (CCCM) products larger low-level cloud fraction over tropic ocean, while CIRA-produced Radar-Lidar (RL) shows larger mid-level cloud fraction for high latitude region. The reason for different low-level cloud fraction is due to different filtering method of lidar-detected cloud layers. Meanwhile difference in mid-level clouds is occurred due to different priority of cloud boundaries from lidar and radar.
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Aerosol-cloud interactions in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Solomon, A.
2017-12-01
Reliable climate projections require realistic simulations of Arctic cloud feedbacks. Of particular importance is accurately simulating Arctic mixed-phase stratocumuli (AMPS), which are ubiquitous and play an important role in regional climate due to their impact on the surface energy budget and atmospheric boundary layer structure through cloud-driven turbulence, radiative forcing, and precipitation. AMPS are challenging to model due to uncertainties in ice microphysical processes that determine phase partitioning between ice and radiatively important cloud liquid water. Since temperatures in AMPS are too warm for homogenous ice nucleation, ice must form through heterogeneous nucleation. In this presentation we discuss a relatively unexplored source of ice production-recycling of ice nuclei in regions of ice subsaturation. AMPS frequently have ice-subsaturated air near the cloud-driven mixed-layer base where falling ice crystals can sublimate, leaving behind IN. This study provides an idealized framework to understand feedbacks between dynamics and microphysics that maintain phase-partitioning in AMPS. In addition, the results of this study provide insight into the mechanisms and feedbacks that may maintain cloud ice in AMPS even when entrainment of IN at the mixed-layer boundaries is weak.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Kazil, Jan; Feingold, Graham; Yamaguchi, Takanobu
Observed and projected trends in large-scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how do marine stratocumulus clouds and their radiative properties respond to changes in large-scale wind speed? Wind speed drives the surface fluxes of sensible heat, moisture, and momentum and thereby acts on cloud liquid water path (LWP) and cloud radiative properties. We present an investigation of the dynamical response of non-precipitating, overcast marine stratocumulus clouds to different wind speeds over the course of a diurnal cycle, all else equal. In cloud-system resolving simulations, we find that higher wind speed leads to faster boundary layer growth and strongermore » entrainment. The dynamical driver is enhanced buoyant production of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from latent heat release in cloud updrafts. LWP is enhanced during the night and in the morning at higher wind speed, and more strongly suppressed later in the day. Wind speed hence accentuates the diurnal LWP cycle by expanding the morning–afternoon contrast. The higher LWP at higher wind speed does not, however, enhance cloud top cooling because in clouds with LWP ≳50 gm –2, longwave emissions are insensitive to LWP. This leads to the general conclusion that in sufficiently thick stratocumulus clouds, additional boundary layer growth and entrainment due to a boundary layer moistening arises by stronger production of TKE from latent heat release in cloud updrafts, rather than from enhanced longwave cooling. Here, we find that large-scale wind modulates boundary layer decoupling. At nighttime and at low wind speed during daytime, it enhances decoupling in part by faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment and in part because shear from large-scale wind in the sub-cloud layer hinders vertical moisture transport between the surface and cloud base. With increasing wind speed, however, in decoupled daytime conditions, shear-driven circulation due to large-scale wind takes over from buoyancy-driven circulation in transporting moisture from the surface to cloud base and thereby reduces decoupling and helps maintain LWP. Furthermore, the total (shortwave + longwave) cloud radiative effect (CRE) responds to changes in LWP and cloud fraction, and higher wind speed translates to a stronger diurnally averaged total CRE. However, the sensitivity of the diurnally averaged total CRE to wind speed decreases with increasing wind speed.« less
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Kazil, Jan; Feingold, Graham; Yamaguchi, Takanobu
2016-05-12
Observed and projected trends in large-scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how do marine stratocumulus clouds and their radiative properties respond to changes in large-scale wind speed? Wind speed drives the surface fluxes of sensible heat, moisture, and momentum and thereby acts on cloud liquid water path (LWP) and cloud radiative properties. We present an investigation of the dynamical response of non-precipitating, overcast marine stratocumulus clouds to different wind speeds over the course of a diurnal cycle, all else equal. In cloud-system resolving simulations, we find that higher wind speed leads to faster boundary layer growth and strongermore » entrainment. The dynamical driver is enhanced buoyant production of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) from latent heat release in cloud updrafts. LWP is enhanced during the night and in the morning at higher wind speed, and more strongly suppressed later in the day. Wind speed hence accentuates the diurnal LWP cycle by expanding the morning–afternoon contrast. The higher LWP at higher wind speed does not, however, enhance cloud top cooling because in clouds with LWP ≳50 gm –2, longwave emissions are insensitive to LWP. This leads to the general conclusion that in sufficiently thick stratocumulus clouds, additional boundary layer growth and entrainment due to a boundary layer moistening arises by stronger production of TKE from latent heat release in cloud updrafts, rather than from enhanced longwave cooling. Here, we find that large-scale wind modulates boundary layer decoupling. At nighttime and at low wind speed during daytime, it enhances decoupling in part by faster boundary layer growth and stronger entrainment and in part because shear from large-scale wind in the sub-cloud layer hinders vertical moisture transport between the surface and cloud base. With increasing wind speed, however, in decoupled daytime conditions, shear-driven circulation due to large-scale wind takes over from buoyancy-driven circulation in transporting moisture from the surface to cloud base and thereby reduces decoupling and helps maintain LWP. Furthermore, the total (shortwave + longwave) cloud radiative effect (CRE) responds to changes in LWP and cloud fraction, and higher wind speed translates to a stronger diurnally averaged total CRE. However, the sensitivity of the diurnally averaged total CRE to wind speed decreases with increasing wind speed.« less
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Cirrus Cloud Retrieval Using Infrared Sounding Data: Multilevel Cloud Errors.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Baum, Bryan A.; Wielicki, Bruce A.
1994-01-01
In this study we perform an error analysis for cloud-top pressure retrieval using the High-Resolution Infrared Radiometric Sounder (HIRS/2) 15-µm CO2 channels for the two-layer case of transmissive cirrus overlying an overcast, opaque stratiform cloud. This analysis includes standard deviation and bias error due to instrument noise and the presence of two cloud layers, the lower of which is opaque. Instantaneous cloud pressure retrieval errors are determined for a range of cloud amounts (0.1 1.0) and cloud-top pressures (850250 mb). Large cloud-top pressure retrieval errors are found to occur when a lower opaque layer is present underneath an upper transmissive cloud layer in the satellite field of view (FOV). Errors tend to increase with decreasing upper-cloud elective cloud amount and with decreasing cloud height (increasing pressure). Errors in retrieved upper-cloud pressure result in corresponding errors in derived effective cloud amount. For the case in which a HIRS FOV has two distinct cloud layers, the difference between the retrieved and actual cloud-top pressure is positive in all casts, meaning that the retrieved upper-cloud height is lower than the actual upper-cloud height. In addition, errors in retrieved cloud pressure are found to depend upon the lapse rate between the low-level cloud top and the surface. We examined which sounder channel combinations would minimize the total errors in derived cirrus cloud height caused by instrument noise and by the presence of a lower-level cloud. We find that while the sounding channels that peak between 700 and 1000 mb minimize random errors, the sounding channels that peak at 300—500 mb minimize bias errors. For a cloud climatology, the bias errors are most critical.
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Cloud and boundary layer interactions over the Arctic sea-ice in late summer
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Shupe, M. D.; Persson, P. O. G.; Brooks, I. M.; Tjernström, M.; Sedlar, J.; Mauritsen, T.; Sjogren, S.; Leck, C.
2013-05-01
Observations from the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), in the central Arctic sea-ice pack in late summer 2008, provide a detailed view of cloud-atmosphere-surface interactions and vertical mixing processes over the sea-ice environment. Measurements from a suite of ground-based remote sensors, near surface meteorological and aerosol instruments, and profiles from radiosondes and a helicopter are combined to characterize a week-long period dominated by low-level, mixed-phase, stratocumulus clouds. Detailed case studies and statistical analyses are used to develop a conceptual model for the cloud and atmosphere structure and their interactions in this environment. Clouds were persistent during the period of study, having qualities that suggest they were sustained through a combination of advective influences and in-cloud processes, with little contribution from the surface. Radiative cooling near cloud top produced buoyancy-driven, turbulent eddies that contributed to cloud formation and created a cloud-driven mixed layer. The depth of this mixed layer was related to the amount of turbulence and condensed cloud water. Coupling of this cloud-driven mixed layer to the surface boundary layer was primarily determined by proximity. For 75% of the period of study, the primary stratocumulus cloud-driven mixed layer was decoupled from the surface and typically at a warmer potential temperature. Since the near-surface temperature was constrained by the ocean-ice mixture, warm temperatures aloft suggest that these air masses had not significantly interacted with the sea-ice surface. Instead, back trajectory analyses suggest that these warm airmasses advected into the central Arctic Basin from lower latitudes. Moisture and aerosol particles likely accompanied these airmasses, providing necessary support for cloud formation. On the occasions when cloud-surface coupling did occur, back trajectories indicated that these air masses advected at low levels, while mixing processes kept the mixed layer in equilibrium with the near-surface environment. Rather than contributing buoyancy forcing for the mixed-layer dynamics, the surface instead simply appeared to respond to the mixed-layer processes aloft. Clouds in these cases often contained slightly higher condensed water amounts, potentially due to additional moisture sources from below.
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Cloud and boundary layer interactions over the Arctic sea ice in late summer
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Shupe, M. D.; Persson, P. O. G.; Brooks, I. M.; Tjernström, M.; Sedlar, J.; Mauritsen, T.; Sjogren, S.; Leck, C.
2013-09-01
Observations from the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), in the central Arctic sea-ice pack in late summer 2008, provide a detailed view of cloud-atmosphere-surface interactions and vertical mixing processes over the sea-ice environment. Measurements from a suite of ground-based remote sensors, near-surface meteorological and aerosol instruments, and profiles from radiosondes and a helicopter are combined to characterize a week-long period dominated by low-level, mixed-phase, stratocumulus clouds. Detailed case studies and statistical analyses are used to develop a conceptual model for the cloud and atmosphere structure and their interactions in this environment. Clouds were persistent during the period of study, having qualities that suggest they were sustained through a combination of advective influences and in-cloud processes, with little contribution from the surface. Radiative cooling near cloud top produced buoyancy-driven, turbulent eddies that contributed to cloud formation and created a cloud-driven mixed layer. The depth of this mixed layer was related to the amount of turbulence and condensed cloud water. Coupling of this cloud-driven mixed layer to the surface boundary layer was primarily determined by proximity. For 75% of the period of study, the primary stratocumulus cloud-driven mixed layer was decoupled from the surface and typically at a warmer potential temperature. Since the near-surface temperature was constrained by the ocean-ice mixture, warm temperatures aloft suggest that these air masses had not significantly interacted with the sea-ice surface. Instead, back-trajectory analyses suggest that these warm air masses advected into the central Arctic Basin from lower latitudes. Moisture and aerosol particles likely accompanied these air masses, providing necessary support for cloud formation. On the occasions when cloud-surface coupling did occur, back trajectories indicated that these air masses advected at low levels, while mixing processes kept the mixed layer in equilibrium with the near-surface environment. Rather than contributing buoyancy forcing for the mixed-layer dynamics, the surface instead simply appeared to respond to the mixed-layer processes aloft. Clouds in these cases often contained slightly higher condensed water amounts, potentially due to additional moisture sources from below.
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Surface tension and quasi-emulsion of cavitation bubble cloud.
Bai, Lixin; Chen, Xiaoguang; Zhu, Gang; Xu, Weilin; Lin, Weijun; Wu, Pengfei; Li, Chao; Xu, Delong; Yan, Jiuchun
2017-03-01
A quasi-emulsion phenomenon of cavitation structure in a thin liquid layer (the thin liquid layer is trapped between a radiating surface and a hard reflector) is investigated experimentally with high-speed photography. The transformation from cloud-in-water (c/w) emulsion to water-in-cloud (w/c) emulsion is related to the increase of cavitation bubble cloud. The acoustic field in the thin liquid layer is analyzed. It is found that the liquid region has higher acoustic pressure than the cloud region. The bubbles are pushed from liquid region to cloud region by the primary Bjerknes forces. The rate of change of CSF increased with the increase of CSF. The cavitation bubbles on the surface of cavitation cloud are attracted by the cavitation bubbles inside the cloud due to secondary Bjerknes forces. The existence of surface tension on the interface of liquid region and cloud region is proved. The formation mechanism of disc-shaped liquid region and cloud region are analysed by surface tension and incompressibility of cavitation bubble cloud. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Simulations of arctic mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with CAM3 and AM2 for M-PACE
Xie, Shaocheng; Boyle, James; Klein, Stephen A.; ...
2008-02-27
[1] Simulations of mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with the NCAR Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) and the GFDL Atmospheric Model version 2 (AM2) for the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) are performed using analysis data from numerical weather prediction centers. CAM3 significantly underestimates the observed boundary layer mixed-phase cloud fraction and cannot realistically simulate the variations of liquid water fraction with temperature and cloud height due to its oversimplified cloud microphysical scheme. In contrast, AM2 reasonably reproduces the observed boundary layer cloud fraction while its clouds contain much less cloud condensate than CAM3 and the observations. The simulation of themore » boundary layer mixed-phase clouds and their microphysical properties is considerably improved in CAM3 when a new physically based cloud microphysical scheme is used (CAM3LIU). The new scheme also leads to an improved simulation of the surface and top of the atmosphere longwave radiative fluxes. Sensitivity tests show that these results are not sensitive to the analysis data used for model initialization. Increasing model horizontal resolution helps capture the subgrid-scale features in Arctic frontal clouds but does not help improve the simulation of the single-layer boundary layer clouds. AM2 simulated cloud fraction and LWP are sensitive to the change in cloud ice number concentrations used in the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process while CAM3LIU only shows moderate sensitivity in its cloud fields to this change. Furthermore, this paper shows that the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process is important for these models to correctly simulate the observed features of mixed-phase clouds.« less
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Simulations of Arctic mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with CAM3 and AM2 for M-PACE
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Xie, Shaocheng; Boyle, James; Klein, Stephen A.; Liu, Xiaohong; Ghan, Steven
2008-02-01
Simulations of mixed-phase clouds in forecasts with the NCAR Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) and the GFDL Atmospheric Model version 2 (AM2) for the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) are performed using analysis data from numerical weather prediction centers. CAM3 significantly underestimates the observed boundary layer mixed-phase cloud fraction and cannot realistically simulate the variations of liquid water fraction with temperature and cloud height due to its oversimplified cloud microphysical scheme. In contrast, AM2 reasonably reproduces the observed boundary layer cloud fraction while its clouds contain much less cloud condensate than CAM3 and the observations. The simulation of the boundary layer mixed-phase clouds and their microphysical properties is considerably improved in CAM3 when a new physically based cloud microphysical scheme is used (CAM3LIU). The new scheme also leads to an improved simulation of the surface and top of the atmosphere longwave radiative fluxes. Sensitivity tests show that these results are not sensitive to the analysis data used for model initialization. Increasing model horizontal resolution helps capture the subgrid-scale features in Arctic frontal clouds but does not help improve the simulation of the single-layer boundary layer clouds. AM2 simulated cloud fraction and LWP are sensitive to the change in cloud ice number concentrations used in the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process while CAM3LIU only shows moderate sensitivity in its cloud fields to this change. This paper shows that the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process is important for these models to correctly simulate the observed features of mixed-phase clouds.
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The evolution of nocturnal boundary-layer clouds in southern West Africa - a case study from DACCIWA
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Adler, Bianca; Kalthoff, Norbert; Babić, Karmen; Lohou, Fabienne; Dione, Cheikh; Lothon, Marie; Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Xabier
2017-04-01
During the monsoon season, the atmospheric boundary layer in southern West Africa is characterised by various kinds of low-level clouds which experience a distinct diurnal cycle. During the night, extensive low-level stratiform clouds frequently form with a cloud base often less than few hundred metres above ground. After sunrise the cloud base slowly starts rising and eventually a transition to convective clouds occurs. While the existence of the clouds is documented in satellite images and synoptic observations, little is known about the mechanisms controlling their evolution. To provide observational evidence, a field campaign was conducted in southern West Africa in June and July 2016 within the framework of the Dynamics-aerosol-chemistry-cloud interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) project. Comprehensive ground-based in situ and remote sensing measurements were performed at three different supersites in Ghana, Benin and Nigeria. In this contribution, we present the diurnal cycle of boundary-layer clouds for a typical day using data from a supersite at Savè in Benin. Due to the synergy of various instruments, we are able to obtain detailed information on the evolution of the clouds as well as on the boundary-layer structure with high temporal and vertical resolution. By combining ceilometer, cloud radar and microwave radiometer data we determined the cloud base, -depth and -density. The clouds form in the same layer as a nocturnal low-level jet (NLLJ), which we probe by sodar and UHF profiler. There is evidence for a strong link between the height and strength of the NLLJ and the density of the nocturnal clouds.
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Clouds above the Martin Limb: Viking observations
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Martin, L. J.; Baum, W. A.; Wasserman, L. H.; Kreidl, T. J.
1984-01-01
Whenever Viking Orbiter images included the limb of Mars, they recorded one or more layers of clouds above the limb. The height above the limb and the brightness (reflectivity) of these clouds were determined in a selected group of these images. Normalized individual brightness profiles of three separate traverses across the limb of each image are shown. The most notable finding is that some of these clouds can be very high. Many reach heights of over 60 km, and several are over 70 km above the limb. Statistically, the reflectivity of the clouds increases with phase angle. Reflectivity and height both appear to vary with season, but the selected images spanned only one Martian year, so the role of seasons cannot be isolated. Limb clouds in red-filter images tend to be brighter than violet-filter images, but both season and phase appear to be more dominant factors. Due to the limited sample available, the possible influences of latitude and longitude are less clear. The layering of these clouds ranges from a single layer to five or more layers. Reflectivity gradients range from smooth and gentle to steep and irregular.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Luo, Yali; Xu, Kuan-Man; Morrison, Hugh; McFarquhar, Greg M.; Wang, Zhien; Zhang, Gong
2007-01-01
A cloud-resolving model (CRM) is used to simulate the multiple-layer mixed-phase stratiform (MPS) clouds that occurred during a three-and-a-half day subperiod of the Department of Energy-Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program s Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE). The CRM is implemented with an advanced two-moment microphysics scheme, a state-of-the-art radiative transfer scheme, and a complicated third-order turbulence closure. Concurrent meteorological, aerosol, and ice nucleus measurements are used to initialize the CRM. The CRM is prescribed by time-varying large-scale advective tendencies of temperature and moisture and surface turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat. The CRM reproduces the occurrences of the single- and double-layer MPS clouds as revealed by the M-PACE observations. However, the simulated first cloud layer is lower and the second cloud layer thicker compared to observations. The magnitude of the simulated liquid water path agrees with that observed, but its temporal variation is more pronounced than that observed. As in an earlier study of single-layer cloud, the CRM also captures the major characteristics in the vertical distributions and temporal variations of liquid water content (LWC), total ice water content (IWC), droplet number concentration and ice crystal number concentration (nis) as suggested by the aircraft observations. However, the simulated mean values differ significantly from the observed. The magnitude of nis is especially underestimated by one order of magnitude. Sensitivity experiments suggest that the lower cloud layer is closely related to the surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat; the upper cloud layer is probably initialized by the large-scale advective cooling/moistening and maintained through the strong longwave (LW) radiative cooling near the cloud top which enhances the dynamical circulation; artificially turning off all ice-phase microphysical processes results in an increase in LWP by a factor of 3 due to interactions between the excessive LW radiative cooling and extra cloud water; heating caused by phase change of hydrometeors could affect the LWC and cloud top height by partially canceling out the LW radiative cooling. It is further shown that the resolved dynamical circulation appears to contribute more greatly to the evolution of the MPS cloud layers than the parameterized subgrid-scale circulation.
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A Fast Infrared Radiative Transfer Model for Overlapping Clouds
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Niu, Jianguo; Yang, Ping; Huang, Huang-Lung; Davies, James E.; Li, Jun; Baum, Bryan A.; Hu, Yong X.
2006-01-01
A fast infrared radiative transfer model (FIRTM2) appropriate for application to both single-layered and overlapping cloud situations is developed for simulating the outgoing infrared spectral radiance at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). In FIRTM2 a pre-computed library of cloud reflectance and transmittance values is employed to account for one or two cloud layers, whereas the background atmospheric optical thickness due to gaseous absorption can be computed from a clear-sky radiative transfer model. FIRTM2 is applicable to three atmospheric conditions: 1) clear-sky, 2) single-layered ice or water cloud, and 3) two simultaneous cloud layers in a column (e.g., ice cloud overlying water cloud). Moreover, FIRTM2 outputs the derivatives (i.e., Jacobians) of the TOA brightness temperature with respect to cloud optical thickness and effective particle size. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out to assess the performance of FIRTM2 for two spectral regions, namely the longwave (LW) band (587.3 - 1179.5/cm) and the short-to-medium wave (SMW) band (1180.1 - 2228.9/cm). The assessment is carried out in terms of brightness temperature differences (BTD) between FIRTM2 and the well-known discrete ordinates radiative transfer model (DISORT), henceforth referred to as BTD (F-D). The BTD (F-D) values for single-layered clouds are generally less than 0.8 K. For the case of two cloud layers (specifically ice cloud over water cloud), the BTD(F-D) values are also generally less than 0.8 K except for the SMW band for the case of a very high altitude (>15 km) cloud comprised of small ice particles. Note that for clear-sky atmospheres, FIRTM2 reduces to the clear-sky radiative transfer model that is incorporated into FIRTM2, and the errors in this case are essentially those of the clear-sky radiative transfer model.
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Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer.
Wilcox, Eric M; Thomas, Rick M; Praveen, Puppala S; Pistone, Kristina; Bender, Frida A-M; Ramanathan, Veerabhadran
2016-10-18
The introduction of cloud condensation nuclei and radiative heating by sunlight-absorbing aerosols can modify the thickness and coverage of low clouds, yielding significant radiative forcing of climate. The magnitude and sign of changes in cloud coverage and depth in response to changing aerosols are impacted by turbulent dynamics of the cloudy atmosphere, but integrated measurements of aerosol solar absorption and turbulent fluxes have not been reported thus far. Here we report such integrated measurements made from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during the CARDEX (Cloud Aerosol Radiative Forcing and Dynamics Experiment) investigation conducted over the northern Indian Ocean. The UAV and surface data reveal a reduction in turbulent kinetic energy in the surface mixed layer at the base of the atmosphere concurrent with an increase in absorbing black carbon aerosols. Polluted conditions coincide with a warmer and shallower surface mixed layer because of aerosol radiative heating and reduced turbulence. The polluted surface mixed layer was also observed to be more humid with higher relative humidity. Greater humidity enhances cloud development, as evidenced by polluted clouds that penetrate higher above the top of the surface mixed layer. Reduced entrainment of dry air into the surface layer from above the inversion capping the surface mixed layer, due to weaker turbulence, may contribute to higher relative humidity in the surface layer during polluted conditions. Measurements of turbulence are important for studies of aerosol effects on clouds. Moreover, reduced turbulence can exacerbate both the human health impacts of high concentrations of fine particles and conditions favorable for low-visibility fog events.
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Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer
Wilcox, Eric M.; Thomas, Rick M.; Praveen, Puppala S.; Pistone, Kristina; Bender, Frida A.-M.; Ramanathan, Veerabhadran
2016-01-01
The introduction of cloud condensation nuclei and radiative heating by sunlight-absorbing aerosols can modify the thickness and coverage of low clouds, yielding significant radiative forcing of climate. The magnitude and sign of changes in cloud coverage and depth in response to changing aerosols are impacted by turbulent dynamics of the cloudy atmosphere, but integrated measurements of aerosol solar absorption and turbulent fluxes have not been reported thus far. Here we report such integrated measurements made from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during the CARDEX (Cloud Aerosol Radiative Forcing and Dynamics Experiment) investigation conducted over the northern Indian Ocean. The UAV and surface data reveal a reduction in turbulent kinetic energy in the surface mixed layer at the base of the atmosphere concurrent with an increase in absorbing black carbon aerosols. Polluted conditions coincide with a warmer and shallower surface mixed layer because of aerosol radiative heating and reduced turbulence. The polluted surface mixed layer was also observed to be more humid with higher relative humidity. Greater humidity enhances cloud development, as evidenced by polluted clouds that penetrate higher above the top of the surface mixed layer. Reduced entrainment of dry air into the surface layer from above the inversion capping the surface mixed layer, due to weaker turbulence, may contribute to higher relative humidity in the surface layer during polluted conditions. Measurements of turbulence are important for studies of aerosol effects on clouds. Moreover, reduced turbulence can exacerbate both the human health impacts of high concentrations of fine particles and conditions favorable for low-visibility fog events. PMID:27702889
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Testing the Two-Layer Model for Correcting Clear Sky Reflectance near Clouds
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wen, Guoyong; Marshak, Alexander; Evans, Frank; Varnai, Tamas; Levy, Rob
2015-01-01
A two-layer model (2LM) was developed in our earlier studies to estimate the clear sky reflectance enhancement due to cloud-molecular radiative interaction at MODIS at 0.47 micrometers. Recently, we extended the model to include cloud-surface and cloud-aerosol radiative interactions. We use the LES/SHDOM simulated 3D true radiation fields to test the 2LM for reflectance enhancement at 0.47 micrometers. We find: The simple model captures the viewing angle dependence of the reflectance enhancement near cloud, suggesting the physics of this model is correct; the cloud-molecular interaction alone accounts for 70 percent of the enhancement; the cloud-surface interaction accounts for 16 percent of the enhancement; the cloud-aerosol interaction accounts for an additional 13 percent of the enhancement. We conclude that the 2LM is simple to apply and unbiased.
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Evaluating stratiform cloud base charge remotely
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Harrison, R. Giles; Nicoll, Keri A.; Aplin, Karen L.
2017-06-01
Stratiform clouds acquire charge at their upper and lower horizontal boundaries due to vertical current flow in the global electric circuit. Cloud charge is expected to influence microphysical processes, but understanding is restricted by the infrequent in situ measurements available. For stratiform cloud bases below 1 km in altitude, the cloud base charge modifies the surface electric field beneath, allowing a new method of remote determination. Combining continuous cloud height data during 2015-2016 from a laser ceilometer with electric field mill data, cloud base charge is derived using a horizontal charged disk model. The median daily cloud base charge density found was -0.86 nC m-2 from 43 days' data. This is consistent with a uniformly charged region 40 m thick at the cloud base, now confirming that negative cloud base charge is a common feature of terrestrial layer clouds. This technique can also be applied to planetary atmospheres and volcanic plumes.
Plain Language SummaryThe idea that clouds in the atmosphere can charge electrically has been appreciated since the time of Benjamin Franklin, but it is less widely recognized that it is not just thunderclouds which contain electric charge. For example, water droplets in simple layer clouds, that are abundant and often responsible for an overcast day, carry electric charges. The droplet charging arises at the upper and lower edges of the layer cloud. This occurs because the small droplets at the edges draw charge from the air outside the cloud. Understanding how strongly layer clouds charge is important in evaluating electrical effects on the development of such clouds, for example, how thick the cloud becomes and whether it generates rain. Previously, cloud charge measurement has required direct measurements within the cloud using weather balloons or aircraft. This work has monitored the lower cloud charge continuously using instruments placed at the surface beneath. From measurements made over 2 years, the cloud base charge is negative in the majority of cases. This confirms that charging of layer clouds is not a random process but instead arises from fundamental aspects of the atmosphere's structure.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990028248&hterms=McCormick&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DMcCormick','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990028248&hterms=McCormick&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DMcCormick"><span>A Study of the Vertical Structure of Tropical (20 deg S-20 deg N) Optically Thin Clouds from SAGE II Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Pi-Huan; Minnis, Patrick; McCormick, M. Patrick; Kent, Geoffrey S.; Yue, Glenn K.; Young, David F.; Skeens, Kristi M.</p> <p>1998-01-01</p> <p>The tropical cloud data obtained by the satellite instrument of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II from October 1984 to May 1991 have been used to study cloud vertical distribution, including thickness and multilayer structure, and to estimate cloud optical depth. The results indicate that the SAGE-II-observed clouds are generally optically thin clouds, corresponding to a range of optical depth between approximately 8 x 10(exp -4) and 3 x 10(exp -1) with a mean of about 0.035. Two-thirds are classified as subvisual cirrus and one-third thin cirrus. Clouds between 2- to 3-km thick occur most frequently. Approximately 30% of the SAGE II cloud measurements are isolated single-layer clouds, while 65% are high clouds contiguous with an underlying opaque cloud that terminates the SAGE II profile. Thin clouds above detached opaque clouds at altitudes greater than 6.5 km occur less often. Only about 3% of the SAGE II single-layer clouds are located above the tropopause, while 58% of the cloud layers never reach the tropopause. More than one-third of the clouds appear at the tropopause. This study also shows that clouds occur more frequently and extend higher above the tropopause over the western Pacific than than over the eastern Pacific, especially during northern winter. The uncertainty of the derived results due to the SAGE II sampling constraints, data processing, and cloud characteristics is discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20100032400&hterms=multilayer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3Dmultilayer','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20100032400&hterms=multilayer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3Dmultilayer"><span>Evaluation of Satellite-Based Upper Troposphere Cloud Top Height Retrievals in Multilayer Cloud Conditions During TC4</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Ayers, J. Kirk; McGill, Matthew J.; Palikonda, Rabindra; Spangenberg, Douglas A.; Smith, William L., Jr.; Yost, Christopher R.</p> <p>2010-01-01</p> <p>Upper troposphere cloud top heights (CTHs), restricted to cloud top pressures (CTPs) less than 500 hPa, inferred using four satellite retrieval methods applied to Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12) data are evaluated using measurements during the July August 2007 Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Experiment (TC4). The four methods are the single-layer CO2-absorption technique (SCO2AT), a modified CO2-absorption technique (MCO2AT) developed for improving both single-layered and multilayered cloud retrievals, a standard version of the Visible Infrared Solar-infrared Split-window Technique (old VISST), and a new version of VISST (new VISST) recently developed to improve cloud property retrievals. They are evaluated by comparing with ER-2 aircraft-based Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) data taken during 9 days having extensive upper troposphere cirrus, anvil, and convective clouds. Compared to the 89% coverage by upper tropospheric clouds detected by the CPL, the SCO2AT, MCO2AT, old VISST, and new VISST retrieved CTPs less than 500 hPa in 76, 76, 69, and 74% of the matched pixels, respectively. Most of the differences are due to subvisible and optically thin cirrus clouds occurring near the tropopause that were detected only by the CPL. The mean upper tropospheric CTHs for the 9 days are 14.2 (+/- 2.1) km from the CPL and 10.7 (+/- 2.1), 12.1 (+/- 1.6), 9.7 (+/- 2.9), and 11.4 (+/- 2.8) km from the SCO2AT, MCO2AT, old VISST, and new VISST, respectively. Compared to the CPL, the MCO2AT CTHs had the smallest mean biases for semitransparent high clouds in both single-layered and multilayered situations whereas the new VISST CTHs had the smallest mean biases when upper clouds were opaque and optically thick. The biases for all techniques increased with increasing numbers of cloud layers. The transparency of the upper layer clouds tends to increase with the numbers of cloud layers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040028003','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040028003"><span>Dynamic Turbulence Modelling in Large-eddy Simulations of the Cloud-topped Atmospheric Boundary Layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Kirkpatrick, M. P.; Mansour, N. N.; Ackerman, A. S.; Stevens, D. E.</p> <p>2003-01-01</p> <p>The use of large eddy simulation, or LES, to study the atmospheric boundary layer dates back to the early 1970s when Deardor (1972) used a three-dimensional simulation to determine velocity and temperature scales in the convective boundary layer. In 1974 he applied LES to the problem of mixing layer entrainment (Deardor 1974) and in 1980 to the cloud-topped boundary layer (Deardor 1980b). Since that time the LES approach has been applied to atmospheric boundary layer problems by numerous authors. While LES has been shown to be relatively robust for simple cases such as a clear, convective boundary layer (Mason 1989), simulation of the cloud-topped boundary layer has proved more of a challenge. The combination of small length scales and anisotropic turbulence coupled with cloud microphysics and radiation effects places a heavy burden on the turbulence model, especially in the cloud-top region. Consequently, over the past few decades considerable effort has been devoted to developing turbulence models that are better able to parameterize these processes. Much of this work has involved taking parameterizations developed for neutral boundary layers and deriving corrections to account for buoyancy effects associated with the background stratification and local buoyancy sources due to radiative and latent heat transfer within the cloud (see Lilly 1962; Deardor 1980a; Mason 1989; MacVean & Mason 1990, for example). In this paper we hope to contribute to this effort by presenting a number of turbulence models in which the model coefficients are calculated dynamically during the simulation rather than being prescribed a priori.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004JAtS...61.3112M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004JAtS...61.3112M"><span>Mixing Layer Formation near the Tropopause Due to Gravity Wave Critical Level Interactions in a Cloud-Resolving Model.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Moustaoui, Mohamed; Joseph, Binson; Teitelbaum, Hector</p> <p>2004-12-01</p> <p>A plausible mechanism for the formation of mixing layers in the lower stratosphere above regions of tropical convection is demonstrated numerically using high-resolution, two-dimensional (2D), anelastic, nonlinear, cloud-resolving simulations. One noteworthy point is that the mixing layer simulated in this study is free of anvil clouds and well above the cloud anvil top located in the upper troposphere. Hence, the present mechanism is complementary to the well-known process by which overshooting cloud turrets causes mixing within stratospheric anvil clouds. The paper is organized as a case study verifying the proposed mechanism using atmospheric soundings obtained during the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX), when several such mixing layers, devoid of anvil clouds, had been observed. The basic dynamical ingredient of the present mechanism is (quasi stationary) gravity wave critical level interactions, occurring in association with a reversal of stratospheric westerlies to easterlies below the tropopause region. The robustness of the results is shown through simulations at different resolutions. The insensitivity of the qualitative results to the details of the subgrid scheme is also evinced through further simulations with and without subgrid mixing terms. From Lagrangian reconstruction of (passive) ozone fields, it is shown that the mixing layer is formed kinematically through advection by the resolved-scale (nonlinear) velocity field.<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="30%"></p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmEn.113....1W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmEn.113....1W"><span>Multi-sensor quantification of aerosol-induced variability in warm clouds over eastern China</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Fu; Guo, Jianping; Zhang, Jiahua; Huang, Jingfeng; Min, Min; Chen, Tianmeng; Liu, Huan; Deng, Minjun; Li, Xiaowen</p> <p>2015-07-01</p> <p>Aerosol-cloud (AC) interactions remain uncharacterized due to difficulties in obtaining accurate aerosol and cloud observations. In this study, we quantified the aerosol indirect effects (AIE) on warm clouds over Eastern China based on near-simultaneous retrievals from MODIS/AQUA, CALIOP/CALIPSO, and CPR/CLOUDSAT between June 2006 and December 2010. The seasonality of aerosols from ground-based PM10 (aerosol particles with diameter of 10 μm or less) significantly differed from that estimated using MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD). This result was supported by the lower level frequency profile of aerosol occurrence from CALIOP, indicative of the significant role of CALIOP in the AC interaction. To focus on warm clouds, cloud layers with base (top) altitudes above 7 (10) km were excluded. The combination of CALIOP and CPR was applied to determine the exact position of warm clouds relative to aerosols out of the following six scenarios in terms of AC mixing states: 1) aerosol only (AO); 2) cloud only (CO); 3) single aerosol layer-single cloud layer (SASC); 4) single aerosol layer-double cloud layers (SADC); 5) double aerosol layers - single cloud layer (DASC); and 6) others. The cases with vertical distance between aerosol and cloud layer less (more) than 100 m (700 m) were marked mixed (separated), and the rest as uncertain. Results showed that only 8.95% (7.53%) belonged to the mixed (separated and uncertain) state among all of the collocated AC overlapping cases, including SASC, SADC, and DASC. Under mixed conditions, the cloud droplet effective radius (CDR) decreased with increasing AOD at moderate aerosol loading (AOD<0.4), and then became saturated at an AOD of around 0.5, followed by an increase in CDR with increasing AOD, known as boomerang shape. Under separated conditions, no apparent changes in CDR with AOD were observed. We categorized the AC dataset into summer- and winter-season subsets to determine how the boomerang shape varied with season. The response of CDR to AOD in summer exhibited similar but much more deepened boomerang shape, as compared with the all year round case. In contrast, CDR in winter did not follow the boomerang shape for its continued decreasing with increasing AOD, even after the saturation zone (AOD around 0.5) of a cloud droplet.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-iss023e057948.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-iss023e057948.html"><span>Earth Observations taken by the Expedition 23 Crew</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2010-05-25</p> <p>ISS023-E-057948 (25 May 2010) --- A sunset on the Indian Ocean is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The image presents an edge-on, or limb view, of Earth’s atmosphere as seen from orbit. The Earth’s curvature is visible along the horizon line, or limb, that extends across the image from center left to lower right. Above the darkened surface of Earth, a brilliant sequence of colors roughly denotes several layers of the atmosphere. Deep oranges and yellows are visible in the troposphere that extends from Earth’s surface to 6-20 kilometers high. This layer contains over 80 percent of the mass of the atmosphere and almost all of the water vapor, clouds, and precipitation – several dark cloud layers are visible within this layer. Variations in the colors are due mainly to varying concentrations of either clouds or aerosols (airborne particles or droplets). The pink to white region above the clouds appears to be the stratosphere; this atmospheric layer generally has little or no clouds and extends up to approximately 50 kilometers above Earth’s surface. Above the stratosphere blue layers mark the upper atmosphere (including the mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, and exosphere) as it gradually fades into the blackness of outer space. The ISS was located over the southern Indian Ocean when this image was taken, with the observer looking towards the west. Crew members aboard the space station see 16 sunrises and sunsets per day due to their high orbital velocity (greater than 28,000 kilometers per hour). The multiple chances for photography are fortunate, as at that speed each sunrise/sunset event only lasts a few seconds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.7329L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.7329L"><span>The impact of atmospheric stability and wind shear on vertical cloud overlap over the Tibetan Plateau</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Li, Jiming; Lv, Qiaoyi; Jian, Bida; Zhang, Min; Zhao, Chuanfeng; Fu, Qiang; Kawamoto, Kazuaki; Zhang, Hua</p> <p>2018-05-01</p> <p>Studies have shown that changes in cloud cover are responsible for the rapid climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in the past 3 decades. To simulate the total cloud cover, atmospheric models have to reasonably represent the characteristics of vertical overlap between cloud layers. Until now, however, this subject has received little attention due to the limited availability of observations, especially over the TP. Based on the above information, the main aim of this study is to examine the properties of cloud overlaps over the TP region and to build an empirical relationship between cloud overlap properties and large-scale atmospheric dynamics using 4 years (2007-2010) of data from the CloudSat cloud product and collocated ERA-Interim reanalysis data. To do this, the cloud overlap parameter α, which is an inverse exponential function of the cloud layer separation D and decorrelation length scale L, is calculated using CloudSat and is discussed. The parameters α and L are both widely used to characterize the transition from the maximum to random overlap assumption with increasing layer separations. For those non-adjacent layers without clear sky between them (that is, contiguous cloud layers), it is found that the overlap parameter α is sensitive to the unique thermodynamic and dynamic environment over the TP, i.e., the unstable atmospheric stratification and corresponding weak wind shear, which leads to maximum overlap (that is, greater α values). This finding agrees well with the previous studies. Finally, we parameterize the decorrelation length scale L as a function of the wind shear and atmospheric stability based on a multiple linear regression. Compared with previous parameterizations, this new scheme can improve the simulation of total cloud cover over the TP when the separations between cloud layers are greater than 1 km. This study thus suggests that the effects of both wind shear and atmospheric stability on cloud overlap should be taken into account in the parameterization of decorrelation length scale L in order to further improve the calculation of the radiative budget and the prediction of climate change over the TP in the atmospheric models.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920061206&hterms=para+ortho+hydrogen&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dpara%2Bortho%2Bhydrogen','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920061206&hterms=para+ortho+hydrogen&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dpara%2Bortho%2Bhydrogen"><span>Ortho-para-hydrogen equilibration on Jupiter</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Carlson, Barbara E.; Lacis, Andrew A.; Rossow, William B.</p> <p>1992-01-01</p> <p>Voyager IRIS observations reveal that the Jovian para-hydrogen fraction is not in thermodynamic equilibrium near the NH3 cloud top, implying that a vertical gradient exists between the high-temperature equilibrium value of 0.25 at depth and the cloud top values. The height-dependent para-hydrogen profile is obtained using an anisotropic multiple-scattering radiative transfer model. A vertical correlation is found to exist between the location of the para-hydrogen gradient and the NH3 cloud, strongly suggesting that paramagnetic conversion on NH3 cloud particle surfaces is the dominant equilibration mechanism. Below the NH3 cloud layer, the para fraction is constant with depth and equal to the high-temperature equilibrium value of 0.25. The degree of cloud-top equilibration appears to depend on the optical depth of the NH3 cloud layer. Belt-zone variations in the para-hydrogen profile seem to be due to differences in the strength of the vertical mixing.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910042426&hterms=modeling+ozone+production&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmodeling%2Bozone%2Bproduction','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910042426&hterms=modeling+ozone+production&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmodeling%2Bozone%2Bproduction"><span>Photochemical ozone production in tropical squall line convection during NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment/Amazon Boundary Layer Experiment 2A</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Pickering, Kenneth E.; Thompson, Anne M.; Tao, Wei-Kuo; Simpson, Joanne; Scala, John R.</p> <p>1991-01-01</p> <p>The role of convection was examined in trace gas transport and ozone production in a tropical dry season squall line sampled on August 3, 1985, during NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment/Amazon Boundary Layer Experiment 2A (NASA GTE/ABLE 2A) in Amazonia, Brazil. Two types of analyses were performed. Transient effects within the cloud are examined with a combination of two-dimensional cloud and one-dimensional photochemical modeling. Tracer analyses using the cloud model wind fields yield a series of cross sections of NO(x), CO, and O3 distribution during the lifetime of the cloud; these fields are used in the photochemical model to compute the net rate of O3 production. At noon, when the cloud was mature, the instantaneous ozone production potential in the cloud is between 50 and 60 percent less than in no-cloud conditions due to reduced photolysis and cloud scavenging of radicals. Analysis of cloud inflows and outflows is used to differentiate between air that is undisturbed and air that has been modified by the storm. These profiles are used in the photochemical model to examine the aftereffects of convective redistribution in the 24-hour period following the storm. Total tropospheric column O3 production changed little due to convection because so little NO(x) was available in the lower troposphere. However, the integrated O3 production potential in the 5- to 13-km layer changed from net destruction to net production as a result of the convection. The conditions of the August 3, 1985, event may be typical of the early part of the dry season in Amazonia, when only minimal amounts of pollution from biomass burning have been transported into the region.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PASJ...70S..55W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PASJ...70S..55W"><span>Bipolar H II regions produced by cloud-cloud collisions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Whitworth, Anthony; Lomax, Oliver; Balfour, Scott; Mège, Pierre; Zavagno, Annie; Deharveng, Lise</p> <p>2018-05-01</p> <p>We suggest that bipolar H II regions may be the aftermath of collisions between clouds. Such a collision will produce a shock-compressed layer, and a star cluster can then condense out of the dense gas near the center of the layer. If the clouds are sufficiently massive, the star cluster is likely to contain at least one massive star, which emits ionizing radiation, and excites an H II region, which then expands, sweeping up the surrounding neutral gas. Once most of the matter in the clouds has accreted onto the layer, expansion of the H II region meets little resistance in directions perpendicular to the midplane of the layer, and so it expands rapidly to produce two lobes of ionized gas, one on each side of the layer. Conversely, in directions parallel to the midplane of the layer, expansion of the H II region stalls due to the ram pressure of the gas that continues to fall towards the star cluster from the outer parts of the layer; a ring of dense neutral gas builds up around the waist of the bipolar H II region, and may spawn a second generation of star formation. We present a dimensionless model for the flow of ionized gas in a bipolar H II region created according to the above scenario, and predict the characteristics of the resulting free-free continuum and recombination-line emission. This dimensionless model can be scaled to the physical parameters of any particular system. Our intention is that these predictions will be useful in testing the scenario outlined above, and thereby providing indirect support for the role of cloud-cloud collisions in triggering star formation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA196862','DTIC-ST'); return false;" href="http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA196862"><span>Military Knowledge Handbook for Commanders (Selected Section)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.dtic.mil/">DTIC Science & Technology</a></p> <p></p> <p>1988-03-28</p> <p>8217 Accession For NTIS GRA&I DTIC TAB 0l Unannoun ed 0] ju,.it . " t ation Distri’muti on/ Availabilit %Codes Dist cSpeial GRAPHICS DISCLAIMER...cloud layers, the energy of ray radiation on the ground will increase due to reflection effect of the cloud layers. Water surface, ice, accumulated... water flow can direct the radioactive fallout into defense works and water sources to worsen contaminations; radioactive fallout can easily be retained in</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980008085','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980008085"><span>A Model for Particle Microphysics,Turbulent Mixing, and Radiative Transfer in the Stratocumulus-Topped Marine Boundary Layer and Comparisons with Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Ackerman, Andrew S.; Toon, Owen B.; Hobbs, Peter V.</p> <p>1995-01-01</p> <p>A detailed 1D model of the stratocumulus-topped marine boundary layer is described. The model has three coupled components: a microphysics module that resolves the size distributions of aerosols and cloud droplets, a turbulence module that treats vertical mixing between layers, and a multiple wavelength radiative transfer module that calculates radiative heating rates and cloud optical properties. The results of a 12-h model simulation reproduce reasonably well the bulk thermodynamics, microphysical properties, and radiative fluxes measured in an approx. 500-m thick, summertime marine stratocumulus cloud layer by Nicholls. However, in this case, the model predictions of turbulent fluxes between the cloud and subcloud layers exceed the measurements. Results of model simulations are also compared to measurements of a marine stratus layer made under gate conditions and with measurements of a high, thin marine stratocumulus layer. The variations in cloud properties are generally reproduced by the model, although it underpredicts the entrainment of overlying air at cloud top under gale conditions. Sensitivities of the model results are explored. The vertical profile of cloud droplet concentration is sensitive to the lower size cutoff of the droplet size distribution due to the presence of unactivated haze particles in the lower region of the modeled cloud. Increases in total droplet concentrations do not always produce less drizzle and more cloud water in the model. The radius of the mean droplet volume does not correlate consistently with drizzle, but the effective droplet radius does. The greatest impacts on cloud properties predicted by the model are produced by halving the width of the size distribution of input condensation nuclei and by omitting the effect of cloud-top radiative cooling on the condensational growth of cloud droplets. The omission of infrared scattering produces noticeable changes in cloud properties. The collection efficiencies for droplets less than 30-micron radius, and the value of the accommodation coefficient for condensational droplet growth, have noticeable effects on cloud properties. The divergence of the horizontal wind also has a significant effect on a 12-h model simulation of cloud structure. Conclusions drawn from the model are tentative because of the limitations of the 1D model framework. A principal simplification is that the model assumes horizontal homogeneity, and, therefore, does not resolve updrafts and downdrafts. Likely consequences of this simplification include overprediction of the growth of droplets by condensation in the upper region of the cloud, underprediction of droplet condensational growth in the lower region of the cloud, and under-prediction of peak supersaturations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19970001781','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19970001781"><span>A Model for Particle Microphysics, Turbulent Mixing, and Radiative Transfer in the Stratocumulus-Topped Marine Boundary Layer and Comparisons with Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Ackerman, Andrew S.; Toon, Owen B.; Hobbs, Peter V.</p> <p>1995-01-01</p> <p>A detailed 1D model of the stratocumulus-topped marine boundary layer is described. The model has three coupled components: a microphysics module that resolves the size distributions of aerosols and cloud droplets, a turbulence module that treats vertical mixing between layers, and a multiple wavelength radiative transfer module that calculates radiative heating rates and cloud optical properties. The results of a 12-h model simulation reproduce reasonably well the bulk thermodynamics, microphysical properties, and radiative fluxes measured in an approx. 500-m thick, summertime marine stratocumulus cloud layer by Nicholls. However, in this case, the model predictions of turbulent fluxes between the cloud and subcloud layers exceed the measurements. Results of model simulations are also compared to measurements of a marine stratus layer made under gale conditions and with measurements of a high, thin marine stratocumulus layer. The variations in cloud properties are generally reproduced by the model, although it underpredicts the entrainment of overlying air at cloud top under gale conditions. Sensitivities of the model results are explored. The vertical profile of cloud droplet concentration is sensitive to the lower size cutoff of the droplet size distribution due to the presence of unactivated haze particles in the lower region of the modeled cloud. Increases in total droplet concentrations do not always produce less drizzle and more cloud water in the model. The radius of the mean droplet volume does not correlate consistently with drizzle, but the effective droplet radius does. The greatest impacts on cloud properties predicted by the model are produced by halving the width of the size distribution of input condensation nuclei and by omitting the effect of cloud-top radiative cooling on the condensational growth of cloud droplets. The omission of infrared scattering produces noticeable changes in cloud properties. The collection efficiencies for droplets less than 30-micrometers radius, and the value of the accommodation coefficient for condensational droplet growth, have noticeable effects on cloud properties. The divergence of the horizontal wind also has a significant effect on a 12-h model simulation of cloud structure. Conclusions drawn from the model are tentative because of the limitations of the 1D model framework. A principal simplification is that the model assumes horizontal homogeneity, and, therefore, does not resolve updrafts and downdrafts. Likely consequences of this simplification include overprediction of the growth of droplets by condensation in the upper region of the cloud, underprediction of droplet condensational growth in the lower region of the cloud, and underprediction of peak supersaturations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020054347&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Ddehydration','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020054347&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Ddehydration"><span>Ice Cloud Formation and Dehydration in the Tropical Tropopause Layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Eric; Pfister, Leonhard; Gore, Warren J. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>Stratospheric water vapor is important not only for its greenhouse forcing, but also because it plays a significant role in stratospheric chemistry. several recent studies have focused on the potential for dehydration due to ice cloud formation in air rising slowly through the tropical tropopause layer. Holton and Gettelman showed that temperature variations associated with horizontal transport of air in the tropopause layer can drive ice cloud formation and dehydration, and Gettelman et al. recently examined the cloud formation and dehydration along kinematic trajectories using simple assumptions about the cloud properties. In this study, we use a Lagrangian, one-dimensional cloud model to further investigate cloud formation and dehydration as air is transported horizontally and vertically through the tropical tropopause layer. Time-height curtains of temperature are extracted from meteorological analyses. The model tracks the growth and sedimentation of individual cloud particles. The regional distribution of clouds simulated in the model is comparable to the subvisible cirrus distribution indicated by SAGE II. The simulated cloud properties depend strongly on the assumed ice supersaturation threshold for ice nucleation. with effective nuclei present (low supersaturation threshold), ice number densities are high (0.1--10 cm(circumflex)-3), and ice crystals do not grow large enough to fall very far, resulting in limited dehydration. With higher supersaturation thresholds, ice number densities are much lower (less than 0.01 cm(circumflex)-3), and ice crystals grow large enough to fall substantially; however, supersaturated air often crosses the tropopause without cloud formation. The clouds typically do not dehydrate the air along trajectories down to the temperature minimum saturation mixing ratio. Rather the water vapor mixing ratio crossing the tropopause along trajectories is typically 10-50% larger than the saturation mixing ratio.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140011287','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140011287"><span>Estimating the Direct Radiative Effect of Absorbing Aerosols Overlying Marine Boundary Layer Clouds in the Southeast Atlantic Using MODIS and CALIOP</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Meyer, Kerry; Platnick, Steven; Oreopoulos, Lazaros; Lee, Dongmin</p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>Absorbing aerosols such as smoke strongly absorb solar radiation, particularly at ultraviolet and visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) wavelengths, and their presence above clouds can have considerable implications. It has been previously shown that they have a positive (i.e., warming) direct aerosol radiative effect (DARE) when overlying bright clouds. Additionally, they can cause biased passive instrument satellite retrievals in techniques that rely on VIS/NIR wavelengths for inferring the cloud optical thickness (COT) and effective radius (re) of underlying clouds, which can in turn yield biased above-cloud DARE estimates. Here we investigate Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud optical property retrieval biases due to overlying absorbing aerosols observed by Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and examine the impact of these biases on above-cloud DARE estimates. The investigation focuses on a region in the southeast Atlantic Ocean during August and September (2006-2011), where smoke from biomass burning in southern Africa overlies persistent marine boundary layer stratocumulus clouds. Adjusting for above-cloud aerosol attenuation yields increases in the regional mean liquid COT (averaged over all ocean-only liquid clouds) by roughly 6%; mean re increases by roughly 2.6%, almost exclusively due to the COT adjustment in the non-orthogonal retrieval space. It is found that these two biases lead to an underestimate of DARE. For liquid cloud Aqua MODIS pixels with CALIOP-observed above-cloud smoke, the regional mean above-cloud radiative forcing efficiency (DARE per unit aerosol optical depth (AOD)) at time of observation (near local noon for Aqua overpass) increases from 50.9Wm(sup-2)AOD(sup-1) to 65.1Wm(sup-2)AOD(sup -1) when using bias-adjusted instead of nonadjusted MODIS cloud retrievals.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>1</a></li> <li class="active"><span>2</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_3");'>3</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_2 --> <div id="page_3" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>1</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_2");'>2</a></li> <li class="active"><span>3</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="41"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1409983-low-cloud-characteristics-over-tropical-western-pacific-from-arm-observations-cam5-simulations','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1409983-low-cloud-characteristics-over-tropical-western-pacific-from-arm-observations-cam5-simulations"><span>Low-cloud characteristics over the tropical western Pacific from ARM observations and CAM5 simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Chandra, Arunchandra S.; Zhang, Chidong; Klein, Stephen A.; ...</p> <p>2015-09-10</p> <p>Here, this study evaluates the ability of the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) to reproduce low clouds observed by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) cloud radar at Manus Island of the tropical western Pacific during the Years of Tropical Convection. Here low clouds are defined as clouds with their tops below the freezing level and bases within the boundary layer. Low-cloud statistics in CAM5 simulations and ARM observations are compared in terms of their general occurrence, mean vertical profiles, fraction of precipitating versus nonprecipitating events, diurnal cycle, and monthly time series. Other types of clouds are included to putmore » the comparison in a broader context. The comparison shows that the model overproduces total clouds and their precipitation fraction but underestimates low clouds in general. The model, however, produces excessive low clouds in a thin layer between 954 and 930 hPa, which coincides with excessive humidity near the top of the mixed layer. This suggests that the erroneously excessive low clouds stem from parameterization of both cloud and turbulence mixing. The model also fails to produce the observed diurnal cycle in low clouds, not exclusively due to the model coarse grid spacing that does not resolve Manus Island. Lastly, this study demonstrates the utility of ARM long-term cloud observations in the tropical western Pacific in verifying low clouds simulated by global climate models, illustrates issues of using ARM observations in model validation, and provides an example of severe model biases in producing observed low clouds in the tropical western Pacific.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170007341&hterms=Remote+sensing&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3DRemote%2Bsensing','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170007341&hterms=Remote+sensing&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3DRemote%2Bsensing"><span>Remote Sensing of Multiple Cloud Layer Heights Using Multi-Angular Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Sinclair, Kenneth; Van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Cairns, Brian; Yorks, John; Wasilewski, Andrzej; Mcgill, Matthew</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Cloud top height (CTH) affects the radiative properties of clouds. Improved CTH observations will allow for improved parameterizations in large-scale models and accurate information on CTH is also important when studying variations in freezing point and cloud microphysics. NASAs airborne Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) is able to measure cloud top height using a novel multi-angular contrast approach. For the determination of CTH, a set of consecutive nadir reflectances is selected and the cross-correlations between this set and co-located sets at other viewing angles are calculated for a range of assumed cloud top heights, yielding a correlation profile. Under the assumption that cloud reflectances are isotropic, local peaks in the correlation profile indicate cloud layers. This technique can be applied to every RSP footprint and we demonstrate that detection of multiple peaks in the correlation profile allow retrieval of heights of multiple cloud layers within single RSP footprints. This paper provides an in-depth description of the architecture and performance of the RSPs CTH retrieval technique using data obtained during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC(exp. 4)RS) campaign. RSP retrieved cloud heights are evaluated using collocated data from the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL). The method's accuracy associated with the magnitude of correlation, optical thickness, cloud thickness and cloud height are explored. The technique is applied to measurements at a wavelength of 670 nm and 1880 nm and their combination. The 1880-nm band is virtually insensitive to the lower troposphere due to strong water vapor absorption.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFMAE31B0443B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFMAE31B0443B"><span>A Modeling Study of the Spatial Structure of Electric Fields Generated by Electrified Clouds with Screening Layers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Biagi, C. J.; Cummins, K. L.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>The growing possibility of inexpensive airborne observations of electric fields using one or more small UAVs increases the importance of understanding what can be determined about cloud electrification and associated electric fields outside cloud boundaries. If important information can be inferred from carefully selected flight paths outside of a cloud, then the aircraft and its instrumentation will be much cheaper to develop and much safer to operate. These facts have led us to revisit this long-standing topic using quasi-static, finite-element modeling inside and outside arbitrarily shaped clouds with a variety of internal charge distributions. In particular, we examine the effect of screening layers on electric fields outside of electrified clouds by comparing modeling results for charged clouds having electrical conductivities that are both equal to and lower than the surrounding clear air. The comparisons indicate that the spatial structure of the electric field is approximately the same regardless of the difference in the conductivities between the cloud and clear air and the formation of a screening layer, even for altitude-dependent electrical conductivities. This result is consistent with the numerical modeling results reported by Driscoll et al [1992]. The similarity of the spatial structure of the electric field outside of clouds with and without a screening layer suggests that "bulk" properties related to cloud electrification might be determined using measurements of the electric field at multiple locations in space outside the cloud, particularly at altitude. Finally, for this somewhat simplified model, the reduction in electric field magnitude outside the cloud due to the presence of a screening layer exhibits a simple dependence on the difference in conductivity between the cloud and clear air. These results are particularly relevant for studying clouds that are not producing lightning, such as developing thunderstorms and decaying anvils associated with mature storm systems.Driscoll K.T., R.J. Blakeslee, M.E. Baginski, 1992, A modeling study of the time-averaged electric currents in the vicinity of isolated thunderstorms, J. Geophys. Res., 97, D11, pp 11535-11551.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040082171&hterms=cloud+technology&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dcloud%2Btechnology','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040082171&hterms=cloud+technology&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dcloud%2Btechnology"><span>Use of Probability Distribution Functions for Discriminating Between Cloud and Aerosol in Lidar Backscatter Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Liu, Zhaoyan; Vaughan, Mark A.; Winker, Davd M.; Hostetler, Chris A.; Poole, Lamont R.; Hlavka, Dennis; Hart, William; McGill, Mathew</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>In this paper we describe the algorithm hat will be used during the upcoming Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission for discriminating between clouds and aerosols detected in two wavelength backscatter lidar profiles. We first analyze single-test and multiple-test classification approaches based on one-dimensional and multiple-dimensional probability density functions (PDFs) in the context of a two-class feature identification scheme. From these studies we derive an operational algorithm based on a set of 3-dimensional probability distribution functions characteristic of clouds and aerosols. A dataset acquired by the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) is used to test the algorithm. Comparisons are conducted between the CALIPSO algorithm results and the CPL data product. The results obtained show generally good agreement between the two methods. However, of a total of 228,264 layers analyzed, approximately 5.7% are classified as different types by the CALIPSO and CPL algorithm. This disparity is shown to be due largely to the misclassification of clouds as aerosols by the CPL algorithm. The use of 3-dimensional PDFs in the CALIPSO algorithm is found to significantly reduce this type of error. Dust presents a special case. Because the intrinsic scattering properties of dust layers can be very similar to those of clouds, additional algorithm testing was performed using an optically dense layer of Saharan dust measured during the Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE). In general, the method is shown to distinguish reliably between dust layers and clouds. The relatively few erroneous classifications occurred most often in the LITE data, in those regions of the Saharan dust layer where the optical thickness was the highest.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016SPIE.9879E..0HS','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016SPIE.9879E..0HS"><span>Lidar observation of transition of cirrus clouds over a tropical station Gadanki (13.45° N, 79.18° E): case studies</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Srinivasan, M. A.; Rao, C. Dhananjaya; Krishnaiah, M.</p> <p>2016-05-01</p> <p>The present study describes Mie lidar observations of the cirrus cloud passage showing transition between double thin layers into single thick and single thick layer into double thin layers of cirrus over Gadanki region. During Case1: 17 January 2007, Case4: 12 June 2007, Case5: 14 July 2007 and Case6: 24 July 2007 the transition is found to from two thin cirrus layers into single geometrically thick layer. Case2: 14 May 2007 and Case3: 15 May 2007, the transition is found to from single geometrically thick layer into two thin cirrus layers. Linear Depolarization Ratio (LDR) and Back Scatter Ration (BSR) are found to show similar variation with strong peaks during transition; both LDR and Cloud Optical Depth (COD) is found to show similar variation except during transition with strong peaks in COD which is not clearly found from LDR for the all cases. There is a significant weakening of zonal and meridional winds during Case1 which might be due to the transition from multiple to single thick cirrus indicating potential capability of thick cirrus in modulating the wind fields. There exists strong upward wind dominance contributed to significant ascent in cloud-base altitude thereby causing transition of multiple thin layers into single thick cirrus.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A11J0138N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A11J0138N"><span>Observed Aerosol Influence on Ice Water Content of Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Norgren, M.; de Boer, G.; Shupe, M.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>The response of ice water content (IWC) in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus to atmospheric aerosols is observed. IWC retrievals from ground based radars operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program in Barrow, Alaska are used to construct composite profiles of cloud IWC from a 9-year radar record starting in January of 2000. The IWC profiles for high (polluted) and low (clean) aerosol loadings are compared. Generally, we find that clean clouds exhibit statistically significant higher levels of IWC than do polluted clouds by a factor of 2-4 at cloud base. For springtime clouds, with a maximum relative humidity with respect to ice (RHI) above 110% in the cloud layer, the IWC at cloud base was a factor of 3.25 times higher in clean clouds than it was in polluted clouds. We infer that the aerosol loading of the cloud environment alters the liquid drop size distribution within the cloud, with larger drops being more frequent in clean clouds. Larger cloud drops promote riming within the cloud layer, which is one explanation for the higher IWC levels in clean clouds. The drop size distribution may also be a significant control of ice nucleation events within mixed-phase clouds. Whether the high IWC levels in clean clouds are due to increased riming or nucleation events is unclear at this time.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..03P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..03P"><span>Efficacy of Cloud-Radiative Perturbations in Deep Open- and Closed-Cell Stratocumulus Clouds due to Aerosol Perturbations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Possner, A.; Wang, H.; Caldeira, K.; Wood, R.; Ackerman, T. P.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACIs) in marine stratocumulus remain a significant source of uncertainty in constraining the cloud-radiative effect in a changing climate. Ship tracks are undoubted manifestations of ACIs embedded within stratocumulus cloud decks and have proven to be a useful framework to study the effect of aerosol perturbations on cloud morphology, macrophysical, microphyiscal and cloud-radiative properties. However, so far most observational (Christensen et al. 2012, Chen et al. 2015) and numerical studies (Wang et al. 2011, Possner et al. 2015, Berner et al. 2015) have concentrated on ship tracks in shallow boundary layers of depths between 300 - 800 m, while most stratocumulus decks form in significantly deeper boundary layers (Muhlbauer et al. 2014). In this study we investigate the efficacy of aerosol perturbations in deep open and closed cell stratocumulus. Multi-day idealised cloud-resolving simulations are performed for the RF06 flight of the VOCALS-Rex field campaign (Wood et al. 2011). During this flight pockets of deep open and closed cells were observed in a 1410 m deep boundary layer. The efficacy of aerosol perturbations of varied concentration and spatial gradients in altering the cloud micro- and macrophysical state and cloud-radiative effect is determined in both cloud regimes. Our simulations show that a continued point source emission flux of 1.16*1011 particles m-2 s-1 applied within a 300x300 m2 gridbox induces pronounced cloud cover changes in approximately a third of the simulated 80x80 km2 domain, a weakening of the diurnal cycle in the open-cell regime and a resulting increase in domain-mean cloud albedo of 0.2. Furthermore, we contrast the efficacy of equal strength near-surface or above-cloud aerosol perturbations in altering the cloud state.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010071592','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010071592"><span>Characterizing the Influence of the General Circulation on Marine Boundary Layer Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Rozendaal, Margaret A.; Rossow, William B.; Hansen, James E. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2001-01-01</p> <p>The seasonal and intraseasonal variability of boundary layer cloud in the subtropical eastern oceans are studied using combined data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis. Spectral analysis reveals that most of the time variability of cloud properties occurs on seasonal to annual time scales. The variance decreases one to two orders of magnitude for each decade of time scale decrease, indicating that daily to monthly time scales have smaller, but non-negligible variability. The length of these dominant time scales suggests that the majority of the variability is influenced by the general circulation and its interaction with boundary layer turbulence, rather than a product of boundary layer turbulence alone. Previous datasets have lacked the necessary resolution in either time or in space to properly characterize variability on synoptic scales; this is remedied by using global satellite-retrieved cloud properties. We characterize the intraseasonal subtropical cloud variability in both hemispheres and in different seasons. In addition to cloud fraction, we examine variability of cloud optical thickness - cloud top pressure frequency distributions. Despite the large concentration of research on the variability of Northern Hemisphere (NH) regions during summer, it is noted that the largest amplitude intraseasonal variability in the NH regions occurs during local winter. The effect of intraseasonal variability on the calculation and interpretation of seasonal results is investigated. Decreases in seasonally averaged cloud cover, optical thickness and cloud top pressure from the May-through-September season to the November-through-March season are most apparent in the NH regions. Further analysis indicates that these changes are due to an increase in frequency, but a decrease in the persistence of synoptic events. In addition, changes in cloud top pressure and optical thickness characteristics from the summer to winter seasons indicate that the NH subtropics undergo a change in dynamic regime with season. This change appears in the cloud fields as a shift from the more commonly seen lower-altitude, thicker optical thickness clouds to higher-altitude, thinner clouds. The latter cloud-type is associated with the lower sea level pressure, upward vertical velocity phase of the synoptic wave. Intraseasonal changes in cloud properties in the Southern Hemisphere and NH summer are much smaller in amplitude. Although they also appear to be linked to changes in the large-scale dynamics, similarly to NH winter variations, the relationships are more ambiguous due to the small amplitudes and longer time scales. We attempt to interpret some of these relationships using the results of the Betts and Ridgway (1989) box model. However, these results cannot consistently explain the patterns when results from all regions are considered, implying that this model may not adequately explain all the processes involved in the variability.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040074248&hterms=visa&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dvisa','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040074248&hterms=visa&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dvisa"><span>Above-Cloud Precipitable Water Retrievals using the MODIS 0.94 micron Band with Applications for Multi-Layer Cloud Detection</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Platnick, S.; Wind, G.</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>In order to perform satellite retrievals of cloud properties, it is important to account for the effect of the above-cloud atmosphere on the observations. The solar bands used in the operational MODIS Terra and Aqua cloud optical and microphysical algorithms (visible, NIR, and SWIR spectral windows) are primarily affected by water vapor, and to a lesser extent by well-mixed gases. For water vapor, the above-cloud column amount, or precipitable water, provides adequate information for an atmospheric correction; details of the vertical vapor distribution are not typically necessary for the level of correction required. Cloud-top pressure has a secondary effect due to pressure broadening influences. For well- mixed gases, cloud-top pressure is also required for estimates of above-cloud abundances. We present a method for obtaining above-cloud precipitable water over dark Ocean surfaces using the MODIS 0.94 pm vapor absorption band. The retrieval includes an iterative procedure for establishing cloud-top temperature and pressure, and is useful for both single layer water and ice clouds. Knowledge of cloud thermodynamic phase is fundamental in retrieving cloud optical and microphysical properties. However, in cases of optically thin cirrus overlapping lower water clouds, the concept of a single unique phase is ill- defined and depends, at least, on the spectral region of interest. We will present a method for multi-layer and multi-phase cloud detection which uses above-cloud precipitable water retrievals along with several existing MODIS operational cloud products (cloud-top pressure derived from a C02 slicing algorithm, IR and SWIR phase retrievals). Results are catagorized by whether the radiative signature in the MODIS solar bands is primarily that of a water cloud with ice cloud contamination, or visa-versa. Examples in polar and mid-latitude regions will be shown.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950048748&hterms=LAYER+LIMIT&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3DLAYER%2BLIMIT','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950048748&hterms=LAYER+LIMIT&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3DLAYER%2BLIMIT"><span>Modeling marine boundary-layer clouds with a two-layer model: A one-dimensional simulation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Shouping</p> <p>1993-01-01</p> <p>A two-layer model of the marine boundary layer is described. The model is used to simulate both stratocumulus and shallow cumulus clouds in downstream simulations. Over cold sea surfaces, the model predicts a relatively uniform structure in the boundary layer with 90%-100% cloud fraction. Over warm sea surfaces, the model predicts a relatively strong decoupled and conditionally unstable structure with a cloud fraction between 30% and 60%. A strong large-scale divergence considerably limits the height of the boundary layer and decreases relative humidity in the upper part of the cloud layer; thus, a low cloud fraction results. The efffects of drizzle on the boundary-layer structure and cloud fraction are also studied with downstream simulations. It is found that drizzle dries and stabilizes the cloud layer and tends to decouple the cloud from the subcloud layer. Consequently, solid stratocumulus clouds may break up and the cloud fraction may decrease because of drizzle.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=AC80-7007&hterms=many+miles+away+moon&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dmany%2Bmiles%2Baway%2Bmoon','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=AC80-7007&hterms=many+miles+away+moon&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dmany%2Bmiles%2Baway%2Bmoon"><span>Photographer : JPL Range : 12 million km. ( 7.56 million miles) P-23057C & BW This Voyager 1</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>1980-01-01</p> <p>Photographer : JPL Range : 12 million km. ( 7.56 million miles) P-23057C & BW This Voyager 1 photograph of Titan, the largest of Saturn's 14 known satellites, shows little more than the upper layers of clouds covering the moon. The orange colored haze, is believed to be composed of photochemically produced hydrocarbons, hides Titan's solid surface from Voyager's camera. Some weak shadings in the clouds are becoming visible. However, note that the satellite's southern, lower, hemisphere is brighter than the northern. It is not known whether these subtle shadings are on the surface or are due to clouds below a high haze layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A54F..03M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A54F..03M"><span>Investigating the influence of volcanic sulfate aerosol on cloud properties Along A-Train tracks</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Mace, G. G.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds are central actors in the climate system given their extensive coverage on the Earth's surface, their 1-way influence on the radiative balance (cooling), and their intimate coupling between air motions, anthropogenic and natural aerosol sources, and processes within the upper ocean mixed layer. Knowledge of how MBL shallow cumulus clouds respond to changes in aerosol is central to understanding how MBL clouds modulate the climate system. A frequent approach to investigating how sulfate aerosol influences MBL clouds has been to examine sulfate plumes extending downstream of active island volcanoes. This approach is challenging due to modification of the air motions in the plumes downstream of islands and due to the tendency of most researchers to examine only level-2 retrievals ignoring the actual data collected by sensors such as MODIS. Past studies have concluded that sulfate aerosols have large effects consistent with the 1st aerosol indirect effect (AIE). We reason that if such effects are as large as suggested in level-2 retrievals then evidence should also be present in the raw MODIS reflectance data as well as other data sources. In this paper we will build on our recently published work where we tested that hypothesis from data collected near Mount Kilauea during a 3-year period. Separating data into aerosol optical depth (A) quartiles, we found little support for a large 1st AIE response. We did find an unambiguous increase in sub 1km-scale cloud fraction with A. This increase in sub 1 km cloud fraction was entirely consistent with increased reflectance with increasing A that is used, via the level 2 retrievals, to argue for a large AIE response of MBL clouds. While the 1-km pixels became unambiguously brighter, that brightening was due to increased sub 1 km cloud fraction and not necessarily due to changes in pixel-level cloud microphysics. We also found that MBL cloud top heights increase as do surface wind speeds as aerosol increases while the radar reflectivity from CloudSat does not change implying that increased aerosols may have caused invigoration of the MBL clouds with little effect on precipitation. We have since expanded upon this initial analysis by exmaining data near other volcanic islands. These expanded results support our initial findings.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950045760&hterms=Avion&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3DAvion','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950045760&hterms=Avion&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3DAvion"><span>Cloud layer thicknesses from a combination of surface and upper-air observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Poore, Kirk D.; Wang, Junhong; Rossow, William B.</p> <p>1995-01-01</p> <p>Cloud layer thicknesses are derived from base and top altitudes by combining 14 years (1975-1988) of surface and upper-air observations at 63 sites in the Northern Hemisphere. Rawinsonde observations are employed to determine the locations of cloud-layer top and base by testing for dewpoint temperature depressions below some threshold value. Surface observations serve as quality checks on the rawinsonde-determined cloud properties and provide cloud amount and cloud-type information. The dataset provides layer-cloud amount, cloud type, high, middle, or low height classes, cloud-top heights, base heights and layer thicknesses, covering a range of latitudes from 0 deg to 80 deg N. All data comes from land sites: 34 are located in continental interiors, 14 are near coasts, and 15 are on islands. The uncertainties in the derived cloud properties are discussed. For clouds classified by low-, mid-, and high-top altitudes, there are strong latitudinal and seasonal variations in the layer thickness only for high clouds. High-cloud layer thickness increases with latitude and exhibits different seasonal variations in different latitude zones: in summer, high-cloud layer thickness is a maximum in the Tropics but a minimum at high latitudes. For clouds classified into three types by base altitude or into six standard morphological types, latitudinal and seasonal variations in layer thickness are very small. The thickness of the clear surface layer decreases with latitude and reaches a summer minimum in the Tropics and summer maximum at higher latitudes over land, but does not vary much over the ocean. Tropical clouds occur in three base-altitude groups and the layer thickness of each group increases linearly with top altitude. Extratropical clouds exhibit two groups, one with layer thickness proportional to their cloud-top altitude and one with small (less than or equal to 1000 m) layer thickness independent of cloud-top altitude.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730043657&hterms=layers+atmosphere&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dlayers%2Batmosphere','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19730043657&hterms=layers+atmosphere&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dlayers%2Batmosphere"><span>Does spectroscopic evidence require two scattering layers in the Venus atmosphere.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Regas, J. L.; Boese, R. W.; Giver, L. P.; Miller, J. H.</p> <p>1973-01-01</p> <p>Comments on Hunt's (1972) conclusion that the phase variation of lines in the 7820- and 7883-A CO2 bands is due to the presence of two scattering layers in the Venusian atmosphere. It is shown that the increase of equivalent width with phase between 0 and 90 deg noted by Hunt in the data by Gray Young et al. (1971) does not necessarily require a two-layer model of scattering in the Venusian atmosphere and that this increase may be due to the strong backward lobe in the Venusian cloud phase function. Hunt, in a reply, notes that Regas et al. incorrectly use in their analysis Hansen's (1969) data which are for a homogeneous planetary atmosphere, while Hunt used an inhomogeneous model of the Venusian atmosphere. In addition, further evidence to support Hunt's claim for a multilayered structure of the upper Venusian clouds is presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.2878H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.2878H"><span>Assessing the accuracy of MISR and MISR-simulated cloud top heights using CloudSat- and CALIPSO-retrieved hydrometeor profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Hillman, Benjamin R.; Marchand, Roger T.; Ackerman, Thomas P.; Mace, Gerald G.; Benson, Sally</p> <p>2017-03-01</p> <p>Satellite retrievals of cloud properties are often used in the evaluation of global climate models, and in recent years satellite instrument simulators have been used to account for known retrieval biases in order to make more consistent comparisons between models and retrievals. Many of these simulators have seen little critical evaluation. Here we evaluate the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) simulator by using visible extinction profiles retrieved from a combination of CloudSat, CALIPSO, MODIS, and AMSR-E observations as inputs to the MISR simulator and comparing cloud top height statistics from the MISR simulator with those retrieved by MISR. Overall, we find that the occurrence of middle- and high-altitude topped clouds agrees well between MISR retrievals and the MISR-simulated output, with distributions of middle- and high-topped cloud cover typically agreeing to better than 5% in both zonal and regional averages. However, there are significant differences in the occurrence of low-topped clouds between MISR retrievals and MISR-simulated output that are due to differences in the detection of low-level clouds between MISR and the combined retrievals used to drive the MISR simulator, rather than due to errors in the MISR simulator cloud top height adjustment. This difference highlights the importance of sensor resolution and boundary layer cloud spatial structure in determining low-altitude cloud cover. The MISR-simulated and MISR-retrieved cloud optical depth also show systematic differences, which are also likely due in part to cloud spatial structure.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1052947-impact-natural-anthropogenic-aerosols-stratocumulus-precipitation-southeast-pacific-regional-modelling-study-using-wrf-chem','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1052947-impact-natural-anthropogenic-aerosols-stratocumulus-precipitation-southeast-pacific-regional-modelling-study-using-wrf-chem"><span>Impact of natural and anthropogenic aerosols on stratocumulus and precipitation in the Southeast Pacific: a regional modelling study using WRF-Chem</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Yang, Q.; Gustafson, W. I.; Fast, J. D.</p> <p>2012-09-28</p> <p>Cloud-system resolving simulations with the chemistry version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Chem) model are used to quantify the relative impacts of regional anthropogenic and oceanic emissions on changes in aerosol properties, cloud macro- and microphysics, and cloud radiative forcing over the Southeast Pacific (SEP) during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) (15 October–16 November 2008). Two distinct regions are identified. The near-coast polluted region is characterized by low surface precipitation rates, the strong suppression of non-sea-salt particle activation due to sea-salt particles, a predominant albedo effect in aerosol indirect effects, and limited impact of aerosols associated withmore » anthropogenic emissions on clouds. Opposite sensitivities to natural marine and anthropogenic aerosol perturbations are seen in cloud properties (e.g., cloud optical depth and cloud-top and cloud-base heights), precipitation, and the top-of-atmosphere and surface shortwave fluxes over this region. The relatively clean remote region is characterized by large contributions of aerosols from non-regional sources (lateral boundaries) and much stronger drizzle at the surface. Under a scenario of five-fold increase in regional anthropogenic emissions, this relatively clean region shows large cloud responses, for example, a 13% increase in cloud-top height and a 9% increase in albedo in response to a moderate increase (25% of the reference case) in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration. The reduction of precipitation due to this increase in anthropogenic aerosols more than doubles the aerosol lifetime in the clean marine boundary layer. Therefore, the aerosol impacts on precipitation are amplified by the positive feedback of precipitation on aerosol, which ultimately alters the cloud micro- and macro-physical properties, leading to strong aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. The high sensitivity is also related to an increase in cloud-top entrainment rate (by 16% at night) due to the increased anthropogenic aerosols. The simulated aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions due to the increased anthropogenic aerosols have a stronger diurnal cycle over the clean region compared to the near-coast region with stronger interactions at night. During the day, solar heating results in more frequent decoupling of the cloud and sub-cloud layers, thinner clouds, reduced precipitation, and reduced sensitivity to the increase in anthropogenic emissions. This study shows the importance of natural aerosols in accurately quantifying anthropogenic forcing within a regional modeling framework. Finally, the results of this study also imply that the energy balance perturbations from increased anthropogenic emissions are larger in the more susceptible clean environment than in already polluted environment and are larger than possible from the first indirect effect alone.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmRe.164...99L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmRe.164...99L"><span>Influence of cloud fraction and snow cover to the variation of surface UV radiation at King Sejong station, Antarctica</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lee, Yun Gon; Koo, Ja-Ho; Kim, Jhoon</p> <p>2015-10-01</p> <p>This study investigated how cloud fraction and snow cover affect the variation of surface ultraviolet (UV) radiation by using surface Erythemal UV (EUV) and Near UV (NUV) observed at the King Sejong Station, Antarctica. First the Radiative Amplification Factor (RAF), the relative change of surface EUV according to the total-column ozone amount, is compared for different cloud fractions and solar zenith angles (SZAs). Generally, all cloudy conditions show that the increase of RAF as SZA becomes larger, showing the larger effects of vertical columnar ozone. For given SZA cases, the EUV transmission through mean cloud layer gradually decreases as cloud fraction increases, but sometimes the maximum of surface EUV appears under partly cloudy conditions. The high surface EUV transmittance under broken cloud conditions seems due to the re-radiation of scattered EUV by cloud particles. NUV transmission through mean cloud layer also decreases as cloud amount increases but the sensitivity to the cloud fraction is larger than EUV. Both EUV and NUV radiations at the surface are also enhanced by the snow cover, and their enhancement becomes higher as SZA increases implying the diurnal variation of surface albedo. This effect of snow cover seems large under the overcast sky because of the stronger interaction between snow surface and cloudy sky.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19750014904','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19750014904"><span>Parametric studies with an atmospheric diffusion model that assesses toxic fuel hazards due to the ground clouds generated by rocket launches</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Stewart, R. B.; Grose, W. L.</p> <p>1975-01-01</p> <p>Parametric studies were made with a multilayer atmospheric diffusion model to place quantitative limits on the uncertainty of predicting ground-level toxic rocket-fuel concentrations. Exhaust distributions in the ground cloud, cloud stabilized geometry, atmospheric coefficients, the effects of exhaust plume afterburning of carbon monoxide CO, assumed surface mixing-layer division in the model, and model sensitivity to different meteorological regimes were studied. Large-scale differences in ground-level predictions are quantitatively described. Cloud alongwind growth for several meteorological conditions is shown to be in error because of incorrect application of previous diffusion theory. In addition, rocket-plume calculations indicate that almost all of the rocket-motor carbon monoxide is afterburned to carbon dioxide CO2, thus reducing toxic hazards due to CO. The afterburning is also shown to have a significant effect on cloud stabilization height and on ground-level concentrations of exhaust products.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017NatGe..10..652S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017NatGe..10..652S"><span>Snow precipitation on Mars driven by cloud-induced night-time convection</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Spiga, Aymeric; Hinson, David P.; Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste; Navarro, Thomas; Millour, Ehouarn; Forget, François; Montmessin, Franck</p> <p>2017-09-01</p> <p>Although it contains less water vapour than Earth's atmosphere, the Martian atmosphere hosts clouds. These clouds, composed of water-ice particles, influence the global transport of water vapour and the seasonal variations of ice deposits. However, the influence of water-ice clouds on local weather is unclear: it is thought that Martian clouds are devoid of moist convective motions, and snow precipitation occurs only by the slow sedimentation of individual particles. Here we present numerical simulations of the meteorology in Martian cloudy regions that demonstrate that localized convective snowstorms can occur on Mars. We show that such snowstorms--or ice microbursts--can explain deep night-time mixing layers detected from orbit and precipitation signatures detected below water-ice clouds by the Phoenix lander. In our simulations, convective snowstorms occur only during the Martian night, and result from atmospheric instability due to radiative cooling of water-ice cloud particles. This triggers strong convective plumes within and below clouds, with fast snow precipitation resulting from the vigorous descending currents. Night-time convection in Martian water-ice clouds and the associated snow precipitation lead to transport of water both above and below the mixing layers, and thus would affect Mars' water cycle past and present, especially under the high-obliquity conditions associated with a more intense water cycle.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A42F..01M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A42F..01M"><span>The Dependence of Homo- and Heterogeneously Formed Cirrus Clouds on Latitude, Season and Surface-type based on a New CALIPSO Remote Sensing Method</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Mitchell, D. L.; Garnier, A.; Mejia, J.; Avery, M. A.; Erfani, E.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>A new CALIPSO infrared retrieval method sensitive to small ice crystals has been developed to measure the temperature dependence of the layer-average number concentration N, effective diameter De and ice water content in single-layer cirrus clouds (one cloud layer in the atmospheric column) that have optical depths between 0.3 and 3.0 and cloud base temperature T < 235 K. While retrievals of low N are not accurate, mid-to-high N can be retrieved with much lower uncertainty. This enables the retrieval to estimate the dominant ice nucleation mechanism (homo- or heterogeneous, henceforth hom and het) though which the cirrus formed. Based on N, hom or het cirrus can be estimated as a function of temperature, season, latitude and surface type. The retrieved properties noted above compare favorably with spatial-temporal coincident cirrus cloud in situ measurements from SPARTICUS case studies as well as the extensive in situ cirrus data set of Krämer et al. (2009, ACP). For our cirrus cloud selection, these retrievals show a pronounced seasonal cycle in the N. Hemisphere over land north of 30°N latitude in terms of both cloud amount and microphysics, with greater cloud cover, higher N and smaller De during the winter season. We postulate that this is partially due to the seasonal cycle of deep convection that replenishes the supply of ice nuclei (IN) at cirrus levels, with hom more likely when deep convection is absent. Over oceans, heterogeneous ice nucleation appears to prevail based on the lower N and higher De observed. Due to the relatively smooth ocean surface, lower amplitude atmospheric waves at cirrus cloud levels are expected. Over land outside the tropics during winter, hom cirrus tend to occur over mountainous terrain, possibly due to lower IN concentrations and stronger, more sustained updrafts in mountain-induced waves. Over pristine Antarctica, IN concentrations are minimal and the terrain near the coast is often high and rugged, allowing hom to dominate. Accordingly, over Antarctica cirrus clouds exhibit relatively high N and small De throughout the year. These retrievals allow us to parameterize De and the ice fall speed in CAM5 as a function of T, season, latitude and surface-type. Our goal is to estimate the radiative impact of hom cirrus north of 30°N latitude in winter relative to het cirrus before the AGU Fall Meeting.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>1</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_2");'>2</a></li> <li class="active"><span>3</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_3 --> <div id="page_4" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_2");'>2</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_3");'>3</a></li> <li class="active"><span>4</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="61"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A23A0182V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A23A0182V"><span>Evaluation of multi-layer cloud detection based on MODIS CO2-slicing algorithm with CALIPSO-CloudSat measurements.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Viudez-Mora, A.; Kato, S.; Smith, W. L., Jr.; Chang, F. L.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Knowledge of the vertical cloud distribution is important for a variety of climate and weather applications. The cloud overlapping variations greatly influence the atmospheric heating/cooling rates, with implications for the surface-troposphere radiative balance, global circulation and precipitation. Additionally, an accurate knowledge of the multi-layer cloud distribution in real-time can be used in applications such safety condition for aviation through storms and adverse weather conditions. In this study, we evaluate a multi-layered cloud algorithm (Chang et al. 2005) based on MODIS measurements aboard Aqua satellite (MCF). This algorithm uses the CO2-slicing technique combined with cloud properties determined from VIS, IR and NIR channels to locate high thin clouds over low-level clouds, and retrieve the τ of each layer. We use CALIPSO (Winker et. al, 2010) and CloudSat (Stephens et. al, 2002) (CLCS) derived cloud vertical profiles included in the C3M data product (Kato et al. 2010) to evaluate MCF derived multi-layer cloud properties. We focus on 2 layer overlapping and 1-layer clouds identified by the active sensors and investigate how well these systems are identified by the MODIS multi-layer technique. The results show that for these multi-layered clouds identified by CLCS, the MCF correctly identifies about 83% of the cases as multi-layer. However, it is found that the upper CTH is underestimated by about 2.6±0.4 km, because the CO2-slicing technique is not as sensitive to the cloud physical top as the CLCS. The lower CTH agree better with differences found to be about 1.2±0.5 km. Another outstanding issue for the MCF approach is the large number of multi-layer false alarms that occur in single-layer conditions. References: Chang, F.-L., and Z. Li, 2005: A new method for detection of cirrus overlapping water clouds and determination of their optical properties. J. Atmos. Sci., 62. Kato, S., et al. (2010), Relationships among cloud occurrence frequency, overlap, and effective thickness derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat merged cloud vertical profiles, J. Geophys. Res., 115. Stephens, G. L., et al. (2002), The CloudSat mission and A-Train, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83. Winker, D. M., et al., 2010: The CALIPSO Mission: A global 3D view of aerosols and clouds. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 91.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACP....13.2507P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACP....13.2507P"><span>A comparative study of the response of modeled non-drizzling stratocumulus to meteorological and aerosol perturbations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Petters, J. L.; Jiang, H.; Feingold, G.; Rossiter, D. L.; Khelif, D.; Sloan, L. C.; Chuang, P. Y.</p> <p>2013-03-01</p> <p>The impact of changes in aerosol and cloud droplet concentration (Na and Nd) on the radiative forcing of stratocumulus-topped boundary layers (STBLs) has been widely studied. How these impacts compare to those due to variations in meteorological context has not been investigated in a systematic fashion for non-drizzling overcast stratocumulus. In this study we examine the impact of observed variations in meteorological context and aerosol state on daytime, non-drizzling overcast stratiform evolution, and determine how resulting changes in cloud properties compare. Using large-eddy simulation (LES) we create a model base case of daytime southeast Pacific coastal stratocumulus, spanning a portion of the diurnal cycle (early morning to near noon) and constrained by observations taken during the VOCALS (VAMOS Ocean-Atmosphere-Land Study) field campaign. We perturb aerosol and meteorological properties around this base case to investigate the stratocumulus response. We determine perturbations in the cloud top jumps in potential temperature θ and total water mixing ratio qt from ECMWF Re-analysis Interim data, and use a set of Nd values spanning the observable range. To determine the cloud response to these meteorological and aerosol perturbations, we compute changes in liquid water path (LWP), bulk optical depth (τ) and cloud radiative forcing (CRF). We find that realistic variations in the thermodynamic jump properties can elicit a response in the cloud properties of τ and shortwave (SW) CRF that are on the same order of magnitude as the response found due to realistic changes in aerosol state (i.e Nd). In response to increases in Nd, the cloud layer in the base case thinned due to increases in evaporative cooling and entrainment rate. This cloud thinning somewhat mitigates the increase in τ resulting from increases in Nd. On the other hand, variations in θ and qt jumps did not substantially modify Nd. The cloud layer thickens in response to an increase in the θ jump and thins in response to an increase in the qt jump, both resulting in a τ and SW CRF response comparable to those found from perturbations in Nd. Longwave CRF was not substantially altered by the perturbations we tested. We find that realistic variations in meteorological context can elicit a response in CRF and τ on the same order of magnitude as, and at times larger than, that response found due to realistic changes in aerosol state. We estimate the limits on variability of cloud top jump properties required for accurate observation of aerosol SW radiative impacts on stratocumulus, and find strict constraints: less than 1 K and 1 g kg-1 in the early morning hours, and order 0.1 K and 0.1 g kg-1 close to solar noon. These constraints suggest that accurately observing aerosol radiative impacts in stratocumulus may be challenging as co-variation of meteorological properties may obfuscate aerosol-cloud interactions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A33F0303D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A33F0303D"><span>A Fast Hyperspectral Vector Radiative Transfer Model in UV to IR spectral bands</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ding, J.; Yang, P.; Sun, B.; Kattawar, G. W.; Platnick, S. E.; Meyer, K.; Wang, C.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>We develop a fast hyperspectral vector radiative transfer model with a spectral range from UV to IR with 5 nm resolutions. This model can simulate top of the atmosphere (TOA) diffuse radiance and polarized reflectance by considering gas absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and aerosol and cloud scattering. The absorption component considers several major atmospheric absorbers such as water vapor, CO2, O3, and O2 including both line and continuum absorptions. A regression-based method is used to parameterize the layer effective optical thickness for each gas, which substantially increases the computation efficiency for absorption while maintaining high accuracy. This method is over 500 times faster than the existing line-by-line method. The scattering component uses the successive order of scattering (SOS) method. For Rayleigh scattering, convergence is fast due to the small optical thickness of atmospheric gases. For cloud and aerosol layers, a small-angle approximation method is used in SOS calculations. The scattering process is divided into two parts, a forward part and a diffuse part. The scattering in the small-angle range in the forward direction is approximated as forward scattering. A cloud or aerosol layer is divided into thin layers. As the ray propagates through each thin layer, a portion diverges as diffuse radiation, while the remainder continues propagating in forward direction. The computed diffuse radiance is the sum of all of the diffuse parts. The small-angle approximation makes the SOS calculation converge rapidly even in a thick cloud layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/940809','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/940809"><span>A High Resolution Hydrometer Phase Classifier Based on Analysis of Cloud Radar Doppler Spectra.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Luke,E.; Kollias, P.</p> <p>2007-08-06</p> <p>The lifecycle and radiative properties of clouds are highly sensitive to the phase of their hydrometeors (i.e., liquid or ice). Knowledge of cloud phase is essential for specifying the optical properties of clouds, or else, large errors can be introduced in the calculation of the cloud radiative fluxes. Current parameterizations of cloud water partition in liquid and ice based on temperature are characterized by large uncertainty (Curry et al., 1996; Hobbs and Rangno, 1998; Intriery et al., 2002). This is particularly important in high geographical latitudes and temperature ranges where both liquid droplets and ice crystal phases can exist (mixed-phasemore » cloud). The mixture of phases has a large effect on cloud radiative properties, and the parameterization of mixed-phase clouds has a large impact on climate simulations (e.g., Gregory and Morris, 1996). Furthermore, the presence of both ice and liquid affects the macroscopic properties of clouds, including their propensity to precipitate. Despite their importance, mixed-phase clouds are severely understudied compared to the arguably simpler single-phase clouds. In-situ measurements in mixed-phase clouds are hindered due to aircraft icing, difficulties distinguishing hydrometeor phase, and discrepancies in methods for deriving physical quantities (Wendisch et al. 1996, Lawson et al. 2001). Satellite-based retrievals of cloud phase in high latitudes are often hindered by the highly reflecting ice-covered ground and persistent temperature inversions. From the ground, the retrieval of mixed-phase cloud properties has been the subject of extensive research over the past 20 years using polarization lidars (e.g., Sassen et al. 1990), dual radar wavelengths (e.g., Gosset and Sauvageot 1992; Sekelsky and McIntosh, 1996), and recently radar Doppler spectra (Shupe et al. 2004). Millimeter-wavelength radars have substantially improved our ability to observe non-precipitating clouds (Kollias et al., 2007) due to their excellent sensitivity that enables the detection of thin cloud layers and their ability to penetrate several non-precipitating cloud layers. However, in mixed-phase clouds conditions, the observed Doppler moments are dominated by the highly reflecting ice crystals and thus can not be used to identify the cloud phase. This limits our ability to identify the spatial distribution of cloud phase and our ability to identify the conditions under which mixed-phase clouds form.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28759725','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28759725"><span>Strong Deformation of the Thick Electric Double Layer around a Charged Particle during Sedimentation or Electrophoresis.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Khair, Aditya S</p> <p>2018-01-23</p> <p>The deformation of the electric double layer around a charged colloidal particle during sedimentation or electrophoresis in a binary, symmetric electrolyte is studied. The surface potential of the particle is assumed to be small compared to the thermal voltage scale. Additionally, the Debye length is assumed to be large compared to the particle size. These assumptions enable a linearization of the electrokinetic equations. The particle appears as a point charge in this thick-double-layer limit; the distribution of charge in the diffuse cloud surrounding it is determined by a balance of advection due to the particle motion, Brownian diffusion of ions, and electrostatic screening of the particle by the cloud. The ability of advection to deform the charge cloud from its equilibrium state is parametrized by a Péclet number, Pe. For weak advection (Pe ≪ 1), the cloud is only slightly deformed. In contrast, the cloud can be completely stripped from the particle at Pe ≫ 1; consequently, electrokinetic effects on the particle motion vanish in this regime. Therefore, in sedimentation the drag limits to Stokes' law for an uncharged particle as Pe → ∞. Likewise, the particle velocity for electrophoresis approaches Huckel's result. The strongly deformed cloud at large Pe is predicted to generate a concomitant increase in the sedimentation field in a dilute settling suspension.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA00602.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA00602.html"><span>E4 True and False Color Hot Spot Mosaic</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>1998-03-06</p> <p>True and false color views of Jupiter from NASA's Galileo spacecraft show an equatorial "hotspot" on Jupiter. These images cover an area 34,000 kilometers by 11,000 kilometers (about 21,100 by 6,800 miles). The top mosaic combines the violet and near infrared continuum filter images to create an image similar to how Jupiter would appear to human eyes. Differences in coloration are due to the composition and abundances of trace chemicals in Jupiter's atmosphere. The bottom mosaic uses Galileo's three near-infrared wavelengths displayed in red, green, and blue) to show variations in cloud height and thickness. Bluish clouds are high and thin, reddish clouds are low, and white clouds are high and thick. The dark blue hotspot in the center is a hole in the deep cloud with an overlying thin haze. The light blue region to the left is covered by a very high haze layer. The multicolored region to the right has overlapping cloud layers of different heights. Galileo is the first spacecraft to distinguish cloud layers on Jupiter. North is at the top. The mosaic covers latitudes 1 to 10 degrees and is centered at longitude 336 degrees west. The smallest resolved features are tens of kilometers in size. These images were taken on December 17, 1996, at a range of 1.5 million kilometers (about 930,000 miles) by the Solid State Imaging camera system aboard Galileo. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00602</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACPD...1529347P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACPD...1529347P"><span>Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Pistone, K.; Praveen, P. S.; Thomas, R. M.; Ramanathan, V.; Wilcox, E.; Bender, F. A.-M.</p> <p>2015-10-01</p> <p>There are many contributing factors which determine the micro- and macrophysical properties of clouds, including atmospheric structure, dominant meteorological conditions, and aerosol concentration, all of which may be coupled to one another. In the quest to determine aerosol effects on clouds, these potential relationships must be understood, as changes in atmospheric conditions due to aerosol may change the expected magnitude of indirect effects by altering cloud properties in unexpected ways. Here we describe several observed correlations between aerosol conditions and cloud and atmospheric properties in the Indian Ocean winter monsoon season. In the CARDEX (Cloud, Aerosol, Radiative forcing, Dynamics EXperiment) field campaign conducted in February and March 2012 in the northern Indian Ocean, continuous measurements of atmospheric precipitable water vapor and the liquid water path (LWP) of trade cumulus clouds were made, concurrent with measurements of water vapor flux, cloud and aerosol vertical profiles, meteorological data, and surface and total-column aerosol. Here we present evidence of a positive correlation between aerosol and cloud LWP which becomes clear after the data are filtered to control for the natural meteorological variability in the region. We then use the aircraft and ground observatory measurements to explore the mechanisms behind the observed aerosol-LWP correlation. We determine that increased boundary-layer humidity lowering the cloud base is responsible for the observed increase in cloud liquid water. Large-scale analysis indicates that high pollution cases originate with a highly-polluted boundary layer air mass approaching the observatory from a northwesterly direction. This polluted mass exhibits higher temperatures and humidity than the clean case, the former of which may be attributable to heating due to aerosol absorption of solar radiation over the subcontinent. While high temperature conditions dispersed along with the high-aerosol anomaly, the high humidity condition was observed to instead develop along with the polluted air mass. We then explore potential causal mechanisms of the observed correlations, though future research will be needed to more fully describe the aerosol-humidity relationship.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338608','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1338608"><span>CGILS Phase 2 LES intercomparison of response of subtropical marine low cloud regimes to CO 2 quadrupling and a CMIP3 composite forcing change: Large eddy simulation of cloud feedbacks</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Blossey, Peter N.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Cheng, Anning</p> <p></p> <p>We extended Phase 1 of the CGILS large-eddy simulation (LES) intercomparison in order to understand if subtropical marine boundary-layer clouds respond to idealized climate perturbations consistently in six LES models. Here the responses to quadrupled carbon dioxide (“fast adjustment”) and to a composite climate perturbation representative of CMIP3 multimodel mean 2×CO 2 near-equilibrium conditions are analyzed. As in Phase 1, the LES is run to equilibrium using specified steady summertime forcings representative of three locations in the Northeast Pacific Ocean in shallow well-mixed stratocumulus, decoupled stratocumulus, and shallow cumulus cloud regimes. Our results are generally consistent with a single-LES studymore » of Bretherton et al. (2013) on which this intercomparison was based. Both quadrupled CO 2 and the composite climate perturbation result in less cloud and a shallower boundary layer for all models in well-mixed stratocumulus and for all but a single LES in decoupled stratocumulus and shallow cumulus, corroborating similar findings from global climate models (GCMs). For both perturbations, the amount of cloud reduction varies across the models, but there is less intermodel scatter than in GCMs. Furthermore, the cloud radiative effect changes are much larger in the stratocumulus-capped regimes than in the shallow cumulus regime, for which precipitation buffering may damp the cloud response. In the decoupled stratocumulus and cumulus regimes, both the CO 2 increase and CMIP3 perturbations reduce boundary-layer decoupling, due to the shallowing of inversion height.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1338608-cgils-phase-les-intercomparison-response-subtropical-marine-low-cloud-regimes-co-quadrupling-cmip3-composite-forcing-change-large-eddy-simulation-cloud-feedbacks','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1338608-cgils-phase-les-intercomparison-response-subtropical-marine-low-cloud-regimes-co-quadrupling-cmip3-composite-forcing-change-large-eddy-simulation-cloud-feedbacks"><span>CGILS Phase 2 LES intercomparison of response of subtropical marine low cloud regimes to CO 2 quadrupling and a CMIP3 composite forcing change: Large eddy simulation of cloud feedbacks</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Blossey, Peter N.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Cheng, Anning; ...</p> <p>2016-10-27</p> <p>We extended Phase 1 of the CGILS large-eddy simulation (LES) intercomparison in order to understand if subtropical marine boundary-layer clouds respond to idealized climate perturbations consistently in six LES models. Here the responses to quadrupled carbon dioxide (“fast adjustment”) and to a composite climate perturbation representative of CMIP3 multimodel mean 2×CO 2 near-equilibrium conditions are analyzed. As in Phase 1, the LES is run to equilibrium using specified steady summertime forcings representative of three locations in the Northeast Pacific Ocean in shallow well-mixed stratocumulus, decoupled stratocumulus, and shallow cumulus cloud regimes. Our results are generally consistent with a single-LES studymore » of Bretherton et al. (2013) on which this intercomparison was based. Both quadrupled CO 2 and the composite climate perturbation result in less cloud and a shallower boundary layer for all models in well-mixed stratocumulus and for all but a single LES in decoupled stratocumulus and shallow cumulus, corroborating similar findings from global climate models (GCMs). For both perturbations, the amount of cloud reduction varies across the models, but there is less intermodel scatter than in GCMs. Furthermore, the cloud radiative effect changes are much larger in the stratocumulus-capped regimes than in the shallow cumulus regime, for which precipitation buffering may damp the cloud response. In the decoupled stratocumulus and cumulus regimes, both the CO 2 increase and CMIP3 perturbations reduce boundary-layer decoupling, due to the shallowing of inversion height.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1236497','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1236497"><span>Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) Final Campaign Report</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Wood, R.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>The extensive coverage of low clouds over the subtropical eastern oceans greatly impacts the current climate. In addition, the response of low clouds to changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols is a major source of uncertainty, which thwarts accurate prediction of future climate change. Low clouds are poorly simulated in climate models, partly due to inadequate long-term simultaneous observations of their macrophysical and microphysical structure, radiative effects, and associated aerosol distribution in regions where their impact is greatest. The thickness and extent of subtropical low clouds is dependent on tight couplings between surface fluxes of heat and moisture, radiativemore » cooling, boundary layer turbulence, and precipitation (much of which evaporates before reaching the ocean surface and is closely connected to the abundance of cloud condensation nuclei). These couplings have been documented as a result of past field programs and model studies. However, extensive research is still required to achieve a quantitative understanding sufficient for developing parameterizations, which adequately predict aerosol indirect effects and low cloud response to climate perturbations. This is especially true of the interactions between clouds, aerosol, and precipitation. These processes take place in an ever-changing synoptic environment that can confound interpretation of short time period observations.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22390732-estimation-cloud-transmittance-from-radiometric-measurements-ground-level','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22390732-estimation-cloud-transmittance-from-radiometric-measurements-ground-level"><span>Estimation of the cloud transmittance from radiometric measurements at the ground level</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Costa, Dario; Mares, Oana, E-mail: mareshoana@yahoo.com</p> <p>2014-11-24</p> <p>The extinction of solar radiation due to the clouds is more significant than due to any other atmospheric constituent, but it is always difficult to be modeled because of the random distribution of clouds on the sky. Moreover, the transmittance of a layer of clouds is in a very complex relation with their type and depth. A method for estimating cloud transmittance was proposed in Paulescu et al. (Energ. Convers. Manage, 75 690–697, 2014). The approach is based on the hypothesis that the structure of the cloud covering the sun at a time moment does not change significantly in amore » short time interval (several minutes). Thus, the cloud transmittance can be calculated as the estimated coefficient of a simple linear regression for the computed versus measured solar irradiance in a time interval Δt. The aim of this paper is to optimize the length of the time interval Δt. Radiometric data measured on the Solar Platform of the West University of Timisoara during 2010 at a frequency of 1/15 seconds are used in this study.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AIPC.1634..151C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AIPC.1634..151C"><span>Estimation of the cloud transmittance from radiometric measurements at the ground level</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Costa, Dario; Mares, Oana</p> <p>2014-11-01</p> <p>The extinction of solar radiation due to the clouds is more significant than due to any other atmospheric constituent, but it is always difficult to be modeled because of the random distribution of clouds on the sky. Moreover, the transmittance of a layer of clouds is in a very complex relation with their type and depth. A method for estimating cloud transmittance was proposed in Paulescu et al. (Energ. Convers. Manage, 75 690-697, 2014). The approach is based on the hypothesis that the structure of the cloud covering the sun at a time moment does not change significantly in a short time interval (several minutes). Thus, the cloud transmittance can be calculated as the estimated coefficient of a simple linear regression for the computed versus measured solar irradiance in a time interval Δt. The aim of this paper is to optimize the length of the time interval Δt. Radiometric data measured on the Solar Platform of the West University of Timisoara during 2010 at a frequency of 1/15 seconds are used in this study.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040079735','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040079735"><span>Deep Convective Cloud Top Heights and Their Thermodynamic Control During CRYSTAL-FACE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Sherwood, Steven C.; Minnis, Patrick; McGill, Matthew</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>Infrared (11 micron) radiances from GOES-8 and local radiosonde profiles, collected during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) in July 2002, are used to assess the vertical distribution of Florida-area deep convective cloud top height and test predictions as to its variation based on parcel theory. The highest infrared tops (Z(sub 11)) reached approximately to the cold point, though there is at least a 1-km uncertainty due to unknown cloud-environment temperature differences. Since lidar shows that visible 'tops' are 1 km or more above Z(sub 11), visible cloud tops frequently penetrated the lapse-rate tropopause (approx. 15 km). Further, since lofted ice content may be present up to approx. 1 km above the visible tops, lofting of moisture through the mean cold point (15.4 km) was probably common. Morning clouds, and those near Key West, rarely penetrated the tropopause. Non-entraining parcel theory (i.e., CAPE) does not successfully explain either of these results, but can explain some of the day-to-day variations in cloud top height over the peninsula. Further, moisture variations above the boundary layer account for most of the day-today variability not explained by CAPE, especially over the oceans. In all locations, a 20% increase in mean mixing ratio between 750 and 500 hPa was associated with about 1 km deeper maximum cloud penetration relative to the neutral level. These results suggest that parcel theory may be useful for predicting changes in cumulus cloud height over time, but that parcel entrainment must be taken into account even for the tallest clouds. Accordingly, relative humidity above the boundary layer may exert some control on the height of the tropical troposphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..12211131L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..12211131L"><span>Impact of In-Cloud Aqueous Processes on the Chemistry and Transport of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Li, Yang; Barth, Mary C.; Patton, Edward G.; Steiner, Allison L.</p> <p>2017-10-01</p> <p>We investigate the impacts of cloud aqueous processes on the chemistry and transport of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) using the National Center for Atmospheric Research's large-eddy simulation code with an updated chemical mechanism that includes both gas- and aqueous-phase reactions. We simulate transport and chemistry for a meteorological case with a diurnal pattern of nonprecipitating cumulus clouds from the Baltimore-Washington area DISCOVER-AQ campaign. We evaluate two scenarios with and without aqueous-phase chemical reactions. In the cloud layer (2-3 km), the addition of aqueous phase reactions decreases HCHO by 18% over the domain due to its solubility and the fast depletion from aqueous reactions, resulting in a corresponding decrease in radical oxidants (e.g., 18% decrease in OH). The decrease of OH increases the mixing ratios of isoprene and methacrolein (MACR) (100% and 15%, respectively) in the cloud layer because the reaction rate is lower. Aqueous-phase reactions can modify the segregation between OH and BVOC by changing the sign of the segregation intensity, causing up to 55% reduction in the isoprene-OH reaction rate and 40% reduction for the MACR-OH reaction when clouds are present. Analysis of the isoprene-OH covariance budget shows the chemistry term is the primary driver of the strong segregation in clouds, triggered by the decrease in OH. All organic acids except acetic acid are formed only through aqueous-phase reactions. For acids formed in the aqueous phase, turbulence mixes these compounds on short time scales, with the near-surface mixing ratios of these acids reaching 20% of the mixing ratios in the cloud layer within 1 h of cloud formation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28667308','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28667308"><span>Enhanced PM2.5 pollution in China due to aerosol-cloud interactions.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Zhao, Bin; Liou, Kuo-Nan; Gu, Yu; Li, Qinbin; Jiang, Jonathan H; Su, Hui; He, Cenlin; Tseng, Hsien-Liang R; Wang, Shuxiao; Liu, Run; Qi, Ling; Lee, Wei-Liang; Hao, Jiming</p> <p>2017-06-30</p> <p>Aerosol-cloud interactions (aerosol indirect effects) play an important role in regional meteorological variations, which could further induce feedback on regional air quality. While the impact of aerosol-cloud interactions on meteorology and climate has been extensively studied, their feedback on air quality remains unclear. Using a fully coupled meteorology-chemistry model, we find that increased aerosol loading due to anthropogenic activities in China substantially increases column cloud droplet number concentration and liquid water path (LWP), which further leads to a reduction in the downward shortwave radiation at surface, surface air temperature and planetary boundary layer (PBL) height. The shallower PBL and accelerated cloud chemistry due to larger LWP in turn enhance the concentrations of particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) by up to 33.2 μg m -3 (25.1%) and 11.0 μg m -3 (12.5%) in January and July, respectively. Such a positive feedback amplifies the changes in PM 2.5 concentrations, indicating an additional air quality benefit under effective pollution control policies but a penalty for a region with a deterioration in PM 2.5 pollution. Additionally, we show that the cloud processing of aerosols, including wet scavenging and cloud chemistry, could also have substantial effects on PM 2.5 concentrations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006cosp...36.2091Y','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006cosp...36.2091Y"><span>Comparison of global cloud liquid water path derived from microwave measurements with CERES-MODIS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Yi, Y.; Minnis, P.; Huang, J.; Lin, B.; Ayers, K.; Sun-Mack, S.; Fan, A.</p> <p></p> <p>Cloud liquid water path LWP is a crucial parameter for climate studies due to the link that it provides between the atmospheric hydrological and radiative budgets Satellite-based visible infrared techniques such as the Visible Infrared Solar Split-Window Technique VISST can retrieve LWP for water clouds assumes single-layer over a variety of surfaces If the water clouds are overlapped by ice clouds the LWP of the underlying clouds can not be retrieved by such techniques However microwave techniques may be used to retrieve the LWP underneath ice clouds due to the microwave s insensitivity to cloud ice particles LWP is typically retrieved from satellite-observed microwave radiances only over ocean due to variations of land surface temperature and emissivity Recently Deeter and Vivekanandan 2006 developed a new technique for retrieving LWP over land In order to overcome the sensitivity to land surface temperature and emissivity their technique is based on a parameterization of microwave polarization-difference signals In this study a similar regression-based technique for retrieving LWP over land and ocean using Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS AMSR-E measurements is developed Furthermore the microwave surface emissivities are also derived using clear-sky fields of view based on the Clouds and Earth s Radiant Energy System Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer CERES-MODIS cloud mask These emissivities are used in an alternate form of the technique The results are evaluated using independent measurements such</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20030000464&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Ddehydration','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20030000464&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Ddehydration"><span>Ice Cloud Formation and Dehydration in the Tropical Tropopause Layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Eric; Gore, Warren J. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>Stratospheric water vapor is important not only for its greenhouse forcing, but also because it plays a significant role in stratospheric chemistry. Several recent studies have focused on the potential for dehydration due to ice cloud formation in air rising slowly through the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). Holton and Gettelman showed that temperature variations associated with horizontal transport of air in the TTL can drive ice cloud formation and dehydration, and Gettelman et al. recently examined the cloud formation and dehydration along kinematic trajectories using simple assumptions about the cloud properties. In this study, a Lagrangian, one-dimensional cloud model has been used to further investigate cloud formation and dehydration as air is transported horizontally and vertically through the TTL. Time-height curtains of temperature are extracted from meteorological analyses. The model tracks the growth, advection, and sedimentation of individual cloud particles. The regional distribution of clouds simulated in the model is comparable to the subvisible cirrus distribution indicated by SAGE II. The simulated cloud properties and cloud frequencies depend strongly on the assumed supersaturation threshold for ice nucleation. The clouds typically do not dehydrate the air along trajectories down to the temperature minimum saturation mixing ratio. Rather the water vapor mixing ratio crossing the tropopause along trajectories is 10-50% larger than the saturation mixing ratio. I will also discuss the impacts of Kelvin waves and gravity waves on cloud properties and dehydration efficiency. These simulations can be used to determine whether observed lower stratospheric water vapor mixing ratios can be explained by dehydration associated with in situ TTL cloud formation alone.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.A51D0740P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.A51D0740P"><span>The Impact of Cloud Correction on the Redistribution of Reactive Nitrogen Species</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Pour Biazar, A.; McNider, R. T.; Doty, K.; Cameron, R.</p> <p>2007-12-01</p> <p>Clouds are particularly important to air quality. Yet, correct prediction of clouds in time and space remains to be a great challenge for the air quality models. One aspect of cloud impact on air quality is the modification of photolysis reaction rates by clouds. Clouds can significantly alter the solar radiation in the wavelengths affecting the photolysis rates. Such modifications significantly impact atmospheric photochemistry and alter the chemical composition of the boundary layer. It also alters the partitioning of chemical compounds by creating a new equilibrium state. Since air quality models are often being used for air quality and emission reduction assessment, understanding the uncertainty caused by inaccurate cloud prediction is imperative. In this study we investigate the radiative impact of clouds in altering the partitioning of nitrogen species in the emission source regions. Such alterations affect the local nitrogen budget and thereby alter the atmospheric composition within the boundary layer. The results from two model simulations, one in which the model predicted clouds are used (control), and the other in which the satellite observed clouds have been assimilated in the model were analyzed. We use satellite retrieved cloud transmissivity, cloud top height, and observed cloud fraction to correct photolysis rates for cloud cover in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. The simulations were performed at 4- and 12-km resolution domains over Texas, extending east to Mississippi, for the period of August 24 to August 31, 2000. The results clearly indicate that not using the cloud observations in the model can drastically alter the predicted atmospheric chemical composition within the boundary layer and exaggerate or under-predict the ozone concentrations. Cloud impact is acute and more pronounced over the emission source regions and can lead to drastic errors in the model predictions of ozone and its precursors. Clouds also increased the lifetime of ozone precursors leading to their transport out of the source regions and caused further ozone production downwind. The longer lifetimes for NOx and its transport over regions high in biogenic hydrocarbon emissions (in the eastern part of the domain) led to increased ozone production that was missing in the control simulation. An indirect impact of the clouds in the emission source areas is the alteration in partitioning of nitrogen oxides and the impact on nitrogen budget due to surface removal. This is caused by the disparity between the deposition velocity of NOx and the nitrates that are produced from oxidation of NOx. Under clear skies, NOx undergoes a chemical transformation and produces nitrates such as HNO3 and PAN. In the presence of thick clouds, due to the reduction in the photochemical activities, nitrogen monoxide (NO) rapidly consumes ozone (O3) and produces nitrogen dioxide (NO2) while the production of HNO3 and loss of NOx due to chemical transformation is reduced. Therefore, in one case there is more loss of nitrogen in the vicinity of emission sources. A detailed analysis of two emission source regions, Houston-Galveston and New Orleans area, will be presented. Acknowledgments. This work was accomplished under partial support from Cooperative Agreement between the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the Minerals Management Service on the Gulf of Mexico Issues.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1810701D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1810701D"><span>Radiative-dynamical and microphysical processes of thin cirrus clouds controlling humidity of air entering the stratosphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Dinh, Tra; Fueglistaler, Stephan</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>Thin cirrus clouds in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) are of great interest due to their role in the control of water vapor and temperature in the TTL. Previous research on TTL cirrus clouds has focussed mainly on microphysical processes, specifically the ice nucleation mechanism and dehydration efficiency. Here, we use a cloud resolving model to analyse the sensitivity of TTL cirrus characteristics and impacts with respect to microphysical and radiative processes. A steady-state TTL cirrus cloud field is obtained in the model forced with dynamical conditions typical for the TTL (2-dimensional setup with a Kelvin-wave temperature perturbation). Our model results show that the dehydration efficiency (as given by the domain average relative humidity in the layer of cloud occurrence) is relatively insensitive to the ice nucleation mechanism, i.e. homogeneous versus heterogeneous nucleation. Rather, TTL cirrus affect the water vapor entering the stratosphere via an indirect effect associated with the cloud radiative heating and dynamics. Resolving the cloud radiative heating and the radiatively induced circulations approximately doubles the domain average ice mass. The cloud radiative heating is proportional to the domain average ice mass, and the observed increase in domain average ice mass induces a domain average temperature increase of a few Kelvin. The corresponding increase in water vapor entering the stratosphere is estimated to be about 30 to 40%.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140012663','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140012663"><span>Validation of the Two-Layer Model for Correcting Clear Sky Reflectance Near Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wen, Guoyong; Marshak, Alexander; Evans, K. Frank; Vamal, Tamas</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>A two-layer model was developed in our earlier studies to estimate the clear sky reflectance enhancement near clouds. This simple model accounts for the radiative interaction between boundary layer clouds and molecular layer above, the major contribution to the reflectance enhancement near clouds for short wavelengths. We use LES/SHDOM simulated 3D radiation fields to valid the two-layer model for reflectance enhancement at 0.47 micrometer. We find: (a) The simple model captures the viewing angle dependence of the reflectance enhancement near cloud, suggesting the physics of this model is correct; and (b) The magnitude of the 2-layer modeled enhancement agree reasonably well with the "truth" with some expected underestimation. We further extend our model to include cloud-surface interaction using the Poisson model for broken clouds. We found that including cloud-surface interaction improves the correction, though it can introduced some over corrections for large cloud albedo, large cloud optical depth, large cloud fraction, large cloud aspect ratio. This over correction can be reduced by excluding scenes (10 km x 10km) with large cloud fraction for which the Poisson model is not designed for. Further research is underway to account for the contribution of cloud-aerosol radiative interaction to the enhancement.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_2");'>2</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_3");'>3</a></li> <li class="active"><span>4</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_4 --> <div id="page_5" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_3");'>3</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li class="active"><span>5</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="81"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011JGRD..11612205S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011JGRD..11612205S"><span>Direct and semidirect aerosol effects of southern African biomass burning aerosol</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sakaeda, Naoko; Wood, Robert; Rasch, Philip J.</p> <p>2011-06-01</p> <p>Direct and semidirect radiative effects of biomass burning aerosols from southern African fires during July-October are investigated using 20 year runs of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) coupled to a slab ocean model. Aerosol optical depth is constrained using observations in clear skies from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and for aerosol layers above clouds from Cloud Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). Over the ocean, where the aerosol layers are primarily located above cloud, negative top of atmosphere (TOA) semidirect radiative effects associated with increased low cloud cover dominate over a weaker positive all-sky direct radiative effect (DRE). In contrast, over the land where the aerosols are often below or within cloud layers, reductions in cloud liquid water path (LWP) lead to a positive semidirect radiative effect that dominates over a near-zero DRE. Over the ocean, the cloud response can be understood as a response to increased lower tropospheric stability (LTS) which is caused both by radiative heating in overlying layers and surface cooling in response to direct aerosol forcing. The marine cloud changes are robust to changes in the cloud parameterization (removal of the hard-wired dependence of clouds on LTS), suggesting that they are physically realistic. Over land, decreased LWP is consistent with weaker convection driven by increased static stability. Over the entire region the overall TOA radiative effect from the biomass burning aerosols is almost zero due to opposing effects over the land and ocean. However, the surface forcing is strongly negative, which leads to a reduction in precipitation and also a reduction in sensible heat flux. The former is primarily realized through reductions in convective precipitation on both the southern and northern flanks of the convective precipitation region spanning the equatorial rain forest and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the southern Sahel. The changes are consistent with the low-level aerosol-forced cooling pattern. The results highlight the importance of semidirect radiative effects and precipitation responses for determining the climatic effects of aerosols in the African region.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA21947.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA21947.html"><span>Powerful Hurricane Irma Seen in 3D by NASA's CloudSat</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2017-09-08</p> <p>NASA's CloudSat satellite flew over Hurricane Irma on Sept. 6, 2017 at 1:45 p.m. EDT (17:45 UTC) as the storm was approaching Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Irma contained estimated maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (160 knots) with a minimum pressure of 918 millibars. CloudSat transected the eastern edge of Hurricane Irma's eyewall, revealing details of the storm's cloud structure beneath its thick canopy of cirrus clouds. The CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar excels in detecting the organization and placement of cloud layers beneath a storm's cirrus canopy, which are not readily detected by other satellite sensors. The CloudSat overpass reveals the inner details beneath the cloud tops of this large system; intense areas of convection with moderate to heavy rainfall (deep red and pink colors), cloud-free areas (moats) in between the inner and outer cloud bands of Hurricane Irma and cloud top heights averaging around 9 to 10 miles (15 to 16 kilometers). Lower values of reflectivity (areas of green and blue) denote smaller-sized ice and water particle sizes typically located at the top of a storm system (in the anvil area). The Cloud Profiling Radar loses signal at around 3 miles (5 kilometers) in height (in the melting layer) due to water (ice) particles larger than 0.12 inches (3 millimeters) in diameter. Moderate to heavy rainfall occurs in these areas where signal weakening is detectable. Smaller cumulus and cumulonimbus cloud types are evident as CloudSat moves farther south, beneath the thick cirrus canopy. An animation is available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21947</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20060046367','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20060046367"><span>Properties of CIRRUS Overlapping Clouds as Deduced from the GOES-12 Imagery Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Khaiyer, Mandana</p> <p>2006-01-01</p> <p>Understanding the impact of cirrus clouds on modifying both the solar reflected and terrestrial emitted radiations is crucial for climate studies. Unlike most boundary layer stratus and stratocumulus clouds that have a net cooling effect on the climate, high-level thin cirrus clouds can have a warming effect on our climate. Many research efforts have been devoted to retrieving cirrus cloud properties due to their ubiquitous presence. However, using satellite observations to detect and/or retrieve cirrus cloud properties faces two major challenges. First, they are often semitransparent at visible to infrared wavelengths; and secondly, they often occur over a lower cloud system. The overlapping of high-level cirrus and low-level stratus cloud poses a difficulty in determining the individual cloud top altitudes and optical properties, especially when the signals from cirrus clouds are overwhelmed by the signals of stratus clouds. Moreover, the operational satellite retrieval algorithms, which often assume only single layer cloud in the development of cloud retrieval techniques, cannot resolve the cloud overlapping situation properly. The new geostationary satellites, starting with the Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12), are providing a new suite of imager bands that have replaced the conventional 12-micron channel with a 13.3-micron CO2 absorption channel. The replacement of the 13.3-micron channel allows for the application of a CO2-slicing retrieval technique (Chahine et al. 1974; Smith and Platt 1978), which is one of the important passive satellite methods for remote sensing the altitudes of mid to high-level clouds. Using the CO2- slicing technique is more effective in detecting semitransparent cirrus clouds than using the conventional infrared-window method.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFMIN31A1739N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFMIN31A1739N"><span>Validation of VIIRS Cloud Base Heights at Night Using Ground and Satellite Measurements over Alaska</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>NOH, Y. J.; Miller, S. D.; Seaman, C.; Forsythe, J. M.; Brummer, R.; Lindsey, D. T.; Walther, A.; Heidinger, A. K.; Li, Y.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Knowledge of Cloud Base Height (CBH) is critical to describing cloud radiative feedbacks in numerical models and is of practical significance to aviation communities. We have developed a new CBH algorithm constrained by Cloud Top Height (CTH) and Cloud Water Path (CWP) by performing a statistical analysis of A-Train satellite data. It includes an extinction-based method for thin cirrus. In the algorithm, cloud geometric thickness is derived with upstream CTH and CWP input and subtracted from CTH to generate the topmost layer CBH. The CBH information is a key parameter for an improved Cloud Cover/Layers product. The algorithm has been applied to the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi NPP spacecraft. Nighttime cloud optical properties for CWP are retrieved from the nighttime lunar cloud optical and microphysical properties (NLCOMP) algorithm based on a lunar reflectance model for the VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) measuring nighttime visible light such as moonlight. The DNB has innovative capabilities to fill the polar winter and nighttime gap of cloud observations which has been an important shortfall from conventional radiometers. The CBH products have been intensively evaluated against CloudSat data. The results showed the new algorithm yields significantly improved performance over the original VIIRS CBH algorithm. However, since CloudSat is now operational during daytime only due to a battery anomaly, the nighttime performance has not been fully assessed. This presentation will show our approach to assess the performance of the CBH algorithm at night. VIIRS CBHs are retrieved over the Alaska region from October 2015 to April 2016 using the Clouds from AVHRR Extended (CLAVR-x) processing system. Ground-based measurements from ceilometer and micropulse lidar at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site on the North Slope of Alaska are used for the analysis. Local weather conditions are checked using temperature and precipitation observations at the site. CALIPSO data with near-simultaneous colocation are added for multi-layered cloud cases which may have high clouds aloft beyond the ground measurements. Multi-month statistics of performance and case studies will be shown. Additional efforts for algorithm refinements will be also discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140006171','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140006171"><span>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</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Kennedy, Aaron; Minnis, Patrick; Wood, Robert</p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>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.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20000074490&hterms=sss&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D70%26Ntt%3Dsss','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20000074490&hterms=sss&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D70%26Ntt%3Dsss"><span>SST Variation Due to Interactive Convective-Radiative Processes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Tao, W.-K.; Shie, C.-L.; Johnson, D.; Simpson, J.; Li, X.; Sui, C.-H.</p> <p>2000-01-01</p> <p>The recent linking of Cloud-Resolving Models (CRMs) to Ocean-Mixed Layer (OML) models has provided a powerful new means of quantifying the role of cloud systems in ocean-atmosphere coupling. This is due to the fact that the CRM can better resolve clouds and cloud systems and allow for explicit cloud-radiation interaction. For example, Anderson (1997) applied an atmospheric forcing associated with a CRM simulated squall line to a 3-D OML model (one way or passive interaction). His results suggested that the spatial variability resulting from the squall forcing can last at least 24 hours when forced with otherwise spatially uniform fluxes. In addition, the sea surface salinity (SSS) variability continuously decreased following the forcing, while some of the SST variability remained when a diurnal mixed layer capped off the surface structure. The forcing used in the OML model, however, focused on shorter time (8 h) and smaller spatial scales (100-120 km). In this study, the 3-D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble Model (GCE; 512 x 512 x 23 cu km, 2-km horizontal resolution) is used to simulate convective active episodes occurring in the Western Pacific warm pool and Eastern Atlantic regions. The model is integrated for seven days, and the simulated results are coupled to an OML model to better understand the impact of precipitation and changes in the planetary boundary layer upon SST variation. We will specifically examine and compare the results of linking the OML model with various spatially-averaged outputs from GCE simulations (i.e., 2 km vs. 10-50 km horizontal resolutions), in order to help understand the SST sensitivity to multi-scale influences. This will allow us to assess the importance of explicitly simulated deep and shallow clouds, as well as the subgrid-scale effects (in coarse-model runs) upon SST variation. Results using both 1-D and 2-D OML models will be evaluated to assess the effects of horizontal advection.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20030022663&hterms=Influence+clouds+climate&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DInfluence%2Bclouds%2Bclimate','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20030022663&hterms=Influence+clouds+climate&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DInfluence%2Bclouds%2Bclimate"><span>The Sun's Impact on Climate</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Cahalan, Robert</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>We provide an overview of the impact of the Sun on the Earth atmosphere and climate system, focused on heating of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. We emphasize the importance of the spectral measurements of SIM and SOLSTICE- that we must know how solar variations are distributed over ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths, since these have separate characteristic influences on Earth's ozone layer, clouds, and upper layers of the oceans. Emphasis is also given to understanding both direct and indirect influences of the Sun on the Earth, which involve feedbacks between Earth's stratosphere, troposphere, and oceans, each with unique time scales, dynamics, chemistry, and biology, interacting non-linearly. Especially crucial is the role of all three phases of water on Earth, water vapor being the primary greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, the importance of trace gases such as CO2 arising from their absorption in the "water vapor window" at 800 - 1250/cm (12.5 to 8 microns). Melting of polar ice is one major response to the post-industrial global warming, enhanced due to "ice-albedo" feedback. Finally, water in liquid form has a major influence due to cloud albedo feedback, and also due to the oceans' absorption of solar radiation, particularly at visible wavelengths, through the visible "liquid water window" that allows penetration of visible light deep into the mixed layer, while nearby ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths do not penetrate past the upper centimeter ocean surface skin layer. A large fraction of solar energy absorbed by the oceans goes into the latent heat of evaporation. Thus the solar heating of the atmosphere-ocean system is strongly coupled through the water cycle of evaporation, cloud formation, precipitation, surface runoff and ice formation, to Earth's energy budget and climate, each different climate component responding to variations in different solar spectral bands, at ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080015852','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080015852"><span>Determination of Ice Water Path in Ice-over-Water Cloud Systems Using Combined MODIS and AMSR-E Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Huang, Jianping; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Yi, Yuhong; Fan, T.-F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Ayers, J. K.</p> <p>2006-01-01</p> <p>To provide more accurate ice cloud properties for evaluating climate models, the updated version of multi-layered cloud retrieval system (MCRS) is used to retrieve ice water path (IWP) in ice-over-water cloud systems over global ocean using combined instrument data from the Aqua satellite. The liquid water path (LWP) of lower layer water clouds is estimated from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) measurements. With the lower layer LWP known, the properties of the upper-level ice clouds are then derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer measurements by matching simulated radiances from a two-cloud layer radiative transfer model. Comparisons with single-layer cirrus systems and surface-based radar retrievals show that the MCRS can significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the over-estimation of optical depth and ice water path retrievals for ice over-water cloud systems. During the period from December 2004 through February 2005, the mean daytime ice cloud optical depth and IWP for overlapped ice-over-water clouds over ocean from Aqua are 7.6 and 146.4 gm(sup -2), respectively, significantly less than the initial single layer retrievals of 17.3 and 322.3 gm(sup -2). The mean IWP for actual single-layer clouds was 128.2 gm(sup -2).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19122735','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19122735"><span>Radiative transfer model for aerosols at infrared wavelengths for passive remote sensing applications: revisited.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Ben-David, Avishai; Davidson, Charles E; Embury, Janon F</p> <p>2008-11-01</p> <p>We introduced a two-dimensional radiative transfer model for aerosols in the thermal infrared [Appl. Opt.45, 6860-6875 (2006)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.45.006860]. In that paper we superimposed two orthogonal plane-parallel layers to compute the radiance due to a two-dimensional (2D) rectangular aerosol cloud. In this paper we revisit the model and correct an error in the interaction of the two layers. We derive new expressions relating to the signal content of the radiance from an aerosol cloud based on the concept of five directional thermal contrasts: four for the 2D diffuse radiance and one for direct radiance along the line of sight. The new expressions give additional insight on the radiative transfer processes within the cloud. Simulations for Bacillus subtilis var. niger (BG) bioaerosol and dustlike kaolin aerosol clouds are compared and contrasted for two geometries: an airborne sensor looking down and a ground-based sensor looking up. Simulation results suggest that aerosol cloud detection from an airborne platform may be more challenging than for a ground-based sensor and that the detection of an aerosol cloud in emission mode (negative direct thermal contrast) is not the same as the detection of an aerosol cloud in absorption mode (positive direct thermal contrast).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Icar..264...72I','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016Icar..264...72I"><span>Spectral analysis of Uranus' 2014 bright storm with VLT/SINFONI</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Irwin, P. G. J.; Fletcher, L. N.; Read, P. L.; Tice, D.; de Pater, I.; Orton, G. S.; Teanby, N. A.; Davis, G. R.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>An extremely bright storm system observed in Uranus' atmosphere by amateur observers in September 2014 triggered an international campaign to observe this feature with many telescopes across the world. Observations of the storm system in the near infrared were acquired in October and November 2014 with SINFONI on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. SINFONI is an Integral Field Unit spectrometer returning 64 × 64 pixel images with 2048 wavelengths and uses adaptive optics. Image cubes in the H-band (1.43-1.87 μm) were obtained at spatial resolutions of ∼ 0.1″ per pixel. The observations show that the centre of the storm feature shifts markedly with increasing altitude, moving in the retrograde direction and slightly poleward with increasing altitude. We also see a faint 'tail' of more reflective material to the immediate south of the storm, which again trails in the retrograde direction. The observed spectra were analysed with the radiative transfer and retrieval code, NEMESIS (Irwin et al. [2008]. J. Quant. Spec. Radiat. Transfer, 109, 1136-1150). We find that the storm is well-modelled using either two main cloud layers of a 5-layer aerosol model based on Sromovsky et al. (Sromovsky et al. [2011]. Icarus, 215, 292-312) or by the simpler two-cloud-layer model of Tice et al. (Tice et al. [2013]. Icarus, 223, 684-698). The deep component appears to be due to a brightening (i.e. an increase in reflectivity) and increase in altitude of the main tropospheric cloud deck at 2-3 bars for both models, while the upper component of the feature was modelled as being due to either a thickening of the tropospheric haze of the 2-layer model or a vertical extension of the upper tropospheric cloud of the 5-layer model, assumed to be composed of methane ice and based at the methane condensation level of our assumed vertical temperature and abundance profile at 1.23 bar. We also found this methane ice cloud to be responsible for the faint 'tail' seen to the feature's south and the brighter polar 'hood' seen in all observations polewards of ∼45°N for the 5-layer model. During the twelve days between our sets of observations the higher-altitude component of the feature was observed to have brightened significantly and extended to even higher altitudes, while the deeper component faded.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AtmEn.154..236V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AtmEn.154..236V"><span>Role of persistent low-level clouds in mitigating air quality impacts of wintertime cold pool conditions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>VanReken, Timothy M.; Dhammapala, Ranil S.; Jobson, B. Thomas; Bottenus, Courtney L.; VanderSchelden, Graham S.; Kaspari, Susan D.; Gao, Zhongming; Zhu, Qiurui; Lamb, Brian K.; Liu, Heping; Johnston, Jeff</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>The Yakima Air Wintertime Nitrate Study (YAWNS) was conducted in January 2013 to investigate the drivers of elevated levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) frequently present in the region during winter stagnation periods. An extended stagnation period occurred during the study. For the first four days of the event, skies were clear and the strong diel variation in air pollution patterns were consistent with the expected effects of strong low-level nighttime temperature inversions with moderate mixing during daylight hours. Later in the event a low-level cloud layer formed that persisted over the Yakima Valley for the next seven days while regional conditions remained stagnant. Coincident with the onset of cloud, the levels of all measured primary pollutants, including CO2, CO, NOx, particle number concentration, and black carbon, dropped dramatically and remained low with negligible diel variation for as long as the cloud layer was present. The observed patterns for these air pollutants are consistent with decreased stability and enhanced mixing associated with the cloud-topped boundary layer. Interestingly, levels of secondary pollutants, most notably particulate ammonium nitrate, did not exhibit the same decline. This difference may be due to shifts in the chemical production of secondary pollutants during cloudy conditions, or may merely reflect a further influence of mixing. The results imply that the best strategies for managing wintertime air quality during episodes of persistent cloud are likely different from those needed during clear-sky stagnation events.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA09910.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA09910.html"><span>Deep Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2008-05-27</p> <p>Bright puffs and ribbons of cloud drift lazily through Saturn's murky skies. In contrast to the bold red, orange and white clouds of Jupiter, Saturn's clouds are overlain by a thick layer of haze. The visible cloud tops on Saturn are deeper in its atmosphere due to the planet's cooler temperatures. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 18 degrees above the ringplane. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 15, 2008 at a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers (906,000 miles) from Saturn. Image scale is 84 kilometers (52 miles) per pixel. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09910</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990081104&hterms=physical+dependence&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dphysical%2Bdependence','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990081104&hterms=physical+dependence&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dphysical%2Bdependence"><span>Climatic Implications of the Observed Temperature Dependence of the Liquid Water Path of Low Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>DelGenio, Anthony</p> <p>1999-01-01</p> <p>The uncertainty in the global climate sensitivity to an equilibrium doubling of carbon dioxide is often stated to be 1.5-4.5 K, largely due to uncertainties in cloud feedbacks. The lower end of this range is based on the assumption or prediction in some GCMs that cloud liquid water behaves adiabatically, thus implying that cloud optical thickness will increase in a warming climate if the physical thickness of clouds is invariant. Satellite observations of low-level cloud optical thickness and liquid water path have challenged this assumption, however, at low and middle latitudes. We attempt to explain the satellite results using four years of surface remote sensing data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Cloud And Radiation Testbed (CART) site in the Southern Great Plains. We find that low cloud liquid water path is insensitive to temperature in winter but strongly decreases with temperature in summer. The latter occurs because surface relative humidity decreases with warming, causing cloud base to rise and clouds to geometrically thin. Meanwhile, inferred liquid water contents hardly vary with temperature, suggesting entrainment depletion. Physically, the temperature dependence appears to represent a transition from higher probabilities of stratified boundary layers at cold temperatures to a higher incidence of convective boundary layers at warm temperatures. The combination of our results and the earlier satellite findings imply that the minimum climate sensitivity should be revised upward from 1.5 K.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040110427','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040110427"><span>Independent Pixel and Two Dimensional Estimates of LANDSAT-Derived Cloud Field Albedo</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chambers, L. H.; Wielicki, Bruce A.; Evans, K. F.</p> <p>1996-01-01</p> <p>A theoretical study has been conducted on the effects of cloud horizontal inhomogeneity on cloud albedo bias. A two-dimensional (2D) version of the Spherical Harmonic Discrete Ordinate Method (SHDOM) is used to estimate the albedo bias of the plane parallel (PP-IPA) and independent pixel (IPA-2D) approximations for a wide range of 2D cloud fields obtained from LANDSAT. They include single layer trade cumulus, open and closed cell broken stratocumulus, and solid stratocumulus boundary layer cloud fields over ocean. Findings are presented on a variety of averaging scales and are summarized as a function of cloud fraction, mean cloud optical depth, cloud aspect ratio, standard deviation of optical depth, and the gamma function parameter Y (a measure of the width of the optical depth distribution). Biases are found to be small for small cloud fraction or mean optical depth, where the cloud fields under study behave linearly. They are large (up to 0.20 for PP-IPA bias, -0.12 for IPA-2D bias) for large v. On a scene average basis PP-IPA bias can reach 0.30, while IPA-2D bias reaches its largest magnitude at -0.07. Biases due to horizontal transport (IPA-2D) are much smaller than PP-IPA biases but account for 20% RMS of the bias overall. Limitations of this work include the particular cloud field set used, assumptions of conservative scattering, constant cloud droplet size, no gas absorption or surface reflectance, and restriction to 2D radiative transport. The LANDSAT data used may also be affected by radiative smoothing.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21M..06P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21M..06P"><span>Cloud and Aerosol 1064nm Lidar Ratio Retrievals from the CATS Instrument</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Pauly, R.; Yorks, J. E.; McGill, M. J.; Hlavka, D. L.; Midzak, N.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The extinction to backscatter ratio or lidar ratio is an essential value in order to derive the optical properties of cloud and aerosol layers from standard elastic backscatter lidar data. For these instruments, the lidar ratio can sometimes be determined from lidar data utilizing the transmission loss or "constrained" technique. The best situations for deploying this technique involve clearly defined layers with clear sky underneath for 1-3 km. In situations where the lidar ratio cannot be calculated, look-up tables exist for various cloud and aerosol types. There is a vast data record of derived lidar ratios for various cloud and aerosol types using 532nm from an array of instruments (i.e. HSRL, CALIOP, CPL, Aeronet, MPLNET). To date, because the 1064nm molecular signal is so small, lidar ratios at 1064nm have been mostly determined from 532nm lidar ratios using angstrom exponents, color ratios and ground based non-lidar measurements, as HSRL measurements at that wavelength do not exist. Due to the better signal quality at 1064nm compared to the 532nm signal, the CATS laser was thermally tuned to increase the 1064nm output energy. Therefore, the 1064nm channel is used in nearly all CATS layer data processing, making the accurate determination of 1064nm lidar ratio imperative. The CATS 1064nm signal allows for the unique capability to determine 1064nm lidar ratios better than previous instruments. The statistical and case study results of the CATS derived smoke and dust lidar ratios will be presented. Results have shown that the previously assumed 1064nm lidar ratios for dust need to be lowered. In addition to 1064nm lidar ratio results from the traditional transmission loss technique, results for aerosol layers above opaque water clouds from a method utilizing the depolarization ratio of the opaque cloud will be discussed. Incorporating this method into the CATS algorithms should increase the number of aerosol layers with constrained lidar ratio.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090026489','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090026489"><span>Simulation of Boundary-Layer Cumulus and Stratocumulus Clouds using a Cloud-Resolving Model With Low- and Third-Order Turbulence Closures</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Xu, Kuan-Man; Cheng, Anning</p> <p>2007-01-01</p> <p>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.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007JGRD..112.2206D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007JGRD..112.2206D"><span>Analysis of reflectance spectra of UV-absorbing aerosol scenes measured by SCIAMACHY</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>de Graaf, M.; Stammes, P.; Aben, E. A. A.</p> <p>2007-01-01</p> <p>Reflectance spectra from 280-1750 nm of typical desert dust aerosol (DDA) and biomass burning aerosol (BBA) scenes over oceans are presented, measured by the space-borne spectrometer Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY). DDA and BBA are both UV-absorbing aerosols, but their effect on the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance is different due to differences in the way mineral aerosols and smoke reflect and absorb radiation. Mineral aerosols are typically large, inert particles, found in warm, dry continental air. Smoke particles, on the other hand, are usually small particles, although often clustered, chemically very active and highly variable in composition. Moreover, BBA are hygroscopic and over oceans BBA were invariably found in cloudy scenes. TOA reflectance spectra of typical DDA and BBA scenes were analyzed, using radiative transfer simulations, and compared. The DDA spectrum was successfully simulated using a layer with a bimodal size distribution of mineral aerosols in a clear sky. The spectrum of the BBA scene, however, was determined by the interaction between cloud droplets and smoke particles, as is shown by simulations with a model of separate aerosol and cloud layers and models with internally and externally mixed aerosol/cloud layers. The occurrence of clouds in smoke scenes when sufficient water vapor is present usually prevents the detection of optical properties of these aerosol plumes using space-borne sensors. However, the Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI), a UV color index, is not sensitive to scattering aerosols and clouds and can be used to detect these otherwise obscured aerosol plumes over clouds. The amount of absorption of radiation can be expressed using the absorption optical thickness. The absorption optical thickness in the DDA case was 0.42 (340 nm) and 0.14 (550 nm) for an aerosol layer of optical thickness 1.74 (550 nm). In the BBA case the absorption optical thickness was 0.18 (340 nm) and 0.10 (550 nm) for an aerosol/cloud layer of optical thickness 20.0 (550 nm). However, this reduced the cloud albedo by about 0.2 (340 nm) and 0.15 (550 nm). This method can be an important tool to estimate the global impact of absorption of shortwave radiation by smoke and industrial aerosols inside clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AIPC.1952b0045K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AIPC.1952b0045K"><span>Assessment of physical server reliability in multi cloud computing system</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kalyani, B. J. D.; Rao, Kolasani Ramchand H.</p> <p>2018-04-01</p> <p>Business organizations nowadays functioning with more than one cloud provider. By spreading cloud deployment across multiple service providers, it creates space for competitive prices that minimize the burden on enterprises spending budget. To assess the software reliability of multi cloud application layered software reliability assessment paradigm is considered with three levels of abstractions application layer, virtualization layer, and server layer. The reliability of each layer is assessed separately and is combined to get the reliability of multi-cloud computing application. In this paper, we focused on how to assess the reliability of server layer with required algorithms and explore the steps in the assessment of server reliability.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AMT....10.4067Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AMT....10.4067Z"><span>A cloud-ozone data product from Aura OMI and MLS satellite measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ziemke, Jerald R.; Strode, Sarah A.; Douglass, Anne R.; Joiner, Joanna; Vasilkov, Alexander; Oman, Luke D.; Liu, Junhua; Strahan, Susan E.; Bhartia, Pawan K.; Haffner, David P.</p> <p>2017-11-01</p> <p>Ozone within deep convective clouds is controlled by several factors involving photochemical reactions and transport. Gas-phase photochemical reactions and heterogeneous surface chemical reactions involving ice, water particles, and aerosols inside the clouds all contribute to the distribution and net production and loss of ozone. Ozone in clouds is also dependent on convective transport that carries low-troposphere/boundary-layer ozone and ozone precursors upward into the clouds. Characterizing ozone in thick clouds is an important step for quantifying relationships of ozone with tropospheric H2O, OH production, and cloud microphysics/transport properties. Although measuring ozone in deep convective clouds from either aircraft or balloon ozonesondes is largely impossible due to extreme meteorological conditions associated with these clouds, it is possible to estimate ozone in thick clouds using backscattered solar UV radiation measured by satellite instruments. Our study combines Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite measurements to generate a new research product of monthly-mean ozone concentrations in deep convective clouds between 30° S and 30° N for October 2004-April 2016. These measurements represent mean ozone concentration primarily in the upper levels of thick clouds and reveal key features of cloud ozone including: persistent low ozone concentrations in the tropical Pacific of ˜ 10 ppbv or less; concentrations of up to 60 pphv or greater over landmass regions of South America, southern Africa, Australia, and India/east Asia; connections with tropical ENSO events; and intraseasonal/Madden-Julian oscillation variability. Analysis of OMI aerosol measurements suggests a cause and effect relation between boundary-layer pollution and elevated ozone inside thick clouds over landmass regions including southern Africa and India/east Asia.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29456762','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29456762"><span>A Cloud-Ozone Data Product from Aura OMI and MLS Satellite Measurements.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Ziemke, Jerald R; Strode, Sarah A; Douglass, Anne R; Joiner, Joanna; Vasilkov, Alexander; Oman, Luke D; Liu, Junhua; Strahan, Susan E; Bhartia, Pawan K; Haffner, David P</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Ozone within deep convective clouds is controlled by several factors involving photochemical reactions and transport. Gas-phase photochemical reactions and heterogeneous surface chemical reactions involving ice, water particles, and aerosols inside the clouds all contribute to the distribution and net production and loss of ozone. Ozone in clouds is also dependent on convective transport that carries low troposphere/boundary layer ozone and ozone precursors upward into the clouds. Characterizing ozone in thick clouds is an important step for quantifying relationships of ozone with tropospheric H 2 O, OH production, and cloud microphysics/transport properties. Although measuring ozone in deep convective clouds from either aircraft or balloon ozonesondes is largely impossible due to extreme meteorological conditions associated with these clouds, it is possible to estimate ozone in thick clouds using backscattered solar UV radiation measured by satellite instruments. Our study combines Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite measurements to generate a new research product of monthly-mean ozone concentrations in deep convective clouds between 30°S to 30°N for October 2004 - April 2016. These measurements represent mean ozone concentration primarily in the upper levels of thick clouds and reveal key features of cloud ozone including: persistent low ozone concentrations in the tropical Pacific of ~10 ppbv or less; concentrations of up to 60 pphv or greater over landmass regions of South America, southern Africa, Australia, and India/east Asia; connections with tropical ENSO events; and intra-seasonal/Madden-Julian Oscillation variability. Analysis of OMI aerosol measurements suggests a cause and effect relation between boundary layer pollution and elevated ozone inside thick clouds over land-mass regions including southern Africa and India/east Asia.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_3");'>3</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li class="active"><span>5</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_5 --> <div id="page_6" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li class="active"><span>6</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="101"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003DPS....35.4803G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003DPS....35.4803G"><span>Wave-clouds coupling in the Jovian troposphere.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gaulme, P.; Mosser, B.</p> <p>2003-05-01</p> <p>First studies about Jovian oscillations are due to Vorontsov et al. (1976). Attempts to observe them started in the late 1980's (Deming et al. 1989, Mosser et al. 1991). The micro-satellite Jovis and ground-based observations campaign such as SŸMPA (e.g Baglin et al. 1999) account for an accurate analysis of the cloud response to an acoustic wave. Therefore, the propagation of sound or gravity waves in the Jovian troposphere is revisited, in order to estimate their effect on the highest clouds layer. From basic thermodynamics, the troposphere should be stratified in three major ice clouds layers: water-ammonia, ammonium-hydrosulfide and ammonia ice for the highest. The presence of ammonia ice clouds has been inferred from Kuiper in 1952, and was predicted to dominate the Jovian skies. However, they had been observed spectroscopically over less than one percent of the surface. This absence of spectral proof could come from a coating of ammonia particles from other substances (Baines et al. 2002). In this work, we study the behaviour of a cloud submitted to a periodic pressure perturbation. We suppose a vertical wave propagating in a plane parallel atmosphere including an ammonia ice cloud layer. We determine the relation between the Lagrangian pressure perturbation and the variation of the fraction of solid ammonia. The linearized equations governing the evolution of the Eulerian pressure and density perturbed terms allows us to study how the propagation is altered by the clouds and how the clouds move with the wave. Finally, because a pressure perturbation modifies the fraction of solid ammonia, we estimate how much an ammonia crystal should grow or decrease and how the clouds albedo could change with the wave. Baglin et al. 1999. BAAS 31, 813. Baines et al. 2002. Icarus 159, 74. Deming et al. 1989. Icarus 21, 943. Kuiper 1952.The atmospheres of the Earth and Planets pp. 306-405. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago. Mosser et al. 1991. A&A 251, 356. Vorontsov et al. 1976. Icarus 27, 109.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20010087665&hterms=ACE&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3DACE','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20010087665&hterms=ACE&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3DACE"><span>Arctic Stratus Cloud Properties and Their Effect on the Surface Radiation Budget: Selected Cases from FIRE ACE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Doug, Xiquan; Mace, Gerald G.; Minnis, Patrick; Young, David F.</p> <p>2001-01-01</p> <p>To study Arctic stratus cloud properties and their effect on the surface radiation balance during the spring transition season, analyses are performed using data taken during three cloudy and two clear days in May 1998 as part of the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Arctic Cloud Experiment (ACE). Radiative transfer models are used in conjunction with surface- and satellite-based measurements to retrieve the layer-averaged microphysical and shortwave radiative properties. The surface-retrieved cloud properties in Cases 1 and 2 agree well with the in situ and satellite retrievals. Discrepancies in Case 3 are due to spatial mismatches between the aircraft and the surface measurements in a highly variable cloud field. Also, the vertical structure in the cloud layer is not fully characterized by the aircraft measurements. Satellite data are critical for understanding some of the observed discrepancies. The satellite-derived particle sizes agree well with the coincident surface retrievals and with the aircraft data when they were collocated. Optical depths derived from visible-channel data over snow backgrounds were overestimated in all three cases, suggesting that methods currently used in satellite cloud climatologies derive optical depths that are too large. Use of a near-infrared channel with a solar infrared channel to simultaneously derive optical depth and particle size appears to alleviate this overestimation problem. Further study of the optical depth retrieval is needed. The surface-based radiometer data reveal that the Arctic stratus clouds produce a net warming of 20 W m(exp -2) in the surface layer during the transition season suggesting that these clouds may accelerate the spring time melting of the ice pack. This surface warming contrasts with the net cooling at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) during the same period. All analysis of the complete FIRE ACE data sets will be valuable for understanding the role of clouds during the entire melting and refreezing process that occurs annually in the Arctic.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990080951&hterms=physical+dependence&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dphysical%2Bdependence','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990080951&hterms=physical+dependence&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dphysical%2Bdependence"><span>Climatic Implications of the Observed Temperature Dependence of the Liquid Water Path of Low Clouds in the Southern Great Plains</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>DelGenio, Anthony</p> <p>1999-01-01</p> <p>Satellite observations of low-level clouds have challenged the assumption that adiabatic liquid water content combined with constant physical thickness will lead to a negative cloud optics feedback in a decadal climate change. We explore the reasons for the satellite results using four years of surface remote sensing data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud and Radiation Testbed site in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. We find that low cloud liquid water path is approximately invariant with temperature in winter but decreases strongly with temperature in summer, consistent with the satellite inferences at this latitude. This behavior occurs because liquid water content shows no detectable temperature dependence while cloud physical thickness decreases with warming. Thinning of clouds with warming is observed on seasonal, synoptic, and diurnal time scales; it is most obvious in the warm sectors of baroclinic waves. Although cloud top is observed to slightly descend with warming, the primary cause of thinning, is the ascent of cloud base due to the reduction in surface relative humidity and the concomitant increase in the lifting condensation level of surface air. Low cloud liquid water path is not observed to be a continuous function of temperature. Rather, the behavior we observe is best explained as a transition in the frequency of occurrence of different boundary layer types. At cold temperatures, a mixture of stratified and convective boundary layers is observed, leading to a broad distribution of liquid water path values, while at warm temperatures, only convective boundary layers with small liquid water paths, some of them decoupled, are observed. Our results, combined with the earlier satellite inferences, imply that the commonly quoted 1.5C lower limit for the equilibrium global climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 which is based on models with near-adiabatic liquid water behavior and constant physical thickness, should be revised upward.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990070927&hterms=climate+change+temperature&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dclimate%2Bchange%2Btemperature','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990070927&hterms=climate+change+temperature&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dclimate%2Bchange%2Btemperature"><span>Climatic Implications of the Observed Temperature Dependence of the Liquid Water Path of Low Clouds in the Southern Great Plains</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>DelGenio, Anthony D.; Wolf, Audrey B.</p> <p>1999-01-01</p> <p>Satellite observations of low-level clouds have challenged the assumption that adiabatic liquid water content combined with constant physical thickness will lead to a negative cloud optics feedback in a decadal climate change. We explore the reasons for the satellite results using four years of surface remote sensing data from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud and Radiation Testbed site in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. We find that low cloud liquid water path is approximately invariant with temperature in winter but decreases strongly with temperature in summer, consistent with the satellite inferences at this latitude. This behavior occurs because liquid water content shows no detectable temperature dependence while cloud physical thickness decreases with warming. Thinning of clouds with warming is observed on seasonal, synoptic, and diurnal time scales; it is most obvious in the warm sectors of baroclinic waves. Although cloud top is observed to slightly descend with warming, the primary cause of thinning is the ascent of cloud base due to the reduction in surface relative humidity and the concomitant increase in the lifting condensation level of surface air. Low cloud liquid water path is not observed to be a continuous function of temperature. Rather, the behavior we observe is best explained as a transition in the frequency of occurrence of different boundary layer types: At cold temperatures, a mixture of stratified and convective boundary layers is observed, leading to a broad distribution of liquid water path values, while at warm temperatures, only convective boundary layers with small liquid water paths, some of them decoupled, are observed. Our results, combined with the earlier satellite inferences, imply that the commonly quoted 1.50 C lower limit for the equilibrium global climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2, which is based on models with near-adiabatic liquid water behavior and constant physical thickness, should be revised upward.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/484534','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/484534"><span>Boundary-layer cumulus over heterogeneous landscapes: A subgrid GCM parameterization. Final report, December 1991--November 1995</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Stull, R.B.; Tripoli, G.</p> <p>1996-01-08</p> <p>The authors developed single-column parameterizations for subgrid boundary-layer cumulus clouds. These give cloud onset time, cloud coverage, and ensemble distributions of cloud-base altitudes, cloud-top altitudes, cloud thickness, and the characteristics of cloudy and clear updrafts. They tested and refined the parameterizations against archived data from Spring and Summer 1994 and 1995 intensive operation periods (IOPs) at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) ARM CART site near Lamont, Oklahoma. The authors also found that: cloud-base altitudes are not uniform over a heterogeneous surface; tops of some cumulus clouds can be below the base-altitudes of other cumulus clouds; there is an overlap regionmore » near cloud base where clear and cloudy updrafts exist simultaneously; and the lognormal distribution of cloud sizes scales to the JFD of surface layer air and to the shape of the temperature profile above the boundary layer.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014293','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110014293"><span>Detection of Multi-Layer and Vertically-Extended Clouds Using A-Train Sensors</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Joiner, J.; Vasilkov, A. P.; Bhartia, P. K.; Wind, G.; Platnick, S.; Menzel, W. P.</p> <p>2010-01-01</p> <p>The detection of mUltiple cloud layers using satellite observations is important for retrieval algorithms as well as climate applications. In this paper, we describe a relatively simple algorithm to detect multiple cloud layers and distinguish them from vertically-extended clouds. The algorithm can be applied to coincident passive sensors that derive both cloud-top pressure from the thermal infrared observations and an estimate of solar photon pathlength from UV, visible, or near-IR measurements. Here, we use data from the A-train afternoon constellation of satellites: cloud-top pressure, cloud optical thickness, the multi-layer flag from the Aqua MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the optical centroid cloud pressure from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). For the first time, we use data from the CloudSat radar to evaluate the results of a multi-layer cloud detection scheme. The cloud classification algorithms applied with different passive sensor configurations compare well with each other as well as with data from CloudSat. We compute monthly mean fractions of pixels containing multi-layer and vertically-extended clouds for January and July 2007 at the OMI spatial resolution (l2kmx24km at nadir) and at the 5kmx5km MODIS resolution used for infrared cloud retrievals. There are seasonal variations in the spatial distribution of the different cloud types. The fraction of cloudy pixels containing distinct multi-layer cloud is a strong function of the pixel size. Globally averaged, these fractions are approximately 20% and 10% for OMI and MODIS, respectively. These fractions may be significantly higher or lower depending upon location. There is a much smaller resolution dependence for fractions of pixels containing vertically-extended clouds (approx.20% for OMI and slightly less for MODIS globally), suggesting larger spatial scales for these clouds. We also find higher fractions of vertically-extended clouds over land as compared with ocean, particularly in the tropics and summer hemisphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006GeoRL..3321801H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006GeoRL..3321801H"><span>Determination of ice water path in ice-over-water cloud systems using combined MODIS and AMSR-E measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Huang, Jianping; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Yi, Yuhong; Fan, T.-F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Ayers, J. K.</p> <p>2006-11-01</p> <p>To provide more accurate ice cloud microphysical properties, the multi-layered cloud retrieval system (MCRS) is used to retrieve ice water path (IWP) in ice-over-water cloud systems globally over oceans using combined instrument data from Aqua. The liquid water path (LWP) of lower-layer water clouds is estimated from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) measurements. The properties of the upper-level ice clouds are then derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements by matching simulated radiances from a two-cloud-layer radiative transfer model. The results show that the MCRS can significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the over-estimation of optical depth and IWP retrievals for ice-over-water cloud systems. The mean daytime ice cloud optical depth and IWP for overlapped ice-over-water clouds over oceans from Aqua are 7.6 and 146.4 gm-2, respectively, down from the initial single-layer retrievals of 17.3 and 322.3 gm-2. The mean IWP for actual single-layer clouds is 128.2 gm-2.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACP.....9.8799D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACP.....9.8799D"><span>UV Raman lidar measurements of relative humidity for the characterization of cirrus cloud microphysical properties</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>di Girolamo, P.; Summa, D.; Lin, R.-F.; Maestri, T.; Rizzi, R.; Masiello, G.</p> <p>2009-11-01</p> <p>Raman lidar measurements performed in Potenza by the Raman lidar system BASIL in the presence of cirrus clouds are discussed. Measurements were performed on 6 September 2004 in the frame of the Italian phase of the EAQUATE Experiment. The major feature of BASIL is represented by its capability to perform high-resolution and accurate measurements of atmospheric temperature and water vapour, and consequently relative humidity, both in daytime and night-time, based on the application of the rotational and vibrational Raman lidar techniques in the UV. BASIL is also capable to provide measurements of the particle backscatter and extinction coefficient, and consequently lidar ratio (at the time of these measurements, only at one wavelength), which are fundamental to infer geometrical and microphysical properties of clouds. A case study is discussed in order to assess the capability of Raman lidars to measure humidity in presence of cirrus clouds, both below and inside the cloud. While air inside the cloud layers is observed to be always under-saturated with respect to water, both ice super-saturation and under-saturation conditions are found inside these clouds. Upper tropospheric moistening is observed below the lower cloud layer. The synergic use of the data derived from the ground based Raman Lidar and of spectral radiances measured by the NAST-I Airborne Spectrometer allows the determination of the temporal evolution of the atmospheric cooling/heating rates due to the presence of the cirrus cloud. Lidar measurements beneath the cirrus cloud layer have been interpreted using a 1-D cirrus cloud model with explicit microphysics. The 1-D simulations indicate that sedimentation-moistening has contributed significantly to the moist anomaly, but other mechanisms are also contributing. This result supports the hypothesis that the observed mid-tropospheric humidification is a real feature which is strongly influenced by the sublimation of precipitating ice crystals. Results illustrated in this study demonstrate that Raman lidars, like the one used in this study, can resolve the spatial and temporal scales required for the study of cirrus cloud microphysical processes and appear sensitive enough to reveal and quantify upper tropospheric humidification associated with cirrus cloud sublimation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACPD....914735D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACPD....914735D"><span>UV Raman lidar measurements of relative humidity for the characterization of cirrus cloud microphysical properties</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>di Girolamo, P.; Summa, D.; Lin, R.-F.; Maestri, T.; Rizzi, R.; Masiello, G.</p> <p>2009-07-01</p> <p>Raman lidar measurements performed in Potenza by the Raman lidar system BASIL in the presence of cirrus clouds are discussed. Measurements were performed on 6 September 2004 in the frame of Italian phase of the EAQUATE Experiment. The major feature of BASIL is represented by its capability to perform high-resolution and accurate measurements of atmospheric temperature and water vapour, and consequently relative humidity, both in daytime and night-time, based on the application of the rotational and vibrational Raman lidar techniques in the UV. BASIL is also capable to provide measurements of the particle backscatter and extinction coefficient, and consequently lidar ratio (at the time of these measurements only at one wavelength), which are fundamental to infer geometrical and microphysical properties of clouds. A case study is discussed in order to assess the capability of Raman lidars to measure humidity in presence of cirrus clouds, both below and inside the cloud. While air inside the cloud layers is observed to be always under-saturated with respect to water, both ice super-saturation and under-saturation conditions are found inside these clouds. Upper tropospheric moistening is observed below the lower cloud layer. The synergic use of the data derived from the ground based Raman Lidar and of spectral radiances measured by the NAST-I Airborne Spectrometer allows to determine the temporal evolution of the atmospheric cooling/heating rates due to the presence of the cirrus cloud anvil. Lidar measurements beneath the cirrus cloud layer have been interpreted using a 1-D cirrus cloud model with explicit microphysics. The 1-D simulations indicates that sedimentation-moistening has contributed significantly to the moist anomaly, but other mechanisms are also contributing. This result supports the hypothesis that the observed mid-tropospheric humidification is a real feature which is strongly influenced by the sublimation of precipitating ice crystals. Results illustrated in this study demonstrate that Raman lidars, like the one used in this study, can resolve the spatial and temporal scales required for the study of cirrus cloud microphysical processes and appears sensitive enough to reveal and quantify upper tropospheric humidification associated with cirrus cloud sublimation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060019225&hterms=Ackerman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3DAckerman','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060019225&hterms=Ackerman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3DAckerman"><span>Evidence for Tropopause Layer Moistening by Convection During CRYSTAL-FACE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Ackerman, A.; Fridlind, A.; Jensen, E.; Miloshevich, L.; Heymsfield, G.; McGill, M.</p> <p>2003-01-01</p> <p>Measurements and analysis of the impact of deep convection on tropopause layer moisture are easily confounded by difficulties making precise observations with sufficient spatial coverage before and after convective events and difficulties distinguishing between changes due to local convection versus large-scale advection. The interactions between cloud microphysics and dynamics in the convective transport of moisture into the tropopause layer also result in a sufficiently complex and poorly characterized system to allow for considerable freedom in theoretical models of stratosphere-troposphere exchange. In this work we perform detailed large-eddy simulations with an explicit cloud microphysics model to study the impact of deep convection on tropopause layer moisture profiles observed over southern Florida during CRYSTALFACE. For four days during the campaign (July 11, 16, 28, and 29) we initialize a 100-km square domain with temperature and moisture profiles measured prior to convection at the PARSL ground site, and initiate convection with a warm bubble that produces an anvil at peak elevations in agreement with lidar and radar observations on that day. Comparing the moisture field after the anvils decay with the initial state, we find that convection predominantly moistens the tropopause layer (as defined by minimum temperature and minimum potential temperature lapse rate), although some drying is also predicted in localized layers. We will also present results of sensitivity tests designed to separate the roles of cloud microphysics and dynamics.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1425466','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1425466"><span>Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Parishani, Hossein; Pritchard, Michael S.; Bretherton, Christopher S.</p> <p></p> <p>Systematic biases in the representation of boundary layer (BL) clouds are a leading source of uncertainty in climate projections. A variation on superparameterization (SP) called “ultraparameterization” (UP) is developed, in which the grid spacing of the cloud-resolving models (CRMs) is fine enough (250 × 20 m) to explicitly capture the BL turbulence, associated clouds, and entrainment in a global climate model capable of multiyear simulations. UP is implemented within the Community Atmosphere Model using 2° resolution (~14,000 embedded CRMs) with one-moment microphysics. By using a small domain and mean-state acceleration, UP is computationally feasible today and promising for exascale computers.more » Short-duration global UP hindcasts are compared with SP and satellite observations of top-of-atmosphere radiation and cloud vertical structure. The most encouraging improvement is a deeper BL and more realistic vertical structure of subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) clouds, due to stronger vertical eddy motions that promote entrainment. Results from 90 day integrations show climatological errors that are competitive with SP, with a significant improvement in the diurnal cycle of offshore Sc liquid water. Ongoing concerns with the current UP implementation include a dim bias for near-coastal Sc that also occurs less prominently in SP and a bright bias over tropical continental deep convection zones. Nevertheless, UP makes global eddy-permitting simulation a feasible and interesting alternative to conventionally parameterized GCMs or SP-GCMs with turbulence parameterizations for studying BL cloud-climate and cloud-aerosol feedback.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1425466-toward-low-cloud-permitting-cloud-superparameterization-explicit-boundary-layer-turbulence','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1425466-toward-low-cloud-permitting-cloud-superparameterization-explicit-boundary-layer-turbulence"><span>Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Parishani, Hossein; Pritchard, Michael S.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; ...</p> <p>2017-06-19</p> <p>Systematic biases in the representation of boundary layer (BL) clouds are a leading source of uncertainty in climate projections. A variation on superparameterization (SP) called “ultraparameterization” (UP) is developed, in which the grid spacing of the cloud-resolving models (CRMs) is fine enough (250 × 20 m) to explicitly capture the BL turbulence, associated clouds, and entrainment in a global climate model capable of multiyear simulations. UP is implemented within the Community Atmosphere Model using 2° resolution (~14,000 embedded CRMs) with one-moment microphysics. By using a small domain and mean-state acceleration, UP is computationally feasible today and promising for exascale computers.more » Short-duration global UP hindcasts are compared with SP and satellite observations of top-of-atmosphere radiation and cloud vertical structure. The most encouraging improvement is a deeper BL and more realistic vertical structure of subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) clouds, due to stronger vertical eddy motions that promote entrainment. Results from 90 day integrations show climatological errors that are competitive with SP, with a significant improvement in the diurnal cycle of offshore Sc liquid water. Ongoing concerns with the current UP implementation include a dim bias for near-coastal Sc that also occurs less prominently in SP and a bright bias over tropical continental deep convection zones. Nevertheless, UP makes global eddy-permitting simulation a feasible and interesting alternative to conventionally parameterized GCMs or SP-GCMs with turbulence parameterizations for studying BL cloud-climate and cloud-aerosol feedback.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JAMES...9.1542P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JAMES...9.1542P"><span>Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Parishani, Hossein; Pritchard, Michael S.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Wyant, Matthew C.; Khairoutdinov, Marat</p> <p>2017-07-01</p> <p>Systematic biases in the representation of boundary layer (BL) clouds are a leading source of uncertainty in climate projections. A variation on superparameterization (SP) called "ultraparameterization" (UP) is developed, in which the grid spacing of the cloud-resolving models (CRMs) is fine enough (250 × 20 m) to explicitly capture the BL turbulence, associated clouds, and entrainment in a global climate model capable of multiyear simulations. UP is implemented within the Community Atmosphere Model using 2° resolution (˜14,000 embedded CRMs) with one-moment microphysics. By using a small domain and mean-state acceleration, UP is computationally feasible today and promising for exascale computers. Short-duration global UP hindcasts are compared with SP and satellite observations of top-of-atmosphere radiation and cloud vertical structure. The most encouraging improvement is a deeper BL and more realistic vertical structure of subtropical stratocumulus (Sc) clouds, due to stronger vertical eddy motions that promote entrainment. Results from 90 day integrations show climatological errors that are competitive with SP, with a significant improvement in the diurnal cycle of offshore Sc liquid water. Ongoing concerns with the current UP implementation include a dim bias for near-coastal Sc that also occurs less prominently in SP and a bright bias over tropical continental deep convection zones. Nevertheless, UP makes global eddy-permitting simulation a feasible and interesting alternative to conventionally parameterized GCMs or SP-GCMs with turbulence parameterizations for studying BL cloud-climate and cloud-aerosol feedback.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4850809S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4850809S"><span>A Possibly Universal Red Chromophore for Jupiter</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sromovsky, Lawrence A.; Baines, Kevin; Fry, Patrick M.</p> <p>2016-10-01</p> <p>A new laboratory-generated chemical compound made from photodissociated ammonia (NH3) molecules reacting with acetylene (C2H2) was suggested as a possible coloring agent for Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) by Carlson et al. (2016, Icarus 274, 106-115). Baines et al. (2016, AAS/DPS Meeting abstract) showed that the GRS spectrum measured by the visual channels of the Cassini VIMS instrument in 2000 could be accurately fit by a cloud model in which the chromophore appeared as small particles in a physically thin layer immediately above the main cloud layer of the GRS. Here we show that the same chromophore and similar layer structure can also provide close matches to the 0.4-1 micron spectra of many other cloud features on Jupiter, suggesting that this material may be a nearly universal chromophore responsible for the various degrees of red coloration on Jupiter. This is a robust conclusion, even for 12 percent changes in VIMS calibration and large uncertainties in the refractive index of the main cloud layer due to uncertain fractions of NH4SH and NH3 in its cloud particles. The chromophore layer can account for color variations among north and south equatorial belts, equatorial zone, and the Great Red Spot, by varying particle size from 0.12 to 0.29 micron and optical depth from 0.06 to 0.76. The total mass of the chromophore layer is much less variable than its optical depth, staying mainly within 6-10 micrograms/cm2 range, but is only about half that amount in the equatorial zone. We also found a depression of the ammonia volume mixing ratio in the two belt regions, which averaged 0.4-0.5 × 10-4 immediately below the ammonia condensation level, while the other regions averaged twice that value.LAS and PMF acknowledge support from NASA Grant NNX14AH40G.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18324021','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18324021"><span>Influence of daylight and noise current on cloud and aerosol observations by spaceborne elastic scattering lidar.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Nakajima, T Y; Imai, T; Uchino, O; Nagai, T</p> <p>1999-08-20</p> <p>The influence of daylight and noise current on cloud and aerosol observations by realistic spaceborne lidar was examined by computer simulations. The reflected solar radiations, which contaminate the daytime return signals of lidar operations, were strictly and explicitly estimated by accurate radiative transfer calculations. It was found that the model multilayer cirrus clouds and the boundary layer aerosols could be observed during the daytime and the nighttime with only a few laser shots. However, high background noise and noise current make it difficult to observe volcanic aerosols in middle and upper atmospheric layers. Optimal combinations of the laser power and receiver field of view are proposed to compensate for the negative influence that is due to these noises. For the computer simulations, we used a realistic set of lidar parameters similar to the Experimental Lidar in-Space Equipment of the National Space Development Agency of Japan.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930044342&hterms=condensation&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D90%26Ntt%3Dcondensation','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930044342&hterms=condensation&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D90%26Ntt%3Dcondensation"><span>Cloud condensation nuclei near marine cumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hudson, James G.</p> <p>1993-01-01</p> <p>Extensive airborne measurements of cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) spectra and condensation nuclei below, in, between, and above the cumulus clouds near Hawaii point to important aerosol-cloud interactions. Consistent particle concentrations of 200/cu cm were found above the marine boundary layer and within the noncloudy marine boundary layer. Lower and more variable CCN concentrations within the cloudy boundary layer, especially very close to the clouds, appear to be a result of cloud scavenging processes. Gravitational coagulation of cloud droplets may be the principal cause of this difference in the vertical distribution of CCN. The results suggest a reservoir of CCN in the free troposphere which can act as a source for the marine boundary layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AMT.....5.1889P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AMT.....5.1889P"><span>Cloud retrievals from satellite data using optimal estimation: evaluation and application to ATSR</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Poulsen, C. A.; Siddans, R.; Thomas, G. E.; Sayer, A. M.; Grainger, R. G.; Campmany, E.; Dean, S. M.; Arnold, C.; Watts, P. D.</p> <p>2012-08-01</p> <p>Clouds play an important role in balancing the Earth's radiation budget. Hence, it is vital that cloud climatologies are produced that quantify cloud macro and micro physical parameters and the associated uncertainty. In this paper, we present an algorithm ORAC (Oxford-RAL retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud) which is based on fitting a physically consistent cloud model to satellite observations simultaneously from the visible to the mid-infrared, thereby ensuring that the resulting cloud properties provide both a good representation of the short-wave and long-wave radiative effects of the observed cloud. The advantages of the optimal estimation method are that it enables rigorous error propagation and the inclusion of all measurements and any a priori information and associated errors in a rigorous mathematical framework. The algorithm provides a measure of the consistency between retrieval representation of cloud and satellite radiances. The cloud parameters retrieved are the cloud top pressure, cloud optical depth, cloud effective radius, cloud fraction and cloud phase. The algorithm can be applied to most visible/infrared satellite instruments. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability to the Along-Track Scanning Radiometers ATSR-2 and AATSR. Examples of applying the algorithm to ATSR-2 flight data are presented and the sensitivity of the retrievals assessed, in particular the algorithm is evaluated for a number of simulated single-layer and multi-layer conditions. The algorithm was found to perform well for single-layer cloud except when the cloud was very thin; i.e., less than 1 optical depths. For the multi-layer cloud, the algorithm was robust except when the upper ice cloud layer is less than five optical depths. In these cases the retrieved cloud top pressure and cloud effective radius become a weighted average of the 2 layers. The sum of optical depth of multi-layer cloud is retrieved well until the cloud becomes thick, greater than 50 optical depths, where the cloud begins to saturate. The cost proved a good indicator of multi-layer scenarios. Both the retrieval cost and the error need to be considered together in order to evaluate the quality of the retrieval. This algorithm in the configuration described here has been applied to both ATSR-2 and AATSR visible and infrared measurements in the context of the GRAPE (Global Retrieval and cloud Product Evaluation) project to produce a 14 yr consistent record for climate research.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.2737C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.2737C"><span>Cloud Height Estimation with a Single Digital Camera and Artificial Neural Networks</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Carretas, Filipe; Janeiro, Fernando M.</p> <p>2014-05-01</p> <p>Clouds influence the local weather, the global climate and are an important parameter in the weather prediction models. Clouds are also an essential component of airplane safety when visual flight rules (VFR) are enforced, such as in most small aerodromes where it is not economically viable to install instruments for assisted flying. Therefore it is important to develop low cost and robust systems that can be easily deployed in the field, enabling large scale acquisition of cloud parameters. Recently, the authors developed a low-cost system for the measurement of cloud base height using stereo-vision and digital photography. However, due to the stereo nature of the system, some challenges were presented. In particular, the relative camera orientation requires calibration and the two cameras need to be synchronized so that the photos from both cameras are acquired simultaneously. In this work we present a new system that estimates the cloud height between 1000 and 5000 meters. This prototype is composed by one digital camera controlled by a Raspberry Pi and is installed at Centro de Geofísica de Évora (CGE) in Évora, Portugal. The camera is periodically triggered to acquire images of the overhead sky and the photos are downloaded to the Raspberry Pi which forwards them to a central computer that processes the images and estimates the cloud height in real time. To estimate the cloud height using just one image requires a computer model that is able to learn from previous experiences and execute pattern recognition. The model proposed in this work is an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) that was previously trained with cloud features at different heights. The chosen Artificial Neural Network is a three-layer network, with six parameters in the input layer, 12 neurons in the hidden intermediate layer, and an output layer with only one output. The six input parameters are the average intensity values and the intensity standard deviation of each RGB channel. The output parameter in the output layer is the cloud height estimated by the ANN. The training procedure was performed, using the back-propagation method, in a set of 260 different clouds with heights in the range [1000, 5000] m. The training of the ANN has resulted in a correlation ratio of 0.74. This trained ANN can therefore be used to estimate the cloud height. The previously described system can also measure the wind speed and direction at cloud height by measuring the displacement, in pixels, of a cloud feature between consecutively acquired photos. Also, the geographical north direction can be estimated using this setup through sequential night images with high exposure times. A further advantage of this single camera system is that no camera calibration or synchronization is needed. This significantly reduces the cost and complexity of field deployment of cloud height measurement systems based on digital photography.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JChPh.140j4106L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JChPh.140j4106L"><span>Inter-layer potential for hexagonal boron nitride</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Leven, Itai; Azuri, Ido; Kronik, Leeor; Hod, Oded</p> <p>2014-03-01</p> <p>A new interlayer force-field for layered hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) based structures is presented. The force-field contains three terms representing the interlayer attraction due to dispersive interactions, repulsion due to anisotropic overlaps of electron clouds, and monopolar electrostatic interactions. With appropriate parameterization, the potential is able to simultaneously capture well the binding and lateral sliding energies of planar h-BN based dimer systems as well as the interlayer telescoping and rotation of double walled boron-nitride nanotubes of different crystallographic orientations. The new potential thus allows for the accurate and efficient modeling and simulation of large-scale h-BN based layered structures.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=GL-2002-001184&hterms=gift+bribe&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchany%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dgift%2Bbribe','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=GL-2002-001184&hterms=gift+bribe&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchany%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dgift%2Bbribe"><span>AN INFRARED VIEW OF SATURN</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>In honor of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's eighth anniversary, we have GIFt wrapped Saturn in vivid colors. Actually, this image is courtesy of the new Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), which has taken its first peek at Saturn. The false-color image - taken Jan. 4, 1998 - shows the planet's reflected infrared light. This view provides detailed information on the clouds and hazes in Saturn's atmosphere. The blue colors indicate a clear atmosphere down to a main cloud layer. Different shadings of blue indicate variations in the cloud particles, in size or chemical composition. The cloud particles are believed to be ammonia ice crystals. Most of the northern hemisphere that is visible above the rings is relatively clear. The dark region around the south pole at the bottom indicates a big hole in the main cloud layer. The green and yellow colors indicate a haze above the main cloud layer. The haze is thin where the colors are green but thick where they are yellow. Most of the southern hemisphere (the lower part of Saturn) is quite hazy. These layers are aligned with latitude lines, due to Saturn's east-west winds. The red and orange colors indicate clouds reaching up high into the atmosphere. Red clouds are even higher than orange clouds. The densest regions of two storms near Saturn's equator appear white. On Earth, the storms with the highest clouds are also found in tropical latitudes. The smaller storm on the left is about as large as the Earth, and larger storms have been recorded on Saturn in 1990 and 1994. The rings, made up of chunks of ice, are as white as images of ice taken in visible light. However, in the infrared, water absorption causes various colorations. The most obvious is the brown color of the innermost ring. The rings cast their shadow onto Saturn. The bright line seen within this shadow is sunlight shining through the Cassini Division, the separation between the two bright rings. It is best observed on the left side, just above the rings. This view is possible due to a rare geometry during the observation. The next time this is observable from Earth will be in 2006. An accurate investigation of the ring's shadow also shows sunlight shining through the Encke Gap, a thin division very close to the outer edge of the ring system. Two of Saturn's satellites were recorded, Dione on the lower left and Tethys on the upper right. Tethys is just ending its transit across the disk of Saturn. They appear in different colors, yellow and green, indicating different conditions on their icy surfaces. Wavelengths: A color image consists of three exposures (or three film layers). For visible true-color images, the wavelengths of these three exposures are 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 micrometers for blue, green, and red light, respectively. This Saturn image was taken at longer infrared wavelengths of 1.0, 1.8, and 2.1 micrometers, displayed as blue, green, and red. Reflected sunlight is seen at all these wavelengths, since Saturn's own heat glows only at wavelengths above 4 micrometers. Image credit: Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona), and NASA</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_4");'>4</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li class="active"><span>6</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_6 --> <div id="page_7" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li class="active"><span>7</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="121"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAMES..10..320Q','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAMES..10..320Q"><span>A Diagnostic PDF Cloud Scheme to Improve Subtropical Low Clouds in NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Qin, Yi; Lin, Yanluan; Xu, Shiming; Ma, Hsi-Yen; Xie, Shaocheng</p> <p>2018-02-01</p> <p>Low clouds strongly impact the radiation budget of the climate system, but their simulation in most GCMs has remained a challenge, especially over the subtropical stratocumulus region. Assuming a Gaussian distribution for the subgrid-scale total water and liquid water potential temperature, a new statistical cloud scheme is proposed and tested in NCAR Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5). The subgrid-scale variance is diagnosed from the turbulent and shallow convective processes in CAM5. The approach is able to maintain the consistency between cloud fraction and cloud condensate and thus alleviates the adjustment needed in the default relative humidity-based cloud fraction scheme. Short-term forecast simulations indicate that low cloud fraction and liquid water content, including their diurnal cycle, are improved due to a proper consideration of subgrid-scale variance over the southeastern Pacific Ocean region. Compared with the default cloud scheme, the new approach produced the mean climate reasonably well with improved shortwave cloud forcing (SWCF) due to more reasonable low cloud fraction and liquid water path over regions with predominant low clouds. Meanwhile, the SWCF bias over the tropical land regions is also alleviated. Furthermore, the simulated marine boundary layer clouds with the new approach extend further offshore and agree better with observations. The new approach is able to obtain the top of atmosphere (TOA) radiation balance with a slightly alleviated double ITCZ problem in preliminary coupled simulations. This study implies that a close coupling of cloud processes with other subgrid-scale physical processes is a promising approach to improve cloud simulations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005GeoRL..3224819W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005GeoRL..3224819W"><span>Evaluation of AIRS cloud properties using MPACE data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wu, Xuebao; Li, Jun; Menzel, W. Paul; Huang, Allen; Baggett, Kevin; Revercomb, Henry</p> <p>2005-12-01</p> <p>Retrieval of cloud properties from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard the NASA Aqua satellite has been investigated. The cloud products from the collocated MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are used to characterize the AIRS sub-pixel cloud information such as cloud phase, cloud coverage, and cloud layer information. A Minimum Residual (MR) approach is used to retrieve cloud microphysical properties once the cloud top pressure (CTP) and effective cloud amount (ECA) are determined from AIRS CO2 absorption channels between 720 and 790 cm-1. The cloud microphysical properties can be retrieved by minimizing the differences between the observations and the calculations using AIRS longwave window channels between 790 and 1130 cm-1. AIRS is used to derive cloud properties during the Mixed Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) field campaign. Comparison with measurements obtained from lidar data is made for a test day, showing that AIRS cloud property retrievals agree with in situ lidar observations. Due to the large solar zenith angle, the MODIS operational retrieval approach is not able to provide cloud microphysics north of Barrow, Alaska; however, AIRS provides cloud microphysical properties with its high spectral resolution IR measurements.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA00602&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA00602&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation"><span>E4 True and false color hot spot mosaic</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>1997-01-01</p> <p>True and false color views of Jupiter from NASA's Galileo spacecraft show an equatorial 'hotspot' on Jupiter. These images cover an area 34,000 kilometers by 11,000 kilometers (about 21,100 by 6,800 miles). The top mosaic combines the violet and near infrared continuum filter images to create an image similar to how Jupiter would appear to human eyes. Differences in coloration are due to the composition and abundances of trace chemicals in Jupiter's atmosphere. The bottom mosaic uses Galileo's three near-infrared wavelengths displayed in red, green, and blue) to show variations in cloud height and thickness. Bluish clouds are high and thin, reddish clouds are low, and white clouds are high and thick. The dark blue hotspot in the center is a hole in the deep cloud with an overlying thin haze. The light blue region to the left is covered by a very high haze layer. The multicolored region to the right has overlapping cloud layers of different heights. Galileo is the first spacecraft to distinguish cloud layers on Jupiter.<p/>North is at the top. The mosaic covers latitudes 1 to 10 degrees and is centered at longitude 336 degrees west. The smallest resolved features are tens of kilometers in size. These images were taken on December 17, 1996, at a range of 1.5 million kilometers (about 930,000 miles) by the Solid State Imaging camera system aboard Galileo. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.<p/>This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at: http:/ /www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=GL-2002-001575&hterms=fog+appears&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dwhen%2Bfog%2Bappears','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=GL-2002-001575&hterms=fog+appears&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dwhen%2Bfog%2Bappears"><span>Coastal Fog, South Peruvian Coast at Pisco</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>Coastal fog commonly drapes the Peruvian coast. This image captures complex interactions between land, sea, and atmosphere along the southern Peruvian coast. When Shuttle astronauts took the image in February of 2002, the layers of coastal fog and stratus were being progressively scoured away by brisk south to southeast winds. Remnants of the cloud deck banked against the larger, obstructing headlands like Peninsula Paracas and Isla Sangayan, giving the prominent 'white comma' effect. Southerlies also produced ripples of internal gravity waves in the clouds offshore where warm, dry air aloft interacts with a thinning layer of cool, moist air near the sea surface on the outer edge of the remaining cloud bank. South of Peninsula Baracas, the small headlands channeled the clouds into streaks-local horizontal vortices caused by the headlands provided enough lift to give points of origin of the clouds in some bays. Besides the shelter of the peninsula, the Bahia de Pisco appears to be cloud-free due to a dry, offshore flow down the valley of the Rio Ica. The STS-109 crew took image STS109-730-80 in February 2002. The image is provided by the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA-JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950028643&hterms=marine+energy&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Benergy','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950028643&hterms=marine+energy&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Benergy"><span>Roles of drizzle in a one-dimensional third-order turbulence closure model of the nocturnal stratus-topped marine boundary layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Shouping; Wang, Qing</p> <p>1994-01-01</p> <p>This study focuses on the effects of drizzle in a one-dimensional third-order turbulence closure model of the nocturnal stratus-topped marine boundary layer. When the simulated drizzle rate is relatively small (maximum approximately equal to 0.6 mm/day), steady-state solutions are obtained. The boundary layer stabilizes essentially because drizzle causes evaporative cooling of the subcloud layer. This stabilization considerably reduces the buoyancy flux and turbulence kinetic energy below the stratus cloud. Thus, drizzle tends to decouple the cloud from the subcloud layer in the model, as suggested by many observational studies. In addition, the evaporation of drizzle in the subcloud layer creates small scattered clouds, which are likely to represent cumulus clouds, below the solid stratus cloud in the model. The sensitivity experiments show that these scattered clouds help maintain a coupled boundary layer. When the drizzle rate is relatively large (maximum approximately equal to 0.9 mm/day), the response of the model becomes transient with bursts in turbulent fluxes. This phenomenon is related to the formation of the scattered cloud layer below the solid stratus cloud. It appears that the model is inadequate to represent the heat and moisture transport by strong updrafts covering a small fractional area in cumulus convection.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040112011','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040112011"><span>Cloud Detection Using Measured and Modeled State Parameters</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Yi, Y.; Minnis, P.; Huang, J.; Ayers, J. K.; Doelling, D. R.; Khaiyer, M. M.; Nordeen, M. L.</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>In this study, hourly RUC analyses were used to examine the differences between RH and temperature values from RUC reanalysis data and from radiosonde atmospheric profiles obtained at the ARM SCF. The results show that the temperature observations from the SONDE and RUC are highly correlated. The RHs are also well-correlated, but the SONDE values generally exceed those from RUC. Inside cloud layers, the RH from RUC is 2-14% lower than the RH from SONDE for all RUC layers. Although the layer mean RH within clouds is much greater than the layer mean RH outside cloud or in the clear-sky, RH thresholds chosen as a function of temperature can more accurately diagnose cloud occurrence for either dataset. For overcast clouds, it was found that the 50% probability RH threshold for diagnosing a cloud, within a given upper tropospheric layer is roughly 90% for the Vaisala RS80-15LH radisonde and 80% for RUC data. While for the partial cloud (cloud amount is less than 90%), the RH thresholds of SONDE are close to RUC for a given probability in upper tropospheric layers. The probabilities of detecting clouds at a given RH and temperature should be useful for a variety of application such as the development of new cloud parameterizations or for estimating the vertical profile of cloudiness underneath a given cloud observed from the satellite to construct a 3-D cloud data set for computing atmospheric radiative heating profiles or determining potential aircraft icing conditions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001JGR...10627473H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001JGR...10627473H"><span>On the potential influence of ice nuclei on surface-forced marine stratocumulus cloud dynamics</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Harrington, Jerry Y.; Olsson, Peter Q.</p> <p>2001-11-01</p> <p>The mixed phase cloudy boundary layer that occurs during off-ice flow in the marine Arctic was simulated in an environment with a strong surface heat flux (nearly 800 W m-2). A two-dimensional, eddy-resolving model coupled to a detailed cloud microphysical model was used to study both liquid phase and mixed phase stratocumulus clouds and boundary layer (BL) dynamics in this environment. Since ice precipitation may be important to BL dynamics, and ice nuclei (IN) concentrations modulate ice precipitation rates, the role of IN in cloud and BL development was explored. The results of several simulations illustrate how mixed phase microphysical processes affect the evolution of the cloudy BL in this environment. In agreement with past studies, BLs with mixed phase clouds had weaker convection, shallower BL depths, and smaller cloud fractions than BLs with clouds restricted to the liquid phase only. It is shown that the weaker BL convection is due to strong ice precipitation. Ice precipitation reduces convective strength directly by stabilizing downdrafts and more indirectly by sensibly heating the BL and inhibiting vertical mixing of momentum thereby reducing surface heat fluxes by as much as 80 W m-2. This feedback between precipitation and surface fluxes was found to have a significant impact on cloud/BL morphology, producing oscillations in convective strength and cloud fraction that did not occur if surface fluxes were fixed at constant values. Increases in IN concentrations in mixed phase clouds caused a more rapid Bergeron-Findeisen process leading to larger precipitation fluxes, reduced convection and lower cloud fraction. When IN were removed from the BL through precipitation, fewer crystals were nucleated at later simulation times leading to progressively weaker precipitation rates, greater cloud fraction, and stronger convective BL eddies.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060018354&hterms=vertical+height&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dvertical%2Bheight','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060018354&hterms=vertical+height&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dvertical%2Bheight"><span>Height Distribution Between Cloud and Aerosol Layers from the GLAS Spaceborne Lidar in the Indian Ocean Region</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hart, William D.; Spinhirne, James D.; Palm, Steven P.; Hlavka, Dennis L.</p> <p>2005-01-01</p> <p>The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), a nadir pointing lidar on the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) launched in 2003, now provides important new global measurements of the relationship between the height distribution of cloud and aerosol layers. GLAS data have the capability to detect, locate, and distinguish between cloud and aerosol layers in the atmosphere up to 40 km altitude. The data product algorithm tests the product of the maximum attenuated backscatter coefficient b'(r) and the vertical gradient of b'(r) within a layer against a predetermined threshold. An initial case result for the critical Indian Ocean region is presented. From the results the relative height distribution between collocated aerosol and cloud shows extensive regions where cloud formation is well within dense aerosol scattering layers at the surface. Citation: Hart, W. D., J. D. Spinhime, S. P. Palm, and D. L. Hlavka (2005), Height distribution between cloud and aerosol layers from the GLAS spaceborne lidar in the Indian Ocean region,</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120002593','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120002593"><span>Microphysical, Macrophysical and Radiative Signatures of Volcanic Aerosols in Trade Wind Cumulus Observed by the A-Train</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Yuan, T.; Remer, L. A.; Yu, H.</p> <p>2011-01-01</p> <p>Increased aerosol concentrations can raise planetary albedo not only by reflecting sunlight and increasing cloud albedo, but also by changing cloud amount. However, detecting aerosol effect on cloud amount has been elusive to both observations and modeling due to potential buffering mechanisms and convolution of meteorology. Here through a natural experiment provided by long-tem1 degassing of a low-lying volcano and use of A-Train satellite observations, we show modifications of trade cumulus cloud fields including decreased droplet size, decreased precipitation efficiency and increased cloud amount are associated with volcanic aerosols. In addition we find significantly higher cloud tops for polluted clouds. We demonstrate that the observed microphysical and macrophysical changes cannot be explained by synoptic meteorology or the orographic effect of the Hawaiian Islands. The "total shortwave aerosol forcin", resulting from direct and indirect forcings including both cloud albedo and cloud amount. is almost an order of magnitude higher than aerosol direct forcing alone. Furthermore, the precipitation reduction associated with enhanced aerosol leads to large changes in the energetics of air-sea exchange and trade wind boundary layer. Our results represent the first observational evidence of large-scale increase of cloud amount due to aerosols in a trade cumulus regime, which can be used to constrain the representation of aerosol-cloud interactions in climate models. The findings also have implications for volcano-climate interactions and climate mitigation research.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A11U..06K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A11U..06K"><span>Convectively-driven cold layer and its influences on moisture in the UTLS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kim, J.; Randel, W. J.; Birner, T.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Characteristics of the cold anomaly in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) that is commonly observed with deep convection are examined using CloudSat and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) GPS radio occultation measurements. Deep convection is sampled based on the cloud top height (>17 km) from CloudSat 2B-CLDCLASS, and then temperature profiles from COSMIC are composited around the deep convection. The composite temperature shows anomalously warm troposphere (up to 14 km) and a significantly cold layer near the tropopause (at 16-18 km) in the regions of deep convection. Generally in the tropics, the cold layer has very large horizontal scale (2,000 - 6,000 km) compared to that of mesoscale convective cluster, and it lasts one or two weeks with minimum temperature anomaly of - 2K. The cold layer shows slight but clear eastward-tilted vertical structure in the deep tropics indicating a large-scale Kelvin wave response. Further analyses on circulation patterns suggest that the anomaly can be explained as a part of Gill-type response in the TTL to deep convective heating in the troposphere. Response of moisture to the cold layer is also examined in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using microwave limb sounder (MLS) measurements. The water vapor anomalies show coherent structures with the temperature and circulation anomalies. A clear dry anomaly is found in the cold layer and its outflow region, implying a large-scale dehydration process due to the convectively driven cold layer in the upper TTL.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017GeoRL..44.7519R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017GeoRL..44.7519R"><span>A case study of microphysical structures and hydrometeor phase in convection using radar Doppler spectra at Darwin, Australia</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, L. D.; Comstock, J. M.; Luke, E.; Thorsen, T. J.; Fu, Q.</p> <p>2017-07-01</p> <p>To understand the microphysical processes that impact diabatic heating and cloud lifetimes in convection, we need to characterize the spatial distribution of supercooled liquid water. To address this observational challenge, ground-based vertically pointing active sensors at the Darwin Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site are used to classify cloud phase within a deep convective cloud. The cloud cannot be fully observed by a lidar due to signal attenuation. Therefore, we developed an objective method for identifying hydrometeor classes, including mixed-phase conditions, using k-means clustering on parameters that describe the shape of the Doppler spectra from vertically pointing Ka-band cloud radar. This approach shows that multiple, overlapping mixed-phase layers exist within the cloud, rather than a single region of supercooled liquid. Diffusional growth calculations show that the conditions for the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process exist within one of these mixed-phase microstructures.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150023382&hterms=How+get+human+cloud&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3DHow%2Bget%2Bhuman%2Bcloud%253F','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150023382&hterms=How+get+human+cloud&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3DHow%2Bget%2Bhuman%2Bcloud%253F"><span>Urbanization Causes Increased Cloud Base Height and Decreased Fog in Coastal Southern California</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Williams, A. Park; Schwartz, Rachel E.; Iacobellis, Sam; Seager, Richard; Cook, Benjamin I.; Still, Christopher J.; Husak, Gregory; Michaelsen, Joel</p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Subtropical marine stratus clouds regulate coastal and global climate, but future trends in these clouds are uncertain. In coastal Southern California (CSCA), interannual variations in summer stratus cloud occurrence are spatially coherent across 24 airfields and dictated by positive relationships with stability above the marine boundary layer (MBL) and MBL height. Trends, however, have been spatially variable since records began in the mid-1900s due to differences in nighttime warming. Among CSCA airfields, differences in nighttime warming, but not daytime warming, are strongly and positively related to fraction of nearby urban cover, consistent with an urban heat island effect. Nighttime warming raises the near-surface dew point depression, which lifts the altitude of condensation and cloud base height, thereby reducing fog frequency. Continued urban warming, rising cloud base heights, and associated effects on energy and water balance would profoundly impact ecological and human systems in highly populated and ecologically diverse CSCA.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19970026660','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19970026660"><span>Global Single and Multiple Cloud Classification with a Fuzzy Logic Expert System</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Welch, Ronald M.; Tovinkere, Vasanth; Titlow, James; Baum, Bryan A.</p> <p>1996-01-01</p> <p>An unresolved problem in remote sensing concerns the analysis of satellite imagery containing both single and multiple cloud layers. While cloud parameterizations are very important both in global climate models and in studies of the Earth's radiation budget, most cloud retrieval schemes, such as the bispectral method used by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), have no way of determining whether overlapping cloud layers exist in any group of satellite pixels. Coakley (1983) used a spatial coherence method to determine whether a region contained more than one cloud layer. Baum et al. (1995) developed a scheme for detection and analysis of daytime multiple cloud layers using merged AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) and HIRS (High-resolution Infrared Radiometer Sounder) data collected during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Cirrus 2 field campaign. Baum et al. (1995) explored the use of a cloud classification technique based on AVHRR data. This study examines the feasibility of applying the cloud classifier to global satellite imagery.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600875','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29600875"><span>Venus' Spectral Signatures and the Potential for Life in the Clouds.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Limaye, Sanjay S; Mogul, Rakesh; Smith, David J; Ansari, Arif H; Słowik, Grzegorz P; Vaishampayan, Parag</p> <p>2018-03-30</p> <p>The lower cloud layer of Venus (47.5-50.5 km) is an exceptional target for exploration due to the favorable conditions for microbial life, including moderate temperatures and pressures (∼60°C and 1 atm), and the presence of micron-sized sulfuric acid aerosols. Nearly a century after the ultraviolet (UV) contrasts of Venus' cloud layer were discovered with Earth-based photographs, the substances and mechanisms responsible for the changes in Venus' contrasts and albedo are still unknown. While current models include sulfur dioxide and iron chloride as the UV absorbers, the temporal and spatial changes in contrasts, and albedo, between 330 and 500 nm, remain to be fully explained. Within this context, we present a discussion regarding the potential for microorganisms to survive in Venus' lower clouds and contribute to the observed bulk spectra. In this article, we provide an overview of relevant Venus observations, compare the spectral and physical properties of Venus' clouds to terrestrial biological materials, review the potential for an iron- and sulfur-centered metabolism in the clouds, discuss conceivable mechanisms of transport from the surface toward a more habitable zone in the clouds, and identify spectral and biological experiments that could measure the habitability of Venus' clouds and terrestrial analogues. Together, our lines of reasoning suggest that particles in Venus' lower clouds contain sufficient mass balance to harbor microorganisms, water, and solutes, and potentially sufficient biomass to be detected by optical methods. As such, the comparisons presented in this article warrant further investigations into the prospect of biosignatures in Venus' clouds. Key Words: Venus-Clouds-Life-Habitability-Microorganism-Albedo-Spectroscopy-Biosignatures-Aerosol-Sulfuric Acid. Astrobiology 18, xxx-xxx.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080014857','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080014857"><span>The Effect of Environmental Conditions on Tropical Deep Convective Systems Observed from the TRMM Satellite</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Lin, Bing; Wielicki, Bruce A.; Minnis, Patrick; Chambers, Lin H.; Xu, Kuan-Man; Hu, Yongxiang; Fan, Tai-Fang</p> <p>2005-01-01</p> <p>This study uses measurements of radiation and cloud properties taken between January and August 1998 by three Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) instruments, the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) scanner, the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), and the Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS), to evaluate the variations of tropical deep convective systems (DCS) with sea surface temperature (SST) and precipitation. This study finds that DCS precipitation efficiency increases with SST at a rate of approx. 2%/K. Despite increasing rainfall efficiency, the cloud areal coverage rises with SST at a rate of about 7%/K in the warm tropical seas. There, the boundary layer moisture supply for deep convection and the moisture transported to the upper troposphere for cirrus-anvil cloud formation increase by approx. 6.3%/K and approx. 4.0%/K, respectively. The changes in cloud formation efficiency, along with the increased transport of moisture available for cloud formation, likely contribute to the large rate of increasing DCS areal coverage. Although no direct observations are available, the increase of cloud formation efficiency with rising SST is deduced indirectly from measurements of changes in the ratio of DCS ice water path and boundary layer water vapor amount with SST. Besides the cloud areal coverage, DCS cluster effective sizes also increase with precipitation. Furthermore, other cloud properties, such as cloud total water and ice water paths, increase with SST. These changes in DCS properties will produce a negative radiative feedback for the earth's climate system due to strong reflection of shortwave radiation by the DCS. These results significantly differ from some previous hypothesized dehydration scenarios for warmer climates, and have great potential in testing current cloud-system resolving models and convective parameterizations of general circulation models.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFMNG33A1867N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFMNG33A1867N"><span>Monte Carlo Bayesian Inference on a Statistical Model of Sub-Gridcolumn Moisture Variability using High-Resolution Cloud Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Norris, P. M.; da Silva, A. M., Jr.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Norris and da Silva recently published a method to constrain a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution satellite cloud data. The method can be used for large-scale model parameter estimation or cloud data assimilation (CDA). The gridcolumn model includes assumed-PDF intra-layer horizontal variability and a copula-based inter-layer correlation model. The observables used are MODIS cloud-top pressure, brightness temperature and cloud optical thickness, but the method should be extensible to direct cloudy radiance assimilation for a small number of channels. The algorithm is a form of Bayesian inference with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to characterizing the posterior distribution. This approach is especially useful in cases where the background state is clear but cloudy observations exist. In traditional linearized data assimilation methods, a subsaturated background cannot produce clouds via any infinitesimal equilibrium perturbation, but the Monte Carlo approach is not gradient-based and allows jumps into regions of non-zero cloud probability. In the example provided, the method is able to restore marine stratocumulus near the Californian coast where the background state has a clear swath. The new approach not only significantly reduces mean and standard deviation biases with respect to the assimilated observables, but also improves the simulated rotational-Ramman scattering cloud optical centroid pressure against independent (non-assimilated) retrievals from the OMI instrument. One obvious difficulty for the method, and other CDA methods, is the lack of information content in passive cloud observables on cloud vertical structure, beyond cloud-top and thickness, thus necessitating strong dependence on the background vertical moisture structure. It is found that a simple flow-dependent correlation modification due to Riishojgaard is helpful, better honoring inversion structures in the background state.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010EGUGA..12.2865L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010EGUGA..12.2865L"><span>Solar cycle and long term variations of mesospheric ice layers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lübken, Franz-Josef; Berger, Uwe; Kiliani, Johannes; Baumgarten, Gerd; Fiedler, Jens; Gerding, Michael</p> <p>2010-05-01</p> <p>Ice layers in the summer mesosphere at middle and polar latitudes, frequently called `noctilucent clouds' (NLC) or `polar mesosphere clouds'(PMC), are considered to be sensitive indicators of long term changes in the middle atmosphere. We present a summary of long term observations from the ground and from satellites and compare with results from the LIMA model (Leibniz Institute Middle Atmosphere Model). LIMA nicely reproduces mean conditions of the summer mesopause region and also mean characteristics of ice layers. LIMA nudges to ECMWF data in the troposphere and lower stratosphere which influences the background conditions in the mesosphere and thereby the morphology of ice clouds. A strong correlation between temperatures and PMC altitudes is observed. Applied to historical measurements this give s negligible temperature trends at PMC altitudes (approximately 0.01-0.02 K/y). Trace gas concentrations are kept constant in LIMA except for water vapor which is modified by variable solar radiation. Still, long term trends in temperatures and ice layer parameters are observed, consistent with observations. As will be shown, these trends originate in the stratosphere. Solar cycle effects are expected in ice layers due to variations in background temperatures and water paper. We will present results from LIMA regarding solar cycle variations and compare with NLC observations at our lidar stations in Kühlungsborn (54°N) and ALOMAR (69°N), and also with satellite measurements.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19820017797','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19820017797"><span>Initial studies of middle and upper tropospheric stratiform clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Cox, S. K.</p> <p>1982-01-01</p> <p>The spatial and temporal occurrence of cloud layers, the development of a physical-numerical model to simulate the life cycles of tropospheric cloud layers, and the design of an observational program to study the properties of these layers are described.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1169563-clouds-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-structure-during-magic-field-campaign','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1169563-clouds-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-structure-during-magic-field-campaign"><span>Clouds, Precipitation, and Marine Boundary Layer Structure during the MAGIC Field Campaign</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Kollias, Pavlos; Lewis, Ernie R.</p> <p>2015-03-01</p> <p>The recent ship-based MAGIC (Marine ARM GCSS Pacific Cross-Section Intercomparison (GPCI) Investigation of Clouds) field campaign with the marine-capable Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) deployed on the Horizon Lines cargo container M/V Spirit provided nearly 200 days of intraseasonal high-resolution observations of clouds, precipitation, and marine boundary layer (MBL) structure on multiple legs between Los Angeles, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. During the deployment, MBL clouds exhibited a much higher frequency of occurrence than other cloud types and occurred more often in the warm season than in the cold season. MBL clouds demonstrated a propensity to produce precipitation, which often evaporatedmore » before reaching the ocean surface. The formation of stratocumulus is strongly correlated to a shallow MBL with a strong inversion and a weak transition, while cumulus formation is associated with a much weaker inversion and stronger transition. The estimated inversion strength is shown to depend seasonally on the potential temperature at 700 hPa. The location of the commencement of systematic MBL decoupling always occurred eastward of the locations of cloud breakup, and the systematic decoupling showed a strong moisture stratification. The entrainment of the dry warm air above the inversion appears to be the dominant factor triggering the systematic decoupling, while surface latent heat flux, precipitation, and diurnal circulation did not play major roles. MBL clouds broke up over a short spatial region due to the changes in the synoptic conditions, implying that in real atmospheric conditions the MBL clouds do not have enough time to evolve as in the idealized models. (auth)« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2454J','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2454J"><span>Boundary Layer Thermodynamics and Cloud Microphysics for a Mixed Stratocumulus and Cumulus Cloud Field Observed during ACE-ENA</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, M. P.; Miller, M. A.; Wang, J.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The first Intensive Observation Period of the DOE Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) took place from 21 June through 20 July 2017 involving the deployment of the ARM Gulfstream-159 (G-1) aircraft with a suite of in situ cloud and aerosol instrumentation in the vicinity of the ARM Climate Research Facility Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site on Graciosa Island, Azores. Here we present preliminary analysis of the thermodynamic characteristics of the marine boundary layer and the variability of cloud properties for a mixed cloud field including both stratiform cloud layers and deeper cumulus elements. Analysis combines in situ atmospheric state observations from the G-1 with radiosonde profiles and surface meteorology from the ENA site in order to characterize the thermodynamic structure of the marine boundary layer including the coupling state and stability. Cloud/drizzle droplet size distributions measured in situ are combined with remote sensing observations from a scanning cloud radar, and vertically pointing cloud radar and lidar provide quantification of the macrophysical and microphysical properties of the mixed cloud field.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_5");'>5</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li class="active"><span>7</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_7 --> <div id="page_8" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li class="active"><span>8</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="141"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170011687','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170011687"><span>Meteorological Drivers of Cold Temperatures in the Western Pacific TTL</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Pfister, Leonhard; Ueyama, Rei; Jensen, Eric J.</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>During the recent October 2016 aircraft sampling mission of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (POSIDON -- Pacific Oxidants, Sulfur, Ice, Dehydration, and cONvection), Western Pacific October TTL temperatures were anomalously cold due to a combination of La Nina conditions and a very stationary convective pattern. POSIDON also had more October Tropical Cyclones than typical, and tropical cyclones have substantial negative TTL temperatures associated with them. This paper investigates how meteorology in the troposphere drives TTL temperatures, and how these temperatures, coupled with the circulation, produce TTL clouds. We will also compare October TTL cloud distributions in different years, examining the relationship of clouds to October temperature anomalies.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AcAau.127..553K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AcAau.127..553K"><span>Test study on the performance of shielding configuration with stuffed layer under hypervelocity impact</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ke, Fa-wei; Huang, Jie; Wen, Xue-zhong; Ma, Zhao-xia; Liu, Sen</p> <p>2016-10-01</p> <p>In order to study the cracking and intercepting mechanism of stuffed layer configuration on the debris cloud and to develop stuffed layer configuration with better performance, the hypervelocity impact tests on shielding configurations with stuffed layer were carried out. Firstly, the hypervelocity impact tests on the shielding configuration with stuffed layer of 3 layer ceramic fibre and 3 layer aramid fibre were finished, the study results showed that the debris cloud generated by the aluminum sphere impacting bumper at the velocity of about 6.2 km/s would be racked and intercepted by the stuffed layer configuration efficiently when the ceramic fibre layers and aramid fibre layers were jointed together, however, the shielding performance would be declined when the ceramic fibre layers and aramid fibre layers were divided by some distance. The mechanism of stuffed layer racking and intercepting the debris cloud was analyzed according to the above test results. Secondly, based on the mechanism of the stuffed layer cracking and intercepint debirs cloud the hypervelocity impact tests on the following three stuffed layer structures with the equivalent areal density to the 1 mm-thick aluminum plate were also carried out to compare their performance of cracking and intercepting debris cloud. The mechanisms of stuffed layer racking and intercepting the debris cloud were validated by the test result. Thirdly, the influence of the stuffed layer position on the shielding performance was studied by the test, too. The test results would provide reference for the design of better performance shielding configuration with stuffed layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20100033763','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20100033763"><span>Relation of Cloud Occurrence Frequency, Overlap, and Effective Thickness Derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat Merged Cloud Vertical Profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Kato, Seiji; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Miller, Walter F.; Rose, Fred G.; Chen, Yan; Minnis, Patrick; Wielicki, Bruce A.</p> <p>2009-01-01</p> <p>A cloud frequency of occurrence matrix is generated using merged cloud vertical profile derived from Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR). The matrix contains vertical profiles of cloud occurrence frequency as a function of the uppermost cloud top. It is shown that the cloud fraction and uppermost cloud top vertical pro les can be related by a set of equations when the correlation distance of cloud occurrence, which is interpreted as an effective cloud thickness, is introduced. The underlying assumption in establishing the above relation is that cloud overlap approaches the random overlap with increasing distance separating cloud layers and that the probability of deviating from the random overlap decreases exponentially with distance. One month of CALIPSO and CloudSat data support these assumptions. However, the correlation distance sometimes becomes large, which might be an indication of precipitation. The cloud correlation distance is equivalent to the de-correlation distance introduced by Hogan and Illingworth [2000] when cloud fractions of both layers in a two-cloud layer system are the same.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01184&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01184&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation"><span>A Jovian Hotspot in True and False Colors (Time set 3)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>1997-01-01</p> <p>True and false color views of an equatorial 'hotspot' on Jupiter. These images cover an area 34,000 kilometers by 11,000 kilometers. The top mosaic combines the violet (410 nanometers or nm) and near-infrared continuum (756 nm) filter images to create an image similar to how Jupiter would appear to human eyes. Differences in coloration are due to the composition and abundances of trace chemicals in Jupiter's atmosphere. The bottom mosaic uses Galileo's three near-infrared wavelengths (756 nm, 727 nm, and 889 nm displayed in red, green, and blue) to show variations in cloud height and thickness. Bluish clouds are high and thin, reddish clouds are low, and white clouds are high and thick. The dark blue hotspot in the center is a hole in the deep cloud with an overlying thin haze. The light blue region to the left is covered by a very high haze layer. The multicolored region to the right has overlapping cloud layers of different heights. Galileo is the first spacecraft to distinguish cloud layers on Jupiter.<p/>North is at the top. The mosaics cover latitudes 1 to 10 degrees and are centered at longitude 336 degrees West. The planetary limb runs along the right edge of the image. Cloud patterns appear foreshortened as they approach the limb. The smallest resolved features are tens of kilometers in size. These images were taken on December 17, 1996, at a range of 1.5 million kilometers by the Solid State Imaging system aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft.<p/>The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.<p/>This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003EAEJA.....7295C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003EAEJA.....7295C"><span>Impact of aerosol intrusions on sea-ice melting rates and the structure Arctic boundary layer clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Cotton, W.; Carrio, G.; Jiang, H.</p> <p>2003-04-01</p> <p>The Los Alamos National Laboratory sea-ice model (LANL CICE) was implemented into the real-time and research versions of the Colorado State University-Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS@CSU). The original version of CICE was modified in its structure to allow module communication in an interactive multigrid framework. In addition, some improvements have been made in the routines involved in the coupling, among them, the inclusion of iterative methods that consider variable roughness lengths for snow-covered ice thickness categories. This version of the model also includes more complex microphysics that considers the nucleation of cloud droplets, allowing the prediction of mixing ratios and number concentrations for all condensed water species. The real-time version of RAMS@CSU automatically processes the NASA Team SSMI F13 25km sea-ice coverage data; the data are objectively analyzed and mapped to the model grid configuration. We performed two types of cloud resolving simulations to assess the impact of the entrainment of aerosols from above the inversion on Arctic boundary layer clouds. The first series of numerical experiments corresponds to a case observed on May 4 1998 during the FIRE-ACE/SHEBA field experiment. Results indicate a significant impact on the microstructure of the simulated clouds. When assuming polluted initial profiles above the inversion, the liquid water fraction of the cloud monotonically decreases, the total condensate paths increases and downward IR tends to increase due to a significant increase in the ice water path. The second set of cloud resolving simulations focused on the evaluation of the potential effect of aerosol concentration above the inversion on melting rates during spring-summer period. For these multi-month simulations, the IFN and CCN profiles were also initialized assuming the 4 May profiles as benchmarks. Results suggest that increasing the aerosol concentrations above the boundary layer increases sea-ice melting rates when mixed phase clouds are present.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A54A..07W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A54A..07W"><span>Trade cumulus clouds embedded in a deep regional haze: Results from Indian Ocean CARDEX experiment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wilcox, E. M.; Thomas, R. M.; Praveen, P. S.; Pistone, K.; Bender, F.; Feng, Y.; Ramanathan, V.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>During the winter monsoon, trade cumulus clouds over the North Indian Ocean are embedded within a deep regional haze described as an atmospheric brown cloud. While the trade-cu clouds are largely confined to the marine boundary layer, the sooty brown cloud extends from the boundary layer to as high as 3 km; well above the tops of the cumulus. The boundary layer pollution is persistent and limits drizzle in the cumulus over a period of greater than a month at the Maldives Climate Observatory located at Hanimaadhoo Island. The elevated haze from 1 to 3 km altitude is episodic and strongly modulated by synoptic variability in the 700 hPa flow. The elevated plume enhances heating above the marine boundary layer through daytime absorption of sunlight by the haze particles. The interplay between the microphysical modification of clouds by boundary layer pollution and the episodic elevated heating by the atmospheric brown cloud are explored in in-situ observations from UAVs and surface remote sensing during the CARDEX field campaign of winter 2012 and supported by multi-year analysis of satellite remote sensing observations. These observations document the variability in pollution at the surface and above the marine boundary layer and the effects of pollution on the microphysics of the trade-cu clouds, the depth of the marine boundary layer, the liquid water path of trade-cu clouds, and the profile of turbulent moisture flux through the boundary layer. The consequences of these effects for the radiative forcing of regional climate will be discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0005G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0005G"><span>Mesoscale modeling of smoke transport over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent: Coupling of smoke direct radiative feedbacks below and above the low-level clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ge, C.; Wang, J.; Reid, J. S.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>The online-coupled Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to simulate the direct and semi-direct radiative impacts of smoke particles over the southeast Asian Marine Continents (MC, 10°S - 10°N, 90°E-150°E) during October 2006 when a significant El Nino event caused the highest biomass burning activity since 1997. With the use of OC (Organic Carbon) /BC (Black Carbon) ratio of 10 in the smoke emission inventory, the baseline simulation shows that the low-level clouds amplifying effect on smoke absorption led to a warming effect at the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) with a domain/monthly average forcing value of ~20 Wm-2 over the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The smoke-induced monthly average daytime heating (0.3K) that is largely confined above the low-level clouds results in the local convergence over the smoke source region. This heating-induced convergence coupled with daytime planetary boundary layer turbulent mixing, transports more smoke particles above the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), hence rendering a positive feedback. This positive feedback contrasts with the decrease of cloud fraction resulted from the combined effects of smoke heating within the cloud layer and the more stability in the boundary layer; the latter can be considered as a negative feedback in which decrease of cloud fraction weakens the heating by smoke particles above the clouds. During nighttime, the elevated smoke layer (above clouds in daytime) is decoupled from boundary layer, and the reduction of PBLH due to the residual surface cooling from the daytime lead to the accumulation of smoke particles near the surface. Because of smoke radiative extinction, on monthly basis, the amount of the solar input at the surface is reduced as large as 60 Wm-2, which lead to the decrease of sensible heat, latent heat, 2-m air temperature, and PBLH by a maximum of 20 Wm-2, 20 Wm-2, 1K, 120 m, respectively. The cloud changes over continents are mostly occurred over the islands of Sumatra and Borneo during the daytime, where the low-level cloud fraction decreases more than 10%. However, the change of local wind (include sea breeze) induced by the smoke radiative feedback leads to more convergence over Karimata Strait and south coastal area of Kalimantan during both daytime and night time; consequently, cloud fraction is increased there up to 20%. The sensitivities with different OC/BC ratio show the importance of the smoke single scattering albedo for the smoke semi-direct effects. A case study on 31 October 2006 further demonstrated a much larger (more than twice of the monthly average) feedback induced by smoke aerosols. The decreased sea breeze during big events can lead to prominent increase (40%) of low-level cloud over coastal water. Lastly, the direct and semi-direct radiative impact of smoke particles over the Southeast Asian Marine Continents is summarized as a conceptual model.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120011264','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120011264"><span>Arctic PBL Cloud Height and Motion Retrievals from MISR and MINX</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wu, Dong L.</p> <p>2012-01-01</p> <p>How Arctic clouds respond and feedback to sea ice loss is key to understanding of the rapid climate change seen in the polar region. As more open water becomes available in the Arctic Ocean, cold air outbreaks (aka. off-ice flow from polar lows) produce a vast sheet of roll clouds in the planetary boundary layer (PBl). The cold air temperature and wind velocity are the critical parameters to determine and understand the PBl structure formed under these roll clouds. It has been challenging for nadir visible/IR sensors to detect Arctic clouds due to lack of contrast between clouds and snowy/icy surfaces. In addition) PBl temperature inversion creates a further problem for IR sensors to relate cloud top temperature to cloud top height. Here we explore a new method with the Multiangle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer (MISR) instrument to measure cloud height and motion over the Arctic Ocean. Employing a stereoscopic-technique, MISR is able to measure cloud top height accurately and distinguish between clouds and snowy/icy surfaces with the measured height. We will use the MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) to quantify roll cloud dynamics during cold-air outbreak events and characterize PBl structures over water and over sea ice.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990078575&hterms=fractions&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dfractions','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990078575&hterms=fractions&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dfractions"><span>A Simple Model of Cirrus Horizontal Inhomogeneity and Cloud Fraction</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Smith, Samantha A.; DelGenio, Anthony D.</p> <p>1998-01-01</p> <p>A simple model of horizontal inhomogeneity and cloud fraction in cirrus clouds has been formulated on the basis that all internal horizontal inhomogeneity in the ice mixing ratio is due to variations in the cloud depth, which are assumed to be Gaussian. The use of such a model was justified by the observed relationship between the normalized variability of the ice water mixing ratio (and extinction) and the normalized variability of cloud depth. Using radar cloud depth data as input, the model reproduced well the in-cloud ice water mixing ratio histograms obtained from horizontal runs during the FIRE2 cirrus campaign. For totally overcast cases the histograms were almost Gaussian, but changed as cloud fraction decreased to exponential distributions which peaked at the lowest nonzero ice value for cloud fractions below 90%. Cloud fractions predicted by the model were always within 28% of the observed value. The predicted average ice water mixing ratios were within 34% of the observed values. This model could be used in a GCM to produce the ice mixing ratio probability distribution function and to estimate cloud fraction. It only requires basic meteorological parameters, the depth of the saturated layer and the standard deviation of cloud depth as input.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160000959','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160000959"><span>Remote Sensing of Cloud Top Heights Using the Research Scanning Polarimeter</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Sinclair, Kenneth; van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Cairns, Brian; Yorks, John; Wasilewski, Andrzej</p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Clouds cover roughly two thirds of the globe and act as an important regulator of Earth's radiation budget. Of these, multilayered clouds occur about half of the time and are predominantly two-layered. Changes in cloud top height (CTH) have been predicted by models to have a globally averaged positive feedback, however observational changes in CTH have shown uncertain results. Additional CTH observations are necessary to better and quantify the effect. Improved CTH observations will also allow for improved sub-grid parameterizations in large-scale models and accurate CTH information is important when studying variations in freezing point and cloud microphysics. NASA's airborne Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) is able to measure cloud top height using a novel multi-angular contrast approach. RSP scans along the aircraft track and obtains measurements at 152 viewing angles at any aircraft location. The approach presented here aggregates measurements from multiple scans to a single location at cloud altitude using a correlation function designed to identify the location-distinct features in each scan. During NASAs SEAC4RS air campaign, the RSP was mounted on the ER-2 aircraft along with the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), which made simultaneous measurements of CTH. The RSPs unique method of determining CTH is presented. The capabilities of using single and combinations of channels within the approach are investigated. A detailed comparison of RSP retrieved CTHs with those of CPL reveal the accuracy of the approach. Results indicate a strong ability for the RSP to accurately identify cloud heights. Interestingly, the analysis reveals an ability for the approach to identify multiple cloud layers in a single scene and estimate the CTH of each layer. Capabilities and limitations of identifying single and multiple cloud layers heights are explored. Special focus is given to sources of error in the method including optically thin clouds, physically thick clouds, multi-layered clouds as well as cloud phase. When determining multi-layered CTHs, limits on the upper clouds opacity are assessed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1378031-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1378031-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia"><span>A case study of microphysical structures and hydrometeor phase in convection using radar Doppler spectra at Darwin, Australia</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, Laura D.; Comstock, Jennifer M.; Luke, Edward</p> <p></p> <p>To understand the microphysical processes that impact diabatic heating and cloud lifetimes in convection, we need to characterize the spatial distribution of supercooled liquid water. To address this observational challenge, vertically pointing active sensors at the Darwin Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site are used to classify cloud phase within a deep convective cloud in a shallow to deep convection transitional case. The cloud cannot be fully observed by a lidar due to signal attenuation. Thus we develop an objective method for identifying hydrometeor classes, including mixed-phase conditions, using k-means clustering on parameters that describe the shape of the Doppler spectramore » from vertically pointing Ka band cloud radar. This approach shows that multiple, overlapping mixed-phase layers exist within the cloud, rather than a single region of supercooled liquid, indicating complexity to how ice growth and diabatic heating occurs in the vertical structure of the cloud.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29789515','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29789515"><span>A General Cross-Layer Cloud Scheduling Framework for Multiple IoT Computer Tasks.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Wu, Guanlin; Bao, Weidong; Zhu, Xiaomin; Zhang, Xiongtao</p> <p>2018-05-23</p> <p>The diversity of IoT services and applications brings enormous challenges to improving the performance of multiple computer tasks' scheduling in cross-layer cloud computing systems. Unfortunately, the commonly-employed frameworks fail to adapt to the new patterns on the cross-layer cloud. To solve this issue, we design a new computer task scheduling framework for multiple IoT services in cross-layer cloud computing systems. Specifically, we first analyze the features of the cross-layer cloud and computer tasks. Then, we design the scheduling framework based on the analysis and present detailed models to illustrate the procedures of using the framework. With the proposed framework, the IoT services deployed in cross-layer cloud computing systems can dynamically select suitable algorithms and use resources more effectively to finish computer tasks with different objectives. Finally, the algorithms are given based on the framework, and extensive experiments are also given to validate its effectiveness, as well as its superiority.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.3991K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.3991K"><span>Understanding rapid changes in phase partitioning between cloud liquid and ice in an Arctic stratiform mixed-phase cloud</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kalesse, Heike; de Boer, Gijs; Solomon, Amy; Oue, Mariko; Ahlgrimm, Maike; Zhang, Damao; Shupe, Matthew; Luke, Edward; Protat, Alain</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>In the Arctic, a region particularly sensitive to climate change, mixed-phase clouds occur as persistent single or multiple stratiform layers. For many climate models, the correct partitioning of hydrometeor phase (liquid vs. ice) remains a challenge. However, this phase partitioning plays an important role for precipitation processes and the radiation budget. To better understand the partitioning of phase in Arctic clouds, observations using a combination of surface-based remote sensors are useful. In this study, the focus is on a persistent low-level single-layer stratiform Arctic mixed-phase cloud observed during March 11-12, 2013 at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) North Slope of Alaska (NSA) permanent site in Barrow, Alaska. This case is of particular interest due to two significant shifts in observed precipitation intensity over a 36 hour period. For the first 12 hours of this case, the observed liquid portion of the cloud cover featured a stable cloud top height with a gradually descending liquid cloud base and continuous ice precipitation. Then the ice precipitation intensity significantly decreased. A second decrease in ice precipitation intensity was observed a few hours later coinciding with the advection of a cirrus over the site. Through analysis of the data collected by extensive ground-based remote-sensing and in-situ observing systems as well as Nested Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations and ECMWF radiation scheme simulations, we try to shed light on the processes responsible for these rapid changes in precipitation rates. A variety of parameters such as the evolution of the internal dynamics and microphysics of the low-level mixed-phase cloud and the influence of the cirrus cloud are evaluated.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A53D0325G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A53D0325G"><span>Observed Cloud Properties Above the Northern Indian Ocean During CARDEX 2012</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gao, L.; Wilcox, E. M.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>An analysis of cloud microphysical, macrophysical and radiative properties during the dry winter monsoon season above the northern Indian Ocean is presented. The Cloud Aerosol Radiative Forcing Experiment (CARDEX), conducted from 16 February to 30 March 2012 at the Maldives Climate Observatory on Hanimaadhoo (MCOH), used autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to measure the aerosol profiles, water vapor flux and cloud properties concurrent with continuous ground measurements of surface aerosol and meteorological variables as well as the total-column precipitable water vapor (PWV) and the cloud liquid water path (LWP). Here we present the cloud properties only for the cases with lower atmospheric water vapor using the criterion that the PWV less than 40 kg/m2. This criterion acts to filter the data to control for the natural meteorological variability in the region according to previous studies. The high polluted case is found to correlate with warmer temperature, higher relative humidity in boundary layer and lower lifted condensation level (LCL). Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) retrieved cloud base height coincides with calculated LCL height which is lower for high polluted case. Meanwhile satellite retrieved cloud top height didn't show obvious variation indicating cloud deepening which is consistent with the observed greater cloud LWP in high polluted case. Those high polluted clouds are associated with more cloud droplets and smaller effective radius and are generally becoming narrower due to the stronger cloud side evaporation-entrainment effect and becoming deeper due to more moist static energy. Clouds in high polluted condition become brighter with higher albedo which can cause a net shortwave forcing over -40 W/m2 in this region.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01268&hterms=Dark+web&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DDark%2Bweb','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01268&hterms=Dark+web&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DDark%2Bweb"><span>An Infrared View of Saturn</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>1998-01-01</p> <p>In honor of NASA Hubble Space Telescope's eighth anniversary, we have gift wrapped Saturn in vivid colors. Actually, this image is courtesy of the new Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), which has taken its first peek at Saturn. The false-color image - taken Jan. 4, 1998 - shows the planet's reflected infrared light. This view provides detailed information on the clouds and hazes in Saturn's atmosphere.<p/>The blue colors indicate a clear atmosphere down to a main cloud layer. Different shadings of blue indicate variations in the cloud particles, in size or chemical composition. The cloud particles are believed to be ammonia ice crystals. Most of the northern hemisphere that is visible above the rings is relatively clear. The dark region around the south pole at the bottom indicates a big hole in the main cloud layer.<p/>The green and yellow colors indicate a haze above the main cloud layer. The haze is thin where the colors are green but thick where they are yellow. Most of the southern hemisphere (the lower part of Saturn) is quite hazy. These layers are aligned with latitude lines, due to Saturn's east-west winds.<p/>The red and orange colors indicate clouds reaching up high into the atmosphere. Red clouds are even higher than orange clouds. The densest regions of two storms near Saturn's equator appear white. On Earth, the storms with the highest clouds are also found in tropical latitudes. The smaller storm on the left is about as large as the Earth, and larger storms have been recorded on Saturn in 1990 and 1994.<p/>The rings, made up of chunks of ice, are as white as images of ice taken in visible light. However, in the infrared, water absorption causes various colorations. The most obvious is the brown color of the innermost ring. The rings cast their shadow onto Saturn. The bright line seen within this shadow is sunlight shining through the Cassini Division, the separation between the two bright rings. It is best observed on the left side, just above the rings. This view is possible due to a rare geometry during the observation. The next time this observable from Earth will be in 2006. An accurate investigation of the ring's shadow also shows sunlight shining through the Encke Gap, a thin division very close to the outer edge of the ring system.<p/>Two of Saturn's satellites were recorded, Dione on the lower left and Tethys on the upper right. Tethys is just ending its transit across the disk of Saturn. They appear in different colors, yellow and green, indicating different conditions on their icy surfaces.<p/>Wavelengths: A color image consists of three exposures (or three film layers). For visible true-color images, the wavelengths of these three exposures are 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 micrometers for blue, green, and red light, respectively. This Saturn image was taken at longer infrared wavelengths of 1.0, 1.8, and 2.1 micrometers, displayed as blue, green, and red. Reflected sunlight is seen at all these wavelengths, since Saturn's own heat glows only at wavelengths above 4 micrometers.<p/>The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science.<p/>This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19910008408','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19910008408"><span>Theory of plasma contactors in ground-based experiments and low Earth orbit</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Gerver, M. J.; Hastings, Daniel E.; Oberhardt, M. R.</p> <p>1990-01-01</p> <p>Previous theoretical work on plasma contactors as current collectors has fallen into two categories: collisionless double layer theory (describing space charge limited contactor clouds) and collisional quasineutral theory. Ground based experiments at low current are well explained by double layer theory, but this theory does not scale well to power generation by electrodynamic tethers in space, since very high anode potentials are needed to draw a substantial ambient electron current across the magnetic field in the absence of collisions (or effective collisions due to turbulence). Isotropic quasineutral models of contactor clouds, extending over a region where the effective collision frequency upsilon sub e exceeds the electron cyclotron frequency omega sub ce, have low anode potentials, but would collect very little ambient electron current, much less than the emitted ion current. A new model is presented, for an anisotropic contactor cloud oriented along the magnetic field, with upsilon sub e less than omega sub ce. The electron motion along the magnetic field is nearly collisionless, forming double layers in that direction, while across the magnetic field the electrons diffuse collisionally and the potential profile is determined by quasineutrality. Using a simplified expression for upsilon sub e due to ion acoustic turbulence, an analytic solution has been found for this model, which should be applicable to current collection in space. The anode potential is low and the collected ambient electron current can be several times the emitted ion current.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.4168J','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.4168J"><span>Shallow marine cloud topped boundary layer in atmospheric models</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Janjic, Zavisa</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>A common problem in many atmospheric models is excessive expansion over cold water of shallow marine planetary boundary layer (PBL) topped by a thin cloud layer. This phenomenon is often accompanied by spurious light precipitation. The "Cloud Top Entrainment Instability" (CTEI) was proposed as an explanation of the mechanism controlling this process in reality thereby preventing spurious enlargement of the cloudy area and widely spread light precipitation observed in the models. A key element of this hypothesis is evaporative cooling at the PBL top. However, the CTEI hypothesis remains controversial. For example, a recent direct simulation experiment indicated that the evaporative cooling couldn't explain the break-up of the cloudiness as hypothesized by the CTEI. Here, it is shown that the cloud break-up can be achieved in numerical models by a further modification of the nonsingular implementation of the Mellor-Yamada Level 2.5 turbulence closure model (MYJ) developed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Washington. Namely, the impact of moist convective instability is included into the turbulent energy production/dissipation equation if (a) the stratification is stable, (b) the lifting condensation level (LCL) for a particle starting at a model level is below the next upper model level, and (c) there is enough turbulent kinetic energy so that, due to random vertical turbulent motions, a particle starting from a model level can reach its LCL. The criterion (c) should be sufficiently restrictive because otherwise the cloud cover can be completely removed. A real data example will be shown demonstrating the ability of the method to break the spurious cloud cover during the day, but also to allow its recovery over night.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A52C..07J','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A52C..07J"><span>Modeling of Shallow Marine Cloud Topped Boundary Layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Janjic, Z.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>A common problem in many atmospheric models is excessive expansion over cold water of shallow marine planetary boundary layer (PBL) topped by a thin cloud layer. This phenomenon is often accompanied by spurious light precipitation. The "Cloud Top Entrainment Instability" (CTEI) was proposed as an explanation of the mechanism controlling this process and thus preventing spurious enlargement of the cloudy area and widely spread light precipitation observed in the models. A key element of this hypothesis is evaporative cooling at the PBL top. However, the CTEI hypothesis remains controversial. For example, a recent direct simulation experiment indicated that the evaporative cooling couldn't explain the break-up of the cloudiness as hypothesized by the CTEI. Here, it is shown that the cloud break-up can be achieved in numerical models by a further modification of the nonsingular implementation of the nonsingular Mellor-Yamada Level 2.5 turbulence closure model (MYJ) developed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Washington. Namely, the impact of moist convective instability is included into the turbulent energy production/dissipation equation if (a) the stratification is stable, (b) the lifting condensation level (LCL) for a particle starting at a model level is below the next upper model level, and (c) there is enough turbulent kinetic energy so that, due to random vertical turbulent motions, a particle starting from a model level can reach its LCL. The criterion (c) should be sufficiently restrictive because otherwise the cloud cover can be completely removed. A real data example will be shown demonstrating the ability of the method to break the spurious cloud cover during the day, but also to allow its recovery over night.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20130005720&hterms=al+gore&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dal%2Bgore','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20130005720&hterms=al+gore&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dal%2Bgore"><span>Examining the Impact of Overlying Aerosols on the Retrieval of Cloud Optical Properties from Passive Remote Sensing</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Coddington, O. M.; Pilewskie, P.; Redemann, J.; Platnick, S.; Russell, P. B.; Schmidt, K. S.; Gore, W. J.; Livingston, J.; Wind, G.; Vukicevic, T.</p> <p>2010-01-01</p> <p>Haywood et al. (2004) show that an aerosol layer above a cloud can cause a bias in the retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius. Monitoring for this potential bias is difficult because space ]based passive remote sensing cannot unambiguously detect or characterize aerosol above cloud. We show that cloud retrievals from aircraft measurements above cloud and below an overlying aerosol layer are a means to test this bias. The data were collected during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-A) study based out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States, above extensive, marine stratus cloud banks affected by industrial outflow. Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) irradiance measurements taken along a lower level flight leg above cloud and below aerosol were unaffected by the overlying aerosol. Along upper level flight legs, the irradiance reflected from cloud top was transmitted through an aerosol layer. We compare SSFR cloud retrievals from below ]aerosol legs to satellite retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in order to detect an aerosol ]induced bias. In regions of small variation in cloud properties, we find that SSFR and MODIS-retrieved cloud optical thickness compares within the uncertainty range for each instrument while SSFR effective radius tend to be smaller than MODIS values (by 1-2 microns) and at the low end of MODIS uncertainty estimates. In regions of large variation in cloud properties, differences in SSFR and MODIS ]retrieved cloud optical thickness and effective radius can reach values of 10 and 10 microns, respectively. We include aerosols in forward modeling to test the sensitivity of SSFR cloud retrievals to overlying aerosol layers. We find an overlying absorbing aerosol layer biases SSFR cloud retrievals to smaller effective radii and optical thickness while nonabsorbing aerosols had no impact.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1336114-unified-estimation-turbulence-eddy-dissipation-rate-using-doppler-cloud-radars-lidars-radar-lidar-turbulence-estimation','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1336114-unified-estimation-turbulence-eddy-dissipation-rate-using-doppler-cloud-radars-lidars-radar-lidar-turbulence-estimation"><span>On the unified estimation of turbulence eddy dissipation rate using Doppler cloud radars and lidars: Radar and Lidar Turbulence Estimation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Borque, Paloma; Luke, Edward; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p>2016-05-27</p> <p>Coincident profiling observations from Doppler lidars and radars are used to estimate the turbulence energy dissipation rate (ε) using three different data sources: (i) Doppler radar velocity (DRV), (ii) Doppler lidar velocity (DLV), and (iii) Doppler radar spectrum width (DRW) measurements. Likewise, the agreement between the derived ε estimates is examined at the cloud base height of stratiform warm clouds. Collocated ε estimates based on power spectra analysis of DRV and DLV measurements show good agreement (correlation coefficient of 0.86 and 0.78 for both cases analyzed here) during both drizzling and nondrizzling conditions. This suggests that unified (below and abovemore » cloud base) time-height estimates of ε in cloud-topped boundary layer conditions can be produced. This also suggests that eddy dissipation rate can be estimated throughout the cloud layer without the constraint that clouds need to be nonprecipitating. Eddy dissipation rate estimates based on DRW measurements compare well with the estimates based on Doppler velocity but their performance deteriorates as precipitation size particles are introduced in the radar volume and broaden the DRW values. And, based on this finding, a methodology to estimate the Doppler spectra broadening due to the spread of the drop size distribution is presented. Furthermore, the uncertainties in ε introduced by signal-to-noise conditions, the estimation of the horizontal wind, the selection of the averaging time window, and the presence of precipitation are discussed in detail.« less</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_6");'>6</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li class="active"><span>8</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_8 --> <div id="page_9" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li class="active"><span>9</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="161"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1336114','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1336114"><span>On the unified estimation of turbulence eddy dissipation rate using Doppler cloud radars and lidars: Radar and Lidar Turbulence Estimation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Borque, Paloma; Luke, Edward; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p></p> <p>Coincident profiling observations from Doppler lidars and radars are used to estimate the turbulence energy dissipation rate (ε) using three different data sources: (i) Doppler radar velocity (DRV), (ii) Doppler lidar velocity (DLV), and (iii) Doppler radar spectrum width (DRW) measurements. Likewise, the agreement between the derived ε estimates is examined at the cloud base height of stratiform warm clouds. Collocated ε estimates based on power spectra analysis of DRV and DLV measurements show good agreement (correlation coefficient of 0.86 and 0.78 for both cases analyzed here) during both drizzling and nondrizzling conditions. This suggests that unified (below and abovemore » cloud base) time-height estimates of ε in cloud-topped boundary layer conditions can be produced. This also suggests that eddy dissipation rate can be estimated throughout the cloud layer without the constraint that clouds need to be nonprecipitating. Eddy dissipation rate estimates based on DRW measurements compare well with the estimates based on Doppler velocity but their performance deteriorates as precipitation size particles are introduced in the radar volume and broaden the DRW values. And, based on this finding, a methodology to estimate the Doppler spectra broadening due to the spread of the drop size distribution is presented. Furthermore, the uncertainties in ε introduced by signal-to-noise conditions, the estimation of the horizontal wind, the selection of the averaging time window, and the presence of precipitation are discussed in detail.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JAtS...57.2748N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JAtS...57.2748N"><span>A Case Study of Ship Track Formation in a Polluted Marine Boundary Layer.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Noone, Kevin J.; Johnson, Doug W.; Taylor, Jonathan P.; Ferek, Ronald J.; Garrett, Tim; Hobbs, Peter V.; Durkee, Philip A.; Nielsen, Kurt; Öström, Elisabeth; O'Dowd, Colin; Smith, Michael H.; Russell, Lynn M.; Flagan, Richard C.; Seinfeld, John H.; de Bock, Lieve; van Grieken, René E.; Hudson, James G.; Brooks, Ian; Gasparovic, Richard F.; Pockalny, Robert A.</p> <p>2000-08-01</p> <p>A case study of the effects of ship emissions on the microphysical, radiative, and chemical properties of polluted marine boundary layer clouds is presented. Two ship tracks are discussed in detail. In situ measurements of cloud drop size distributions, liquid water content, and cloud radiative properties, as well as aerosol size distributions (outside-cloud, interstitial, and cloud droplet residual particles) and aerosol chemistry, are presented. These are related to remotely sensed measurements of cloud radiative properties.The authors examine the processes behind ship track formation in a polluted marine boundary layer as an example of the effects of anthropogenic particulate pollution on the albedo of marine stratiform clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.6090L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.6090L"><span>Assessment of observed fog/low-cloud trends in central Taiwan</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lai, Yen-Jen; Lin, Po-Hsiung</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>Xitou region, as the epitome of mid-elevation cloud forest ecosystems in Taiwan, it possesses a rich diversity of flora and fauna. It is also a popular forest recreation area. Due to rapid development of the local tourist industry, where tourist numbers increased from 0.3 million/year in 2000 to 2 million/year in 2015, the microclimate has changed continually. Global warming and landscape changes would be also the most likely factors. This study reports findings of monitoring systems including 4 visibility observed sites at different altitude, a self-developed atmospheric profile observation system carried by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a high temporal cloud base height observation system by a ceilometer. Besides this, the cloud top height of MODIS cloud product is evaluated as well. The results indicated the foggy day ratio in 2015 was 24% lower than that in 2005 around the district of the nursery. The foggy day ratio raised along with the increase of altitude and the sharpest increasing range happened in the summer time. The UAV-observed results showed the top heights of the nighttime atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) usually happened under 1300m a.s.l. (250m above ground) and the top heights of daytime ABL rose to 1500m - 2100m a.s.l. Unfortunately, it was difficult to observe the inversion layer/ABL in summer due to the fly height limitation of UAV. The ceilometer-observed results indicated the highest foggy ratio happened around 17:00 (local standard time). The daytime cloudy based height ratio was higher than nighttime and the cloud based height was usually located during 1150m - 1750m a.s.l. which was under the top heights of ABL. In addition, the higher cloud-based-heights-happened ratios were found at 1200m - 1250m a.s.l. and 1350m - 1400m a.s.l.. These results indicated the cloud based height uplifted from ground to at least 150m above ground-level causing the foggy ratio decrease. The MODIS cloud product showed the top height of low cloud uplifted or even became clear sky along with the increase of Xitou tourist numbers. Both ceilometer and MODIS data suggested the low cloud was uplifting. In order to clarify the seasonal characters of cloud thickness, the validation of MODIS cloud top height by atmospheric profiles are on-going. Furthermore, an adapted land-atmospheric model (WRF model is now under testing) will be implemented in order to discover the major factors causing the decrease of foggy ratio and assess the impacts on cloud forest.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140011848','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140011848"><span>Extending 3D Near-Cloud Corrections from Shorter to Longer Wavelengths</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Marshak, Alexander; Evans, K. Frank; Varnai, Tamas; Guoyong, Wen</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>Satellite observations have shown a positive correlation between cloud amount and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) that can be explained by the humidification of aerosols near clouds, and/or by cloud contamination by sub-pixel size clouds and the cloud adjacency effect. The last effect may substantially increase reflected radiation in cloud-free columns, leading to overestimates in the retrieved AOT. For clear-sky areas near boundary layer clouds the main contribution to the enhancement of clear sky reflectance at shorter wavelengths comes from the radiation scattered into clear areas by clouds and then scattered to the sensor by air molecules. Because of the wavelength dependence of air molecule scattering, this process leads to a larger reflectance increase at shorter wavelengths, and can be corrected using a simple two-layer model. However, correcting only for molecular scattering skews spectral properties of the retrieved AOT. Kassianov and Ovtchinnikov proposed a technique that uses spectral reflectance ratios to retrieve AOT in the vicinity of clouds; they assumed that the cloud adjacency effect influences the spectral ratio between reflectances at two wavelengths less than it influences the reflectances themselves. This paper combines the two approaches: It assumes that the 3D correction for the shortest wavelength is known with some uncertainties, and then it estimates the 3D correction for longer wavelengths using a modified ratio method. The new approach is tested with 3D radiances simulated for 26 cumulus fields from Large-Eddy Simulations, supplemented with 40 aerosol profiles. The results showed that (i) for a variety of cumulus cloud scenes and aerosol profiles over ocean the 3D correction due to cloud adjacency effect can be extended from shorter to longer wavelengths and (ii) the 3D corrections for longer wavelengths are not very sensitive to unbiased random uncertainties in the 3D corrections at shorter wavelengths.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.8833T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.8833T"><span>Saharan dust, convective lofting, aerosol enhancement zones, and potential impacts on ice nucleation in the tropical upper troposphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Twohy, C. H.; Anderson, B. E.; Ferrare, R. A.; Sauter, K. E.; L'Ecuyer, T. S.; van den Heever, S. C.; Heymsfield, A. J.; Ismail, S.; Diskin, G. S.</p> <p>2017-08-01</p> <p>Dry aerosol size distributions and scattering coefficients were measured on 10 flights in 32 clear-air regions adjacent to tropical storm anvils over the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Aerosol properties in these regions were compared with those from background air in the upper troposphere at least 40 km from clouds. Median values for aerosol scattering coefficient and particle number concentration >0.3 μm diameter were higher at the anvil edges than in background air, showing that convective clouds loft particles from the lower troposphere to the upper troposphere. These differences are statistically significant. The aerosol enhancement zones extended 10-15 km horizontally and 0.25 km vertically below anvil cloud edges but were not due to hygroscopic growth since particles were measured under dry conditions. Number concentrations of particles >0.3 μm diameter were enhanced more for the cases where Saharan dust layers were identified below the clouds with airborne lidar. Median number concentrations in this size range increased from 100 l-1 in background air to 400 l-1 adjacent to cloud edges with dust below, with larger enhancements for stronger storm systems. Integration with satellite cloud frequency data indicates that this transfer of large particles from low to high altitudes by convection has little impact on dust concentrations within the Saharan Air Layer itself. However, it can lead to substantial enhancement in large dust particles and, therefore, heterogeneous ice nuclei in the upper troposphere over the Atlantic. This may induce a cloud/aerosol feedback effect that could impact cloud properties in the region and downwind.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170008464','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170008464"><span>Seasonally Transported Aerosol Layers Over Southeast Atlantic are Closer to Underlying Clouds than Previously Reported</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Rajapakshe, Chamara; Zhang, Zhibo; Yorks, John E.; Yu, Hongbin; Tan, Qian; Meyer, Kerry; Platnick, Steven; Winker, David M.</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>From June to October, low-level clouds in the southeast (SE) Atlantic often underlie seasonal aerosol layers transported from African continent. Previously, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) 532 nm lidar observations have been used to estimate the relative vertical location of the above-cloud aerosols (ACA) to the underlying clouds. Here we show new observations from NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar. Two seasons of CATS 1064 nm observations reveal that the bottom of the ACA layer is much lower than previously estimated based on CALIPSO 532 nm observations. For about 60% of CATS nighttime ACA scenes, the aerosol layer base is within 360 m distance to the top of the underlying cloud. Our results are important for future studies of the microphysical indirect and semidirect effects of ACA in the SE Atlantic region.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ACPD....811755S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ACPD....811755S"><span>Simulating mixed-phase Arctic stratus clouds: sensitivity to ice initiation mechanisms</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sednev, I.; Menon, S.; McFarquhar, G.</p> <p>2008-06-01</p> <p>The importance of Arctic mixed-phase clouds on radiation and the Arctic climate is well known. However, the development of mixed-phase cloud parameterization for use in large scale models is limited by lack of both related observations and numerical studies using multidimensional models with advanced microphysics that provide the basis for understanding the relative importance of different microphysical processes that take place in mixed-phase clouds. To improve the representation of mixed-phase cloud processes in the GISS GCM we use the GISS single-column model coupled to a bin resolved microphysics (BRM) scheme that was specially designed to simulate mixed-phase clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions. Using this model with the microphysical measurements obtained from the DOE ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) campaign in October 2004 at the North Slope of Alaska, we investigate the effect of ice initiation processes and Bergeron-Findeisen process (BFP) on glaciation time and longevity of single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds. We focus on observations taken during 9th-10th October, which indicated the presence of a single-layer mixed-phase clouds. We performed several sets of 12-h simulations to examine model sensitivity to different ice initiation mechanisms and evaluate model output (hydrometeors' concentrations, contents, effective radii, precipitation fluxes, and radar reflectivity) against measurements from the MPACE Intensive Observing Period. Overall, the model qualitatively simulates ice crystal concentration and hydrometeors content, but it fails to predict quantitatively the effective radii of ice particles and their vertical profiles. In particular, the ice effective radii are overestimated by at least 50%. However, using the same definition as used for observations, the effective radii simulated and that observed were more comparable. We find that for the single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds simulated, process of ice phase initiation due to freezing of supercooled water in both saturated and undersaturated (w.r.t. water) environments is as important as primary ice crystal origination from water vapor. We also find that the BFP is a process mainly responsible for the rates of glaciation of simulated clouds. These glaciation rates cannot be adequately represented by a water-ice saturation adjustment scheme that only depends on temperature and liquid and solid hydrometeors' contents as is widely used in bulk microphysics schemes and are better represented by processes that also account for supersaturation changes as the hydrometeors grow.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACP.....9.4747S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ACP.....9.4747S"><span>Simulating mixed-phase Arctic stratus clouds: sensitivity to ice initiation mechanisms</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sednev, I.; Menon, S.; McFarquhar, G.</p> <p>2009-07-01</p> <p>The importance of Arctic mixed-phase clouds on radiation and the Arctic climate is well known. However, the development of mixed-phase cloud parameterization for use in large scale models is limited by lack of both related observations and numerical studies using multidimensional models with advanced microphysics that provide the basis for understanding the relative importance of different microphysical processes that take place in mixed-phase clouds. To improve the representation of mixed-phase cloud processes in the GISS GCM we use the GISS single-column model coupled to a bin resolved microphysics (BRM) scheme that was specially designed to simulate mixed-phase clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions. Using this model with the microphysical measurements obtained from the DOE ARM Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) campaign in October 2004 at the North Slope of Alaska, we investigate the effect of ice initiation processes and Bergeron-Findeisen process (BFP) on glaciation time and longevity of single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds. We focus on observations taken during 9-10 October, which indicated the presence of a single-layer mixed-phase clouds. We performed several sets of 12-h simulations to examine model sensitivity to different ice initiation mechanisms and evaluate model output (hydrometeors' concentrations, contents, effective radii, precipitation fluxes, and radar reflectivity) against measurements from the MPACE Intensive Observing Period. Overall, the model qualitatively simulates ice crystal concentration and hydrometeors content, but it fails to predict quantitatively the effective radii of ice particles and their vertical profiles. In particular, the ice effective radii are overestimated by at least 50%. However, using the same definition as used for observations, the effective radii simulated and that observed were more comparable. We find that for the single-layer stratiform mixed-phase clouds simulated, process of ice phase initiation due to freezing of supercooled water in both saturated and subsaturated (w.r.t. water) environments is as important as primary ice crystal origination from water vapor. We also find that the BFP is a process mainly responsible for the rates of glaciation of simulated clouds. These glaciation rates cannot be adequately represented by a water-ice saturation adjustment scheme that only depends on temperature and liquid and solid hydrometeors' contents as is widely used in bulk microphysics schemes and are better represented by processes that also account for supersaturation changes as the hydrometeors grow.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A31A0017E','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A31A0017E"><span>Large Eddy Simulations of Continental Boundary Layer Clouds Observed during the RACORO Field Campaign</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Endo, S.; Fridlind, A. M.; Lin, W.; Vogelmann, A. M.; Toto, T.; Liu, Y.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>Three cases of boundary layer clouds are analyzed in the FAst-physics System TEstbed and Research (FASTER) project, based on continental boundary-layer-cloud observations during the RACORO Campaign [Routine Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerial Facility (AAF) Clouds with Low Optical Water Depths (CLOWD) Optical Radiative Observations] at the ARM Climate Research Facility's Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. The three 60-hour case study periods are selected to capture the temporal evolution of cumulus, stratiform, and drizzling boundary-layer cloud systems under a range of conditions, intentionally including those that are relatively more mixed or transitional in nature versus being of a purely canonical type. Multi-modal and temporally varying aerosol number size distribution profiles are derived from aircraft observations. Large eddy simulations (LESs) are performed for the three case study periods using the GISS Distributed Hydrodynamic Aerosol and Radiative Modeling Application (DHARMA) model and the WRF-FASTER model, which is the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model implemented with forcing ingestion and other functions to constitute a flexible LES. The two LES models commonly capture the significant transitions of cloud-topped boundary layers in the three periods: diurnal evolution of cumulus layers repeating over multiple days, nighttime evolution/daytime diminution of thick stratus, and daytime breakup of stratus and stratocumulus clouds. Simulated transitions of thermodynamic structures of the cloud-topped boundary layers are examined by balloon-borne soundings and ground-based remote sensors. Aircraft observations are then used to statistically evaluate the predicted cloud droplet number size distributions under varying aerosol and cloud conditions. An ensemble approach is used to refine the model configuration for the combined use of observations with parallel LES and single-column model simulations. See Lin et al. poster for single-column model investigation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010A%26A...521L..18V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010A%26A...521L..18V"><span>[CII] observations of H2 molecular layers in transition clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Velusamy, T.; Langer, W. D.; Pineda, J. L.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Li, D.; Yorke, H. W.</p> <p>2010-10-01</p> <p>We present the first results on the diffuse transition clouds observed in [CII] line emission at 158 μm (1.9 THz) towards Galactic longitudes near 340° (5 LOSs) & 20° (11 LOSs) as part of the HIFI tests and GOT C+ survey. Out of the total 146 [CII] velocity components detected by profile fitting we identify 53 as diffuse molecular clouds with associated 12CO emission but without 13CO emission and characterized by AV < 5 mag. We estimate the fraction of the [CII] emission in the diffuse HI layer in each cloud and then determine the [CII] emitted from the molecular layers in the cloud. We show that the excess [CII] intensities detected in a few clouds is indicative of a thick H2 layer around the CO core. The wide range of clouds in our sample with thin to thick H2 layers suggests that these are at various evolutionary states characterized by the formation of H2 and CO layers from HI and C+, respectively. In about 30% of the clouds the H2 column densities (“dark gas”) traced by the [CII] is 50% or more than that traced by 12CO emission. On the average ~25% of the total H2 in these clouds is in an H2 layer which is not traced by CO. We use the HI, [CII], and 12CO intensities in each cloud along with simple chemical models to obtain constraints on the FUV fields and cosmic ray ionization rates. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I2003L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I2003L"><span>Evaluating the cloud radiative forcing over East Asia during summer simulated by CMIP5 models</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lin, Z.; Wang, Y.; Liu, X.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>A large degree of uncertainty in global climate models (GCMs) can be attributed to the representation of clouds and its radiative forcing (CRF). In this study, the simulated CRFs, total cloud fraction (CF) and cloud properties over East Asia from 20 CMIP5 AMIP models are evaluated and compared with multiple satellite observations, and the possible causes for the CRF bias in the CMIP5 models are then investigated. Based on the satellite observation, strong Long wave CRF (LWCRF) and Short wave CRF (SWCRF) are found to be located over Southwestern China, with minimum SWCRF less than -130Wm-2 and this is associated with the large amount of cloud in the region. By contrast, weak CRFs are located over Northwest China and Western Pacific region because of less cloud amount. In Northeastern China, the strong SWCRF and week LWCRF can be found due to the dominant low-level cloud. In Eastern China, the CRFs is moderate due to the co-existence of the multi-layer cloud. CMIP5 models can basically capture the structure of CRFs in East Asia, with the spatial correlation coefficient between 0.5 and 0.9. But most models underestimate CRFs in East Asia, which is highly associated with the underestimation of cloud amount in the region. The performance of CMIP5 models varies in different part of East Asian region, with a larger deviation in Eastern China (EC). Further investigation suggests that, underestimation of the cloud amount in EC can lead to the weak bias of CRFs in EC, however, this CRF bias can be cancelled out by the overestimation effect of CRF due to excessive cloud optical depth (COD) simulated by the models. The annual cycle of simulated CRF over Eastern China is also examined, and it is found, CMIP models are unable to reproduce the northward migration of CRF in summer monsoon season, which is closely related with northward shift of East Asian summer monsoon rain belt.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.C41B0559S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.C41B0559S"><span>Impact of Arctic sea-ice retreat on the recent change in cloud-base height during autumn</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sato, K.; Inoue, J.; Kodama, Y.; Overland, J. E.</p> <p>2012-12-01</p> <p>Cloud-base observations over the ice-free Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in autumn were conducted using a shipboard ceilometer and radiosondes during the 1999-2010 cruises of the Japanese R/V Mirai. To understand the recent change in cloud base height over the Arctic Ocean, these cloud-base height data were compared with the observation data under ice-covered situation during SHEBA (the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project in 1998). Our ice-free results showed a 30 % decrease (increase) in the frequency of low clouds with a ceiling below (above) 500 m. Temperature profiles revealed that the boundary layer was well developed over the ice-free ocean in the 2000s, whereas a stable layer dominated during the ice-covered period in 1998. The change in surface boundary conditions likely resulted in the difference in cloud-base height, although it had little impact on air temperatures in the mid- and upper troposphere. Data from the 2010 R/V Mirai cruise were investigated in detail in terms of air-sea temperature difference. This suggests that stratus cloud over the sea ice has been replaced as stratocumulus clouds with low cloud fraction due to the decrease in static stability induced by the sea-ice retreat. The relationship between cloud-base height and air-sea temperature difference (SST-Ts) was analyzed in detail using special section data during 2010 cruise data. Stratus clouds near the sea surface were predominant under a warm advection situation, whereas stratocumulus clouds with a cloud-free layer were significant under a cold advection situation. The threshold temperature difference between sea surface and air temperatures for distinguishing the dominant cloud types was 3 K. Anomalous upward turbulent heat fluxes associated with the sea-ice retreat have likely contributed to warming of the lower troposphere. Frequency distribution of the cloud-base height (km) detected by a ceilometer/lidar (black bars) and radiosondes (gray bars), and profiles of potential temperature (K) for (a) ice-free cases (R/V Mirai during September) and (b) ice-covered case (SHEBA during September 1998). (c) Vertical profiles of air temperature from 1000 hPa to 150 hPa (solid lines: observations north of 75°N, and dashed lines: the ERA-Interim reanalysis over 75-82.5°N, 150-170°W). Green, blue, and red lines denote profiles derived from observations by NP stations (the 1980s), SHEBA (1998), and the R/V Mirai (the 2000s), respectively. (d) Temperature trend calculated by the ERA-Interim reanalysis over the area.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/902673-modification-atmospheric-boundary-layer-small-island-observations-from-nauru','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/902673-modification-atmospheric-boundary-layer-small-island-observations-from-nauru"><span>Modification of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer by a Small Island: Observations from Nauru</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Matthews, Stuart; Hacker, Jorg M.; Cole, Jason N.</p> <p>2007-03-01</p> <p>Nauru, a small island in the tropical pacific, generates plumes of clouds that may grow to several hundred km length. This study uses observations to examine the mesoscale disturbance of the marine atmospheric boundary layer by the island that produces these cloud streets. Observations of the surface layer were made from two ships in the vicinity of Nauru and from instruments on the island. The structure of the atmospheric boundary layer over the island was investigated using aircraft flights. Cloud production over Nauru was examined using remote sensing instruments. During the day the island surface layer was warmer than themore » marine surface layer and wind speed was lower than over the ocean. Surface heating forced the growth of a thermal internal boundary layer, above which a street of cumulus clouds formed. The production of clouds resulted in reduced downwelling shortwave irradiance at the island surface. A plume of warm-dry air was observed over the island which extended 15 – 20 km downwind.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.V23C2859D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.V23C2859D"><span>An experimental study of the role of particle diffusive convection on the residence time of volcanic ash clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Deal, E.; Carazzo, G.; Jellinek, M.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>The longevity of volcanic ash clouds generated by explosive volcanic plumes is difficult to predict. Diffusive convective instabilities leading to the production of internal layering are known to affect the stability and longevity of these clouds, but the detailed mechanisms controlling particle dynamics and sedimentation are poorly understood. We present results from a series of analog experiments reproducing diffusive convection in a 2D (Hele-Shaw) geometry, which allow us to constrain conditions for layer formation, sedimentation regime and cloud residence time as a function of only the source conditions. We inject a turbulent particle-laden jet sideways into a tank containing a basal layer of salt water and an upper layer of fresh water, which ultimately spreads as a gravity current. After the injection is stopped, particles in suspension settle through the cloud to form particle boundary layers (PBL) at the cloud base. We vary the initial particle concentration of the plume and the injection velocity over a wide range of conditions to identify and characterize distinct regimes of sedimentation. Our experiments show that convective instabilities driven as a result of differing diffusivities of salt and particles lead to periodic layering over a wide range of conditions expected in nature. The flux of particles from layered clouds and the thicknesses of the layers are understood using classical theory for double diffusive convection adjusted for the hydrodynamic diffusion of particles. Although diffusive convection increases sedimentation rates for the smallest particles (<30 μm) its overall effect is to extend the cloud residence time to several hours by maintaining larger particles in suspension within the layers, which is several orders of magnitude longer than expected when considering individual settling rates.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19930010916','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19930010916"><span>A modeling study of marine boundary layer clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Shouping; Fitzjarrald, Daniel E.</p> <p>1993-01-01</p> <p>Marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds are important components of the earth's climate system. These clouds drastically reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the earth, but have little effect on the emitted infrared radiation on top of the atmosphere. In addition, these clouds are intimately involved in regulating boundary layer turbulent fluxes. For these reasons, it is important that general circulation models used for climate studies must realistically simulate the global distribution of the MBL. While the importance of these cloud systems is well recognized, many physical processes involved in these clouds are poorly understood and their representation in large-scale models remains an unresolved problem. The present research aims at the development and improvement of the parameterization of these cloud systems and an understanding of physical processes involved. This goal is addressed in two ways. One is to use regional modeling approach to validate and evaluate two-layer marine boundary layer models using satellite and ground-truth observations; the other is to combine this simple model with a high-order turbulence closure model to study the transition processes from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus clouds. Progress made in this effort is presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A23P..03D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A23P..03D"><span>Comparison of Marine Boundary Layer Cloud Properties From CERES-MODIS Edition 4 and DOE ARM AMF Measurements at the Azores</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Dong, X.; Xi, B.; Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.</p> <p>2014-12-01</p> <p>Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) cloud properties derived for the NASA CERES Project using Terra and Aqua MODIS data are compared with observations taken at DOE ARM Mobile Facility at the Azores site from Jun. 2009 to Dec. 2010. Cloud properties derived from ARM ground-based observations were averaged over a 1-hour interval centered at the satellite overpass time, while the CERES-MODIS (CM) results were averaged within a 30×30 km2 grid box centered over the Azores site. A total of 63 daytime and 92 nighttime single-layered overcast MBL cloud cases were selected from 19 months of ARM radar-lidar and satellite observations. The CM cloud-top/base heights (Htop/Hbase) were determined from cloud-top/base temperatures (Ttop/Tbase) using a regional boundary-layer lapse rate method. For daytime comparisons, the CM-derived Htop (Hbase), on average, is 0.063 km (0.068 km) higher (lower) than its ARM radar-lidar observed counterpart, and the CM-derived Ttop and Tbase are 0.9 K less and 2.5 K greater than the surface values with high correlations (R2=0.82 and 0.84, respectively). In general, the cloud-top comparisons agree better than cloud-base comparisons because the CM Tbase and Hbase are secondary product determined from Ttop and Htop. No significant day-night difference was found in the analyses. The comparisons of microphysical properties reveal that, when averaged over a 30x30 km2 area, the CM-retrieved cloud-droplet effective radius (re) is 1.3 µm larger than that from the ARM retrievals (12.8 µm). While the CM-retrieved cloud liquid water path (LWP) is 13.5 gm-2 less than its ARM counterpart (114.2 gm-2) due to its small optical depth (τ, 9.6 vs. 13.7). The differences are reduced by 50% when the CM averages are computed only using the MODIS pixel nearest the AMF site. Using effective radius retrieved at 2.1-µm channel to calculate LWP can reduce the difference between the CM and ARM from -13.7 to 2.1 gm-2. The 10% differences between the ARM and CM LWP and re retrievals are within the uncertainties of the ARM LWP (~ 20 gm-2) and re (~ 10%) retrievals, however, the 30% difference in τ is significant. Possible reasons contributed to this discrepancy increased sensitivities in τ from both surface retrievals when τ ~ 10 and topography. The τ differences vary with wind direction and are consistent with the island orography.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....17.5623L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....17.5623L"><span>Analysis of aerosol effects on warm clouds over the Yangtze River Delta from multi-sensor satellite observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Liu, Yuqin; de Leeuw, Gerrit; Kerminen, Veli-Matti; Zhang, Jiahua; Zhou, Putian; Nie, Wei; Qi, Ximeng; Hong, Juan; Wang, Yonghong; Ding, Aijun; Guo, Huadong; Krüger, Olaf; Kulmala, Markku; Petäjä, Tuukka</p> <p>2017-05-01</p> <p>Aerosol effects on low warm clouds over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD, eastern China) are examined using co-located MODIS, CALIOP and CloudSat observations. By taking the vertical locations of aerosol and cloud layers into account, we use simultaneously observed aerosol and cloud data to investigate relationships between cloud properties and the amount of aerosol particles (using aerosol optical depth, AOD, as a proxy). Also, we investigate the impact of aerosol types on the variation of cloud properties with AOD. Finally, we explore how meteorological conditions affect these relationships using ERA-Interim reanalysis data. This study shows that the relation between cloud properties and AOD depends on the aerosol abundance, with a different behaviour for low and high AOD (i.e. AOD < 0.35 and AOD > 0.35). This applies to cloud droplet effective radius (CDR) and cloud fraction (CF), but not to cloud optical thickness (COT) and cloud top pressure (CTP). COT is found to decrease when AOD increases, which may be due to radiative effects and retrieval artefacts caused by absorbing aerosol. Conversely, CTP tends to increase with elevated AOD, indicating that the aerosol is not always prone to expand the vertical extension. It also shows that the COT-CDR and CWP (cloud liquid water path)-CDR relationships are not unique, but affected by atmospheric aerosol loading. Furthermore, separation of cases with either polluted dust or smoke aerosol shows that aerosol-cloud interaction (ACI) is stronger for clouds mixed with smoke aerosol than for clouds mixed with dust, which is ascribed to the higher absorption efficiency of smoke than dust. The variation of cloud properties with AOD is analysed for various relative humidity and boundary layer thermodynamic and dynamic conditions, showing that high relative humidity favours larger cloud droplet particles and increases cloud formation, irrespective of vertical or horizontal level. Stable atmospheric conditions enhance cloud cover horizontally. However, unstable atmospheric conditions favour thicker and higher clouds. Dynamically, upward motion of air parcels can also facilitate the formation of thicker and higher clouds. Overall, the present study provides an understanding of the impact of aerosols on cloud properties over the YRD. In addition to the amount of aerosol particles (or AOD), evidence is provided that aerosol types and ambient environmental conditions need to be considered to understand the observed relationships between cloud properties and AOD.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950036200&hterms=Skinner&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D90%26Ntt%3DSkinner','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950036200&hterms=Skinner&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D90%26Ntt%3DSkinner"><span>Incorporation of multiple cloud layers for ultraviolet radiation modeling studies</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Charache, Darryl H.; Abreu, Vincent J.; Kuhn, William R.; Skinner, Wilbert R.</p> <p>1994-01-01</p> <p>Cloud data sets compiled from surface observations were used to develop an algorithm for incorporating multiple cloud layers into a multiple-scattering radiative transfer model. Aerosol extinction and ozone data sets were also incorporated to estimate the seasonally averaged ultraviolet (UV) flux reaching the surface of the Earth in the Detroit, Michigan, region for the years 1979-1991, corresponding to Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) version 6 ozone observations. The calculated UV spectrum was convolved with an erythema action spectrum to estimate the effective biological exposure for erythema. Calculations show that decreasing the total column density of ozone by 1% leads to an increase in erythemal exposure by approximately 1.1-1.3%, in good agreement with previous studies. A comparison of the UV radiation budget at the surface between a single cloud layer method and a multiple cloud layer method presented here is discussed, along with limitations of each technique. With improved parameterization of cloud properties, and as knowledge of biological effects of UV exposure increase, inclusion of multiple cloud layers may be important in accurately determining the biologically effective UV budget at the surface of the Earth.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013JGRD..118..846Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013JGRD..118..846Z"><span>Validation of a radiosonde-based cloud layer detection method against a ground-based remote sensing method at multiple ARM sites</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, Jinqiang; Li, Zhanqing; Chen, Hongbin; Cribb, Maureen</p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>Cloud vertical structure is a key quantity in meteorological and climate studies, but it is also among the most difficult quantities to observe. In this study, we develop a long-term (10 years) radiosonde-based cloud profile product for the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program Southern Great Plains (SGP), Tropical Western Pacific (TWP), and North Slope of Alaska (NSA) sites and a shorter-term product for the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) deployed in Shouxian, Anhui Province, China (AMF-China). The AMF-China site was in operation from 14 May to 28 December 2008; the ARM sites have been collecting data for over 15 years. The Active Remote Sensing of Cloud (ARSCL) value-added product (VAP), which combines data from the 95-GHz W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) and/or the 35-GHz Millimeter Microwave Cloud Radar (MMCR), is used in this study to validate the radiosonde-based cloud layer retrieval method. The performance of the radiosonde-based cloud layer retrieval method applied to data from different climate regimes is evaluated. Overall, cloud layers derived from the ARSCL VAP and radiosonde data agree very well at the SGP and AMF-China sites. At the TWP and NSA sites, the radiosonde tends to detect more cloud layers in the upper troposphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009JGRD..11412203S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009JGRD..11412203S"><span>Processes that generate and deplete liquid water and snow in thin midlevel mixed-phase clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Smith, Adam J.; Larson, Vincent E.; Niu, Jianguo; Kankiewicz, J. Adam; Carey, Lawrence D.</p> <p>2009-06-01</p> <p>This paper uses a numerical model to investigate microphysical, radiative, and dynamical processes in mixed-phase altostratocumulus clouds. Three cloud cases are chosen for study, each of which was observed by aircraft during the fifth or ninth Complex Layered Cloud Experiment (CLEX). These three clouds are numerically modeled using large-eddy simulation (LES). The observed and modeled clouds consist of a mixed-phase layer with a quasi-adiabatic profile of liquid, and a virga layer below that consists of snow. A budget of cloud (liquid) water mixing ratio is constructed from the simulations. It shows that large-scale ascent/descent, radiative cooling/heating, turbulent transport, and microphysical processes are all significant. Liquid is depleted indirectly via depositional growth of snow (the Bergeron-Findeisen process). This process is more influential than depletion of liquid via accretional growth of snow. Also constructed is a budget of snow mixing ratio, which turns out to be somewhat simpler. It shows that snow grows by deposition in and below the liquid (mixed-phase) layer, and sublimates in the remainder of the virga region below. The deposition and sublimation are balanced primarily by sedimentation, which transports the snow from the growth region to the sublimation region below. In our three clouds, the vertical extent of the virga layer is influenced more by the profile of saturation ratio below the liquid (mixed-phase) layer than by the mixing ratio of snow at the top of the virga layer.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_7");'>7</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li class="active"><span>9</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_9 --> <div id="page_10" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li class="active"><span>10</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="181"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110012679','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110012679"><span>Comparisons of Satellite-Deduced Overlapping Cloud Properties and CALIPSO CloudSat Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Sun-Mack, Sunny</p> <p>2010-01-01</p> <p>Introduction to the overlapped cloud properties derived from polar-orbiting (MODIS) and geostationary (GOES-12, -13, Meteosat-8, -9, etc.) meteorological satellites, which are produced at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) cloud research & development team (NASA lead scientist: Dr. Patrick Minnis). Comparison of the LaRC CERES MODIS Edition-3 overlapped cloud properties to the CALIPSO and the CloudSat active sensing data. High clouds and overlapped clouds occur frequently as deduced by CALIPSO (44 & 25%), CloudSat (25 & 4%), and MODIS (37 & 6%). Large fractions of optically-thin cirrus and overlapped clouds are deduced from CALIPSO, but much smaller fractions are from CloudSat and MODIS. For overlapped clouds, the averaged upper-layer CTHs are about 12.8 (CALIPSO), 10.9 (CloudSat) and 10 km (MODIS), and the averaged lower-layer CTHs are about 3.6 (CALIPSO), 3.2 (CloudSat) and 3.9 km (MODIS). Based on comparisons of upper and lower-layer cloud properties as deduced from the MODIS, CALIPSO and CloudSat data, more enhanced passive satellite methods for retrieving thin cirrus and overlapped cloud properties are needed and are under development.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080022439','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080022439"><span>Statistical Analyses of Satellite Cloud Object Data From CERES. Part 4; Boundary-layer Cloud Objects During 1998 El Nino</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Xu, Kuan-Man; Wong, Takmeng; Wielicki, Bruce A.; Parker, Lindsay</p> <p>2006-01-01</p> <p>Three boundary-layer cloud object types, stratus, stratocumulus and cumulus, that occurred over the Pacific Ocean during January-August 1998, are identified from the CERES (Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy System) single scanner footprint (SSF) data from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite. This study emphasizes the differences and similarities in the characteristics of each cloud-object type between the tropical and subtropical regions and among different size categories and among small geographic areas. Both the frequencies of occurrence and statistical distributions of cloud physical properties are analyzed. In terms of frequencies of occurrence, stratocumulus clouds dominate the entire boundary layer cloud population in all regions and among all size categories. Stratus clouds are more prevalent in the subtropics and near the coastal regions, while cumulus clouds are relatively prevalent over open ocean and the equatorial regions, particularly, within the small size categories. The largest size category of stratus cloud objects occurs more frequently in the subtropics than in the tropics and has much larger average size than its cumulus and stratocumulus counterparts. Each of the three cloud object types exhibits small differences in statistical distributions of cloud optical depth, liquid water path, TOA albedo and perhaps cloud-top height, but large differences in those of cloud-top temperature and OLR between the tropics and subtropics. Differences in the sea surface temperature (SST) distributions between the tropics and subtropics influence some of the cloud macrophysical properties, but cloud microphysical properties and albedo for each cloud object type are likely determined by (local) boundary-layer dynamics and structures. Systematic variations of cloud optical depth, TOA albedo, cloud-top height, OLR and SST with cloud object sizes are pronounced for the stratocumulus and stratus types, which are related to systematic variations of the strength of inversion with cloud object sizes, produced by large-scale subsidence. The differences in cloud macrophysical properties over small regions are significantly larger than those of cloud microphysical properties and TOA albedo, suggesting a greater control of (local) large-scale dynamics and other factors on cloud object properties. When the three cloud object types are combined, the relative population among the three types is the most important factor for determining the cloud object properties in a Pacific transect where the transition of boundary-layer cloud types takes place.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JAMES...8.1345P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JAMES...8.1345P"><span>Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice: the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Pithan, Felix; Ackerman, Andrew; Angevine, Wayne M.; Hartung, Kerstin; Ickes, Luisa; Kelley, Maxwell; Medeiros, Brian; Sandu, Irina; Steeneveld, Gert-Jan; Sterk, H. A. M.; Svensson, Gunilla; Vaillancourt, Paul A.; Zadra, Ayrton</p> <p>2016-09-01</p> <p>Weather and climate models struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Arctic winter, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build-up of surface-based temperature inversions. Many large-scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Here, the transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modeled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single-column experiment is the first Lagrangian Arctic air formation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system studies). The intercomparison reproduces the typical biases of large-scale models: some models lack the cloudy state of the boundary layer due to the representation of mixed-phase microphysics or to the interaction between micro- and macrophysics. In some models, high emissivities of ice clouds or the lack of an insulating snow layer prevent the build-up of surface-based inversions in the radiatively clear state. Models substantially disagree on the amount of cloud liquid water in the cloudy state and on turbulent heat fluxes under clear skies. Observations of air mass transformations including both boundary layer states would allow for a tighter constraint of model behavior.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340540','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340540"><span>Retrieval of Boundary Layer 3D Cloud Properties Using Scanning Cloud Radar and 3D Radiative Transfer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Marchand, Roger</p> <p></p> <p>Retrievals of cloud optical and microphysical properties for boundary layer clouds, including those widely used by ASR investigators, frequently assume that clouds are sufficiently horizontally homogeneous that scattering and absorption (at all wavelengths) can be treated using one dimensional (1D) radiative transfer, and that differences in the field-of-view of different sensors are unimportant. Unfortunately, most boundary layer clouds are far from horizontally homogeneous, and numerous theoretical and observational studies show that the assumption of horizontal homogeneity leads to significant errors. The introduction of scanning cloud and precipitation radars at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) programmore » sites presents opportunities to move beyond the horizontally homogeneous assumption. The primary objective of this project was to develop a 3D retrieval for warm-phase (liquid only) boundary layer cloud microphysical properties, and to assess errors in current 1D (non-scanning) approaches. Specific research activities also involved examination of the diurnal cycle of hydrometeors as viewed by ARM cloud radar, and continued assessment of precipitation impacts on retrievals of cloud liquid water path using passive microwaves.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19790013548','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19790013548"><span>Insitu aircraft verification of the quality of satellite cloud winds over oceanic regions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hasler, A. F.; Skillman, W. C.</p> <p>1979-01-01</p> <p>A five year aircraft experiment to verify the quality of satellite cloud winds over oceans using in situ aircraft inertial navigation system wind measurements is presented. The final results show that satellite measured cumulus cloud motions are very good estimators of the cloud base wind for trade wind and subtropical high regions. The average magnitude of the vector differences between the cloud motion and the cloud base wind is given. For cumulus clouds near frontal regions, the cloud motion agreed best with the mean cloud layer wind. For a very limited sample, cirrus cloud motions also most closely followed the mean wind in the cloud layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01080&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA01080&hterms=false+information&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dfalse%2Binformation"><span>A Jovian Hotspot in True and False Colors (Time set 1)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>1997-01-01</p> <p>True and false color views of an equatorial 'hotspot' on Jupiter. These images cover an area 34,000 kilometers by 11,000 kilometers. The top mosaic combines the violet (410 nanometers or nm) and near-infrared continuum (756 nm) filter images to create an image similar to how Jupiter would appear to human eyes. Differences in coloration are due to the composition and abundances of trace chemicals in Jupiter's atmosphere. The bottom mosaic uses Galileo's three near-infrared wavelengths (756 nm, 727 nm, and 889 nm displayed in red, green, and blue) to show variations in cloud height and thickness. Bluish clouds are high and thin, reddish clouds are low, and white clouds are high and thick. The dark blue hotspot in the center is a hole in the deep cloud with an overlying thin haze. The light blue region to the left is covered by a very high haze layer. The multicolored region to the right has overlapping cloud layers of different heights. Galileo is the first spacecraft to distinguish cloud layers on Jupiter.<p/>North is at the top. The mosaics cover latitudes 1 to 10 degrees and are centered at longitude 336 degrees West. The smallest resolved features are tens of kilometers in size. These images were taken on December 17, 1996, at a range of 1.5 million kilometers by the Solid State Imaging system aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft.<p/>The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.<p/>This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1402422-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1402422-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia"><span>A case study of microphysical structures and hydrometeor phase in convection using radar Doppler spectra at Darwin, Australia</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, Laura D.; Comstock, J. M.; Luke, E.; ...</p> <p>2017-07-12</p> <p>To understand the microphysical processes that impact diabatic heating and cloud lifetimes in convection, we need to characterize the spatial distribution of supercooled liquid water. To address this observational challenge, ground-based vertically pointing active sensors at the Darwin Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site are used to classify cloud phase within a deep convective cloud. The cloud cannot be fully observed by a lidar due to signal attenuation. Therefore, we developed an objective method for identifying hydrometeor classes, including mixed-phase conditions, using k-means clustering on parameters that describe the shape of the Doppler spectra from vertically pointing Ka-band cloud radar. Furthermore, thismore » approach shows that multiple, overlapping mixed-phase layers exist within the cloud, rather than a single region of supercooled liquid. Diffusional growth calculations show that the conditions for the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process exist within one of these mixed-phase microstructures.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1402422-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1402422-case-study-microphysical-structures-hydrometeor-phase-convection-using-radar-doppler-spectra-darwin-australia"><span>A case study of microphysical structures and hydrometeor phase in convection using radar Doppler spectra at Darwin, Australia</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, Laura D.; Comstock, J. M.; Luke, E.</p> <p></p> <p>To understand the microphysical processes that impact diabatic heating and cloud lifetimes in convection, we need to characterize the spatial distribution of supercooled liquid water. To address this observational challenge, ground-based vertically pointing active sensors at the Darwin Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site are used to classify cloud phase within a deep convective cloud. The cloud cannot be fully observed by a lidar due to signal attenuation. Therefore, we developed an objective method for identifying hydrometeor classes, including mixed-phase conditions, using k-means clustering on parameters that describe the shape of the Doppler spectra from vertically pointing Ka-band cloud radar. Furthermore, thismore » approach shows that multiple, overlapping mixed-phase layers exist within the cloud, rather than a single region of supercooled liquid. Diffusional growth calculations show that the conditions for the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process exist within one of these mixed-phase microstructures.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A51B0018N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A51B0018N"><span>CATS Cloud-Aerosol Products and Near Real Time Capabilities</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Nowottnick, E. P.; Yorks, J. E.; McGill, M. J.; Palm, S. P.; Hlavka, D. L.; Selmer, P. A.; Rodier, S. D.; Vaughan, M. A.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) is a backscatter lidar that is designed to demonstrate technologies in space for future Earth Science missions. CATS is located on the International Space Station (ISS), where it has been operating semi-continuously since February 2015. CATS provides observations of cloud and aerosol vertical profiles similar to CALIPSO, but with more comprehensive coverage of the tropics and mid-latitudes due to the ISS orbit properties. Additionally, the ISS orbit permits the study of diurnal variability of clouds and aerosols. CATS data has applications for identifying of cloud phase and aerosol types. Analysis of recent Level 2 data yield several biases in cloud and aerosol layer detection and identification, as well as retrievals of optical properties that will be improved for the next version to be released in late 2016. With data latency of less than 6 hours, CATS data is also being used for forecasting of volcanic plume transport, experimental data assimilation into aerosol transport models (GEOS-5, NAAPS), and field campaign flight planning (KORUS-AQ, ORACLES).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A41O..02A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A41O..02A"><span>Cloud System Evolution in the Trades—CSET</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Albrecht, B. A.; Zuidema, P.; Bretherton, C. S.; Wood, R.; Ghate, V. P.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>The Cloud System Evolution in the Trades (CSET) study was designed to describe and explain the evolution of the boundary layer aerosol, cloud, and thermodynamic structures along trajectories within the north-Pacific trade-winds. The observational component of this study centered on 7 round-trips made by the NSF NCAR Gulfstream V (GV) between Sacramento, CA and Kona, Hawaii between 1 July and 15 August 2015. The CSET observing strategy used a Lagrangian approach to sample aerosol, cloud, and boundary layer properties upwind from the transition zone over the North Pacific and to resample these areas two days later. GFS forecast trajectories were used to plan the outbound flight to Hawaii and then updated forecast trajectories helped set the return flight plan two days later. Two key elements of the CSET observing system were the newly developed HIAPER Cloud Radar (HCR) and the HIAPER Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL). Together they provided unprecedented characterizations of aerosol, cloud and precipitation structures. A full suite of probes on the aircraft were used for in situ measurements of aerosol, cloud, precipitation, and turbulence properties during the low-level aircraft profiling portions of the flights. A wide range of boundary layer structures and aerosol, cloud, and precipitation conditions were observed during CSET. The cloud systems sampled included solid stratocumulus infused with smoke from Canadian wildfires, mesoscale (100-200 km) cloud-precipitation complexes, and patches of shallow cumuli in environments with accumulation mode aerosol concentrations of less than 50 cm-3. Ultra clean layers (UCLs with accumulation mode concentrations of less than 10 cm-3) were observed frequently near the top of the boundary layer and were often associated with shallow, gray (optically thin) layered clouds—features that are the subject of focused investigations by the CSET science team. The extent of aerosol, cloud, drizzle and boundary layer sampling that was made over open areas of the North Pacific along 2-day trajectories during CSET is unprecedented and will enable focused modeling studies of cloud system evolution and the role of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in that evolution.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020080736&hterms=safari&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dsafari','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020080736&hterms=safari&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dsafari"><span>Cloud Physics Lidar Optical Measurements During the SAFARI-2000 Field Campaign</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hlavka, Dennis L.; McGill, Matt; Hart, William D.; Spinhirne, James D.; Starr, David OC. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>In this presentation, we will show new optical data processing results from the Cloud Physics War during SAFARI-2000. Retrieved products include aerosol and cloud layer location and identification, layer optical depths, vertical extinction profiles, and extinction-to-backscatter (S) ratios for 532 and 1064 nm. The retrievals will focus on the persistent and smoky planetary boundary layer and occasional elevated aerosol layers found in southern Africa during August and September 2000.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1326749','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1326749"><span>Atmospheric System Research Marine Low Clouds Workshop Report, January 27-29,2016</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Jensen, M.; Wang, J.; Wood, R.</p> <p></p> <p>Marine low clouds are a major determinant of the Earth?s albedo and are a major source of uncertainty in how the climate responds to changing greenhouse gas levels and anthropogenic aerosol. Marine low clouds are particularly difficult to simulate accurately in climate models, and their remote locations present a significant observational challenge. A complex set of interacting controlling processes determine the coverage, condensate loading, and microphysical and radiative properties of marine low clouds. Marine low clouds are sensitive to atmospheric aerosol in several ways. Interactions at microphysical scales involve changes in the concentration of cloud droplets and precipitation, which inducemore » cloud dynamical impacts including changes in entrainment and mesoscale organization. Marine low clouds are also impacted by atmospheric heating changes due to absorbing aerosols. The response of marine low clouds to aerosol perturbations depends strongly upon the unperturbed aerosol-cloud state, which necessitates greater understanding of processes controlling the budget of aerosol in the marine boundary layer. Entrainment and precipitation mediate the response of low clouds to aerosols but these processes also play leading roles in controlling the aerosol budget. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program are making major recent investments in observational data sets from fixed and mobile sites dominated by marine low clouds. This report provides specific action items for how these measurements can be used together with process modeling to make progress on understanding and quantifying the key cloud and aerosol controlling processes in the next 5-10 years. Measurements of aerosol composition and its variation with particle size are needed to advance a quantitative, process-level understanding of marine boundary-layer aerosol budget. Quantitative precipitation estimates that combine radar and lidar measurements are becoming available, and these could be used to test process models, quantify precipitation responses to aerosol, and constrain climate models. Models and observations can be used to constrain how clouds respond dynamically to changing precipitation. New measurements of turbulence from ground-based remote sensing could be used to attempt to relate entrainment to the vertical and horizontal structure of turbulence in the boundary layer. Cloud-top entrainment plays a major role in modulating how low clouds respond to both aerosols and to greenhouse gases, so investment in promising new observational estimates would be beneficial. Precipitation formation and radiative cooling both help marine low clouds to organize on the mesoscale. More work is needed to develop metrics to characterize mesoscale organization, to elucidate mechanisms that determine the type and spatial scale of mesoscale cellular convection, and to understand the role of mesoscale structures in the stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-iss024e006136.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-iss024e006136.html"><span>Earth Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2010-06-16</p> <p>ISS024-E-006136 (16 June 2010) --- Polar mesospheric clouds, illuminated by an orbital sunrise, are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member on the International Space Station. Polar mesospheric, or noctilucent (?night shining?), clouds are observed from both Earth?s surface and in orbit by crew members aboard the space station. They are called night-shining clouds as they are usually seen at twilight. Following the setting of the sun below the horizon and darkening of Earth?s surface, these high clouds are still briefly illuminated by sunlight. Occasionally the ISS orbital track becomes nearly parallel to Earth?s day/night terminator for a time, allowing polar mesospheric clouds to be visible to the crew at times other than the usual twilight due to the space station altitude. This unusual photograph shows polar mesospheric clouds illuminated by the rising, rather than setting, sun at center right. Low clouds on the horizon appear yellow and orange, while higher clouds and aerosols are illuminated a brilliant white. Polar mesospheric clouds appear as light blue ribbons extending across the top of the image. These clouds typically occur at high latitudes of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and at fairly high altitudes of 76?85 kilometers (near the boundary between the mesosphere and thermosphere atmospheric layers). The ISS was located over the Greek island of Kos in the Aegean Sea (near the southwestern coastline of Turkey) when the image was taken at approximately midnight local time. The orbital complex was tracking northeastward, nearly parallel to the terminator, making it possible to observe an apparent ?sunrise? located almost due north. A similar unusual alignment of the ISS orbit track, terminator position, and seasonal position of Earth?s orbit around the sun allowed for striking imagery of polar mesospheric clouds over the Southern Hemisphere earlier this year.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.9280O','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.9280O"><span>New insights about cloud vertical structure from CloudSat and CALIPSO observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Oreopoulos, Lazaros; Cho, Nayeong; Lee, Dongmin</p> <p>2017-09-01</p> <p>Active cloud observations from A-Train's CloudSat and CALIPSO satellites offer new opportunities to examine the vertical structure of hydrometeor layers. We use the 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR merged CloudSat-CALIPSO product to examine global aspects of hydrometeor vertical stratification. We group the data into major cloud vertical structure (CVS) classes based on our interpretation of how clouds in three standard atmospheric layers overlap and provide their global frequency of occurrence. The two most frequent CVS classes are single-layer (per our definition) low and high clouds that represent 53% of cloudy skies, followed by high clouds overlying low clouds, and vertically extensive clouds that occupy near-contiguously a large portion of the troposphere. The prevalence of these configurations changes seasonally and geographically, between daytime and nighttime, and between continents and oceans. The radiative effects of the CVS classes reveal the major radiative warmers and coolers from the perspective of the planet as a whole, the surface, and the atmosphere. Single-layer low clouds dominate planetary and atmospheric cooling and thermal infrared surface warming. We also investigate the consistency between passive and active views of clouds by providing the CVS breakdowns of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer cloud regimes for spatiotemporally coincident MODIS-Aqua (also on the A-Train) and CloudSat-CALIPSO daytime observations. When the analysis is expanded for a more in-depth look at the most heterogeneous of the MODIS cloud regimes, it ultimately confirms previous interpretations of their makeup that did not have the benefit of collocated active observations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010JGRD..115.0H28K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010JGRD..115.0H28K"><span>Relationships among cloud occurrence frequency, overlap, and effective thickness derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat merged cloud vertical profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kato, Seiji; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Miller, Walter F.; Rose, Fred G.; Chen, Yan; Minnis, Patrick; Wielicki, Bruce A.</p> <p>2010-01-01</p> <p>A cloud frequency of occurrence matrix is generated using merged cloud vertical profiles derived from the satellite-borne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and cloud profiling radar. The matrix contains vertical profiles of cloud occurrence frequency as a function of the uppermost cloud top. It is shown that the cloud fraction and uppermost cloud top vertical profiles can be related by a cloud overlap matrix when the correlation length of cloud occurrence, which is interpreted as an effective cloud thickness, is introduced. The underlying assumption in establishing the above relation is that cloud overlap approaches random overlap with increasing distance separating cloud layers and that the probability of deviating from random overlap decreases exponentially with distance. One month of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and CloudSat data (July 2006) support these assumptions, although the correlation length sometimes increases with separation distance when the cloud top height is large. The data also show that the correlation length depends on cloud top hight and the maximum occurs when the cloud top height is 8 to 10 km. The cloud correlation length is equivalent to the decorrelation distance introduced by Hogan and Illingworth (2000) when cloud fractions of both layers in a two-cloud layer system are the same. The simple relationships derived in this study can be used to estimate the top-of-atmosphere irradiance difference caused by cloud fraction, uppermost cloud top, and cloud thickness vertical profile differences.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMTD....7..321B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMTD....7..321B"><span>G-band atmospheric radars: new frontiers in cloud physics</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Battaglia, A.; Westbrook, C. D.; Kneifel, S.; Kollias, P.; Humpage, N.; Löhnert, U.; Tyynelä, J.; Petty, G. W.</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>Clouds and associated precipitation are the largest source of uncertainty in current weather and future climate simulations. Observations of the microphysical, dynamical and radiative processes that act at cloud-scales are needed to improve our understanding of clouds. The rapid expansion of ground-based super-sites and the availability of continuous profiling and scanning multi-frequency radar observations at 35 and 94 GHz have significantly improved our ability to probe the internal structure of clouds in high temporal-spatial resolution, and to retrieve quantitative cloud and precipitation properties. However, there are still gaps in our ability to probe clouds due to large uncertainties in the retrievals. The present work discusses the potential of G-band (frequency between 110 and 300 GHz) Doppler radars in combination with lower frequencies to further improve the retrievals of microphysical properties. Our results show that, thanks to a larger dynamic range in dual-wavelength reflectivity, dual-wavelength attenuation and dual-wavelength Doppler velocity (with respect to a Rayleigh reference), the inclusion of frequencies in the G-band can significantly improve current profiling capabilities in three key areas: boundary layer clouds, cirrus and mid-level ice clouds, and precipitating snow.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMT.....7.1527B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMT.....7.1527B"><span>G band atmospheric radars: new frontiers in cloud physics</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Battaglia, A.; Westbrook, C. D.; Kneifel, S.; Kollias, P.; Humpage, N.; Löhnert, U.; Tyynelä, J.; Petty, G. W.</p> <p>2014-06-01</p> <p>Clouds and associated precipitation are the largest source of uncertainty in current weather and future climate simulations. Observations of the microphysical, dynamical and radiative processes that act at cloud scales are needed to improve our understanding of clouds. The rapid expansion of ground-based super-sites and the availability of continuous profiling and scanning multi-frequency radar observations at 35 and 94 GHz have significantly improved our ability to probe the internal structure of clouds in high temporal-spatial resolution, and to retrieve quantitative cloud and precipitation properties. However, there are still gaps in our ability to probe clouds due to large uncertainties in the retrievals. The present work discusses the potential of G band (frequency between 110 and 300 GHz) Doppler radars in combination with lower frequencies to further improve the retrievals of microphysical properties. Our results show that, thanks to a larger dynamic range in dual-wavelength reflectivity, dual-wavelength attenuation and dual-wavelength Doppler velocity (with respect to a Rayleigh reference), the inclusion of frequencies in the G band can significantly improve current profiling capabilities in three key areas: boundary layer clouds, cirrus and mid-level ice clouds, and precipitating snow.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011PhDT.......113Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011PhDT.......113Z"><span>The Arctic clouds from model simulations and long-term observations at Barrow, Alaska</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhao, Ming</p> <p></p> <p>The Arctic is a region that is very sensitive to global climate change while also experiencing significant changes in its surface air temperature, sea-ice cover, atmospheric circulation, precipitation, snowfall, biogeochemical cycling, and land surface. Although previous studies have shown that the arctic clouds play an important role in the arctic climate changes, the arctic clouds are poorly understood and simulated in climate model due to limited observations. Furthermore, most of the studies were based on short-term experiments and typically only cover the warm seasons, which do not provide a full understanding of the seasonal cycle of arctic clouds. To address the above concerns and to improve our understanding of arctic clouds, six years of observational and retrieval data from 1999 to 2004 at the Atmospheric Radiation Management (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Barrow site are used to understand the arctic clouds and related radiative processes. In particular, we focus on the liquid-ice mass partition in the mixed-phase cloud layer. Statistical results show that aerosol type and concentration are important factors that impact the mixed-phase stratus (MPS) cloud microphysical properties: liquid water path (LWP) and liquid water fraction (LWF) decrease with the increase of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration; the high dust loading and dust occurrence in the spring are possible reasons for the much lower LWF than the other seasons. The importance of liquid-ice mass partition on surface radiation budgets was analyzed by comparing cloud longwave radiative forcings under the same LWP but different ice water path (IWP) ranges. Results show the ice phase enhance the surface cloud longwave (LW) forcing by 8˜9 W m-2 in the moderately thin MPS. This result provides an observational evidence on the aerosol glaciation effect in the moderately thin MPS, which is largely unknown so far. The above new insights are important to guide the model parameterizations of liquid-ice mass partition in arctic mixed-phase clouds, and are served as a test bed to cloud models and cloud microphysical schemes. The observational data between 1999 and 2007 are used to assess the performance of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model in the Arctic region. The ECMWF model-simulated near-surface humidity had seasonal dependent biases as large as 20%, while also experiencing difficulty representing boundary layer (BL) temperature inversion height and strength during the transition seasons. Although the ECMWF model captured the seasonal variation of surface heat fluxes, it had sensible heat flux biases over 20 W m-2 in most of the cold months. Furthermore, even though the model captured the general seasonal variations of low-level cloud fraction (LCF) and LWP, it still overestimated the LCF by 20% or more and underestimated the LWP over 50% in the cold season. On average, the ECMWF model underestimated LWP by ˜30 g m-2 but more accurately predicted ice water path for BL clouds. For BL mixed-phase clouds, the model predicted water-ice mass partition was significantly lower than the observations, largely due to the temperature dependence of water-ice mass partition used in the model. The new cloud and BL schemes of the ECMWF model that were implemented after 2003 only resulted in minor improvements in BL cloud simulations in summer. These results indicate that significant improvements in cold season BL and mixed-phase cloud processes in the model are needed. In this study, single-layer MPS clouds were simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model under different microphysical schemes and different ice nuclei (IN) number concentrations. Results show that by using proper IN concentration, the WRF model incorporated with Morrison microphysical scheme can reasonably capture the observed seasonal differences in temperature dependent liquid-ice mass partition. However, WRF simulations underestimate both LWP and IWP indicating its deficiency in capturing the radiative impacts of arctic MPS clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2440X','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2440X"><span>Overview of Boundary Layer Clouds Using Satellite and Ground-Based Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Xi, B.; Dong, X.; Wu, P.; Qiu, S.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>A comprehensive summary of boundary layer clouds properties based on our few recently studies will be presented. The analyses include the global cloud fractions and cloud macro/micro- physical properties based on satellite measurements using both CERES-MODIS and CloudSat/Caliposo data products,; the annual/seasonal/diurnal variations of stratocumulus clouds over different climate regions (mid-latitude land, mid-latitude ocean, and Arctic region) using DOE ARM ground-based measurements over Southern great plain (SGP), Azores (GRW), and North slope of Alaska (NSA) sites; the impact of environmental conditions to the formation and dissipation process of marine boundary layer clouds over Azores site; characterizing Arctice mixed-phase cloud structure and favorable environmental conditions for the formation/maintainess of mixed-phase clouds over NSA site. Though the presentation has widely spread topics, we will focus on the representation of the ground-based measurements over different climate regions; evaluation of satellite retrieved cloud properties using these ground-based measurements, and understanding the uncertainties of both satellite and ground-based retrievals and measurements.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020082884&hterms=Butterfly&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DButterfly','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20020082884&hterms=Butterfly&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3DButterfly"><span>Cloud Thickness from Offbeam Returns (THOR) Validation Campaign on NASA's P3B Over the ARM/SGP</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Cahalan, R. F.; Kolasinski, J.; McGill, M.; Lau, William K. M. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>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.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_8");'>8</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li class="active"><span>10</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_10 --> <div id="page_11" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li class="active"><span>11</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="201"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A51I0183Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A51I0183Z"><span>Aerosol Indirect effect on Stratocumulus Organization</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhou, X.; Heus, T.; Kollias, P.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>Large-eddy simulations are used to investigate the role of aerosol loading on organized Stratocumulus. We prescribed the cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) and considered it as the proxy for different aerosol loading. While the presence of drizzle amplifies the mesoscale variability as is in Savic-Jovcic and Stevens (JAS, 2008), two noticeable findings are discussed here: First, the scale of marine boundary layer circulation appears to be independent of aerosol loading, suggesting a major role of the turbulence. The precise role of the turbulence in stratocumulus organization is studied by modifying the large scale fluctuations from the LES domain. Second, while it is commonly thought that the whole circulation needs to be represented for robust cloud development, we find that stratocumulus dynamics, including variables like w'w' and w'w'w', are remarkably robust even if large scales are ignored by simply reducing the domain sizes. The only variable that is sensitive to the change of the scale is the amount of cloudiness. Despite their smaller cloud thickness and inhomogeneous macroscopic structure for low Nc, individual drizzling clouds have sizes that are commensurate with circulation scale. We observe an Nc threshold below which stratocumulus is thin enough so that a little decrease of Nc would lead to great change of cloud fraction. The simulated cloud albedo is more sensitive to in-cloud liquid water content than to the amount of cloudiness since the former decreases at least three times faster than the latter due to drizzle. The main impact of drizzle evaporation is observed to keep the sub-cloud layer moist and as a result to extend the lifetime of stratocumulus by a couple of hours.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5144091','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5144091"><span>Aerosol effect on the evolution of the thermodynamic properties of warm convective cloud fields</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Dagan, Guy; Koren, Ilan; Altaratz, Orit; Heiblum, Reuven H.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>Convective cloud formation and evolution strongly depend on environmental temperature and humidity profiles. The forming clouds change the profiles that created them by redistributing heat and moisture. Here we show that the evolution of the field’s thermodynamic properties depends heavily on the concentration of aerosol, liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere. Under polluted conditions, rain formation is suppressed and the non-precipitating clouds act to warm the lower part of the cloudy layer (where there is net condensation) and cool and moisten the upper part of the cloudy layer (where there is net evaporation), thereby destabilizing the layer. Under clean conditions, precipitation causes net warming of the cloudy layer and net cooling of the sub-cloud layer (driven by rain evaporation), which together act to stabilize the atmosphere with time. Previous studies have examined different aspects of the effects of clouds on their environment. Here, we offer a complete analysis of the cloudy atmosphere, spanning the aerosol effect from instability-consumption to enhancement, below, inside and above warm clouds, showing the temporal evolution of the effects. We propose a direct measure for the magnitude and sign of the aerosol effect on thermodynamic instability. PMID:27929097</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27929097','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27929097"><span>Aerosol effect on the evolution of the thermodynamic properties of warm convective cloud fields.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Dagan, Guy; Koren, Ilan; Altaratz, Orit; Heiblum, Reuven H</p> <p>2016-12-08</p> <p>Convective cloud formation and evolution strongly depend on environmental temperature and humidity profiles. The forming clouds change the profiles that created them by redistributing heat and moisture. Here we show that the evolution of the field's thermodynamic properties depends heavily on the concentration of aerosol, liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere. Under polluted conditions, rain formation is suppressed and the non-precipitating clouds act to warm the lower part of the cloudy layer (where there is net condensation) and cool and moisten the upper part of the cloudy layer (where there is net evaporation), thereby destabilizing the layer. Under clean conditions, precipitation causes net warming of the cloudy layer and net cooling of the sub-cloud layer (driven by rain evaporation), which together act to stabilize the atmosphere with time. Previous studies have examined different aspects of the effects of clouds on their environment. Here, we offer a complete analysis of the cloudy atmosphere, spanning the aerosol effect from instability-consumption to enhancement, below, inside and above warm clouds, showing the temporal evolution of the effects. We propose a direct measure for the magnitude and sign of the aerosol effect on thermodynamic instability.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19820011907','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19820011907"><span>Estimating ocean-air heat fluxes during cold air outbreaks by satellite</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chou, S. H.; Atlas, D.</p> <p>1981-01-01</p> <p>Nomograms of mean column heating due to surface sensible and latent heat fluxes were developed. Mean sensible heating of the cloud free region is related to the cloud free path (CFP, the distance from the shore to the first cloud formation) and the difference between land air and sea surface temperatures, theta sub 1 and theta sub 0, respectively. Mean latent heating is related to the CFP and the difference between land air and sea surface humidities q sub 1 and q sub 0 respectively. Results are also applicable to any path within the cloud free region. Corresponding heat fluxes may be obtained by multiplying the mean heating by the mean wind speed in the boundary layer. The sensible heating estimated by the present method is found to be in good agreement with that computed from the bulk transfer formula. The sensitivity of the solutions to the variations in the initial coastal soundings and large scale subsidence is also investigated. The results are not sensitive to divergence but are affected by the initial lapse rate of potential temperature; the greater the stability, the smaller the heating, other things being equal. Unless one knows the lapse rate at the shore, this requires another independent measurement. For this purpose the downwind slope of the square of the boundary layer height is used, the mean value of which is also directly proportional to the mean sensible heating. The height of the boundary layer should be measurable by future spaceborn lidar systems.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19800037204&hterms=convection+currents&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dconvection%2Bcurrents','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19800037204&hterms=convection+currents&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dconvection%2Bcurrents"><span>Shallow convection on day 261 of GATE - Mesoscale arcs</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Warner, C.; Simpson, J.; Martin, D. W.; Suchman, D.; Mosher, F. R.; Reinking, R. F.</p> <p>1979-01-01</p> <p>Cloudy convection in the moist layer of a cloud cluster growing in the GATE ship array is examined. Analyses suggest that the moist layer was dominated by features of horizontal dimension roughly 40 km and lifetime roughly 2 h, with arc patterns triggered by dense downdraft air accompanying rainfall, and composed of many small cumulus clouds. Aircraft recorded data on thermodynamic quantities and winds, indicating that the arcs persisted as mesoscale circulations driven by the release of latent heat in the clouds, rather than being driven by the original density current at the surface. It is also suggested that the mesoscale cloud patterns of the moist layer play a primary role in heat transfer upward within this layer, and contribute to the forcing of showering midtropospheric clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19810068858','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19810068858"><span>Analysis of Meteorological Data Obtained During Flight in a Supercooled Stratiform Cloud of High Liquid-Water Content</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Perkins, Porter J.; Kline, Dwight B.</p> <p>1951-01-01</p> <p>Flight icing-rate data obtained in a dense and. abnormally deep supercooled stratiform cloud system indicated the existence of liquid-water contents generally exceeding values in amount and extent previously reported over the midwestern sections of the United States. Additional information obtained during descent through a part of the cloud system indicated liquid-water contents that significantly exceeded theoretical values, especially near the middle of the cloud layer.. The growth of cloud droplets to sizes that resulted in sedimentation from the upper portions of the cloud is considered to be a possible cause of the high water contents near the center of the cloud layer. Flight measurements of the vertical temperature distribution in the cloud layer indicated a rate of change of temperature with altitude exceeding that of the moist adiabatic lapse rate. This excessive rate of change is considered to have contributed to the severity of the condition.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A51A2020A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A51A2020A"><span>The Intrinsic Variability in the Water Vapor Saturation Ratio due to Turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Anderson, J. C.; Cantrell, W. H.; Chandrakar, K. K.; Kostinski, A. B.; Niedermeier, D.; Shaw, R. A.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>In the atmosphere, the concentration of water vapor plays an important role in Earth's weather and climate. The mean concentration of water vapor is key to its efficiency as a greenhouse gas; the fluctuations about the mean are important for heat fluxes near the surface of earth. In boundary layer clouds, fluctuations in the water vapor concentration are linked to turbulence. Conditions representative of boundary layer clouds are simulated in Michigan Tech's multiphase, turbulent reaction chamber, the ∏ chamber, where the boundary conditions are controlled and repeatable. Measurements for temperature and water vapor concentration were recorded under forced Rayleigh-Bénard convection. As expected, the distributions for temperature and water vapor concentration broaden as the turbulence becomes more vigorous. From these two measurements the saturation ratio can be calculated. The fluctuations in the water vapor concentration are more important to the variability in the saturation ratio than fluctuations in temperature. In a cloud, these fluctuations in the saturation ratio can result in some cloud droplets experiencing much higher supersaturations. Those "lucky" droplets grow by condensation at a faster rate than other cloud droplets. The difference in the droplet growth rate could contribute to a broadened droplet distribution, which leads to the onset of collision-coalescence. With more intense turbulence these effect will become more pronounced as the fluctuations about the mean saturation ratio become more pronounced.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005Icar..178...84G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005Icar..178...84G"><span>Coupling of acoustic waves to clouds in the jovian troposphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gaulme, Patrick; Mosser, Benoît</p> <p>2005-11-01</p> <p>Seismology is the best tool for investigating the interior structure of stars and giant planets. This paper deals with a photometric study of jovian global oscillations. The propagation of acoustic waves in the jovian troposphere is revisited in order to estimate their effects on the planetary albedo. According to the standard model of the jovian cloud structure there are three major ice cloud layers (e.g., [Atreya et al., 1999. A comparison of the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn: Deep atmospheric composition, cloud structure, vertical mixing, and origin. Planet Space Sci. 47, 1243-1262]). We consider only the highest layers, composed of ammonia ice, in the region where acoustic waves are trapped in Jupiter's atmosphere. For a vertical wave propagating in a plane parallel atmosphere with an ammonia ice cloud layer, we calculate first the relative variations of the reflected solar flux due to the smooth oscillations at about the ppm level. We then determine the phase transitions induced by the seismic waves in the clouds. These phase changes, linked to ice particle growth, are limited by kinetics. A Mie model [Mishchenko et al., 2002. Scattering, Absorption, and Emission of Light by Small Particles. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, pp. 158-190] coupled with a simple radiation transfer model allows us to estimate that the albedo fluctuations of the cloud perturbed by a seismic wave reach relative variations of 70 ppm for a 3-mHz wave. This albedo fluctuation is amplified by a factor of ˜70 relative to the previously published estimates that exclude the effect of the wave on cloud properties. Our computed amplifications imply that jovian oscillations can be detected with very precise photometry, as proposed by the microsatellite JOVIS project, which is dedicated to photometric seismology [Mosser et al., 2004. JOVIS: A microsatellite dedicated to the seismic analysis of Jupiter. In: Combes, F., Barret, D., Contini, T., Meynadier, F., Pagani, L. (Eds.), SF2A-2004, Semaine de l'Astrophysique Francaise, Les Ulis. In: EdP-Sciences Conference Series, pp. 257-258].</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1043373-aerosol-concentration-size-distribution-measured-below-above-cloud-from-doe-during-vocals-rex','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1043373-aerosol-concentration-size-distribution-measured-below-above-cloud-from-doe-during-vocals-rex"><span>Aerosol concentration and size distribution measured below, in, and above cloud from the DOE G-1 during VOCALS-REx</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Kleinman L. I.; Daum, P. H.; Lee, Y.-N.</p> <p>2012-01-04</p> <p>During the VOCALS Regional Experiment, the DOE G-1 aircraft was used to sample a varying aerosol environment pertinent to properties of stratocumulus clouds over a longitude band extending 800 km west from the Chilean coast at Arica. Trace gas and aerosol measurements are presented as a function of longitude, altitude, and dew point in this study. Spatial distributions are consistent with an upper atmospheric source for O{sub 3} and South American coastal sources for marine boundary layer (MBL) CO and aerosol, most of which is acidic sulfate. Pollutant layers in the free troposphere (FT) can be a result of emissionsmore » to the north in Peru or long range transport from the west. At a given altitude in the FT (up to 3 km), dew point varies by 40 C with dry air descending from the upper atmospheric and moist air having a boundary layer (BL) contribution. Ascent of BL air to a cold high altitude results in the condensation and precipitation removal of all but a few percent of BL water along with aerosol that served as CCN. Thus, aerosol volume decreases with dew point in the FT. Aerosol size spectra have a bimodal structure in the MBL and an intermediate diameter unimodal distribution in the FT. Comparing cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) and pre-cloud aerosol (D{sub p} > 100 nm) gives a linear relation up to a number concentration of {approx}150 cm{sup -3}, followed by a less than proportional increase in CDNC at higher aerosol number concentration. A number balance between below cloud aerosol and cloud droplets indicates that {approx}25 % of aerosol with D{sub p} > 100 nm are interstitial (not activated). A direct comparison of pre-cloud and in-cloud aerosol yields a higher estimate. Artifacts in the measurement of interstitial aerosol due to droplet shatter and evaporation are discussed. Within each of 102 constant altitude cloud transects, CDNC and interstitial aerosol were anti-correlated. An examination of one cloud as a case study shows that the interstitial aerosol appears to have a background, upon which is superimposed a high frequency signal that contains the anti-correlation. The anti-correlation is a possible source of information on particle activation or evaporation.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890024235&hterms=astronomia+espacio&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dastronomia%2By%2Bespacio','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890024235&hterms=astronomia+espacio&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Dastronomia%2By%2Bespacio"><span>On the origin of the Orion and Monoceros molecular cloud complexes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Franco, J.; Tenorio-Tagle, G.; Bodenheimer, P.; Rozyczka, M.; Mirabel, I. F.</p> <p>1988-01-01</p> <p>A detailed model for the origin of the Orion and Monoceros cloud complexes is presented, showing that a single high-velocity H I cloud-galaxy collision can explain their main observed features. The collision generates massive shocked layers, and self-gravity can then provide the conditions for the transformation of these layers into molecular clouds. The clouds formed by the collision maintain the motion of their parental shocked gas and reach positions located far away from the plane. According to this model, both the Orion and Monoceros complexes were formed some 60 million yr ago, when the original shocked layer was fragmented by Galactic tidal forces.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150002801&hterms=Sun-Mack&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3DSun-Mack','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150002801&hterms=Sun-Mack&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3DSun-Mack"><span>Comparison of Marine Boundary Layer Cloud Properties from CERES-MODIS Edition 4 and DOE ARM AMF Measurements at the Azores</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Xi, Baike; Dong, Xiquan; Minnis, Patrick; Sun-Mack, Sunny</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>Marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud properties derived from the NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project using Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are compared with observations taken at the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility at the Azores (AMF-Azores) site from June 2009 through December 2010. Cloud properties derived from ARM ground-based observations were averaged over a 1 h interval centered at the satellite overpass time, while the CERES-MODIS (CM) results were averaged within a 30 km×30 km grid box centered over the Azores site. A total of 63 daytime and 92 nighttime single-layered overcast MBL cloud cases were selected from 19 months of ARM radar-lidar and satellite observations. The CM cloud top/base heights (Htop/Hbase) were determined from cloud top/base temperatures (Ttop/Tbase) using a regional boundary layer lapse rate method. For daytime comparisons, the CM-derived Htop (Hbase), on average, is 0.063 km (0.068 km) higher (lower) than its ARM radar-lidar-observed counterpart, and the CM-derived Ttop and Tbase are 0.9 K less and 2.5 K greater than the surface values with high correlations (R(sup 2) = 0.82 and 0.84, respectively). In general, the cloud top comparisons agree better than the cloud base comparisons, because the CM cloud base temperatures and heights are secondary products determined from cloud top temperatures and heights. No significant day-night difference was found in the analyses. The comparisons of MBL cloud microphysical properties reveal that when averaged over a 30 km× 30 km area, the CM-retrieved cloud droplet effective radius (re) at 3.7 micrometers is 1.3 micrometers larger than that from the ARM retrievals (12.8 micrometers), while the CM-retrieved cloud liquid water path (LWP) is 13.5 gm( exp -2) less than its ARM counterpart (114.2 gm( exp-2) due to its small optical depth (9.6 versus 13.7). The differences are reduced by 50% when the CM averages are computed only using the MODIS pixel nearest the AMF site. Using the effective radius retrieved using 2.1 micrometers channel to calculate LWP can reduce the difference between the CM and ARM microwave radiometer retrievals from 13.7 to 2.1 gm2. The 10% differences between the ARM and CERES-MODIS LWP and r(sub e) retrievals are within the uncertainties of the ARM LWP (approximately 20gm( exp -2)) and r(sub e) (approximately 10%) retrievals; however, the 30% difference in optical depth is significant. Possible reasons contributing to this discrepancy are increased sensitivities in optical depth from both surface retrievals when t is approximately 10 and topography. The t differences vary with wind direction and are consistent with the island orography.Much better agreement in t is obtained when using only those data taken when the wind is from the northeast, where topographical effects on the sampled clouds are minimal.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JGRD..119.9509X','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JGRD..119.9509X"><span>Comparison of marine boundary layer cloud properties from CERES-MODIS Edition 4 and DOE ARM AMF measurements at the Azores</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Xi, Baike; Dong, Xiquan; Minnis, Patrick; Sun-Mack, Sunny</p> <p>2014-08-01</p> <p>Marine boundary layer (MBL) cloud properties derived from the NASA Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project using Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are compared with observations taken at the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility at the Azores (AMF-Azores) site from June 2009 through December 2010. Cloud properties derived from ARM ground-based observations were averaged over a 1 h interval centered at the satellite overpass time, while the CERES-MODIS (CM) results were averaged within a 30 km × 30 km grid box centered over the Azores site. A total of 63 daytime and 92 nighttime single-layered overcast MBL cloud cases were selected from 19 months of ARM radar-lidar and satellite observations. The CM cloud top/base heights (Htop/Hbase) were determined from cloud top/base temperatures (Ttop/Tbase) using a regional boundary layer lapse rate method. For daytime comparisons, the CM-derived Htop (Hbase), on average, is 0.063 km (0.068 km) higher (lower) than its ARM radar-lidar-observed counterpart, and the CM-derived Ttop and Tbase are 0.9 K less and 2.5 K greater than the surface values with high correlations (R2 = 0.82 and 0.84, respectively). In general, the cloud top comparisons agree better than the cloud base comparisons, because the CM cloud base temperatures and heights are secondary products determined from cloud top temperatures and heights. No significant day-night difference was found in the analyses. The comparisons of MBL cloud microphysical properties reveal that when averaged over a 30 km × 30 km area, the CM-retrieved cloud droplet effective radius (re) at 3.7 µm is 1.3 µm larger than that from the ARM retrievals (12.8 µm), while the CM-retrieved cloud liquid water path (LWP) is 13.5 gm-2 less than its ARM counterpart (114.2 gm-2) due to its small optical depth (9.6 versus 13.7). The differences are reduced by 50% when the CM averages are computed only using the MODIS pixel nearest the AMF site. Using the effective radius retrieved using 2.1 µm channel to calculate LWP can reduce the difference between the CM and ARM microwave radiometer retrievals from -13.7 to 2.1 gm-2. The 10% differences between the ARM and CERES-MODIS LWP and re retrievals are within the uncertainties of the ARM LWP ( 20 gm-2) and re ( 10%) retrievals; however, the 30% difference in optical depth is significant. Possible reasons contributing to this discrepancy are increased sensitivities in optical depth from both surface retrievals when τ 10 and topography. The τ differences vary with wind direction and are consistent with the island orography. Much better agreement in τ is obtained when using only those data taken when the wind is from the northeast, where topographical effects on the sampled clouds are minimal.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A13C2080R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A13C2080R"><span>Changes in Clouds Under a Combined CO2 Increase and Solar Decrease</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Russotto, R. D.; Ackerman, T. P.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) provides an excellent opportunity to study the response of clouds and the large-scale circulation to opposing solar and greenhouse gas forcings. This study analyzes changes in cloud fraction in 10 fully coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models in GeoMIP Experiment G1, in which CO2 concentrations are quadrupled and the solar constant is reduced in order to keep global mean temperature at preindustrial levels. There is general agreement among the models that the area coverage of low clouds (below the 680 hPa pressure level) decreases in this experiment compared to preindustrial conditions over most ocean and vegetated land areas. This reduction in low cloud fraction is related to decreases in boundary layer inversion strength over the ocean, and to plant physiological responses to increased CO2. Mid-level clouds (680-440 hPa) and high clouds (< 440 hPa) are reduced over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to the north and south of the ITCZ, while high clouds also increase over the center of the ITCZ. These changes are related to a weakening of the seasonal migration of the ITCZ in G1, which happens because the summer hemisphere is preferentially cooled by the solar reduction. To explore the link between clouds and the ITCZ migration, we examine changes in the seasonal cycle of cloud cover and in the instantaneous ITCZ width throughout the year. High cloud fraction increases in the global mean in most models, likely due to upper tropospheric cooling. An analysis of radiative effects using the Approximate Partial Radiation Perturbation method shows that, in the shortwave, cloud changes in G1 have a warming effect in most areas, mainly due to the reduction in low cloud fraction. This effect, along with the warming effect from the increase in high clouds, results in a larger solar reduction being necessary to compensate for the CO2 increase.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080006610','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080006610"><span>Ice Cloud Properties in Ice-Over-Water Cloud Systems Using TRMM VIRS and TMI Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Minnis, Patrick; Huang, Jianping; Lin, Bing; Yi, Yuhong; Arduini, Robert F.; Fan, Tai-Fang; Ayers, J. Kirk; Mace, Gerald G.</p> <p>2007-01-01</p> <p>A multi-layered cloud retrieval system (MCRS) is updated and used to estimate ice water path in maritime ice-over-water clouds using Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission spacecraft between January and August 1998. Lookup tables of top-of-atmosphere 0.65- m reflectance are developed for ice-over-water cloud systems using radiative transfer calculations with various combinations of ice-over-water cloud layers. The liquid and ice water paths, LWP and IWP, respectively, are determined with the MCRS using these lookup tables with a combination of microwave (MW), visible (VIS), and infrared (IR) data. LWP, determined directly from the TMI MW data, is used to define the lower-level cloud properties to select the proper lookup table. The properties of the upper-level ice clouds, such as optical depth and effective size, are then derived using the Visible Infrared Solar-infrared Split-window Technique (VISST), which matches the VIRS IR, 3.9- m, and VIS data to the multilayer-cloud lookup table reflectances and a set of emittance parameterizations. Initial comparisons with surface-based radar retrievals suggest that this enhanced MCRS can significantly improve the accuracy and decrease the IWP in overlapped clouds by 42% and 13% compared to using the single-layer VISST and an earlier simplified MW-VIS-IR (MVI) differencing method, respectively, for ice-over-water cloud systems. The tropical distribution of ice-over-water clouds is the same as derived earlier from combined TMI and VIRS data, but the new values of IWP and optical depth are slightly larger than the older MVI values, and exceed those of single-layered layered clouds by 7% and 11%, respectively. The mean IWP from the MCRS is 8-14% greater than that retrieved from radar retrievals of overlapped clouds over two surface sites and the standard deviations of the differences are similar to those for single-layered clouds. Examples of a method for applying the MCRS over land without microwave data yield similar differences with the surface retrievals. By combining the MCRS with other techniques that focus primarily on optically thin cirrus over low water clouds, it will be possible to more fully assess the IWP in all conditions over ocean except for precipitating systems.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26812732','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26812732"><span>Emerging Security Mechanisms for Medical Cyber Physical Systems.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Kocabas, Ovunc; Soyata, Tolga; Aktas, Mehmet K</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>The following decade will witness a surge in remote health-monitoring systems that are based on body-worn monitoring devices. These Medical Cyber Physical Systems (MCPS) will be capable of transmitting the acquired data to a private or public cloud for storage and processing. Machine learning algorithms running in the cloud and processing this data can provide decision support to healthcare professionals. There is no doubt that the security and privacy of the medical data is one of the most important concerns in designing an MCPS. In this paper, we depict the general architecture of an MCPS consisting of four layers: data acquisition, data aggregation, cloud processing, and action. Due to the differences in hardware and communication capabilities of each layer, different encryption schemes must be used to guarantee data privacy within that layer. We survey conventional and emerging encryption schemes based on their ability to provide secure storage, data sharing, and secure computation. Our detailed experimental evaluation of each scheme shows that while the emerging encryption schemes enable exciting new features such as secure sharing and secure computation, they introduce several orders-of-magnitude computational and storage overhead. We conclude our paper by outlining future research directions to improve the usability of the emerging encryption schemes in an MCPS.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmRe.153...19L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AtmRe.153...19L"><span>Effects of turbulence on warm clouds and precipitation with various aerosol concentrations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lee, Hyunho; Baik, Jong-Jin; Han, Ji-Young</p> <p>2015-02-01</p> <p>This study investigates the effects of turbulence-induced collision enhancement (TICE) on warm clouds and precipitation by changing the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration using a two-dimensional dynamic model with bin microphysics. TICE is determined according to the Taylor microscale Reynolds number and the turbulent dissipation rate. The thermodynamic sounding used in this study is characterized by a warm and humid atmosphere with a capping inversion layer, which is suitable for simulating warm clouds. For all CCN concentrations, TICE slightly reduces the liquid water path during the early stage of cloud development and accelerates the onset of surface precipitation. However, changes in the rainwater path and in the amount of surface precipitation that are caused by TICE depend on the CCN concentrations. For high CCN concentrations, the mean cloud drop number concentration (CDNC) decreases and the mean effective radius increases due to TICE. These changes cause an increase in the amount of surface precipitation. However, for low CCN concentrations, changes in the mean CDNC and in the mean effective radius induced by TICE are small and the amount of surface precipitation decreases slightly due to TICE. A decrease in condensation due to the accelerated coalescence between droplets explains the surface precipitation decrease. In addition, an increase in the CCN concentration can lead to an increase in the amount of surface precipitation, and the relationship between the CCN concentration and the amount of surface precipitation is affected by TICE. It is shown that these results depend on the atmospheric relative humidity.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20000070722','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20000070722"><span>Comparison of Cirrus Cloud Models: A Project of the GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) Working Group on Cirrus Cloud Systems</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Starr, David O'C.; Benedetti, Angela; Boehm, Matt; Brown, Philip R. A.; Gierens, Klaus M.; Girard, Eric; Giraud, Vincent; Jakob, Christian; Jensen, Eric</p> <p>2000-01-01</p> <p>The GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS, GEWEX is the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) is a community activity aiming to promote development of improved cloud parameterizations for application in the large-scale general circulation models (GCMs) used for climate research and for numerical weather prediction. The GCSS strategy is founded upon the use of cloud-system models (CSMs). These are "process" models with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to represent individual cloud elements, but spanning a wide range of space and time scales to enable statistical analysis of simulated cloud systems. GCSS also employs single-column versions of the parametric cloud models (SCMs) used in GCMs. GCSS has working groups on boundary-layer clouds, cirrus clouds, extratropical layer cloud systems, precipitating deep convective cloud systems, and polar clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43B0208W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43B0208W"><span>Contrasting Cloud Composition Between Coupled and Decoupled Marine Boundary Layer Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>WANG, Z.; Mora, M.; Dadashazar, H.; MacDonald, A.; Crosbie, E.; Bates, K. H.; Coggon, M. M.; Craven, J. S.; Xian, P.; Campbell, J. R.; AzadiAghdam, M.; Woods, R. K.; Jonsson, H.; Flagan, R. C.; Seinfeld, J.; Sorooshian, A.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Marine stratocumulus clouds often become decoupled from the vertical layer immediately above the ocean surface. This study contrasts cloud chemical composition between coupled and decoupled marine stratocumulus clouds. Cloud water and droplet residual particle composition were measured in clouds off the California coast during three airborne experiments in July-August of separate years (E-PEACE 2011, NiCE 2013, BOAS 2015). Decoupled clouds exhibited significantly lower overall mass concentrations in both cloud water and droplet residual particles, consistent with reduced cloud droplet number concentration and sub-cloud aerosol (Dp > 100 nm) number concentration, owing to detachment from surface sources. Non-refractory sub-micrometer aerosol measurements show that coupled clouds exhibit higher sulfate mass fractions in droplet residual particles, owing to more abundant precursor emissions from the ocean and ships. Consequently, decoupled clouds exhibited higher mass fractions of organics, nitrate, and ammonium in droplet residual particles, owing to effects of long-range transport from more distant sources. Total cloud water mass concentration in coupled clouds was dominated by sodium and chloride, and their mass fractions and concentrations exceeded those in decoupled clouds. Conversely, with the exception of sea salt constituents (e.g., Cl, Na, Mg, K), cloud water mass fractions of all species examined were higher in decoupled clouds relative to coupled clouds. These results suggest that an important variable is the extent to which clouds are coupled to the surface layer when interpreting microphysical data relevant to clouds and aerosol particles.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1360737-select-strengths-biases-models-representing-arctic-winter-boundary-layer-over-sea-ice-larcform-single-column-model-intercomparison','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1360737-select-strengths-biases-models-representing-arctic-winter-boundary-layer-over-sea-ice-larcform-single-column-model-intercomparison"><span>Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice: the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Pithan, Felix; Ackerman, Andrew; Angevine, Wayne M.; ...</p> <p>2016-08-27</p> <p>We struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Artic winter using weather and climate models, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build-up of surface-based temperature inversions. Many large-scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Themore » transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modeled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single-column experiment is the first Lagrangian Arctic air formation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system studies). The intercomparison reproduces the typical biases of large-scale models: some models lack the cloudy state of the boundary layer due to the representation of mixed-phase microphysics or to the interaction between micro- and macrophysics. In some models, high emissivities of ice clouds or the lack of an insulating snow layer prevent the build-up of surface-based inversions in the radiatively clear state. Models substantially disagree on the amount of cloud liquid water in the cloudy state and on turbulent heat fluxes under clear skies. Finally, observations of air mass transformations including both boundary layer states would allow for a tighter constraint of model behavior.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5621046','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5621046"><span>Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice: the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Pithan, Felix; Ackerman, Andrew; Angevine, Wayne M.; Hartung, Kerstin; Ickes, Luisa; Kelley, Maxwell; Medeiros, Brian; Sandu, Irina; Steeneveld, Gert-Jan; Sterk, HAM; Svensson, Gunilla; Vaillancourt, Paul A.; Zadra, Ayrton</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Weather and climate models struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Arctic winter, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build-up of surface-based temperature inversions. Many large-scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Here, the transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modelled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single-column experiment is the first Lagrangian Arctic air formation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system studies). The intercomparison reproduces the typical biases of large-scale models: Some models lack the cloudy state of the boundary layer due to the representation of mixed-phase micro-physics or to the interaction between micro-and macrophysics. In some models, high emissivities of ice clouds or the lack of an insulating snow layer prevent the build-up of surface-based inversions in the radiatively clear state. Models substantially disagree on the amount of cloud liquid water in the cloudy state and on turbulent heat fluxes under clear skies. Observations of air mass transformations including both boundary layer states would allow for a tighter constraint of model behaviour. PMID:28966718</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_9");'>9</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li class="active"><span>11</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_11 --> <div id="page_12" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li class="active"><span>12</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="221"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28966718','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28966718"><span>Select strengths and biases of models in representing the Arctic winter boundary layer over sea ice: the Larcform 1 single column model intercomparison.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Pithan, Felix; Ackerman, Andrew; Angevine, Wayne M; Hartung, Kerstin; Ickes, Luisa; Kelley, Maxwell; Medeiros, Brian; Sandu, Irina; Steeneveld, Gert-Jan; Sterk, Ham; Svensson, Gunilla; Vaillancourt, Paul A; Zadra, Ayrton</p> <p>2016-09-01</p> <p>Weather and climate models struggle to represent lower tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles and surface fluxes in Arctic winter, partly because they lack or misrepresent physical processes that are specific to high latitudes. Observations have revealed two preferred states of the Arctic winter boundary layer. In the cloudy state, cloud liquid water limits surface radiative cooling, and temperature inversions are weak and elevated. In the radiatively clear state, strong surface radiative cooling leads to the build-up of surface-based temperature inversions. Many large-scale models lack the cloudy state, and some substantially underestimate inversion strength in the clear state. Here, the transformation from a moist to a cold dry air mass is modelled using an idealized Lagrangian perspective. The trajectory includes both boundary layer states, and the single-column experiment is the first L agrangian Arc tic air form ation experiment (Larcform 1) organized within GEWEX GASS (Global atmospheric system studies). The intercomparison reproduces the typical biases of large-scale models: Some models lack the cloudy state of the boundary layer due to the representation of mixed-phase micro-physics or to the interaction between micro-and macrophysics. In some models, high emissivities of ice clouds or the lack of an insulating snow layer prevent the build-up of surface-based inversions in the radiatively clear state. Models substantially disagree on the amount of cloud liquid water in the cloudy state and on turbulent heat fluxes under clear skies. Observations of air mass transformations including both boundary layer states would allow for a tighter constraint of model behaviour.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1351748','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1351748"><span>Effects of environment forcing on marine boundary layer cloud-drizzle processes: MBL Cloud-Drizzle Processes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Wu, Peng; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike</p> <p></p> <p>Determining the factors affecting drizzle formation in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds remains a challenge for both observation and modeling communities. To investigate the roles of vertical wind shear and buoyancy (static instability) in drizzle formation, ground-based observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program at the Azores are analyzed for two types of conditions. The type I clouds should last for at least five hours and more than 90% time must be non-drizzling, and then followed by at least two hours of drizzling periods while the type II clouds are characterized by mesoscale convection cellular (MCC) structures with drizzlemore » occur every two to four hours. By analyzing the boundary layer wind profiles (direction and speed), it was found that either directional or speed shear is required to promote drizzle production in the type I clouds. Observations and a recent model study both suggest that vertical wind shear helps the production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), stimulates turbulence within cloud layer, and enhances drizzle formation near the cloud top. The type II clouds do not require strong wind shear to produce drizzle. The small values of lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) and negative Richardson number ( Ri) in the type II cases suggest that boundary layer instability plays an important role in TKE production and cloud-drizzle processes. As a result, by analyzing the relationships between LTS and wind shear for all cases and all time periods, a stronger connection was found between LTS and wind directional shear than that between LTS and wind speed shear.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1351748-effects-environment-forcing-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-drizzle-processes-mbl-cloud-drizzle-processes','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1351748-effects-environment-forcing-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-drizzle-processes-mbl-cloud-drizzle-processes"><span>Effects of environment forcing on marine boundary layer cloud-drizzle processes: MBL Cloud-Drizzle Processes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Wu, Peng; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; ...</p> <p>2017-04-20</p> <p>Determining the factors affecting drizzle formation in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds remains a challenge for both observation and modeling communities. To investigate the roles of vertical wind shear and buoyancy (static instability) in drizzle formation, ground-based observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program at the Azores are analyzed for two types of conditions. The type I clouds should last for at least five hours and more than 90% time must be non-drizzling, and then followed by at least two hours of drizzling periods while the type II clouds are characterized by mesoscale convection cellular (MCC) structures with drizzlemore » occur every two to four hours. By analyzing the boundary layer wind profiles (direction and speed), it was found that either directional or speed shear is required to promote drizzle production in the type I clouds. Observations and a recent model study both suggest that vertical wind shear helps the production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), stimulates turbulence within cloud layer, and enhances drizzle formation near the cloud top. The type II clouds do not require strong wind shear to produce drizzle. The small values of lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) and negative Richardson number ( Ri) in the type II cases suggest that boundary layer instability plays an important role in TKE production and cloud-drizzle processes. As a result, by analyzing the relationships between LTS and wind shear for all cases and all time periods, a stronger connection was found between LTS and wind directional shear than that between LTS and wind speed shear.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20160003594&hterms=neither+deep+shallow&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dneither%2Bdeep%2Bshallow','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20160003594&hterms=neither+deep+shallow&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dneither%2Bdeep%2Bshallow"><span>RACORO Continental Boundary Layer Cloud Investigations: 3. Separation of Parameterization Biases in Single-Column Model CAM5 Simulations of Shallow Cumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Lin, Wuyin; Liu, Yangang; Vogelmann, Andrew M.; Fridlind, Ann; Endo, Satoshi; Song, Hua; Feng, Sha; Toto, Tami; Li, Zhijin; Zhang, Minghua</p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Climatically important low-level clouds are commonly misrepresented in climate models. The FAst-physics System TEstbed and Research (FASTER) Project has constructed case studies from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility's Southern Great Plain site during the RACORO aircraft campaign to facilitate research on model representation of boundary-layer clouds. This paper focuses on using the single-column Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (SCAM5) simulations of a multi-day continental shallow cumulus case to identify specific parameterization causes of low-cloud biases. Consistent model biases among the simulations driven by a set of alternative forcings suggest that uncertainty in the forcing plays only a relatively minor role. In-depth analysis reveals that the model's shallow cumulus convection scheme tends to significantly under-produce clouds during the times when shallow cumuli exist in the observations, while the deep convective and stratiform cloud schemes significantly over-produce low-level clouds throughout the day. The links between model biases and the underlying assumptions of the shallow cumulus scheme are further diagnosed with the aid of large-eddy simulations and aircraft measurements, and by suppressing the triggering of the deep convection scheme. It is found that the weak boundary layer turbulence simulated is directly responsible for the weak cumulus activity and the simulated boundary layer stratiform clouds. Increased vertical and temporal resolutions are shown to lead to stronger boundary layer turbulence and reduction of low-cloud biases.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1201337-racoro-continental-boundary-layer-cloud-investigations-separation-parameterization-biases-single-column-model-cam5-simulations-shallow-cumulus','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1201337-racoro-continental-boundary-layer-cloud-investigations-separation-parameterization-biases-single-column-model-cam5-simulations-shallow-cumulus"><span>RACORO continental boundary layer cloud investigations. 3. Separation of parameterization biases in single-column model CAM5 simulations of shallow cumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Lin, Wuyin; Liu, Yangang; Vogelmann, Andrew M.; ...</p> <p>2015-06-19</p> <p>Climatically important low-level clouds are commonly misrepresented in climate models. The FAst-physics System TEstbed and Research (FASTER) project has constructed case studies from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility's Southern Great Plain site during the RACORO aircraft campaign to facilitate research on model representation of boundary-layer clouds. This paper focuses on using the single-column Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (SCAM5) simulations of a multi-day continental shallow cumulus case to identify specific parameterization causes of low-cloud biases. Consistent model biases among the simulations driven by a set of alternative forcings suggest that uncertainty in the forcing plays only amore » relatively minor role. In-depth analysis reveals that the model's shallow cumulus convection scheme tends to significantly under-produce clouds during the times when shallow cumuli exist in the observations, while the deep convective and stratiform cloud schemes significantly over-produce low-level clouds throughout the day. The links between model biases and the underlying assumptions of the shallow cumulus scheme are further diagnosed with the aid of large-eddy simulations and aircraft measurements, and by suppressing the triggering of the deep convection scheme. It is found that the weak boundary layer turbulence simulated is directly responsible for the weak cumulus activity and the simulated boundary layer stratiform clouds. Increased vertical and temporal resolutions are shown to lead to stronger boundary layer turbulence and reduction of low-cloud biases.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090032059','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090032059"><span>Vertical Cloud Climatology During TC4 Derived from High-Altitude Aircraft Merged Lidar and Radar Profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hlavka, Dennis; Tian, Lin; Hart, William; Li, Lihua; McGill, Matthew; Heymsfield, Gerald</p> <p>2009-01-01</p> <p>Aircraft lidar works by shooting laser pulses toward the earth and recording the return time and intensity of any of the light returning to the aircraft after scattering off atmospheric particles and/or the Earth s surface. The scattered light signatures can be analyzed to tell the exact location of cloud and aerosol layers and, with the aid of a few optical assumptions, can be analyzed to retrieve estimates of optical properties such as atmospheric transparency. Radar works in a similar fashion except it sends pulses toward earth at a much larger wavelength than lidar. Radar records the return time and intensity of cloud or rain reflection returning to the aircraft. Lidar can measure scatter from optically thin cirrus and aerosol layers whose particles are too small for the radar to detect. Radar can provide reflection profiles through thick cloud layers of larger particles that lidar cannot penetrate. Only after merging the two instrument products can accurate measurements of the locations of all layers in the full atmospheric column be achieved. Accurate knowledge of the vertical distribution of clouds is important information for understanding the Earth/atmosphere radiative balance and for improving weather/climate forecast models. This paper describes one such merged data set developed from the Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4) experiment based in Costa Rica in July-August 2007 using the nadir viewing Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) and the Cloud Radar System (CRS) on board the NASA ER-2 aircraft. Statistics were developed concerning cloud probability through the atmospheric column and frequency of the number of cloud layers. These statistics were calculated for the full study area, four sub-regions, and over land compared to over ocean across all available flights. The results are valid for the TC4 experiment only, as preferred cloud patterns took priority during mission planning. The TC4 Study Area was a very cloudy region, with cloudy profiles occurring 94 percent of the time during the ER-2 flights. One to three cloud layers were common, with the average calculated at 2.03 layers per profile. The upper troposphere had a cloud frequency generally over 30%, reaching 42 percent near 13 km during the study. There were regional differences. The Caribbean was much clearer than the Pacific regions. Land had a much higher frequency of high clouds than ocean areas. One region just south and west of Panama had a high probability of clouds below 15 km altitude with the frequency never dropping below 25% and reaching a maximum of 60% at 11-13 km altitude. These cloud statistics will help characterize the cloud volume for TC4 scientists as they try to understand the complexities of the tropical atmosphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070022448','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070022448"><span>Marine Boundary Layer Cloud Properties From AMF Point Reyes Satellite Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Michael; Vogelmann, Andrew M.; Luke, Edward; Minnis, Patrick; Miller, Mark A.; Khaiyer, Mandana; Nguyen, Louis; Palikonda, Rabindra</p> <p>2007-01-01</p> <p>Cloud Diameter, C(sub D), offers a simple measure of Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) cloud organization. The diurnal cycle of cloud-physical properties and C(sub D) at Pt Reyes are consistent with previous work. The time series of C(sub D) can be used to identify distinct mesoscale organization regimes within the Pt. Reyes observation period.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010APS..DFD.MG007M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010APS..DFD.MG007M"><span>The evaporatively driven cloud-top mixing layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Mellado, Juan Pedro</p> <p>2010-11-01</p> <p>Turbulent mixing caused by the local evaporative cooling at the top cloud-boundary of stratocumuli will be discussed. This research is motivated by the lack of a complete understanding of several phenomena in that important region, which translates into an unacceptable variability of order one in current models, including those employed in climate research. The cloud-top mixing layer is a simplified surrogate to investigate, locally, particular aspects of the fluid dynamics at the boundary between the stratocumulus clouds and the upper cloud-free air. In this work, direct numerical simulations have been used to study latent heat effects. The problem is the following: When the cloud mixes with the upper cloud-free layer, relatively warm and dry, evaporation tends to cool the mixture and, if strong enough, the buoyancy reversal instability develops. This instability leads to a turbulent convection layer growing next to the upper boundary of the cloud, which is, in several aspects, similar to free convection below a cold horizontal surface. In particular, results show an approximately self-preserving behavior that is characterized by the molecular buoyancy flux at the inversion base, fact that helps to explain the difficulties found when doing large-eddy simulations of this problem using classical subgrid closures.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=4889349','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=4889349"><span>Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zheng, Youtong; Hashimshoni, Eyal; Pöhlker, Mira L.; Jefferson, Anne; Pöhlker, Christopher; Yu, Xing; Zhu, Yannian; Liu, Guihua; Yue, Zhiguo; Fischman, Baruch; Li, Zhanqing; Giguzin, David; Goren, Tom; Artaxo, Paulo; Pöschl, Ulrich</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities (Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. Our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation (S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud base drop concentrations (Ndb), which is the same as CCN(S). Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at Oklahoma, at Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. The limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25° restricts the satellite coverage to ∼25% of the world area in a single day. PMID:26944081</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26944081','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26944081"><span>Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zheng, Youtong; Hashimshoni, Eyal; Pöhlker, Mira L; Jefferson, Anne; Pöhlker, Christopher; Yu, Xing; Zhu, Yannian; Liu, Guihua; Yue, Zhiguo; Fischman, Baruch; Li, Zhanqing; Giguzin, David; Goren, Tom; Artaxo, Paulo; Barbosa, Henrique M J; Pöschl, Ulrich; Andreae, Meinrat O</p> <p>2016-05-24</p> <p>Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities (Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. Our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation (S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud base drop concentrations (Ndb), which is the same as CCN(S). Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at Oklahoma, at Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. The limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25° restricts the satellite coverage to ∼25% of the world area in a single day.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920041598&hterms=veiga&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dveiga','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920041598&hterms=veiga&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dveiga"><span>SAGE II measurements of early Pinatubo aerosols</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Mccormick, M. P.; Veiga, R. E.</p> <p>1992-01-01</p> <p>SAGE II satellite measurements of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption cloud in the stratosphere during June, July, and early August 1991 show that aerosols in the tropics reached as high as 29 km altitude with most of the cloud between 20 and 25 km. The most optically thick portions of the cloud covered latitudes from 10 deg S to 30 deg N during the early part of this period. By late July, high stratospheric optical depths were observed to at least 70 deg N, with the high values north of about 30 deg N from layers below 20 km. High pressure systems in both hemispheres were observed to be correlated with the movement of volcanic material at 21 km into the westerly jet stream at high southern latitudes and similarly to high northern latitudes at 16 km. By August, the entire Southern Hemisphere had experienced a 10-fold increase in optical depth relative to early July due to layers above 20 km. Initial mass calculations using SAGE II data place the aerosol produced from this eruption at 20 to 30 megatons, well above the 12 megatons produced by El Chichon.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920031384&hterms=marine+pollution&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Bpollution','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19920031384&hterms=marine+pollution&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Bpollution"><span>Optical properties of marine stratocumulus clouds modified by ship track effluents</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>King, Michael D.; Nakajima, Teruyuki; Radke, Lawrence F.</p> <p>1990-01-01</p> <p>Results are presented from multispectral radiation measurements made within a marine stratocumulus cloud layer modified by ship-track effluents. The measurements showed that, compared with nearby noncontaminated clouds not affected by pollution, the upwelling intensity field of the modified stratocumulus clouds increased at a nonabsorbing wavelength in the visible region and decreased in the NIR, where absorption by liquid water is significant. The observations are consistent with an increased optical thickness, a reduced effective radius of the cloud droplets, and a reduced absorption in the contaminated cloud layer compared to a noncontaminated cloud.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015DPS....4740001I','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015DPS....4740001I"><span>Spectral analysis of Uranus’ 2014 bright storm with VLT/SINFONI</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Irwin, Patrick Gerard Joseph; Fletcher, Leigh N.; Read, Peter L.; Tice, Dane; de Pater, Imke; Orton, Glenn S.; Teanby, Nicholas A.; Davis, Gary R.</p> <p>2015-11-01</p> <p>Observations by amateur observers of an extremely bright storm system in Uranus’ atmosphere in September 2014 triggered an international campaign to view this feature with many telescopes across the world. Near infrared observations of the storm system were acquired in October/November 2014 with SINFONI on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. SINFONI is an Integral Field Unit spectrometer, recording 64 × 64 pixel images with 2048 wavelengths/pixel using adaptive optics. H-band (1.43 - 1.87 µm) image 'cubes' were obtained at spatial resolutions of ˜ 0.1″ per pixel. The observations show that the centre of the storm feature shifts markedly with increasing altitude, moving in the retrograde direction and slightly poleward with increasing altitude. A faint 'tail' of more reflective material was also seen to the immediate south of the storm, which again trails in the retrograde direction. The observed spectra were analysed with the radiative transfer and retrieval code, NEMESIS (Irwin et al., 2008). We find that the storm is well-modelled using either two main cloud layers of a 5-layer aerosol model based on Sromovsky et al. (2011) or employing the simpler two-cloud-layer model of Tice et al. (2013). The deep component appears to be caused by a brightening (i.e. an increase in reflectivity) and increase in altitude of the main tropospheric cloud deck at 2 - 3 bars for both models, while the upper component of the feature appears to be due to either a thickening of the tropospheric haze of the 2-layer model or a vertical extension of the upper tropospheric cloud of the 5-layer model, assumed to be composed of methane ice and based at the assumed methane condensation level at 1.23 bar. For the 5-layer model we also found this methane ice cloud to be responsible for the faint ‘tail’ seen to the feature’s south and the brighter polar ‘hood’ seen in all observations polewards of ˜ 45°N.During the twelve days between our sets of observations the higher-altitude component of the feature was observed to have brightened significantly and moved to even higher altitudes, while the deeper component faded.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JAtS...57.2554D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JAtS...57.2554D"><span>The Impact of Ship-Produced Aerosols on the Microstructure and Albedo of Warm Marine Stratocumulus Clouds: A Test of MAST Hypotheses 1i and 1ii.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Durkee, P. A.; Noone, K. J.; Ferek, R. J.; Johnson, D. W.; Taylor, J. P.; Garrett, T. J.; Hobbs, P. V.; Hudson, J. G.; Bretherton, C. S.; Innis, G.; Frick, G. M.; Hoppel, W. A.; O'Dowd, C. D.; Russell, L. M.; Gasparovic, R.; Nielsen, K. E.; Tessmer, S. A.; Öström, E.; Osborne, S. R.; Flagan, R. C.; Seinfeld, J. H.; Rand, H.</p> <p>2000-08-01</p> <p>Anomalously high reflectivity tracks in stratus and stratocumulus sheets associated with ships (known as ship tracks) are commonly seen in visible and near-infrared satellite imagery. Until now there have been only a limited number of in situ measurements made in ship tracks. The Monterey Area Ship Track (MAST) experiment, which was conducted off the coast of California in June 1994, provided a substantial dataset on ship emissions and their effects on boundary layer clouds. Several platforms, including the University of Washington C-131A aircraft, the Meteorological Research Flight C-130 aircraft, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ER-2 aircraft, the Naval Research Laboratory airship, the Research Vessel Glorita, and dedicated U.S. Navy ships, participated in MAST in order to study processes governing the formation and maintenance of ship tracks.This paper tests the hypotheses that the cloud microphysical changes that produce ship tracks are due to (a) particulate emission from the ship's stack and/or (b) sea-salt particles from the ship's wake. It was found that ships powered by diesel propulsion units that emitted high concentrations of aerosols in the accumulation mode produced ship tracks. Ships that produced few particles (such as nuclear ships), or ships that produced high concentrations of particles but at sizes too small to be activated as cloud drops in typical stratocumulus (such as gas turbine and some steam-powered ships), did not produce ship tracks. Statistics and case studies, combined with model simulations, show that provided a cloud layer is susceptible to an aerosol perturbation, and the atmospheric stability enables aerosol to be mixed throughout the boundary layer, the direct emissions of cloud condensation nuclei from the stack of a diesel-powered ship is the most likely, if not the only, cause of the formation of ship tracks. There was no evidence that salt particles from ship wakes cause ship tracks.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014PhDT.......498S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014PhDT.......498S"><span>Investigation of marine stratocumulus under coupled and decoupled conditions over the arm Azores site</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Schwantes, Adam Christopher</p> <p></p> <p>Stratocumuli are a type of low clouds composed of individual convective elements that together form a continuous layer of clouds. Stratocumuli cover large regions of the Earth's surface, which make them important components in the Earth's radiation budget. Stratocumuli strongly reflect solar shortwave radiation, while weakly affecting outgoing longwave radiation. This leads to a strong radiative cooling effect that affects the Earth's radiation budget. Therefore it is important to investigate the mechanisms that affect the longevity of stratocumuli, so that their impact on the Earth's radiation budget can be fully understood. One mechanism that is currently being studied as influencing the lifetime of such cloud layers is boundary layer/surface coupling. It has been shown than in some regions (i.e. the west coast of South America) stratocumuli tend to break up when the boundary layer is decoupled with the surface, because they are cut off from their moisture source. This study will investigate the macro- and micro-physical properties of stratocumuli when boundary layers are either coupled to or decoupled from the surface. This will help advance understanding of the effects these macro- and micro-physical properties have on the lifetime of stratocumuli under different boundary layer conditions. This study used the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (DOE ARM) mobile measurements facility (AMF) at the Azores site from June 2009 to December 2010. The measurements that were used include temperature profiles from radiosondes, cloud liquid water path (LWP) retrieved from the Microwave radiometer, and cloud base and top heights derived from W-band ARM Cloud Radar and lidar. Satellite images provided by the NASA Langley Research Center were also used to visually decipher cloud types over the region so that only single-layered stratocumuli cases are used in the study. To differentiate between coupled and decoupled cloud layers, two methods are used. The first method compares cloud base height and lifting condensation level (LCL) for surface air parcels. The second method uses potential temperature profiles to indicate whether a boundary layer is coupled or decoupled from the surface. The results from these two methods were then compared using select cases/samples when both methods classified a sample as coupled or decoupled. In this study, a total of seven coupled or decoupled cases (2-3 days long each) have been selected from the 19 month AMF dataset. Characteristics of the coupled and decoupled cases have been studied to identify similarities and differences. Furthermore, comparison results from this study have shown that there are similarities and differences between drizzling/non-drizzling stratocumulus clouds and decoupled/coupled stratocumulus clouds. Drizzling/decoupled stratocumuli tend to have higher LWP, cloud-droplet effective radius (re), cloud-top height, and cloud thickness values while non-drizzling/coupled stratocumuli have higher cloud-droplet number concentration (Nd) and cloud condensation nuclei concentration (NCCN) values. It was also determined that during daytime hours when stratocumuli are decoupled, they tend to be open cells, while coupled stratocumuli tend to be closed cells. Finally, decoupled nighttime stratocumuli were found to have higher LWPs compared to decoupled daytime stratocumuli, which resulted in the significant amount of heavy drizzle events occurring at night.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050147503','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20050147503"><span>Raman Lidar Measurements During the International H2O Project. 2; Instrument Comparisons and Case Studies</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Whiteman, D. N.; Demoz, B.; DiGirolamo, P.; Corner, J.; Veselovskii, I.; Evans, K.; Wang, Z.; Sabatino, D.; Schwemmer, G.; Gentry, B.</p> <p>2005-01-01</p> <p>The NASA/GSFC Scanning Raman Lidar (SRL) participated in the International H2O Project (IHOP) that occurred in May and June, 2002 in the midwestern part of the U. S. The SRL system configuration and methods of data analysis were described in part I of this paper. In this second part, comparisons of SRL water vapor measurements and those of chilled mirror radiosonde and LASE airborne water vapor lidar are performed. Two case studies are presented; one for daytime and one for nighttime. The daytime case study is of a convectively driven boundary layer event and is used to characterize the SRL water vapor random error characteristics. The nighttime case study is of a thunderstorm-generated cirrus cloud case that is studied in it s meteorological context. Upper tropospheric humidification due to precipitation from the cirrus cloud is quantified as is the cirrus cloud ice water content and particle depolarization ratio. These detailed cirrus cloud measurements are being used in a cirrus cloud modeling study.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060049066&hterms=Ackerman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DAckerman','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20060049066&hterms=Ackerman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAuthor-Name%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DAckerman"><span>Homogeneous Aerosol Freezing in the Tops of High-Altitude Tropical Cumulonimbus Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, E. J.; Ackerman, A. S.</p> <p>2006-01-01</p> <p>Numerical simulations of deep, intense continental tropical convection indicate that when the cloud tops extend more than a few kilometers above the liquid water homogeneous freezing level, ice nucleation due to freezing of entrained aqueous sulfate aerosols generates large concentrations of small crystals (diameters less than approx. equal to 20 micrometers). The small crystals produced by aerosol freezing have the largest impact on cloud-top ice concentration for convective clouds with strong updrafts but relatively low aerosol concentrations. An implication of this result is that cloud-top ice concentrations in high anvil cirrus can be controlled primarily by updraft speeds in the tops of convective plumes and to a lesser extent by aerosol concentrations in the uppermost troposphere. While larger crystals precipitate out and sublimate in subsaturated air below, the population of small crystals can persist in the saturated uppermost troposphere for many hours, thereby prolonging the lifetime of remnants from anvil cirrus in the tropical tropopause layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040161516&hterms=dehydration&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Ddehydration','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040161516&hterms=dehydration&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Ddehydration"><span>Implications of Observed High Supersaturation for TTL Cloud Formation and Dehydration</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Eric</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>In situ measurements of water vapor concentration made during the CRYSTAL-FACE and Pre-AVE missions indicate higher than expected supersaturations in both clear and cloudy air near the cold tropical tropopause: (1) steady-state ice supersaturations of 20-30% were measured within cirrus at T < 200 K; (2) supersaturations exceeding 100% (near water saturation) were observed under cloud-free conditions near 187 K. The in-cloud measurements challenge the conventional belief that any water vapor in excess of ice saturation should be depleted by crystal growth given sufficient time. The high clear-sky supersaturations imply that thresholds for ice nucleation due to homogeneous freezing of aerosols (or any other mechanism) are much higher than those inferred from laboratory measurements. We will use simulations of Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) transport and cloud formation throughout the tropics to show that these effects have important implications for TTL cloud frequency and freeze-drying of air crossing the tropical tropopause cold trap.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.V21D..06J','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.V21D..06J"><span>Why Did the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull Volcanic Eruption Cloud Last So Long?</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Jellinek, M.; Carazzo, G.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>The global economic consequences of the relatively small Eyjafjallajokull eruption in the spring of 2010 caught the world off guard. That the eruption cloud lasted for several months rather than weeks, efficiently disrupting air travel and the holiday plans of thousands of tourists, drew arguably more attention and a certainly garnered a highly emotional response. The longevity of this eruption cloud was touted to be "an anomaly". However, this anomaly nearly repeated itself the following year in the form of the 2011 Puyehue-Cordon Caulle eruption cloud. A major reason that the behavior of the 2010 Eyjafjallajokul cloud was surprising is that "standard" models for ash sedimentation (i.e., heavy particles fall out of the cloud faster than light particles) are incomplete. Observations of the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull, as well as the structure of atmospheric aerosol clouds from the 1991 Mt Pinatubo event, suggest that an additional key process in addition to particle settling is the production of internal layering. We use analog experiments on turbulent particle-laden umbrella clouds and simple models to show that this layering occurs where natural convection driven by particle sedimentation and the differential diffusion of primarily heat and fine particles give rise to a large scale instability leading to this layering. This 'particle diffusive convection' strongly influences cloud longevity where volcanic umbrella clouds are enriched in fine ash. More generally, volcanic cloud residence times will depend on ash fluxes related to both individual particle settling and diffusive convection. We discuss a new sedimentation model that includes both contributions to the particle flux and explains the the rate of change of particle concentration in the 1982 El Chichon, 1991 Mt Pinatubo and 1992 Mt Spurr ash-clouds. Examples of periodic layering in volcanic clouds compared with experiments in which periodic layering emerges as a result of buoyancy effects related to a particle-salt double diffusive instability.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170003896&hterms=layer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dlayer','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170003896&hterms=layer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dlayer"><span>MPLNET V3 Cloud and Planetary Boundary Layer Detection</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Lewis, Jasper R.; Welton, Ellsworth J.; Campbell, James R.; Haftings, Phillip C.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>The NASA Micropulse Lidar Network Version 3 algorithms for planetary boundary layer and cloud detection are described and differences relative to the previous Version 2 algorithms are highlighted. A year of data from the Goddard Space Flight Center site in Greenbelt, MD consisting of diurnal and seasonal trends is used to demonstrate the results. Both the planetary boundary layer and cloud algorithms show significant improvement of the previous version.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_10");'>10</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li class="active"><span>12</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_12 --> <div id="page_13" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li class="active"><span>13</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="241"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003QJRMS.129...19K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003QJRMS.129...19K"><span>Phase transformation of mixed-phase clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Korolev, Alexei; Isaac, George</p> <p>2003-01-01</p> <p>The glaciation time of a mixed-phase cloud due to the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen mechanism is calculated using an adiabatic one-dimensional numerical model for the cases of zero, ascending, descending and oscillating vertical velocities. The characteristic values of the glaciation time are obtained for different concentrations of ice particles and liquid-water content. Steady state is not possible for the ice-water content/total water content ratio in a uniformly vertically moving mixed-phase parcel. The vertical oscillation of a cloud parcel may result in a periodic evaporation and activation of liquid droplets in the presence of ice particles during infinite time. After a certain time, the average ice-water content and liquid-water content reach a steady state. This phenomenon may explain the existence of long-lived mixed-phase stratiform layers. The obtained results are important for understanding the mechanisms of formation and life cycle of mixed-phase clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007PhDT.......116T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007PhDT.......116T"><span>Investigations into the climate of the South Pole</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Town, Michael S.</p> <p></p> <p>Four investigations into the climate of the South Pole are presented. The general subjects of polar cloud cover, the surface energy balance in a stable boundary layer, subsurface energy transfer in snow, and modification of water stable isotopes in snow after deposition are investigated based on the historical data set from the South Pole. Clouds over the South Pole. A new, accurate cloud fraction time series is developed based on downwelling infrared radiation measurements taken at the South Pole. The results are compared to cloud fraction estimates from visual observations and satellite retrievals of cloud fraction. Visual observers are found to underestimate monthly mean cloud fraction by as much as 20% during the winter, and satellite retrievals of cloud fraction are not accurate for operational or climatic purposes. We find associations of monthly mean cloud fraction with other meteorological variables at the South Pole for use in testing models of polar weather and climate. Surface energy balance. A re-examination of the surface energy balance at the South Pole is motivated by large discrepancies in the literature. We are not able to find closure in the new surface energy balance, likely due to weaknesses in the turbulent heat flux parameterizations in extremely stable boundary layers. These results will be useful for constraining our understanding and parameterization of stable boundary layers. Subsurface energy transfer. A finite-volume model of the snow is used to simulate nine years of near-surface snow temperatures, heating rates, and vapor pressures at the South Pole. We generate statistics characterizing heat and vapor transfer in the snow on submonthly to interannual time scales. The variability of near-surface snow temperatures on submonthly time scales is large, and has potential implications for revising the interpretation of paleoclimate records of water stable isotopes in polar snow. Modification of water stable isotopes after deposition. The evolution of water stable isotopes in near-surface polar snow is simulated using a Rayleigh fractionation model including the processes of pore-space diffusion, forced ventilation, and intra-ice-grain diffusion. We find isotopic enrichment of winter snow during subsequent summers as enriched water vapor is forced into the snow and deposits as frost. This process depends on snow and atmospheric temperatures, surface wind speed, accumulation rate, and surface morphology. We further find that differential enrichment between the present day and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) may exaggerate the greenlandic glacial-interglacial temperature difference derived from water stable isotopes. In Antarctica, present-day post-depositional modification is likely equal to that of the LGM due to the compensating factors of lower temperatures and lower accumulation rate during the LGM.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22380328','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22380328"><span>Electrostatic plasma lens for focusing negatively charged particle beams.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Goncharov, A A; Dobrovolskiy, A M; Dunets, S M; Litovko, I V; Gushenets, V I; Oks, E M</p> <p>2012-02-01</p> <p>We describe the current status of ongoing research and development of the electrostatic plasma lens for focusing and manipulating intense negatively charged particle beams, electrons, and negative ions. The physical principle of this kind of plasma lens is based on magnetic isolation electrons providing creation of a dynamical positive space charge cloud in shortly restricted volume propagating beam. Here, the new results of experimental investigations and computer simulations of wide-aperture, intense electron beam focusing by plasma lens with positive space charge cloud produced due to the cylindrical anode layer accelerator creating a positive ion stream towards an axis system is presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010013812','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010013812"><span>Comparison of Cirrus Cloud Models: A Project of the GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS) Working Group on Cirrus Cloud Systems</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Starr, David OC.; Benedetti, Angela; Boehm, Matt; Brown, Philip R. A.; Gierens, Klaus M.; Girard, Eric; Giraud, Vincent; Jakob, Christian; Jensen, Eric; Khvorostyanov, Vitaly; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20010013812'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20010013812_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20010013812_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20010013812_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20010013812_hide"></p> <p>2000-01-01</p> <p>The GEWEX Cloud System Study (GCSS, GEWEX is the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) is a community activity aiming to promote development of improved cloud parameterizations for application in the large-scale general circulation models (GCMs) used for climate research and for numerical weather prediction (Browning et al, 1994). The GCSS strategy is founded upon the use of cloud-system models (CSMs). These are "process" models with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to represent individual cloud elements, but spanning a wide range of space and time scales to enable statistical analysis of simulated cloud systems. GCSS also employs single-column versions of the parametric cloud models (SCMs) used in GCMs. GCSS has working groups on boundary-layer clouds, cirrus clouds, extratropical layer cloud systems, precipitating deep convective cloud systems, and polar clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080006492','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080006492"><span>The Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Verlinde, J.; Harrington, J. Y.; McFarquhar, G. M.; Yannuzzi, V. T.; Avramov, A.; Greenberg, S.; Johnson, N.; Zhang, G.; Poellot, M. R.; Mather, J. H.; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20080006492'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20080006492_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20080006492_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20080006492_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20080006492_hide"></p> <p>2007-01-01</p> <p>The Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) was conducted September 27 through October 22, 2004 on the North Slope of Alaska. The primary objective was to collect a data set suitable to study interactions between microphysics, dynamics and radiative transfer in mixed-phase Arctic clouds. Observations taken during the 1997/1998 Surface Heat and Energy Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) experiment revealed that Arctic clouds frequently consist of one (or more) liquid layers precipitating ice. M-PACE sought to investigate the physical processes of these clouds utilizing two aircraft (an in situ aircraft to characterize the microphysical properties of the clouds and a remote sensing aircraft to constraint the upwelling radiation) over the Department of Energy s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) on the North Slope of Alaska. The measurements successfully documented the microphysical structure of Arctic mixed-phase clouds, with multiple in situ profiles collected in both single-layer and multi-layer clouds over two ground-based remote sensing sites. Liquid was found in clouds with temperatures down to -30 C, the coldest cloud top temperature below -40 C sampled by the aircraft. Remote sensing instruments suggest that ice was present in low concentrations, mostly concentrated in precipitation shafts, although there are indications of light ice precipitation present below the optically thick single-layer clouds. The prevalence of liquid down to these low temperatures could potentially be explained by the relatively low measured ice nuclei concentrations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014cosp...40E3751Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014cosp...40E3751Z"><span>On the role of atmosphere-ocean interactions in the expected long-term changes of the Earth's ozone layer caused by greenhouse gases</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zadorozhny, Alexander; Dyominov, Igor</p> <p></p> <p>It is well known that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere produce a global warming of the troposphere and a global cooling of the stratosphere. The expected stratospheric cooling essentially influences the ozone layer via increased polar stratospheric cloud formation and via temperature dependences of the gas phase reaction rates. One more mechanism of how greenhouse gases influences the ozone layer is enhanced water evaporation from the oceans into the atmosphere because of increasing temperatures of the ocean surface due to greenhouse effect. The subject of this paper is a study of the influence of anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4, N2O and ozone-depleting chlorine and bromine compounds on the expected long-term changes of the ozone layer with taking into account an increase of water vapour content in the atmosphere due to greenhouse effect. The study based on 2-D zonally averaged interactive dynamical radiative-photochemical model of the troposphere and stratosphere. The model allows to self-consistently calculating diabatic circulation, temperature, gaseous composition of the troposphere and stratosphere at latitudes from the South to North Poles, as well as distribution of sulphate aerosol particles and polar stratospheric clouds of two types. It was supposed in the model that an increase of the ocean surface temperature caused by greenhouse effect is similar to calculated increase of atmospheric surface temperature. Evaporation rate from the ocean surface was computed in dependence of latitude. The model time-dependent runs were made for the period from 1975 to 2100 using two IPCC scenarios depicting maximum and average expected increases of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The model calculations show that anthropogenic increasing of water vapour abundance in the atmosphere due to heating of the ocean surface caused by greenhouse effect gives a sensible contribution to the expected ozone changes. The enhanced evaporation from the ocean increases noticeably a water vapour abundance in the stratosphere that decreases global total ozone and retards the expected recovery of the ozone layer. In polar latitudes, additional stratospheric water vapour increase due to greenhouse effect noticeably strengthens the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on ozone through modification of polar stratospheric clouds and retards the expected recovery of the ozone, too. In the Northern hemisphere, the delay of the ozone recovery is about 5 years, in the Southern hemisphere the delay is about 2 years.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20070025113&hterms=Time+crystal&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DTime%2Bcrystal','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20070025113&hterms=Time+crystal&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3DTime%2Bcrystal"><span>Formation of a Tropopause Cirrus Layer Observed over Florida during CRYSTAL-FACE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Eric; Pfister, Leonhard; Bui, Thaopaul; Weinheimer, Andrew; Weinstock, Elliot; Smith, Jessica; Pittman, Jasna; Baumgardner, Darrel; Lawson, Paul; McGill, Matthew J.</p> <p>2005-01-01</p> <p>On July 13, 2002 a widespread, subvisible tropopause cirrus layer occurred over the Florida region. This cloud was observed in great detail with the NASA Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE) instrumentation, including in situ measurements with the WB-57 aircraft. In this paper, we use the 13 July cloud as a case study to evaluate the physical processes controlling the formation and evolution of tropopause cirrus layers. Microphysics measurements indicate that ice crystal diameters in the cloud layer ranged from about 7 to 50 microns, and the peak number mode was about 10-25 microns. In situ water vapor and temperature measurements in the cloud indicated supersaturation with respect to ice throughout, with ice saturation ratios as large as 1.8. Even when the ice surface area density was as high as about 500 sq microns/cu cm, ice supersaturations of 20-30% were observed. Trajectory analysis shows that the air sampled near the tropopause on this day generally came from the north and cooled considerably during the previous few days. Examination of infrared satellite imagery along air parcel back trajectories from the WB-57 flight track indicates that the tropopause cloud layer formation was, in general, not simply left over ice from recently generated anvil cirrus. Simulations of cloud formation using time-height curtains of temperature along the trajectory paths show that the cloud could have formed in situ near the tropopause as the air was advected into the south Florida region and cooled to unusually low temperatures. If we assume a high threshold for ice nucleation via homogeneous freezing of aqueous sulfate aerosols, the model reproduces the observed cloud structure, ice crystal size distributions, and ice supersaturation statistics. Inclusion of observed gravity wave temperature perturbations in the simulations is essential to reproduce the observed cloud properties. Without waves, crystal number densities are too low, crystal sizes are too large, and the crystals fall out too fast, leaving very little cloud persisting at the end of the simulations. In the cloud simulations, coincidence of high supersaturations and high surface areas can be produced by either recent nucleation or sedimentation of crystals into supersaturated layers. The agreement between model results and observed supersaturations is improved somewhat if we assume that the steady state relative humidity within cirrus at T<200 K is enhanced by about 30%. The WB-57 measurements and the model results suggest that the cloud layer irreversibly dehydrated air near the tropopause.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140012687','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140012687"><span>How Do A-train Sensors Intercompare in the Retrieval of Above-cloud Aerosol Optical Depth? A Case Study-based Assessment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jethva, Hiren; Torres, Omar; Waquet, Fabien; Chand, Duli; Hu, Yongxiang</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>We intercompare the above-cloud aerosol optical depth (ACAOD) of biomass burning plumes retrieved from A-train sensors, i.e., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), Polarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances (POLDER), and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). These sensors have shown independent capabilities to retrieve aerosol loading above marine boundary layer clouds-a kind of situation often found over the southeast Atlantic Ocean during dry burning season. A systematic comparison reveals that all passive sensors and CALIOP-based research methods derive comparable ACAOD with differences mostly within 0.2 over homogeneous cloud fields. The 532 nm ACAOD retrieved by CALIOP operational algorithm is underestimated. The retrieved 1064 nm AOD however shows closer agreement with passive sensors. Given the different types of measurements processed with different algorithms, the reported close agreement between them is encouraging. Due to unavailability of direct measurements above cloud, the validation of satellite-based ACAOD remains an open challenge. The intersatellite comparison however can be useful for the relative evaluation and consistency check</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21M..05F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21M..05F"><span>Lidar characterizations of atmospheric aerosols and clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ferrare, R. A.; Hostetler, C. A.; Hair, J. W.; Burton, S. P.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Knowledge of the vertical profile, composition, concentration, and size distribution of aerosols is required to quantify the impacts of aerosols on human health, global and regional climate, clouds and precipitation. In particular, radiative forcing due to anthropogenic aerosols is the most uncertain part of anthropogenic radiative forcing, with aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) as the largest source of uncertainty in current estimates of global radiative forcing. Improving aerosol transport model predictions of the vertical profile of aerosol optical and microphysical characteristics is crucial for improving assessments of aerosol radiative forcing. Understanding how aerosols and clouds interact is essential for investigating the aerosol indirect effect and ACI. Through its ability to provide vertical profiles of aerosol and cloud distributions as well as important information regarding the optical and physical properties of aerosols and clouds, lidar is a crucial tool for addressing these science questions. This presentation describes how surface, airborne, and satellite lidar measurements have been used to address these questions, and in particular how High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) measurements provide profiles of aerosol properties (backscatter, extinction, depolarization, concentration, size) important for characterizing radiative forcing. By providing a direct measurement of aerosol extinction, HSRL provides more accurate aerosol measurement profiles and more accurate constraints for models than standard retrievals from elastic backscatter lidar, which loses accuracy and precision at lower altitudes due to attenuation from overlying layers. Information regarding particle size and abundance from advanced lidar retrievals provides better proxies for cloud-condensation-nuclei (CCN), which are required for assessing aerosol-cloud interactions. When combined with data from other sensors, advanced lidar measurements can provide information on aerosol and cloud properties for addressing both direct and indirect radiative forcing.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1197882-joint-retrievals-cloud-drizzle-marine-boundary-layer-clouds-using-ground-based-radar-lidar-zenith-radiances','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1197882-joint-retrievals-cloud-drizzle-marine-boundary-layer-clouds-using-ground-based-radar-lidar-zenith-radiances"><span>Joint retrievals of cloud and drizzle in marine boundary layer clouds using ground-based radar, lidar and zenith radiances</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Fielding, M. D.; Chiu, J. C.; Hogan, R. J.; ...</p> <p>2015-02-16</p> <p>Active remote sensing of marine boundary-layer clouds is challenging as drizzle drops often dominate the observed radar reflectivity. We present a new method to simultaneously retrieve cloud and drizzle vertical profiles in drizzling boundary-layer cloud using surface-based observations of radar reflectivity, lidar attenuated backscatter, and zenith radiances. Specifically, the vertical structure of droplet size and water content of both cloud and drizzle is characterised throughout the cloud. An ensemble optimal estimation approach provides full error statistics given the uncertainty in the observations. To evaluate the new method, we first perform retrievals using synthetic measurements from large-eddy simulation snapshots of cumulusmore » under stratocumulus, where cloud water path is retrieved with an error of 31 g m −2. The method also performs well in non-drizzling clouds where no assumption of the cloud profile is required. We then apply the method to observations of marine stratocumulus obtained during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement MAGIC deployment in the northeast Pacific. Here, retrieved cloud water path agrees well with independent 3-channel microwave radiometer retrievals, with a root mean square difference of 10–20 g m −2.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004GeoRL..31.6128S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004GeoRL..31.6128S"><span>Raman lidar measurement of water vapor and ice clouds associated with Asian dust layer over Tsukuba, Japan</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sakai, Tetsu; Nagai, Tomohiro; Nakazato, Masahisa; Matsumura, Takatsugu</p> <p>2004-03-01</p> <p>The vertical distributions of particle extinction, backscattering, depolarization, and water vapor mixing ratio were measured using a Raman lidar over Tsukuba (36.1°N, 140.1°E), Japan, on 23-24 April 2001. Ice clouds associated with the Asian dust layer were observed at an altitude of ~6-9 km. The relative humidities in the cloud layer were close to the ice saturation values and the temperature at the top of the cloud layer was ~-35°C, suggesting that the Asian dust acted as ice nuclei at the high temperatures. The meteorological analysis suggested that the ice-saturated region was formed near the top of the dust layer where the moist air ascended in slantwise fashion above the cold-frontal zone associated with extratropical cyclone.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43F0300L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43F0300L"><span>Using long-term ARM observations to evaluate Arctic mixed-phased cloud representation in the GISS ModelE GCM</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lamer, K.; Fridlind, A. M.; Luke, E. P.; Tselioudis, G.; Ackerman, A. S.; Kollias, P.; Clothiaux, E. E.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>The presence of supercooled liquid in clouds affects surface radiative and hydrological budgets, especially at high latitudes. Capturing these effects is crucial to properly quantifying climate sensitivity. Currently, a number of CGMs disagree on the distribution of cloud phase. Adding to the challenge is a general lack of observations on the continuum of clouds, from high to low-level and from warm to cold. In the current study, continuous observations from 2011 to 2014 are used to evaluate all clouds produced by the GISS ModelE GCM over the ARM North Slope of Alaska site. The International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Global Weather State (GWS) approach reveals that fair-weather (GWS 7, 32% occurrence rate), as well as mid-level storm related (GWS 5, 28%) and polar (GWS 4, 14%) clouds, dominate the large-scale cloud patterns at this high latitude site. At higher spatial and temporal resolutions, ground-based cloud radar observations reveal a majority of single layer cloud vertical structures (CVS). While clear sky and low-level clouds dominate (each with 30% occurrence rate) a fair amount of shallow ( 10%) to deep ( 5%) convection are observed. Cloud radar Doppler spectra are used along with depolarization lidar observations in a neural network approach to detect the presence, layering and inhomogeneity of supercooled liquid layers. Preliminary analyses indicate that most of the low-level clouds sampled contain one or more supercooled liquid layers. Furthermore, the relationship between CVS and the presence of supercooled liquid is established, as is the relationship between the presence of supercool liquid and precipitation susceptibility. Two approaches are explored to bridge the gap between large footprint GCM simulations and high-resolution ground-based observations. The first approach consists of comparing model output and ground-based observations that exhibit the same column CVS type (i.e. same cloud depth, height and layering). Alternatively, the second approach consists of comparing model output and ground-based observations that exhibit the same large-scale GWS type (i.e. same cloud top pressure and optical depth patterns) where ground-based observations are associated to large-scale GWS every 3 hours using the closest satellite overpass.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19760009916','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19760009916"><span>Jovian meterology: Large-scale moist convection without a lower boundary</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Gierasch, P. J.</p> <p>1975-01-01</p> <p>It is proposed that Jupiter's cloud bands represent large scale convection whose character is determined by the phase change of water at a level where the temperature is about 275K. It is argued that there are three important layers in the atmosphere: a tropopause layer where emission to space occurs; an intermediate layer between the tropopause and the water cloud base; and the deep layer below the water cloud. All arguments are only semi-quantitative. It is pointed out that these ingredients are essential to Jovian meteorology.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A51O..05O','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A51O..05O"><span>Ultra-clean Layers (UCLs) and Low Albedo Clouds ("gray clouds") in the Marine Boundary Layer - CSET aircraft data, 2-D bin spectral cloud parcel model, large eddy simulation and satellite observations from CALIPSO, MODIS and COSMIC</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>O, K. T.; Wood, R.; Bretherton, C. S.; Eastman, R. M.; Tseng, H. H.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>During the 2015 Cloud System Evolution in the Trades (CSET) field program (CSET, Jul-Aug 2015, subtropical NE Pacific), the NSF/NCAR G-V aircraft frequently encountered ultra clean layers (hereafter UCLs) with extremely low accumulation mode aerosol (i.e. diameter da> 100nm) concentration (hereafter Na), and low albedo ( 0.2) warm clouds (termed "gray clouds" in our study) with low droplet concentration (hereafter Nd). The analysis of CSET aircraft data shows that (1) UCLs and gray clouds are mostly commonly found at a height of 1.5-2km, typically close to the top of the MBL, (2) UCLs and gray cloud coverage as high as 40-60% between 135W and 155W (i.e. Sc-Cu transition region) but occur very infrequently east of 130W (i.e. shallow, near-coastal stratocumulus region), and (3) UCLs and gray clouds exhibit remarkably low turbulence compared with non-UCL clear sky and clouds. It should be noted that most previous aircraft sampling of low clouds occurred close to the Californian coast, so the prevalence of UCLs and gray clouds has not been previously noted. Based on the analysis of aircraft data, we hypothesize that gray clouds result from detrainment of cloud close to the top of precipitating trade cumuli, and UCLs are remnants of these layers when gray clouds evaporates. The simulations in our study are performed using 2-D bin spectral cloud parcel model and version 6.9 of the System for Atmospheric Modeling (SAM). Our idealized simulations suggest that collision-coalescence plays a crucial role in reducing Nd such that gray clouds can easily form via collision-coalescence in layers detrained from the cloud top at trade cumulus regime, but can not form at stratocumulus regime. Upon evaporation of gray clouds, only few accumulation mode aerosols are returned to the clear sky, leaving horizontally-extensive UCLs (i.e. clean clear sky). Analysis of CSET flight data and idealized model simulations both suggest cloud top/PBL height may play an important role in the formation of UCLs and gray clouds. In our satellite observation study, the comparison between PBL height (from COSMIC and MODIS) and fraction of low optical depth cloud (from MODIS and CALIPSO) at NEP trade cumulus regime (20-35N, 140-155W) also suggest a strong positive correlation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4820407L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4820407L"><span>Equatorial cloud level convection on Venus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lee, Yeon Joo; Imamura, Takeshi; Sugiyama, Koichiro; Sato, Takao M.; Maejima, Yasumitsu</p> <p>2016-10-01</p> <p>In the equatorial region on Venus, a clear cloud top morphology difference depending on solar local time has been observed through UV images. Laminar flow shaped clouds are shown on the morning side, and convective-like cells on the afternoon side (Titov et al. 2012). Baker et al. (1998) suggested that deep convective motions in the low-to-middle cloud layers at the 40-60 km range can explain cellular shapes. Imamura et al. (2014), however argued that this cannot be a reason, as convection in the low-to-middle cloud layers can be suppressed near sub solar regions due to a stabilizing effect by strong solar heating. We suggest that the observed feature may be related to strong solar heating at local noon time (Lee et al. 2015). Horizontal uneven distribution of an unknown UV absorber and/or cloud top structure may trigger horizontal convection (Toigo et al. 1994). In order to examine these possibilities, we processed 1-D radiative transfer model calculations from surface to 100 km altitude (SHDOM, Evans 1998), which includes clouds at 48-71 km altitudes (Crisp et al. 1986). The results on the equatorial thermal cooling and solar heating profiles were employed in a 2D fluid dynamic model calculation (CReSS, Tsuboki and Sakakibara 2007). The calculation covered an altitude range of 40-80 km and a 100-km horizontal distance. We compared three conditions; an 'effective' global circulation condition that cancels out unbalanced net radiative energy at equator, a condition without such global circulation effect, and the last condition assumed horizontally inhomogeneous unknown UV absorber distribution. Our results show that the local time dependence of lower level cloud convection is consistent with Imamura et al.'s result, and suggest a possible cloud top level convection caused by locally unbalanced net energy and/or horizontally uneven solar heating. This may be related to the observed cloud morphology in UV images. The effective global circulation condition, however, can "remove" such cloud top level convection. The later one consists with measured high static stability at the cloud top level from radio occultation measurement.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43B0199P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A43B0199P"><span>Ultra-Parameterized CAM: Progress Towards Low-Cloud Permitting Superparameterization</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Parishani, H.; Pritchard, M. S.; Bretherton, C. S.; Khairoutdinov, M.; Wyant, M. C.; Singh, B.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>A leading source of uncertainty in climate feedback arises from the representation of low clouds, which are not resolved but depend on small-scale physical processes (e.g. entrainment, boundary layer turbulence) that are heavily parameterized. We show results from recent attempts to achieve an explicit representation of low clouds by pushing the computational limits of cloud superparameterization to resolve boundary-layer eddy scales relevant to marine stratocumulus (250m horizontal and 20m vertical length scales). This extreme configuration is called "ultraparameterization". Effects of varying horizontal vs. vertical resolution are analyzed in the context of altered constraints on the turbulent kinetic energy statistics of the marine boundary layer. We show that 250m embedded horizontal resolution leads to a more realistic boundary layer vertical structure, but also to an unrealistic cloud pulsation that cannibalizes time mean LWP. We explore the hypothesis that feedbacks involving horizontal advection (not typically encountered in offline LES that neglect this degree of freedom) may conspire to produce such effects and present strategies to compensate. The results are relevant to understanding the emergent behavior of quasi-resolved low cloud decks in a multi-scale modeling framework within a previously unencountered grey zone of better resolved boundary-layer turbulence.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AtmRe.139...27K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AtmRe.139...27K"><span>Geometric and optical properties of cirrus clouds inferred from three-year ground-based lidar and CALIOP measurements over Seoul, Korea</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kim, Yumi; Kim, Sang-Woo; Kim, Man-Hae; Yoon, Soon-Chang</p> <p>2014-03-01</p> <p>This study examines cirrus cloud top and bottom heights (CTH and CBH, respectively) and the associated optical properties revealed by ground-based lidar in Seoul (SNU-L), Korea, and space-borne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), which were obtained during a three-year measurement period between July 2006 and June 2009. From two selected cases, we determined good agreement in CTH and CBH with cirrus cloud optical depth (COD) between ground-based lidar and space-borne CALIOP. In particular, CODs at a wavelength of 532 nm calculated from the three years of SNU-L and CALIOP measurements were 0.417 ± 0.394 and 0.425 ± 0.479, respectively. The fraction of COD lower than 0.1 was approximately 17% and 25% of the total SNU-L and CALIOP profiles, respectively, and approximately 50% of both lidar profiles were classified as sub-visual or optically thin such that COD was < 0.3. The mean depolarization ratio was estimated to be 0.30 ± 0.06 for SNU-L and 0.34 ± 0.08 for CALIOP. The monthly variation of CODs from SNU-L and CALIOP measurements was not distinct, whereas cirrus altitudes from both SNU-L and CALIOP showed distinct monthly variation. CALIOP observations showed that cirrus clouds reached the tropopause level in all months, whereas the up-looking SNU-L did not detect cirrus clouds near the tropopause in summer due to signal attenuation by underlying optically thick clouds. The cloud layer thickness (CLT) and COD showed a distinct linear relationship up to approximately 2 km of the CLT; however, the COD did not increase, but remained constant when the CLT was greater than 2.0 km. The ice crystal content, lidar signal attenuation, and the presence of multi-layered cirrus clouds may have contributed to this tendency.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21O..01D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21O..01D"><span>Effects of Environment Forcing on Marine Boundary Layer Cloud-Drizzle Processes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Dong, X.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Determining the factors affecting drizzle formation in marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds remains a challenge for both observation and modeling communities. To investigate the roles of vertical wind shear and buoyancy (static instability) in drizzle formation, ground-based observations from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program at the Azores are analyzed for two types of conditions. The type I clouds should last for at least five hours and more than 90% time must be non-drizzling, and then followed by at least two hours of drizzling periods while the type II clouds are characterized by mesoscale convection cellular (MCC) structures with drizzle occur every two to four hours. By analyzing the boundary layer wind profiles (direction and speed), it was found that either directional or speed shear is required to promote drizzle production in the type I clouds. Observations and a recent model study both suggest that vertical wind shear helps the production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), stimulates turbulence within cloud layer, and enhances drizzle formation near the cloud top. The type II clouds do not require strong wind shear to produce drizzle. The small values of lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) and negative Richardson number (Ri) in the type II cases suggest that boundary layer instability plays an important role in TKE production and cloud-drizzle processes. By analyzing the relationships between LTS and wind shear for all cases and all time periods, a stronger connection was found between LTS and wind directional shear than that between LTS and wind speed shear.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.7608G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.7608G"><span>How Will Aerosol-Cloud Interactions Change in an Ice-Free Arctic Summer?</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gilgen, Anina; Katty Huang, Wan Ting; Ickes, Luisa; Lohmann, Ulrike</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>Future temperatures in the Arctic are expected to increase more than the global mean temperature, which will lead to a pronounced retreat in Arctic sea ice. Before mid-century, most sea ice will likely have vanished in late Arctic summers. This will allow ships to cruise in the Arctic Ocean, e.g. to shorten their transport passage or to extract oil. Since both ships and open water emit aerosol particles and precursors, Arctic clouds and radiation may be affected via aerosol-cloud and cloud-radiation interactions. The change in radiation feeds back on temperature and sea ice retreat. In addition to aerosol particles, also the temperature and the open ocean as a humidity source should have a strong effect on clouds. The main goal of this study is to assess the impact of sea ice retreat on the Arctic climate with focus on aerosol emissions and cloud properties. To this purpose, we conducted ensemble runs with the global climate model ECHAM6-HAM2 under present-day and future (2050) conditions. ECHAM6-HAM2 was coupled with a mixed layer ocean model, which includes a sea ice model. To estimate Arctic aerosol emissions from ships, we used an elaborated ship emission inventory (Peters et al. 2011); changes in aerosol emissions from the ocean are calculated online. Preliminary results show that the sea salt aerosol and the dimethyl sulfide burdens over the Arctic Ocean significantly increase. While the ice water path decreases, the total water path increases. Due to the decrease in surface albedo, the cooling effect of the Arctic clouds becomes more important in 2050. Enhanced Arctic shipping has only a very small impact. The increase in the aersol burden due to shipping is less pronounced than the increase due to natural emissions even if the ship emissions are increased by a factor of ten. Hence, there is hardly an effect on clouds and radiation caused by shipping. References Peters et al. (2011), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5305-5320</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.9795V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.9795V"><span>Simulation of the Aerosol-Atmosphere Interaction in the Dead Sea Area with COSMO-ART</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Vogel, Bernhard; Bangert, Max; Kottmeier, Christoph; Rieger, Daniel; Schad, Tobias; Vogel, Heike</p> <p>2014-05-01</p> <p>The Dead Sea is a unique environment located in the Dead Sea Rift Valley. The fault system of the Dead Sea Rift Valley marks the political borders between Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. The Dead Sea region and the ambient Eastern Mediterranean coastal zone provide a natural laboratory for studying atmospheric processes ranging from the smallest scale of cloud processes to regional weather and climate. The virtual institute DESERVE is designed as a cross-disciplinary and cooperative international project of the Helmholtz Centers KIT, GFZ, and UFZ with well-established partners in Israel, Jordan and Palestine. One main focus of one of the work packages is the role of aerosols in modifying clouds and precipitation and in developing the Dead Sea haze layer as one of the most intriguing questions. The haze influences visibility, solar radiation, and evaporation and may even affect economy and health. We applied the online coupled model system COSMO-ART, which is able to treat the feedback processes between aerosol, radiation, and cloud formation, for a case study above the Dead Sea and adjacent regions. Natural aerosol like mineral dust and sea salt as well as anthropogenic primary and secondary aerosol is taken into account. Some of the observed features like the vertical double structure of the haze layer are already covered by the simulation. We found that absorbing aerosol like mineral dust causes a temperature increase in parts of the model domain. In other areas a decrease in temperature due to cirrus clouds modified by elevated dust layers is simulated.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_11");'>11</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li class="active"><span>13</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_13 --> <div id="page_14" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li class="active"><span>14</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="261"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1348413','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1348413"><span>Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zheng, Youtong; Hashimshoni, Eyal</p> <p></p> <p>Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities ( Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. In this paper, our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation ( S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud basemore » drop concentrations ( Ndb), which is the same as CCN(S). Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at Oklahoma, at Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. Finally, the limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25° restricts the satellite coverage to ~25% of the world area in a single day.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1348413-satellite-retrieval-cloud-condensation-nuclei-concentrations-using-clouds-ccn-chambers','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1348413-satellite-retrieval-cloud-condensation-nuclei-concentrations-using-clouds-ccn-chambers"><span>Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Rosenfeld, Daniel; Zheng, Youtong; Hashimshoni, Eyal; ...</p> <p>2016-03-04</p> <p>Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities ( Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. In this paper, our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation ( S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud basemore » drop concentrations ( Ndb), which is the same as CCN(S). Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at Oklahoma, at Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. Finally, the limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25° restricts the satellite coverage to ~25% of the world area in a single day.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19900018926&hterms=balloon+tethered&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dballoon%2Btethered','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19900018926&hterms=balloon+tethered&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dballoon%2Btethered"><span>The radiation budget of stratocumulus clouds measured by tethered balloon instrumentation: Variability of flux measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Duda, David P.; Stephens, Graeme L.; Cox, Stephen K.</p> <p>1990-01-01</p> <p>Measurements of longwave and shortwave radiation were made using an instrument package on the NASA tethered balloon during the FIRE Marine Stratocumulus experiment. Radiation data from two pairs of pyranometers were used to obtain vertical profiles of the near-infrared and total solar fluxes through the boundary layer, while a pair of pyrgeometers supplied measurements of the longwave fluxes in the cloud layer. The radiation observations were analyzed to determine heating rates and to measure the radiative energy budget inside the stratocumulus clouds during several tethered balloon flights. The radiation fields in the cloud layer were also simulated by a two-stream radiative transfer model, which used cloud optical properties derived from microphysical measurements and Mie scattering theory.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010APS..DFD.MG006N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010APS..DFD.MG006N"><span>Laboratory simulations of cumulus cloud flows explain the entrainment anomaly</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Narasimha, Roddam; Diwan, Sourabh S.; Subrahmanyam, Duvvuri; Sreenivas, K. R.; Bhat, G. S.</p> <p>2010-11-01</p> <p>In the present laboratory experiments, cumulus cloud flows are simulated by starting plumes and jets subjected to off-source heat addition in amounts that are dynamically similar to latent heat release due to condensation in real clouds. The setup permits incorporation of features like atmospheric inversion layers and the active control of off-source heat addition. Herein we report, for the first time, simulation of five different cumulus cloud types (and many shapes), including three genera and three species (WMO Atlas 1987), which show striking resemblance to real clouds. It is known that the rate of entrainment in cumulus cloud flows is much less than that in classical plumes - the main reason for the failure of early entrainment models. Some of the previous studies on steady-state jets and plumes (done in a similar setup) have attributed this anomaly to the disruption of the large-scale turbulent structures upon the addition of off-source heat. We present estimates of entrainment coefficients from these measurements which show a qualitatively consistent variation with height. We propose that this explains the observed entrainment anomaly in cumulus clouds; further experiments are planned to address this question in the context of starting jets and plumes.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003AGUFM.A22A1054N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003AGUFM.A22A1054N"><span>Retrieval of Cloud Properties for Partially Cloud-Filled Pixels During CRYSTAL-FACE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Nguyen, L.; Minnis, P.; Smith, W. L.; Khaiyer, M. M.; Heck, P. W.; Sun-Mack, S.; Uttal, T.; Comstock, J.</p> <p>2003-12-01</p> <p>Partially cloud-filled pixels can be a significant problem for remote sensing of cloud properties. Generally, the optical depth and effective particle sizes are often too small or too large, respectively, when derived from radiances that are assumed to be overcast but contain radiation from both clear and cloud areas within the satellite imager field of view. This study presents a method for reducing the impact of such partially cloud field pixels by estimating the cloud fraction within each pixel using higher resolution visible (VIS, 0.65mm) imager data. Although the nominal resolution for most channels on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on Terra are 4 and 1 km, respectively, both instruments also take VIS channel data at 1 km and 0.25 km, respectively. Thus, it may be possible to obtain an improved estimate of cloud fraction within the lower resolution pixels by using the information contained in the higher resolution VIS data. GOES and MODIS multi-spectral data, taken during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers - Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE), are analyzed with the algorithm used for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) and the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) to derive cloud amount, temperature, height, phase, effective particle size, optical depth, and water path. Normally, the algorithm assumes that each pixel is either entirely clear or cloudy. In this study, a threshold method is applied to the higher resolution VIS data to estimate the partial cloud fraction within each low-resolution pixel. The cloud properties are then derived from the observed low-resolution radiances using the cloud cover estimate to properly extract the radiances due only to the cloudy part of the scene. This approach is applied to both GOES and MODIS data to estimate the improvement in the retrievals for each resolution. Results are compared with the radar reflectivity techniques employed by the NOAA ETL MMCR and the PARSL 94 GHz radars located at the CRYSTAL-FACE Eastern & Western Ground Sites, respectively. This technique is most likely to yield improvements for low and midlevel layer clouds that have little thermal variability in cloud height.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950038038&hterms=by-product&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dby-product','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950038038&hterms=by-product&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dby-product"><span>Early time evolution of negative ion clouds and electron density depletions produced during electron attachment chemical release experiments</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Scales, W. A.; Bernhardt, P. A.; Ganguli, G.</p> <p>1994-01-01</p> <p>Two-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell simulations are used to study the early time evolution of electron depletions and negative ion clouds produced during electron attachment chemical releases in the ionosphere. The simulation model considers the evolution in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field and a three-species plasma that contains electrons, positive ions, and also heavy negative ions that result as a by-product of the electron attachment reaction. The early time evolution (less than the negative ion cyclotron period) of the system shows that a negative charge surplus initially develops outside of the depletion boundary as the heavy negative ions move across the boundary. The electrons are initially restricted from moving into the depletion due to the magnetic field. An inhomogenous electric field develops across the boundary layer due to this charge separation. A highly sheared electron flow velocity develops in the depletion boundary due to E x B and Delta-N x B drifts that result from electron density gradients and this inhomogenous electric field. Structure eventually develops in the depletion boundary layer due to low-frequency electrostatic waves that have growth times shorter than the negative ion cyclotron period. It is proposed that these waves are most likely produced by the electron-ion hybrid instability that results from sufficiently large shears in the electron flow velocity.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19780010630','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19780010630"><span>Users' instructions for the NASA/MSFC cloud-rise preprocessor program, version 6, and the NASA/MSFC multilayer diffusion program, version 6: Research version for Univac 1108 system</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Bjorklund, J. R.</p> <p>1978-01-01</p> <p>The cloud-rise preprocessor and multilayer diffusion computer programs were used by NASA in predicting concentrations and dosages downwind from normal and abnormal launches of rocket vehicles. These programs incorporated: (1) the latest data for the heat content and chemistry of rocket exhaust clouds; (2) provision for the automated calculation of surface water pH due to deposition of HCl from precipitation scavenging; (3) provision for automated calculation of concentration and dosage parameters at any level within the vertical grounds for which meteorological inputs have been specified; and (4) provision for execution of multiple cases of meteorological data. Procedures used to automatically calculate wind direction shear in a layer were updated.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20030025274','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20030025274"><span>Overlap Properties of Clouds Generated by a Cloud Resolving Model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Oreopoulos, L.; Khairoutdinov, M.</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>In order for General Circulation Models (GCMs), one of our most important tools to predict future climate, to correctly describe the propagation of solar and thermal radiation through the cloudy atmosphere a realistic description of the vertical distribution of cloud amount is needed. Actually, one needs not only the cloud amounts at different levels of the atmosphere, but also how these cloud amounts are related, in other words, how they overlap. Currently GCMs make some idealized assumptions about cloud overlap, for example that contiguous cloud layers overlap maximally and non-contiguous cloud layers overlap in a random fashion. Since there are difficulties in obtaining the vertical profile of cloud amount from observations, the realism of the overlap assumptions made in GCMs has not been yet rigorously investigated. Recently however, cloud observations from a relatively new type of ground radar have been used to examine the vertical distribution of cloudiness. These observations suggest that the GCM overlap assumptions are dubious. Our study uses cloud fields from sophisticated models dedicated to simulate cloud formation, maintenance, and dissipation called Cloud Resolving Models . These models are generally considered capable of producing realistic three-dimensional representation of cloudiness. Using numerous cloud fields produced by such a CRM we show that the degree of overlap between cloud layers is a function of their separation distance, and is in general described by a combination of the maximum and random overlap assumption, with random overlap dominating as separation distances increase. We show that it is possible to parameterize this behavior in a way that can eventually be incorporated in GCMs. Our results seem to have a significant resemblance to the results from the radar observations despite the completely different nature of the datasets. This consistency is encouraging and will promote development of new radiative transfer codes that will estimate the radiation effects of multi-layer cloud fields more accurately.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29028008','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29028008"><span>Atmospheric boundary layer CO2 remote sensing with a direct detection LIDAR instrument based on a widely tunable optical parametric source.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Cadiou, Erwan; Mammez, Dominique; Dherbecourt, Jean-Baptiste; Gorju, Guillaume; Pelon, Jacques; Melkonian, Jean-Michel; Godard, Antoine; Raybaut, Myriam</p> <p>2017-10-15</p> <p>We report on the capability of a direct detection differential absorption lidar (DIAL) for range resolved and integrated path (IPDIAL) remote sensing of CO 2 in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The laser source is an amplified nested cavity optical parametric oscillator (NesCOPO) emitting approximately 8 mJ at the two measurement wavelengths selected near 2050 nm. Direct detection atmospheric measurements are taken from the ground using a 30 Hz frequency switching between emitted wavelengths. Results show that comparable precision measurements are achieved in DIAL and IPDIAL modes (not better than a few ppm) on high SNR targets such as near range ABL aerosol and clouds, respectively. Instrumental limitations are analyzed and degradation due to cloud scattering variability is discussed to explain observed DIAL and IPDIAL limitations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1433115-boundary-layer-height-buoyancy-determine-horizontal-scale-convective-self-aggregation','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1433115-boundary-layer-height-buoyancy-determine-horizontal-scale-convective-self-aggregation"><span>Boundary Layer Height and Buoyancy Determine the Horizontal Scale of Convective Self-Aggregation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Yang, Da</p> <p>2018-01-24</p> <p>Organized rainstorms and their associated overturning circulations can self-emerge over an ocean surface with uniform temperature in cloud-resolving simulations. This phenomenon is referred to as convective self-aggregation. Convective self-aggregation is argued to be an important building block for tropical weather systems and may help regulate tropical atmospheric humidity and thereby tropical climate stability. Here the author presents a boundary layer theory for the horizontal scale λ of 2D (x, z) convective self-aggregation by considering both the momentum and energy constraints for steady circulations. This theory suggests that λ scales with the product of the boundary layer height h and themore » square root of the amplitude of density variation between aggregated moist and dry regions in the boundary layer, and that this density variation mainly arises from the moisture variation due to the virtual effect of water vapor. Furthermore, this theory predicts the following: 1) the order of magnitude of λ is ~2000 km, 2) the aspect ratio of the boundary layer λ/h increases with surface warming, and 3) λ decreases when the virtual effect of water vapor is disabled. These predictions are confirmed using a sui te of cloud-resolving simulations spanning a wide range of climates.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1433115-boundary-layer-height-buoyancy-determine-horizontal-scale-convective-self-aggregation','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1433115-boundary-layer-height-buoyancy-determine-horizontal-scale-convective-self-aggregation"><span>Boundary Layer Height and Buoyancy Determine the Horizontal Scale of Convective Self-Aggregation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Yang, Da</p> <p></p> <p>Organized rainstorms and their associated overturning circulations can self-emerge over an ocean surface with uniform temperature in cloud-resolving simulations. This phenomenon is referred to as convective self-aggregation. Convective self-aggregation is argued to be an important building block for tropical weather systems and may help regulate tropical atmospheric humidity and thereby tropical climate stability. Here the author presents a boundary layer theory for the horizontal scale λ of 2D (x, z) convective self-aggregation by considering both the momentum and energy constraints for steady circulations. This theory suggests that λ scales with the product of the boundary layer height h and themore » square root of the amplitude of density variation between aggregated moist and dry regions in the boundary layer, and that this density variation mainly arises from the moisture variation due to the virtual effect of water vapor. Furthermore, this theory predicts the following: 1) the order of magnitude of λ is ~2000 km, 2) the aspect ratio of the boundary layer λ/h increases with surface warming, and 3) λ decreases when the virtual effect of water vapor is disabled. These predictions are confirmed using a sui te of cloud-resolving simulations spanning a wide range of climates.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EntIS..11...17X','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EntIS..11...17X"><span>The design of an m-Health monitoring system based on a cloud computing platform</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Xu, Boyi; Xu, Lida; Cai, Hongming; Jiang, Lihong; Luo, Yang; Gu, Yizhi</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Compared to traditional medical services provided within hospitals, m-Health monitoring systems (MHMSs) face more challenges in personalised health data processing. To achieve personalised and high-quality health monitoring by means of new technologies, such as mobile network and cloud computing, in this paper, a framework of an m-Health monitoring system based on a cloud computing platform (Cloud-MHMS) is designed to implement pervasive health monitoring. Furthermore, the modules of the framework, which are Cloud Storage and Multiple Tenants Access Control Layer, Healthcare Data Annotation Layer, and Healthcare Data Analysis Layer, are discussed. In the data storage layer, a multiple tenant access method is designed to protect patient privacy. In the data annotation layer, linked open data are adopted to augment health data interoperability semantically. In the data analysis layer, the process mining algorithm and similarity calculating method are implemented to support personalised treatment plan selection. These three modules cooperate to implement the core functions in the process of health monitoring, which are data storage, data processing, and data analysis. Finally, we study the application of our architecture in the monitoring of antimicrobial drug usage to demonstrate the usability of our method in personal healthcare analysis.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.7783N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.7783N"><span>Optical cloud detection from a disposable airborne sensor</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Nicoll, Keri; Harrison, R. Giles; Brus, David</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>In-situ measurement of cloud droplet microphysical properties is most commonly made from manned aircraft platforms due to the size and weight of the instrumentation, which is both costly and typically limited to sampling only a few clouds. This work describes the development of a small, lightweight (<200g), disposable, optical cloud sensor which is designed for use on routine radiosonde balloon flights and also small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. The sensor employs the backscatter principle, using an ultra-bright LED as the illumination source, with a photodiode detector. Scattering of the LED light by cloud droplets generates a small optical signal which is separated from background light fluctuations using a lock-in technique. The signal to noise obtained permits cloud detection using the scattered LED light, even in daytime. During recent field tests in Pallas, Finland, the retrieved optical sensor signal has been compared with the DMT Cloud and Aerosol Spectrometer (CAS) which measures cloud droplets in the size range from 0.5 to 50 microns. Both sensors were installed at the hill top observatory of Sammaltunturi during a field campaign in October and November 2015, which experienced long periods of immersion inside cloud. Preliminary analysis shows very good agreement between the CAPS and the disposable cloud sensor for cloud droplets >5micron effective diameter. Such data and calibration of the sensor will be discussed here, as will simultaneous balloon launches of the optical cloud sensor through the same cloud layers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1329812','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1329812"><span>Dynamics, thermodynamics, radiation, and cloudiness associated with cumulus-topped marine boundary layers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Ghate, Virendra P.; Miller, Mark</p> <p></p> <p>The overall goal of this project was to improve the understanding of marine boundary clouds by using data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) sites, so that they can be better represented in global climate models (GCMs). Marine boundary clouds are observed regularly over the tropical and subtropical oceans. They are an important element of the Earth’s climate system because they have substantial impact on the radiation budget together with the boundary layer moisture, and energy transports. These clouds also have an impact on large-scale precipitation features like the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Because these clouds occur atmore » temporal and spatial scales much smaller than those relevant to GCMs, their effects and the associated processes need to be parameterized in GCM simulations aimed at predicting future climate and energy needs. Specifically, this project’s objectives were to (1) characterize the surface turbulent fluxes, boundary layer thermodynamics, radiation field, and cloudiness associated with cumulus-topped marine boundary layers; (2) explore the similarities and differences in cloudiness and boundary layer conditions observed in the tropical and trade-wind regions; and (3) understand similarities and differences by using a simple bulk boundary layer model. In addition to working toward achieving the project’s three objectives, we also worked on understanding the role played by different forcing mechanisms in maintaining turbulence within cloud-topped boundary layers We focused our research on stratocumulus clouds during the first phase of the project, and cumulus clouds during the rest of the project. Below is a brief description of manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals that describe results from our analyses.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1167155','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1167155"><span>“Lidar Investigations of Aerosol, Cloud, and Boundary Layer Properties Over the ARM ACRF Sites”</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Ferrare, Richard; Turner, David</p> <p>2015-01-13</p> <p>Project goals; Characterize the aerosol and ice vertical distributions over the ARM NSA site, and in particular to discriminate between elevated aerosol layers and ice clouds in optically thin scattering layers; Characterize the water vapor and aerosol vertical distributions over the ARM Darwin site, how these distributions vary seasonally, and quantify the amount of water vapor and aerosol that is above the boundary layer; Use the high temporal resolution Raman lidar data to examine how aerosol properties vary near clouds; Use the high temporal resolution Raman lidar and Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) data to quantify entrainment in optically thinmore » continental cumulus clouds; and Use the high temporal Raman lidar data to continue to characterize the turbulence within the convective boundary layer and how the turbulence statistics (e.g., variance, skewness) is correlated with larger scale variables predicted by models.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995PhDT........24A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995PhDT........24A"><span>Retrieval of Atmospheric Water Vapor Profiles from the Special Sensor Microwave TEMPERATURE-2</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Al-Khalaf, Abdulrahman Khal</p> <p>1995-01-01</p> <p>Radiometric measurements from the Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature-2 (SSM/T-2) instrument are used to retrieve atmospheric water vapor profiles over ocean, land, coast, and ice/snow backgrounds. These measurements are used to retrieve vertical distribution of integrated water vapor (IWV) and total integrated water vapor (TIWV) using a physical algorithm. The algorithm infers the presence of cloud at a given height from super-saturation of the retrieved humidity at that height then the algorithm estimate the cloud liquid water content. Retrievals of IWV over five different layers are validated against available ground truth such as global radiosondes and ECMWF analyses. Over ocean, the retrieved total integrated water vapor (TIWV) and IWV close to the surface compare quite well, with those from radiosonde observations and the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses. However, comparisons to radiosonde results are better than (ECMWF) analyses. TIWV root mean square (RMS) difference was 5.95 mm and TWV RMS difference for the lowest layer (SFC-850 mb) was 2.8 mm for radiosonde comparisons. Water vapor retrieval over land is less accurate than over ocean due to the low contrast between the surface and the atmosphere near the surface; therefore, land retrievals are more reliable at layers above 700 mb. However, TIWV and IWV at all layers compare appropriately with ground truth. Over coastal areas the agreement between retrieved water vapor profiles and ground truth is quite good for both TIWV and IWV for the five layers. The natural variability and large variations in the surface emissivity over ice and snow fields leads toward poor results. Clouds degrade retrievals over land and coast, improve the retrievals a little over ocean, and improve dramatically over snow/ice. Examples of retrieved relative humidity profiles were shown to illustrate the algorithm performance for the actual profile retrieval. The overall features of the retrieved profiles compared well with those from radiosonde data and ECMWF analyses. However, due to the limited number of channels, the retrieved profiles generally do not reproduce the fine details when a rapid change in relative humidity versus height was observed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980036977','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980036977"><span>Parameterizing Grid-Averaged Longwave Fluxes for Inhomogeneous Marine Boundary Layer Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Barker, Howard W.; Wielicki, Bruce A.</p> <p>1997-01-01</p> <p>This paper examines the relative impacts on grid-averaged longwave flux transmittance (emittance) for Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) cloud fields arising from horizontal variability of optical depth tau and cloud sides, First, using fields of Landsat-inferred tau and a Monte Carlo photon transport algorithm, it is demonstrated that mean all-sky transmittances for 3D variable MBL clouds can be computed accurately by the conventional method of linearly weighting clear and cloudy transmittances by their respective sky fractions. Then, the approximations of decoupling cloud and radiative properties and assuming independent columns are shown to be adequate for computation of mean flux transmittance. Since real clouds have nonzero geometric thicknesses, cloud fractions A'(sub c) presented to isotropic beams usually exceed the more familiar vertically projected cloud fractions A(sub c). It is shown, however, that when A(sub c)less than or equal to 0.9, biases for all-sky transmittance stemming from use of A(sub c) as opposed to A'(sub c) are roughly 2-5 times smaller than, and opposite in sign to, biases due to neglect of horizontal variability of tau. By neglecting variable tau, all-sky transmittances are underestimated often by more than 0.1 for A(sub c) near 0.75 and this translates into relative errors that can exceed 40% (corresponding errors for all-sky emittance are about 20% for most values of A(sub c). Thus, priority should be given to development of General Circulation Model (GCM) parameterizations that account for the effects of horizontal variations in unresolved tau, effects of cloud sides are of secondary importance. On this note, an efficient stochastic model for computing grid-averaged cloudy-sky flux transmittances is furnished that assumes that distributions of tau, for regions comparable in size to GCM grid cells, can be described adequately by gamma distribution functions. While the plane-parallel, homogeneous model underestimates cloud transmittance by about an order of magnitude when 3D variable cloud transmittances are less than or equal to 0.2 and by approx. 20% to 100% otherwise, the stochastic model reduces these biases often by more than 80%.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?dirEntryId=47379&Lab=NERL&keyword=transformer&actType=&TIMSType=+&TIMSSubTypeID=&DEID=&epaNumber=&ntisID=&archiveStatus=Both&ombCat=Any&dateBeginCreated=&dateEndCreated=&dateBeginPublishedPresented=&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&dateBeginCompleted=&dateEndCompleted=&personID=&role=Any&journalID=&publisherID=&sortBy=revisionDate&count=50','EPA-EIMS'); return false;" href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?dirEntryId=47379&Lab=NERL&keyword=transformer&actType=&TIMSType=+&TIMSSubTypeID=&DEID=&epaNumber=&ntisID=&archiveStatus=Both&ombCat=Any&dateBeginCreated=&dateEndCreated=&dateBeginPublishedPresented=&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&dateBeginCompleted=&dateEndCompleted=&personID=&role=Any&journalID=&publisherID=&sortBy=revisionDate&count=50"><span>MODELING NON-PRECIPITATING CUMULUS CLOUDS AS FLOW-THROUGH-REACTOR TRANSFORMER AND VENTING TRANSPORTER OF MIXED LAYER POLLUTANTS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://oaspub.epa.gov/eims/query.page">EPA Science Inventory</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>A simple diagnostic model of cumulus convective clouds is developed and used in a sensitivity study to examine the extent to which the rate of change of mixed and cloud layer pollutant concentration is influenced by vertical transport and chemical transformation processes occurri...</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..1712318A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..1712318A"><span>Studying the influence of temperature and pressure on microphysical properties of mixed-phase clouds using airborne measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Andreea, Boscornea; Sabina, Stefan; Sorin-Nicolae, Vajaiac; Mihai, Cimpuieru</p> <p>2015-04-01</p> <p>One cloud type for which the formation and evolution process is not well-understood is the mixed-phase type. In general mixed-phase clouds consist of liquid droplets and ice crystals. The temperature interval within both liquid droplets and ice crystals can potentially coexist is limited to 0 °C and - 40 °C. Mixed-phase clouds account for 20% to 30% of the global cloud coverage. The need to understand the microphysical characteristics of mixed-phase clouds to improve numerical forecast modeling and radiative transfer calculation is of major interest in the atmospheric community. In the past, studies of cloud phase composition have been significantly limited by a lack of aircraft instruments capable of discriminating between the ice and liquid phase for a wide range of particle sizes. Presently, in situ airborne measurements provide the most accurate information about cloud microphysical characteristics. This information can be used for verification of both numerical models and cloud remote-sensing techniques. The knowledge of the temperature and pressure variation during the airborne measurements is crucial in order to understand their influence on the cloud dynamics and also their role in the cloud formation processes like accretion and coalescence. Therefore, in this paper is presented a comprehensive study of cloud microphysical properties in mixed-phase clouds in focus of the influence of temperature and pressure variation on both, cloud dynamics and the cloud formation processes, using measurements performed with the ATMOSLAB - Airborne Laboratory for Environmental Atmospheric Research in property of the National Institute for Aerospace Research "Elie Carafoli" (INCAS). The airborne laboratory equipped for special research missions is based on a Hawker Beechcraft - King Air C90 GTx aircraft and is equipped with a sensors system CAPS - Cloud, Aerosol and Precipitation Spectrometer (30 bins, 0.51-50 µm) and a HAWKEYE cloud probe. The analyzed data in this work is acquired during 2 flight hours on the 23th of October 2014 in mixed clouds formations over Romania ( Craiova, Lat 44°19', Lon 23°48' ). The temperature variation during the cloud sounding was between -14 °C and -2 °C, with a maximum altitude in the cloud of 4863 m and a minimum altitude of 3353 m. In total 6 horizontal lines of 10 minutes each where performed recording ice crystal number concentrations (using the CIP - Cloud Imaging Probe) between 10 to 20 particles/cm3 outside the cloud layer and over 100 particles/cm3 inside the cloud layer and a number concentration of small droplets, aerosol and small ice crystals (using the CAS - Cloud Aerosol Spectrometer) between 150 particles/cm3 outside the cloud layer and 1600 particles/cm3 inside the cloud layer, this values confirms also the presence of IN (ice nuclei) in the atmosphere between the cloud layers. The results in respect with size distribution of cloud's particles and LWC show to be controlled by the temperature and pressure variations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A31A2136L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A31A2136L"><span>StatisticAl Characteristics of Cloud over Beijing, China Obtained FRom Ka band Doppler Radar Observation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>LIU, J.; Bi, Y.; Duan, S.; Lu, D.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>It is well-known that cloud characteristics, such as top and base heights and their layering structure of micro-physical parameters, spatial coverage and temporal duration are very important factors influencing both radiation budget and its vertical partitioning as well as hydrological cycle through precipitation data. Also, cloud structure and their statistical distribution and typical values will have respective characteristics with geographical and seasonal variation. Ka band radar is a powerful tool to obtain above parameters around the world, such as ARM cloud radar at the Oklahoma US, Since 2006, Cloudsat is one of NASA's A-Train satellite constellation, continuously observe the cloud structure with global coverage, but only twice a day it monitor clouds over same local site at same local time.By using IAP Ka band Doppler radar which has been operating continuously since early 2013 over the roof of IAP building in Beijing, we obtained the statistical characteristic of clouds, including cloud layering, cloud top and base heights, as well as the thickness of each cloud layer and their distribution, and were analyzed monthly and seasonal and diurnal variation, statistical analysis of cloud reflectivity profiles is also made. The analysis covers both non-precipitating clouds and precipitating clouds. Also, some preliminary comparison of the results with Cloudsat/Calipso products for same period and same area are made.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_12");'>12</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li class="active"><span>14</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_14 --> <div id="page_15" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li class="active"><span>15</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="281"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..05C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..05C"><span>Aerosol-cloud feedbacks in a turbulent environment: Laboratory measurements representative of conditions in boundary layer clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Cantrell, W. H.; Chandrakar, K. K.; Karki, S.; Kinney, G.; Shaw, R.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Many of the climate impacts of boundary layer clouds are modulated by aerosol particles. As two examples, their interactions with incoming solar and upwelling terrestrial radiation and their propensity for precipitation are both governed by the population of aerosol particles upon which the cloud droplets formed. In turn, clouds are the primary removal mechanism for aerosol particles smaller than a few micrometers and larger than a few nanometers. Aspects of these interconnected phenomena are known in exquisite detail (e.g. Köhler theory), but other parts have not been as amenable to study in the laboratory (e.g. scavenging of aerosol particles by cloud droplets). As a complicating factor, boundary layer clouds are ubiquitously turbulent, which introduces fluctuations in the water vapor concentration and temperature, which govern the saturation ratio which mediates aerosol-cloud interactions. We have performed laboratory measurements of aerosol-cloud coupling and feedbacks, using Michigan Tech's Pi Chamber (Chang et al., 2016). In conditions representative of boundary layer clouds, our data suggest that the lifetime of most interstitial particles in the accumulation mode is governed by cloud activation - particles are removed from the Pi Chamber when they activate and settle out of the chamber as cloud droplets. As cloud droplets are removed, these interstitial particles activate until the initially polluted cloud cleans itself and all particulates are removed from the chamber. At that point, the cloud collapses. Our data also indicate that smaller particles, Dp < ˜ 20 nm are not activated, but are instead removed through diffusion, enhanced by the fact that droplets are moving relative to the suspended aerosol. I will discuss results from both warm (i.e. liquid water only) and mixed phase clouds, showing that cloud and aerosol properties are coupled through fluctuations in the supersaturation, and that threshold behaviors can be defined through the use of the Dämkohler number, the ratio of the characteristic turbulence timescale to the cloud's microphysical response time. Chang, K., et al., 2016. A laboratory facility to study gas-aerosol-cloud interactions in a turbulent environment: The Π Chamber. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00203.1</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACPD...1318143B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACPD...1318143B"><span>Marine boundary layer cloud regimes and POC formation in an LES coupled to a bulk aerosol scheme</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Berner, A. H.; Bretherton, C. S.; Wood, R.; Muhlbauer, A.</p> <p>2013-07-01</p> <p>A large-eddy simulation (LES) coupled to a new bulk aerosol scheme is used to study long-lived regimes of aerosol-boundary layer cloud-precipitation interaction and the development of pockets of open cells (POCs) in subtropical stratocumulus cloud layers. The aerosol scheme prognoses mass and number concentration of a single log-normal accumulation mode with surface and entrainment sources, evolving subject to processing of activated aerosol and scavenging of dry aerosol by cloud and rain. The LES with the aerosol scheme is applied to a range of steadily-forced simulations idealized from a well-observed POC case. The long-term system evolution is explored with extended two-dimensional simulations of up to 20 days, mostly with diurnally-averaged insolation. One three-dimensional two-day simulation confirms the initial development of the corresponding two-dimensional case. With weak mean subsidence, an initially aerosol-rich mixed layer deepens, the capping stratocumulus cloud slowly thickens and increasingly depletes aerosol via precipitation accretion, then the boundary layer transitions within a few hours into an open-cell regime with scattered precipitating cumuli, in which entrainment is much weaker. The inversion slowly collapses for several days until the cumulus clouds are too shallow to efficiently precipitate. Inversion cloud then reforms and radiatively drives renewed entrainment, allowing the boundary layer to deepen and become more aerosol-rich, until the stratocumulus layer thickens enough to undergo another cycle of open-cell formation. If mean subsidence is stronger, the stratocumulus never thickens enough to initiate drizzle and settles into a steady state. With lower initial aerosol concentrations, this system quickly transitions into open cells, collapses, and redevelops into a different steady state with a shallow, optically thin cloud layer. In these steady states, interstitial scavenging by cloud droplets is the main sink of aerosol number. The system is described in a reduced two-dimensional phase plane with inversion height and boundary-layer average aerosol concentrations as the state variables. Simulations with a full diurnal cycle show similar evolutions, except that open-cell formation is phase-locked into the early morning hours. The same steadily-forced modeling framework is applied to the development and evolution of a POC and the surrounding overcast boundary layer. An initial aerosol perturbation applied to a portion of the model domain leads that portion to transition into open-cell convection, forming a POC. Reduced entrainment in the POC induces a negative feedback between areal fraction covered by the POC and boundary layer depth changes. This stabilizes the system by controlling liquid water path and precipitation sinks of aerosol number in the overcast region, while also preventing boundary-layer collapse within the POC, allowing the POC and overcast to coexist indefinitely in a quasi-steady equilibrium.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1023191-observed-increase-ttl-temperature-water-vapor-polluted-couds-over-asia','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1023191-observed-increase-ttl-temperature-water-vapor-polluted-couds-over-asia"><span>Observed Increase of TTL Temperature and Water Vapor in Polluted Couds over Asia</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Su, Hui; Jiang, Jonathan; Liu, Xiaohong</p> <p>2011-06-01</p> <p>Aerosols can affect cloud particle size and lifetime, which impacts precipitation, radiation and climate. Previous studies1-4 suggested that reduced ice cloud particle size and fall speed due to the influence of aerosols may increase evaporation of ice crystals and/or cloud radiative heating in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), leading to higher water vapor abundance in air entering the stratosphere. Observational substantiation of such processes is still lacking. Here, we analyze new observations from multiple NASA satellites to show the imprint of pollution influence on stratospheric water vapor. We focus our analysis on the highly-polluted South and East Asia region duringmore » boreal summer. We find that "polluted" ice clouds have smaller ice effective radius than "clean" clouds. In the TTL, the polluted clouds are associated with warmer temperature and higher specific humidity than the clean clouds. The water vapor difference between the polluted and clean clouds cannot be explained by other meteorological factors, such as updraft and detrainment strength. Therefore, the observed higher water vapor entry value into the stratosphere in the polluted clouds than in the clean clouds is likely a manifestation of aerosol pollution influence on stratospheric water vapor. Given the radiative and chemical importance of stratospheric water vapor, the increasing emission of aerosols over Asia may have profound impacts on stratospheric chemistry and global energy balance and water cycle.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090012508','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090012508"><span>Radiative Effects of African Dust and Smoke Observed from CERES and CALIOP Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Yorks, John E.; McGill, Matt; Rodier, Sharon; Vaughan, Mark; Xu, Yongxiang; Hlavka, Dennis</p> <p>2009-01-01</p> <p>Cloud and aerosol effects have a significant impact on the atmospheric radiation budget in the Tropical Atlantic because of the spatial and temporal extent of desert dust and smoke from biomass burning in the atmosphere. The influences of African dust and smoke aerosols on cloud radiative properties over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean were analyzed for the month of July for three years (2006-2008) using collocated data collected by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments on the CALIPSO and Aqua satellites. Aerosol layer height and type can be more accurately determined using CALIOP data, through parameters such as cloud and aerosol layer height, optical depth and depolarization ratio, than data from atmospheric imagers used in previous cloud-aerosol interaction studies. On average, clouds below 5 km had a daytime instantaneous shortwave (SW) radiative flux of 270.2 +/- 16.9 W/sq m and thin cirrus clouds had a SW radiative flux of 208.0 +/- 12.7 W/sq m. When dust aerosols interacted with clouds below 5 km, as determined from CALIPSO, the SW radiative flux decreased to 205.4 +/- 13.0 W/sq m. Similarly, smoke aerosols decreased the SW radiative flux of low clouds to a value of 240.0 +/- 16.6 W/sq m. These decreases in SW radiative flux were likely attributed to the aerosol layer height and changes in cloud microphysics. CALIOP lidar observations, which more accurately identify aerosol layer height than passive instruments, appear essential for better understanding of cloud-aerosol interactions, a major uncertainty in predicting the climate system.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I1999G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I1999G"><span>Satellite Data Analysis of Impact of Anthropogenic Air Pollution on Ice Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gu, Y.; Liou, K. N.; Zhao, B.; Jiang, J. H.; Su, H.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Despite numerous studies about the impact of aerosols on ice clouds, the role of anthropogenic aerosols in ice processes, especially over pollution regions, remains unclear and controversial, and has not been considered in a regional model. The objective of this study is to improve our understanding of the ice process associated with anthropogenic aerosols, and provide a comprehensive assessment of the contribution of anthropogenic aerosols to ice nucleation, ice cloud properties, and the consequent regional radiative forcing. As the first attempt, we evaluate the effects of different aerosol types (mineral dust, air pollution, polluted dust, and smoke) on ice cloud micro- and macro-physical properties using satellite data. We identify cases with collocated CloudSat, CALIPSO, and Aqua observations of vertically resolved aerosol and cloud properties, and process these observations into the same spatial resolution. The CALIPSO's aerosol classification algorithm determines aerosol layers as one of six defined aerosol types by taking into account the lidar depolarization ratio, integrated attenuated backscattering, surface type, and layer elevation. We categorize the cases identified above according to aerosol types, collect relevant aerosol and ice cloud variables, and determine the correlation between column/layer AOD and ice cloud properties for each aerosol type. Specifically, we investigate the correlation between aerosol loading (indicated by the column AOD and layer AOD) and ice cloud microphysical properties (ice water content, ice crystal number concentration, and ice crystal effective radius) and macro-physical properties (ice water path, ice cloud fraction, cloud top temperature, and cloud thickness). By comparing the responses of ice cloud properties to aerosol loadings for different aerosol types, we infer the role of different aerosol types in ice nucleation and the evolution of ice clouds. Our preliminary study shows that changes in the ice crystal effective radius with respect to AOD over Eastern Asia for the aerosol types of polluted continental and mineral dust look similar, implying that both air pollution and mineral dust could affect the microphysical properties of ice clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012EntIS...6..165L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012EntIS...6..165L"><span>Integration of hybrid wireless networks in cloud services oriented enterprise information systems</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Li, Shancang; Xu, Lida; Wang, Xinheng; Wang, Jue</p> <p>2012-05-01</p> <p>This article presents a hybrid wireless network integration scheme in cloud services-based enterprise information systems (EISs). With the emerging hybrid wireless networks and cloud computing technologies, it is necessary to develop a scheme that can seamlessly integrate these new technologies into existing EISs. By combining the hybrid wireless networks and computing in EIS, a new framework is proposed, which includes frontend layer, middle layer and backend layers connected to IP EISs. Based on a collaborative architecture, cloud services management framework and process diagram are presented. As a key feature, the proposed approach integrates access control functionalities within the hybrid framework that provide users with filtered views on available cloud services based on cloud service access requirements and user security credentials. In future work, we will implement the proposed framework over SwanMesh platform by integrating the UPnP standard into an enterprise information system.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930044345&hterms=marine+pollution&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Bpollution','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930044345&hterms=marine+pollution&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dmarine%2Bpollution"><span>Optical properties of marine stratocumulus clouds modified by ships</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>King, Michael D.; Radke, Lawrence F.; Hobbs, Peter V.</p> <p>1993-01-01</p> <p>Results are presented of an application of the diffusion domain method to multispectral solar radiation measurements obtained deep within a marine stratocumulus cloud layer modified by pollution from ships. In situ airborne measurements of the relative angular distribution of scattered radiation are compared to known asymptotic expressions for the intensity field deep within an optically thick cloud layer. Analytical expressions relating the ratio of the nadir-to-zenith intensities to surface reflectance, similarity parameter, and scaled optical depth beneath the aircraft flight level are used to analyze measurements obtained with the cloud absorption radiometer mounted on the University of Washington's C-131A research aircraft. It is shown that the total optical thickness of the cloud layer increased in the ship tracks, in contrast to the similarity parameter, which decreased. The decrease in absorption was a direct consequence of the reduction in cloud droplet size that occurred within the ship tracks.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JASTP.162....1C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JASTP.162....1C"><span>Preface to special issue: Layered Phenomena in the Mesopause Region</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Chu, Xinzhao; Marsh, Daniel R.</p> <p>2017-09-01</p> <p>Historically, the Layered Phenomena in the Mesopause Region (LPMR) workshops have focused on studies of mesospheric clouds and their related science, including spectacular noctilucent clouds (NLCs), polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), and polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSEs). This is because, in the pre-technology era, these high-altitude ( 85 km) clouds revealed the existence of substance above the 'normal atmosphere' - our near-space environment is not empty! The occurrence and nature of these clouds have commanded the attention of atmospheric and space scientists for generations. Modern technologies developed in the last 50 years have enabled scientists to significantly advance our understanding of these layered phenomena. Satellite observations expanded these studies to global scales, while lidar and radar observations from the ground enabled fine-scale studies. The launch of the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite in 2007 brought mesospheric cloud research to a more mature level.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1227577-role-ice-nuclei-recycling-maintenance-cloud-ice-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1227577-role-ice-nuclei-recycling-maintenance-cloud-ice-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus"><span>The role of ice nuclei recycling in the maintenance of cloud ice in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Solomon, Amy; Feingold, G.; Shupe, M. D.</p> <p>2015-09-25</p> <p>This study investigates the maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus in large eddy simulations that include a prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. Balances derived from a mixed-layer model and phase analyses are used to provide insight into buffering mechanisms that maintain ice in these cloud systems. We find that, for the case under investigation, IN recycling through subcloud sublimation considerably prolongs ice production over a multi-day integration. This effective source of IN to the cloud dominates over mixing sources from above or below the cloud-driven mixed layer. Competing feedbacks between dynamical mixing andmore » recycling are found to slow the rate of ice lost from the mixed layer when a diurnal cycle is simulated. Furthermore, the results of this study have important implications for maintaining phase partitioning of cloud ice and liquid that determine the radiative forcing of Arctic mixed-phase clouds.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1227577-role-ice-nuclei-recycling-maintenance-cloud-ice-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1227577-role-ice-nuclei-recycling-maintenance-cloud-ice-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus"><span>The role of ice nuclei recycling in the maintenance of cloud ice in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Solomon, Amy; Feingold, G.; Shupe, M. D.</p> <p></p> <p>This study investigates the maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus in large eddy simulations that include a prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. Balances derived from a mixed-layer model and phase analyses are used to provide insight into buffering mechanisms that maintain ice in these cloud systems. We find that, for the case under investigation, IN recycling through subcloud sublimation considerably prolongs ice production over a multi-day integration. This effective source of IN to the cloud dominates over mixing sources from above or below the cloud-driven mixed layer. Competing feedbacks between dynamical mixing andmore » recycling are found to slow the rate of ice lost from the mixed layer when a diurnal cycle is simulated. Furthermore, the results of this study have important implications for maintaining phase partitioning of cloud ice and liquid that determine the radiative forcing of Arctic mixed-phase clouds.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JQSRT.200..234D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JQSRT.200..234D"><span>Self-generated clouds of micron-sized particles as a promising way of a Solar Probe shielding from intense thermal radiation of the Sun</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Dombrovsky, Leonid A.; Reviznikov, Dmitry L.; Kryukov, Alexei P.; Levashov, Vladimir Yu</p> <p>2017-10-01</p> <p>An effect of shielding of an intense solar radiation towards a solar probe with the use of micron-sized SiC particles generated during ablation of a composite thermal protection material is estimated on a basis of numerical solution to a combined radiative and heat transfer problem. The radiative properties of particles are calculated using the Mie theory, and the spectral two-flux model is employed in radiative transfer calculations for non-uniform particle clouds. A computational model for generation and evolution of the cloud is based on a conjugated heat transfer problem taking into account heating and thermal destruction of the matrix of thermal protection material and sublimation of SiC particles in the generated cloud. The effect of light pressure, which is especially important for small particles, is also taken into account. The computational data for mass loss due to the particle cloud sublimation showed the low value about 1 kg/m2 per hour at the distance between the vehicle and the Sun surface of about four radii of the Sun. This indicates that embedding of silicon carbide or other particles into a thermal protection layer and the resulting generation of a particle cloud can be considered as a promising way to improve the possibilities of space missions due to a significant decrease in the vehicle working distance from the solar photosphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1198577-joint-retrievals-cloud-drizzle-marine-boundary-layer-clouds-using-ground-based-radar-lidar-zenith-radiances','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1198577-joint-retrievals-cloud-drizzle-marine-boundary-layer-clouds-using-ground-based-radar-lidar-zenith-radiances"><span>Joint retrievals of cloud and drizzle in marine boundary layer clouds using ground-based radar, lidar and zenith radiances</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Fielding, M. D.; Chiu, J. C.; Hogan, R. J.; ...</p> <p>2015-07-02</p> <p>Active remote sensing of marine boundary-layer clouds is challenging as drizzle drops often dominate the observed radar reflectivity. We present a new method to simultaneously retrieve cloud and drizzle vertical profiles in drizzling boundary-layer clouds using surface-based observations of radar reflectivity, lidar attenuated backscatter, and zenith radiances under conditions when precipitation does not reach the surface. Specifically, the vertical structure of droplet size and water content of both cloud and drizzle is characterised throughout the cloud. An ensemble optimal estimation approach provides full error statistics given the uncertainty in the observations. To evaluate the new method, we first perform retrievalsmore » using synthetic measurements from large-eddy simulation snapshots of cumulus under stratocumulus, where cloud water path is retrieved with an error of 31 g m -2. The method also performs well in non-drizzling clouds where no assumption of the cloud profile is required. We then apply the method to observations of marine stratocumulus obtained during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement MAGIC deployment in the Northeast Pacific. Here, retrieved cloud water path agrees well with independent three-channel microwave radiometer retrievals, with a root mean square difference of 10–20 g m -2.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.3119M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.3119M"><span>Aerosol-cloud interactions in mixed-phase convective clouds - Part 1: Aerosol perturbations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Miltenberger, Annette K.; Field, Paul R.; Hill, Adrian A.; Rosenberg, Phil; Shipway, Ben J.; Wilkinson, Jonathan M.; Scovell, Robert; Blyth, Alan M.</p> <p>2018-03-01</p> <p>Changes induced by perturbed aerosol conditions in moderately deep mixed-phase convective clouds (cloud top height ˜ 5 km) developing along sea-breeze convergence lines are investigated with high-resolution numerical model simulations. The simulations utilise the newly developed Cloud-AeroSol Interacting Microphysics (CASIM) module for the Unified Model (UM), which allows for the representation of the two-way interaction between cloud and aerosol fields. Simulations are evaluated against observations collected during the COnvective Precipitation Experiment (COPE) field campaign over the southwestern peninsula of the UK in 2013. The simulations compare favourably with observed thermodynamic profiles, cloud base cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC), cloud depth, and radar reflectivity statistics. Including the modification of aerosol fields by cloud microphysical processes improves the correspondence with observed CDNC values and spatial variability, but reduces the agreement with observations for average cloud size and cloud top height. Accumulated precipitation is suppressed for higher-aerosol conditions before clouds become organised along the sea-breeze convergence lines. Changes in precipitation are smaller in simulations with aerosol processing. The precipitation suppression is due to less efficient precipitation production by warm-phase microphysics, consistent with parcel model predictions. In contrast, after convective cells organise along the sea-breeze convergence zone, accumulated precipitation increases with aerosol concentrations. Condensate production increases with the aerosol concentrations due to higher vertical velocities in the convective cores and higher cloud top heights. However, for the highest-aerosol scenarios, no further increase in the condensate production occurs, as clouds grow into an upper-level stable layer. In these cases, the reduced precipitation efficiency (PE) dominates the precipitation response and no further precipitation enhancement occurs. Previous studies of deep convective clouds have related larger vertical velocities under high-aerosol conditions to enhanced latent heating from freezing. In the presented simulations changes in latent heating above the 0°C are negligible, but latent heating from condensation increases with aerosol concentrations. It is hypothesised that this increase is related to changes in the cloud field structure reducing the mixing of environmental air into the convective core. The precipitation response of the deeper mixed-phase clouds along well-established convergence lines can be the opposite of predictions from parcel models. This occurs when clouds interact with a pre-existing thermodynamic environment and cloud field structural changes occur that are not captured by simple parcel model approaches.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-ARC-1989-AC89-0114-324.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-ARC-1989-AC89-0114-324.html"><span>ARC-1989-AC89-0114-324</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>1989-02-28</p> <p>Arctic Ozone Expedition Stavanger Norway These clouds in the polar regions north of Stravanger, Norway are representative of what are called 'Type 1' and Type 2' polar stratospheric clouds. Type 1 are seen in the lower portion and consist of cloud particles comprised of nitrogen trihydrates. Seen edge-on as in this view, they appear as a thin dark orange or brown layer. Multiple layering can be seen. The Type 2 clouds are above and consist mostly of water molecules frozen as ice. The size of the particles in Type 2 clouds, the water-ice clouds, are much larger than the particle size of the Type 1 clouds - which are on the order of the wavelength of light.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JGRD..12111679W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JGRD..12111679W"><span>Contrasting cloud composition between coupled and decoupled marine boundary layer clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Zhen; Mora Ramirez, Marco; Dadashazar, Hossein; MacDonald, Alex B.; Crosbie, Ewan; Bates, Kelvin H.; Coggon, Matthew M.; Craven, Jill S.; Lynch, Peng; Campbell, James R.; Azadi Aghdam, Mojtaba; Woods, Roy K.; Jonsson, Haflidi; Flagan, Richard C.; Seinfeld, John H.; Sorooshian, Armin</p> <p>2016-10-01</p> <p>Marine stratocumulus clouds often become decoupled from the vertical layer immediately above the ocean surface. This study contrasts cloud chemical composition between coupled and decoupled marine stratocumulus clouds for dissolved nonwater substances. Cloud water and droplet residual particle composition were measured in clouds off the California coast during three airborne experiments in July-August of separate years (Eastern Pacific Emitted Aerosol Cloud Experiment 2011, Nucleation in California Experiment 2013, and Biological and Oceanic Atmospheric Study 2015). Decoupled clouds exhibited significantly lower air-equivalent mass concentrations in both cloud water and droplet residual particles, consistent with reduced cloud droplet number concentration and subcloud aerosol (Dp > 100 nm) number concentration, owing to detachment from surface sources. Nonrefractory submicrometer aerosol measurements show that coupled clouds exhibit higher sulfate mass fractions in droplet residual particles, owing to more abundant precursor emissions from the ocean and ships. Consequently, decoupled clouds exhibited higher mass fractions of organics, nitrate, and ammonium in droplet residual particles, owing to effects of long-range transport from more distant sources. Sodium and chloride dominated in terms of air-equivalent concentration in cloud water for coupled clouds, and their mass fractions and concentrations exceeded those in decoupled clouds. Conversely, with the exception of sea-salt constituents (e.g., Cl, Na, Mg, and K), cloud water mass fractions of all species examined were higher in decoupled clouds relative to coupled clouds. Satellite and Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System-based reanalysis data are compared with each other, and the airborne data to conclude that limitations in resolving boundary layer processes in a global model prevent it from accurately quantifying observed differences between coupled and decoupled cloud composition.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1411907-single-column-model-simulations-subtropical-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-transitions-under-weakening-inversions-scm-simulations-cloud-transitions','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1411907-single-column-model-simulations-subtropical-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-transitions-under-weakening-inversions-scm-simulations-cloud-transitions"><span>Single-Column Model Simulations of Subtropical Marine Boundary-Layer Cloud Transitions Under Weakening Inversions: SCM SIMULATIONS OF CLOUD TRANSITIONS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Neggers, R. A. J.; Ackerman, A. S.; Angevine, W. M.</p> <p></p> <p>Results are presented of the GASS/EUCLIPSE single-column model inter-comparison study on the subtropical marine low-level cloud transition. A central goal is to establish the performance of state-of-the-art boundary-layer schemes for weather and climate mod- els for this cloud regime, using large-eddy simulations of the same scenes as a reference. A novelty is that the comparison covers four different cases instead of one, in order to broaden the covered parameter space. Three cases are situated in the North-Eastern Pa- cific, while one reflects conditions in the North-Eastern Atlantic. A set of variables is considered that reflects key aspects of the transitionmore » process, making use of simple met- rics to establish the model performance. Using this method some longstanding problems in low level cloud representation are identified. Considerable spread exists among models concerning the cloud amount, its vertical structure and the associated impact on radia- tive transfer. The sign and amplitude of these biases differ somewhat per case, depending on how far the transition has progressed. After cloud breakup the ensemble median ex- hibits the well-known “too few too bright” problem. The boundary layer deepening rate and its state of decoupling are both underestimated, while the representation of the thin capping cloud layer appears complicated by a lack of vertical resolution. Encouragingly, some models are successful in representing the full set of variables, in particular the verti- cal structure and diurnal cycle of the cloud layer in transition. An intriguing result is that the median of the model ensemble performs best, inspiring a new approach in subgrid pa- rameterization.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.A53G0211T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.A53G0211T"><span>First UAV Measurements of Entrainment Layer Fluxes with Coupled Cloud Property Measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Thomas, R. M.; Praveen, P. S.; Wilcox, E. M.; Pistone, K.; Bender, F.; Ramanathan, V.</p> <p>2012-12-01</p> <p>This study details entrainment flux measurements made from a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) containing turbulent water vapor flux instrumentation (Thomas et al., 2012). The system was flown for 26 flights during the Cloud, Aerosol, Radiative forcing, Dynamics EXperiment (CARDEX) in the Maldives in March 2012 to study interrelationships between entrainment, aerosols, water budget, cloud microphysics and radiative fluxes in a trade wind cumulus cloud regime. A major advantage of using this lightweight, precision autopiloted UAV system with scientific telemetry is the ability to target small-scale features in the boundary layer, such as an entrainment layer, with minimal aircraft induced disruption. Results are presented from two UAVs flown in stacked formation: one UAV situated in-cloud measuring cloud-droplet size distribution spectra and liquid water content, and another co-located 100m above measuring turbulent properties and entrainment latent heat flux (λEE). We also show latent heat flux and turbulence measurements routinely made at the entrainment layer base and altitudes from the surface up to 4kft. Ratios of λEE to corresponding surface tower values (λES) display a bimodal frequency distribution with ranges 0.22-0.53 and 0.79-1.5, with occasional events >7. Reasons for this distribution are discussed drawing upon boundary layer and free tropospheric dynamics and meteorology, turbulence length scales, surface conditions, and cloud interactions. Latent heat flux profiles are combined with in-cloud UAV Liquid Water Content (LWC) data and surface based Liquid Water Path (LWP) and Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) measurements to produce observationally constrained vertical water budgets, providing insights into diurnal coupling of λEE and λES. Observed λEE, λES, water budgets, and cloud microphysical responses to entrainment are then contextualized with respect to measured aerosol loading profiles and airmass history.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACP....15.4131W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACP....15.4131W"><span>Analysis of actinic flux profiles measured from an ozonesonde balloon</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wang, P.; Allaart, M.; Knap, W. H.; Stammes, P.</p> <p>2015-04-01</p> <p>A green light sensor has been developed at KNMI to measure actinic flux profiles using an ozonesonde balloon. In total, 63 launches with ascending and descending profiles were performed between 2006 and 2010. The measured uncalibrated actinic flux profiles are analysed using the Doubling-Adding KNMI (DAK) radiative transfer model. Values of the cloud optical thickness (COT) along the flight track were taken from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) Cloud Physical Properties (CPP) product. The impact of clouds on the actinic flux profile is evaluated on the basis of the cloud modification factor (CMF) at the cloud top and cloud base, which is the ratio between the actinic fluxes for cloudy and clear-sky scenes. The impact of clouds on the actinic flux is clearly detected: the largest enhancement occurs at the cloud top due to multiple scattering. The actinic flux decreases almost linearly from cloud top to cloud base. Above the cloud top the actinic flux also increases compared to clear-sky scenes. We find that clouds can increase the actinic flux to 2.3 times the clear-sky value at cloud top and decrease it to about 0.05 at cloud base. The relationship between CMF and COT agrees well with DAK simulations, except for a few outliers. Good agreement is found between the DAK-simulated actinic flux profiles and the observations for single-layer clouds in fully overcast scenes. The instrument is suitable for operational balloon measurements because of its simplicity and low cost. It is worth further developing the instrument and launching it together with atmospheric chemistry composition sensors.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..17.6008S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..17.6008S"><span>An attempt to quantify aerosol-cloud effects in fields of precipitating trade wind cumuli</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Seifert, Axel; Heus, Thijs</p> <p>2015-04-01</p> <p>Aerosol indirect effects are notoriously difficult to understand and quantify. Using large-eddy simulations (LES) we attempt to quantify the impact of aerosols on the albedo and the precipitation formation in trade wind cumulus clouds. Having performed a set of large-domain Giga-LES runs we are able to capture the mesoscale self-organization of the cloud field. Our simulations show that self-organization is intrinsically tied to precipitation formation in this cloud regime making previous studies that did not consider cloud organization questionable. We find that aerosols, here modeled just as a perturbation in cloud droplet number concentration, have a significant impact on the transient behavior, i.e., how fast rain is formed and self-organization of the cloud field takes place. Though, for longer integration times, all simulations approach the same radiative-convective equilibrium and aerosol effects become small. The sensitivity to aerosols becomes even smaller when we include explicit cloud-radiation interaction as this leads to a much faster and more vigorous response of the cloud layer. Overall we find that aerosol-cloud interactions, like cloud lifetime effects etc., are small or even negative when the cloud field is close to equilibrium. Consequently, the Twomey effect does already provide an upper bound on the albedo effects of aerosol perturbations. Our analysis also highlights that current parameterizations that predict only the grid-box mean of the cloud field and do not take into account cloud organization are not able to describe aerosol indirect effects correctly, but overestimate them due to that lack of cloud dynamical and mesoscale buffering.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253912','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1253912"><span>Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) Science Plan</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Wang, Jian; Dong, Xiquan; Wood, Robert</p> <p></p> <p>With their extensive coverage, low clouds greatly impact global climate. Presently, low clouds are poorly represented in global climate models (GCMs), and the response of low clouds to changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols remains the major source of uncertainty in climate simulations. The poor representations of low clouds in GCMs are in part due to inadequate observations of their microphysical and macrophysical structures, radiative effects, and the associated aerosol distribution and budget in regions where the aerosol impact is the greatest. The Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) is a region of persistent but diverse subtropical marine boundary-layer (MBL) clouds,more » whose albedo and precipitation are highly susceptible to perturbations in aerosol properties. Boundary-layer aerosol in the ENA region is influenced by a variety of sources, leading to strong variations in cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration and aerosol optical properties. Recently a permanent ENA site was established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility on Graciosa Island in the Azores, providing invaluable information on MBL aerosol and low clouds. At the same time, the vertical structures and horizontal variabilities of aerosol, trace gases, cloud, drizzle, and atmospheric thermodynamics are critically needed for understanding and quantifying the budget of MBL aerosol, the radiative properties, precipitation efficiency, and lifecycle of MBL clouds, and the cloud response to aerosol perturbations. Much of this data can be obtained only through aircraft-based measurements. In addition, the interconnected aerosol and cloud processes are best investigated by a study involving simultaneous in situ aerosol, cloud, and thermodynamics measurements. Furthermore, in situ measurements are also necessary for validating and improving ground-based retrieval algorithms at the ENA site. This project is motivated by the need for comprehensive in situ characterizations of boundary-layer structure, and associated vertical distributions and horizontal variabilities of low clouds and aerosol over the Azores. ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) Gulfstream-1 (G-1) aircraft will be deployed at the ENA site during two intensive operational periods (IOPs) of early summer (June to July) of 2017 and winter (January to February) of 2018, respectively. Deployments during both seasons allow for examination of key aerosol and cloud processes under a variety of representative meteorological and cloud conditions. The science themes for the deployments include: 1) Budget of MBL CCN and its seasonal variation; 2) Effects of aerosol on cloud and precipitation; 3) Cloud microphysical and macrophysical structures, and entrainment mixing; 4) Advancing retrievals of turbulence, cloud, and drizzle; and 5) Model evaluation and processes studies. A key advantage of the deployments is the strong synergy between the measurements onboard the G-1 and the routine measurements at the ENA site, including state-of-the-art profiling and scanning radars. The 3D cloud structures provided by the scanning radars will put the detailed in situ measurements into mesoscale and cloud lifecycle contexts. On the other hand, high quality in situ measurements will enable validation and improvements of ground-based retrieval algorithms at the ENA site, leading to high-quality and statistically robust data sets from the routine measurements. The deployments, combined with the routine measurements at the ENA site, will have a long lasting impact on the research and modeling of low clouds and aerosols in the remote marine environment.« less</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_13");'>13</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li class="active"><span>15</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_15 --> <div id="page_16" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li class="active"><span>16</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="301"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22518815-jupiter-exoplanet-uv-nir-transmission-spectrum-reveals-hazes-na-layer-possibly-stratospheric-sub-ice-clouds','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22518815-jupiter-exoplanet-uv-nir-transmission-spectrum-reveals-hazes-na-layer-possibly-stratospheric-sub-ice-clouds"><span>JUPITER AS AN EXOPLANET: UV TO NIR TRANSMISSION SPECTRUM REVEALS HAZES, A Na LAYER, AND POSSIBLY STRATOSPHERIC H{sub 2}O-ICE CLOUDS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Montañés-Rodríguez, Pilar; González-Merino, B.; Pallé, E.</p> <p></p> <p>Currently, the analysis of transmission spectra is the most successful technique to probe the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres. However, the accuracy of these measurements is constrained by observational limitations and the diversity of possible atmospheric compositions. Here, we show the UV–VIS–IR transmission spectrum of Jupiter as if it were a transiting exoplanet, obtained by observing one of its satellites, Ganymede, while passing through Jupiter’s shadow, i.e., during a solar eclipse from Ganymede. The spectrum shows strong extinction due to the presence of clouds (aerosols) and haze in the atmosphere and strong absorption features from CH{sub 4}. More interestingly, themore » comparison with radiative transfer models reveals a spectral signature, which we attribute here to a Jupiter stratospheric layer of crystalline H{sub 2}O ice. The atomic transitions of Na are also present. These results are relevant for the modeling and interpretation of giant transiting exoplanets. They also open a new technique to explore the atmospheric composition of the upper layers of Jupiter’s atmosphere.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.8612R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.8612R"><span>Developing Present-day Proxy Cases Based on NARVAL Data for Investigating Low Level Cloud Responses to Future Climate Change.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Reilly, Stephanie</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>The energy budget of the entire global climate is significantly influenced by the presence of boundary layer clouds. The main aim of the High Definition Clouds and Precipitation for Advancing Climate Prediction (HD(CP)2) project is to improve climate model predictions by means of process studies of clouds and precipitation. This study makes use of observed elevated moisture layers as a proxy of future changes in tropospheric humidity. The associated impact on radiative transfer triggers fast responses in boundary layer clouds, providing a framework for investigating this phenomenon. The investigation will be carried out using data gathered during the Next-generation Aircraft Remote-sensing for VALidation (NARVAL) South campaigns. Observational data will be combined with ECMWF reanalysis data to derive the large scale forcings for the Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Simulations will be generated for a range of elevated moisture layers, spanning a multi-dimensional phase space in depth, amplitude, elevation, and cloudiness. The NARVAL locations will function as anchor-points. The results of the large eddy simulations and the observations will be studied and compared in an attempt to determine how simulated boundary layer clouds react to changes in radiative transfer from the free troposphere. Preliminary LES results will be presented and discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JAMES...9.2385N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JAMES...9.2385N"><span>Single-Column Model Simulations of Subtropical Marine Boundary-Layer Cloud Transitions Under Weakening Inversions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Neggers, R. A. J.; Ackerman, A. S.; Angevine, W. M.; Bazile, E.; Beau, I.; Blossey, P. N.; Boutle, I. A.; de Bruijn, C.; Cheng, A.; van der Dussen, J.; Fletcher, J.; Dal Gesso, S.; Jam, A.; Kawai, H.; Cheedela, S. K.; Larson, V. E.; Lefebvre, M.-P.; Lock, A. P.; Meyer, N. R.; de Roode, S. R.; de Rooy, W.; Sandu, I.; Xiao, H.; Xu, K.-M.</p> <p>2017-10-01</p> <p>Results are presented of the GASS/EUCLIPSE single-column model intercomparison study on the subtropical marine low-level cloud transition. A central goal is to establish the performance of state-of-the-art boundary-layer schemes for weather and climate models for this cloud regime, using large-eddy simulations of the same scenes as a reference. A novelty is that the comparison covers four different cases instead of one, in order to broaden the covered parameter space. Three cases are situated in the North-Eastern Pacific, while one reflects conditions in the North-Eastern Atlantic. A set of variables is considered that reflects key aspects of the transition process, making use of simple metrics to establish the model performance. Using this method, some longstanding problems in low-level cloud representation are identified. Considerable spread exists among models concerning the cloud amount, its vertical structure, and the associated impact on radiative transfer. The sign and amplitude of these biases differ somewhat per case, depending on how far the transition has progressed. After cloud breakup the ensemble median exhibits the well-known "too few too bright" problem. The boundary-layer deepening rate and its state of decoupling are both underestimated, while the representation of the thin capping cloud layer appears complicated by a lack of vertical resolution. Encouragingly, some models are successful in representing the full set of variables, in particular, the vertical structure and diurnal cycle of the cloud layer in transition. An intriguing result is that the median of the model ensemble performs best, inspiring a new approach in subgrid parameterization.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A54D..02M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A54D..02M"><span>Quantifying the impact of anthropogenic pollution on cloud properties derived from ground based remote sensors at the North Slope of Alaska</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Maahn, M.; Acquistapace, C.; de Boer, G.; Cox, C.; Feingold, G.; Marke, T.; Williams, C. R.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>When acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice nucleating particles (INPs), aerosols have a strong potential to influence cloud properties. In particular, they can impact the number, size, and phase of cloud particles and potentially cloud lifetime through aerosol indirect and semi-direct effects. In polar regions, these effects are of great importance for the radiation budget due to the shortwave albedo and longwave emissivity of mixed-phase clouds. The Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program operates two super sites equipped with state of the art ground-based remote sensing instruments in northern Alaska. The sites are both coastal and are highly correlated with respect to large scale synoptic patterns. While the site at Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow) generally represents a relatively pristine Arctic environment lacking significant anthropogenic sources, the site at Oliktok Point, approximately 250 km to the east, is surrounded by the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, which is the largest oil field in North America. Based on aircraft measurement, the authors recently showed that differences in the properties of liquid clouds properties between the sites can be attributed to local emissions associated with the industrial activities in the Prudhoe Bay region (Maahn et al. 2017, ACPD). However, aircraft measurements do not provide a representative sample of cloud properties due to temporal limitations in the amount of data. In order to investigate how frequently and to what extent liquid cloud properties and processes are modified, we use ground based remote sensing observations such as e.g., cloud radar, Doppler lidar, and microwave radiometer obtained continuously at the two sites. In this way, we are able to quantify inter-site differences with respect to cloud drizzle production, liquid water path, frequency of cloud occurrence, and cloud radiative properties. Turbulence and the coupling of clouds to the boundary layer is investigated in order to infer the potential role of locally emitted aerosols in modulating the observed differences.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090034995&hterms=raman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3Draman','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20090034995&hterms=raman&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D50%26Ntt%3Draman"><span>Evaluation of the OMI Cloud Pressures Derived from Rotational Raman Scattering by Comparisons with other Satellite Data and Radiative Transfer Simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Vasilkov, Alexander; Joiner, Joanna; Spurr, Robert; Bhartia, Pawan K.; Levelt, Pieternel; Stephens, Graeme</p> <p>2009-01-01</p> <p>In this paper we examine differences between cloud pressures retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) using the ultraviolet rotational Raman scattering (RRS) algorithm and those from the thermal infrared (IR) Aqua/MODIS. Several cloud data sets are currently being used in OMI trace gas retrieval algorithms including climatologies based on IR measurements and simultaneous cloud parameters derived from OMI. From a validation perspective, it is important to understand the OMI retrieved cloud parameters and how they differ with those derived from the IR. To this end, we perform radiative transfer calculations to simulate the effects of different geophysical conditions on the OMI RRS cloud pressure retrievals. We also quantify errors related to the use of the Mixed Lambert-Equivalent Reflectivity (MLER) concept as currently implemented of the OMI algorithms. Using properties from the Cloudsat radar and MODIS, we show that radiative transfer calculations support the following: (1) The MLER model is adequate for single-layer optically thick, geometrically thin clouds, but can produce significant errors in estimated cloud pressure for optically thin clouds. (2) In a two-layer cloud, the RRS algorithm may retrieve a cloud pressure that is either between the two cloud decks or even beneath the top of the lower cloud deck because of scattering between the cloud layers; the retrieved pressure depends upon the viewing geometry and the optical depth of the upper cloud deck. (3) Absorbing aerosol in and above a cloud can produce significant errors in the retrieved cloud pressure. (4) The retrieved RRS effective pressure for a deep convective cloud will be significantly higher than the physical cloud top pressure derived with thermal IR.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1915051L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1915051L"><span>Impact of Low Level Clouds on radiative and turbulent surface flux in southern West Africa</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lohou, Fabienne; Kalthoff, Norbert; Dione, Cheikh; Lothon, Marie; Adler, Bianca; Babic, Karmen; Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Xabier; Vila-Guerau De Arellano, Jordi</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>During the monsoon season in West Africa, low-level clouds form almost every night and break up between 0900 and the middle of the afternoon depending on the day. The break-up of these clouds leads to the formation of boundary-layer cumuli clouds, which can sometimes evolve into deep convection. The low-level clouds have a strong impact on the radiation and energy budget at the surface and consequently on the humidity in the boundary layer and the afternoon convection. During the DACCIWA ground campaign, which took place in June and July 2016, three supersites in Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria were instrumented to document the conditions within the lower troposphere including the cloud layers. Radiative and turbulent fluxes were measured at different places by several surface stations jointly with low-level cloud occurrence during 50 days. These datasets enable the analysis of modifications in the diurnal cycle of the radiative and turbulent surface flux induced by the formation and presence of the low-level clouds. The final objective of this study is to estimate the error made in some NWP simulations when the diurnal cycle of low-level clouds is poorly represented or not represented at all.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.3869F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.3869F"><span>Aircraft-based investigation of Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in Southern West Africa</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Flamant, Cyrille</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>The EU-funded project DACCIWA (Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa, http://www.dacciwa.eu) is investigating the relationship between weather, climate and air pollution in southern West Africa. The air over the coastal region of West Africa is a unique mixture of natural and anthropogenic gases, liquids and particles, emitted in an environment, in which multi-layer cloud decks frequently form. These exert a large influence on the local weather and climate, mainly due to their impact on radiation, the surface energy balance and thus the diurnal cycle of the atmospheric boundary layer. The main objective for the aircraft detachment was to build robust statistics of cloud properties in southern West Africa in different chemical landscapes to investigate the physical processes involved in their life cycle in such a complex chemical environment. As part of the DACCIWA field campaigns, three European aircraft (the German DLR Falcon 20, the French SAFIRE ATR 42 and the British BAS Twin Otter) conducted a total of 50 research flights across Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin from 27 June to 16 July 2016 for a total of 155 flight hours, including hours sponsored through 3 EUFAR projects. The aircraft were used in different ways based on their strengths, but all three had comparable instrumentation with the the capability to do gas-phase chemistry, aerosol and clouds, thereby generating a rich dataset of atmospheric conditions across the region. Eight types of flight objectives were conducted to achieve the goals of the DACCIWA: (i) Stratus clouds, (ii) Land-sea breeze clouds, (iii) Mid-level clouds, (iv) Biogenic emission, (v) City emissions, (vi) Flaring and ship emissions, (vii) Dust and biomass burning aerosols, and (viii) air-sea interactions. An overview of the DACCIWA aircraft campaign as well as first highlights from the airborne observations will be presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-GSFC_20171208_Archive_e002165.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-GSFC_20171208_Archive_e002165.html"><span>Open-cell and closed-cell clouds off Peru</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2010-04-27</p> <p>2010/107 - 04/17 at 21 :05 UTC. Open-cell and closed-cell clouds off Peru, Pacific Ocean Resembling a frosted window on a cold winter's day, this lacy pattern of marine clouds was captured off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite on April 19, 2010. The image reveals both open- and closed-cell cumulus cloud patterns. These cells, or parcels of air, often occur in roughly hexagonal arrays in a layer of fluid (the atmosphere often behaves like a fluid) that begins to "boil," or convect, due to heating at the base or cooling at the top of the layer. In "closed" cells warm air is rising in the center, and sinking around the edges, so clouds appear in cell centers, but evaporate around cell edges. This produces cloud formations like those that dominate the lower left. The reverse flow can also occur: air can sink in the center of the cell and rise at the edge. This process is called "open cell" convection, and clouds form at cell edges around open centers, which creates a lacy, hollow-looking pattern like the clouds in the upper right. Closed and open cell convection represent two stable atmospheric configurations — two sides of the convection coin. But what determines which path the "boiling" atmosphere will take? Apparently the process is highly chaotic, and there appears to be no way to predict whether convection will result in open or closed cells. Indeed, the atmosphere may sometimes flip between one mode and another in no predictable pattern. Satellite: Aqua NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team To learn more about MODIS go to: rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?latest NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150002137','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20150002137"><span>Spectral Dependence of MODIS Cloud Droplet Effective Radius Retrievals for Marine Boundary Layer Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, Zhibo; Platnick, Steven E.; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Cho, Hyoun-Myoung</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>Low-level warm marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds cover large regions of Earth's surface. They have a significant role in Earth's radiative energy balance and hydrological cycle. Despite the fundamental role of low-level warm water clouds in climate, our understanding of these clouds is still limited. In particular, connections between their properties (e.g. cloud fraction, cloud water path, and cloud droplet size) and environmental factors such as aerosol loading and meteorological conditions continue to be uncertain or unknown. Modeling these clouds in climate models remains a challenging problem. As a result, the influence of aerosols on these clouds in the past and future, and the potential impacts of these clouds on global warming remain open questions leading to substantial uncertainty in climate projections. To improve our understanding of these clouds, we need continuous observations of cloud properties on both a global scale and over a long enough timescale for climate studies. At present, satellite-based remote sensing is the only means of providing such observations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.A14A..06Y','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.A14A..06Y"><span>Global Distribution and Vertical Structure of Clouds Revealed by CALIPSO</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Yi, Y.; Minnis, P.; Winker, D.; Huang, J.; Sun-Mack, S.; Ayers, K.</p> <p>2007-12-01</p> <p>Understanding the effects of clouds on Earth's radiation balance, especially on longwave fluxes within the atmosphere, depends on having accurate knowledge of cloud vertical location within the atmosphere. The Cloud- Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite mission provides the opportunity to measure the vertical distribution of clouds at a greater detail than ever before possible. The CALIPSO cloud layer products from June 2006 to June 2007 are analyzed to determine the occurrence frequency and thickness of clouds as functions of time, latitude, and altitude. In particular, the latitude-longitude and vertical distributions of single- and multi-layer clouds and the latitudinal movement of cloud cover with the changing seasons are examined. The seasonal variablities of cloud frequency and geometric thickness are also analyzed and compared with similar quantities derived from the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) using the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) cloud retrieval algorithms. The comparisons provide an estimate of the errors in cloud fraction, top height, and thickness incurred by passive algorithms.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ThApC.123..551W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ThApC.123..551W"><span>Features of clouds and convection during the pre- and post-onset periods of the Asian summer monsoon</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Yi; Wang, Chenghai</p> <p>2016-02-01</p> <p>The statistical characteristics of the vertical structure of clouds in the Asian summer monsoon region are investigated using two CloudSat standard products (Geometrical Profiling Product (GEOPROF) and GEOPROF-lidar) during the pre- and post-onset periods of the Asian summer monsoon, from April to August in 2007-2010. The characteristics of the vertical structure of clouds are analyzed and compared for different underlying surfaces in four subregions during this period. Also analyzed are the evolution of precipitation and hydrometeors with the northward advance of the Asian summer monsoon, and different hydrometeor characteristics attributed to the underlying surface features. The results indicate that the vertical cloud amounts increase significantly after the summer monsoon onset; this increase occurs first in the upper troposphere and then at lower altitudes over tropical regions (South Asian and tropical Northwest Pacific regions). The heights of the cloud top ascend, and the vertical height between the top and the base of the whole cloud increases. Single-layer (SL) and double-layer (DL) hydrometeors contribute over half and one third of the cloudiness in these 5 months (April to August), respectively. The multilayer frequencies increase in four different regions, and cloud layer depths (CLD) increase after the summer monsoon onset. These changes are stronger in tropical regions than in subtropical regions, while the vertical distance between cloud layers (VDCL) deceases in tropical regions and increases in subtropical regions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.4537T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.4537T"><span>Contrasting sea-ice and open-water boundary layers during melt and freeze-up seasons: Some result from the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Tjernström, Michael; Sotiropoulou, Georgia; Sedlar, Joseph; Achtert, Peggy; Brooks, Barbara; Brooks, Ian; Persson, Ola; Prytherch, John; Salsbury, Dominic; Shupe, Matthew; Johnston, Paul; Wolfe, Dan</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>With more open water present in the Arctic summer, an understanding of atmospheric processes over open-water and sea-ice surfaces as summer turns into autumn and ice starts forming becomes increasingly important. The Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE) was conducted in a mix of open water and sea ice in the eastern Arctic along the Siberian shelf during late summer and early autumn 2014, providing detailed observations of the seasonal transition, from melt to freeze. Measurements were taken over both ice-free and ice-covered surfaces, offering an insight to the role of the surface state in shaping the lower troposphere and the boundary-layer conditions as summer turned into autumn. During summer, strong surface inversions persisted over sea ice, while well-mixed boundary layers capped by elevated inversions were frequent over open-water. The former were often associated with advection of warm air from adjacent open-water or land surfaces, whereas the latter were due to a positive buoyancy flux from the warm ocean surface. Fog and stratus clouds often persisted over the ice, whereas low-level liquid-water clouds developed over open water. These differences largely disappeared in autumn, when mixed-phase clouds capped by elevated inversions dominated in both ice-free and ice-covered conditions. Low-level-jets occurred ~20-25% of the time in both seasons. The observations indicate that these jets were typically initiated at air-mass boundaries or along the ice edge in autumn, while in summer they appeared to be inertial oscillations initiated by partial frictional decoupling as warm air was advected in over the sea ice. The start of the autumn season was related to an abrupt change in atmospheric conditions, rather than to the gradual change in solar radiation. The autumn onset appeared as a rapid cooling of the whole atmosphere and the freeze up followed as the warm surface lost heat to the atmosphere. While the surface type had a pronounced impact on boundary-layer structure in summer, the surface was often warmer than the atmosphere in autumn, regardless of surface type. Hence the autumn boundary-layer structure was more dependent on synoptic scale meteorology.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014DPS....4651105B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014DPS....4651105B"><span>Why is the Great Red Spot Red? The Exogenic, Photolytic Origin of the UV/Blue-Absorbing Chromophores of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot as Determined by Spectral Analysis of Cassini/VIMS Observations using New Laboratory Optical Coefficients</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Baines, Kevin H.; Carlson, Robert W.; Momary, Thomas W.</p> <p>2014-11-01</p> <p>For centuries, a major question for Jupiter has been: Why is the Great Red Spot red? In particular, two major theories have been proposed: (1) that the coloring is due to photolytic processes in the upper cloud layer, or (2) it is due to the upwellimg of red materials processed relatively deep within the troposphere. Utilizing indices of refraction for red choromophores generated by the photolysis of ammonia and acetylene in the laboratory, we present results of a spectral analysis of the core of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) as observed by the visual channel of the Cassini/Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). Consistent with the physical origin of such laboratory-generated chromophores in Jupiter - i.e., by solar-driven UV photolysis within the upper levels of the GRS structure near ~ 0.3 bar - our spectral modeling yields satisfactory results for such Mie scattering chromophores only when they are confined to the upper ~ 100 mbar of the GRS. Beneath this reddish upper cloud layer, our models indicate that the remainder of the GRS cloud - assumed to extend down to at least the ammonia condensation level near 0.6 bar - must be relatively spectrally bright throughout the UV-red spectrum; that is, they must be predominantly a whitish or grey color at depth. Thus, our 0.35-1.0 micron spectral models of the GRS are inconsistent with an endogenic origin of the reddish coloring originating in the depths of Jupiter, but are consistent with a photolytic origin due to the photolysis of ammonia and acetylene in the upper troposphere.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.1475Y','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.1475Y"><span>Relating large-scale subsidence to convection development in Arctic mixed-phase marine stratocumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Young, Gillian; Connolly, Paul J.; Dearden, Christopher; Choularton, Thomas W.</p> <p>2018-02-01</p> <p>Large-scale subsidence, associated with high-pressure systems, is often imposed in large-eddy simulation (LES) models to maintain the height of boundary layer (BL) clouds. Previous studies have considered the influence of subsidence on warm liquid clouds in subtropical regions; however, the relationship between subsidence and mixed-phase cloud microphysics has not specifically been studied. For the first time, we investigate how widespread subsidence associated with synoptic-scale meteorological features can affect the microphysics of Arctic mixed-phase marine stratocumulus (Sc) clouds. Modelled with LES, four idealised scenarios - a stable Sc, varied droplet (Ndrop) or ice (Nice) number concentrations, and a warming surface (representing motion southwards) - were subjected to different levels of subsidence to investigate the cloud microphysical response. We find strong sensitivities to large-scale subsidence, indicating that high-pressure systems in the ocean-exposed Arctic regions have the potential to generate turbulence and changes in cloud microphysics in any resident BL mixed-phase clouds.Increased cloud convection is modelled with increased subsidence, driven by longwave radiative cooling at cloud top and rain evaporative cooling and latent heating from snow growth below cloud. Subsidence strengthens the BL temperature inversion, thus reducing entrainment and allowing the liquid- and ice-water paths (LWPs, IWPs) to increase. Through increased cloud-top radiative cooling and subsequent convective overturning, precipitation production is enhanced: rain particle number concentrations (Nrain), in-cloud rain mass production rates, and below-cloud evaporation rates increase with increased subsidence.Ice number concentrations (Nice) play an important role, as greater concentrations suppress the liquid phase; therefore, Nice acts to mediate the strength of turbulent overturning promoted by increased subsidence. With a warming surface, a lack of - or low - subsidence allows for rapid BL turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) coupling, leading to a heterogeneous cloud layer, cloud-top ascent, and cumuli formation below the Sc cloud. In these scenarios, higher levels of subsidence act to stabilise the Sc layer, where the combination of these two forcings counteract one another to produce a stable, yet dynamic, cloud layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.A31J..07H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AGUFM.A31J..07H"><span>The CREW intercomparison of SEVIRI cloud retrievals</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Hamann, U.; Walther, A.; Bennartz, R.; Thoss, A.; Meirink, J. M.; Roebeling, R.</p> <p>2012-12-01</p> <p>About 70% of the earth's surface is covered with clouds. They strongly influence the radiation balance and the water cycle of the earth. Hence the detailed monitoring of cloud properties - such as cloud fraction, cloud top temperature, cloud particle size, and cloud water path - is important to understand the role of clouds in the weather and the climate system. The remote sensing with passive sensors is an essential mean for the global observation of the cloud parameters, but is nevertheless challenging. This presentation focuses on the inter-comparison and validation of cloud physical properties retrievals from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard METEOSAT. For this study we use retrievals from 12 state-of-art algorithms (Eumetsat, KNMI, NASA Langley, NASA Goddard, University Madison/Wisconsin, DWD, DLR, Meteo-France, KMI, FU Berlin, UK MetOffice) that are made available through the common database of the CREW (Cloud Retrieval Evaluation Working) group. Cloud detection, cloud top phase, height, and temperature, as well as optical properties and water path are validated with CLOUDSAT, CALIPSO, MISR, and AMSR-E measurements. Special emphasis is given to challenging retrieval conditions. Semi-transparent clouds over the earth's surface or another cloud layer modify the measured brightness temperature and increase the retrieval uncertainty. The consideration of the three-dimensional radiative effects is especially important for large viewing angles and broken cloud fields. Aerosols might be misclassified as cloud and may increase the retrieval uncertainty, too. Due to the availability of the high number of sophisticated retrieval datasets, the advantages of different retrieval approaches can be examined and suggestions for future retrieval developments can be made. We like to thank Eumetsat for sponsoring the CREW project including this work.nstitutes that participate in the CREW project.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0017M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0017M"><span>A multi-spectral approach to simultaneously retrieve above-cloud smoke optical depth and the optical and microphysical properties of underlying marine stratocumulus clouds using MODIS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Meyer, K.; Platnick, S. E.; Zhang, Z.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>Clouds, aerosols, and their interactions are widely considered to be key uncertainty components in our current understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and radiation budget. The work presented here is focused on the quasi-permanent marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, which underlie a near-persistent smoke layer produced from extensive biomass burning throughout the southern African savanna during austral winter. The absorption of the above-cloud smoke layer, which increases with decreasing wavelength, can introduce biases into the standard MODIS cloud optical and microphysical property retrievals of the underlying MBL clouds. This effect is more pronounced in the cloud optical thickness retrievals, which over ocean are derived from the wavelength channel centered near 0.86 μm (effective particle size retrievals are derived from the short and mid-wave IR channels at 1.6, 2.1, and 3.7 μm). Here, a new method is introduced to simultaneously retrieve the above-cloud smoke aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the unbiased cloud optical thickness (COT) and effective radius (CER) using multiple MODIS spectral channels in the visible and near- and shortwave-infrared. Preliminary retrieval results are shown, as are comparisons with other A-Train sensors.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A12A..07M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A12A..07M"><span>An imager-based multispectral retrieval of above-cloud absorbing aerosol optical depth and the optical and microphysical properties of underlying marine stratocumulus clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Meyer, K.; Platnick, S. E.; Zhang, Z.</p> <p>2014-12-01</p> <p>Clouds, aerosols, and their interactions are widely considered to be key uncertainty components in our current understanding of the Earth's atmosphere and radiation budget. The work presented here is focused on the quasi-permanent marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, which underlie a near-persistent smoke layer produced from extensive biomass burning throughout the southern African savanna during austral winter. The absorption of the above-cloud smoke layer, which increases with decreasing wavelength, can introduce biases into imager-based cloud optical and microphysical property retrievals of the underlying MBL clouds. This effect is more pronounced for cloud optical thickness retrievals, which are typically derived from the visible or near-IR wavelength channels (effective particle size retrievals are derived from short and mid-wave IR channels that are less affected by aerosol absorption). Here, a new method is introduced to simultaneously retrieve the above-cloud smoke aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the unbiased cloud optical thickness (COT) and effective radius (CER) using multiple spectral channels in the visible and near- and shortwave-IR. The technique has been applied to MODIS, and retrieval results and statistics, as well as comparisons with other A-Train sensors, are shown.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150002800&hterms=Influence+clouds+climate&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3DInfluence%2Bclouds%2Bclimate','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150002800&hterms=Influence+clouds+climate&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3DInfluence%2Bclouds%2Bclimate"><span>Remote Sensing of Cloud Top Height from SEVIRI: Analysis of Eleven Current Retrieval Algorithms</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Hamann, U.; Walther, A.; Baum, B.; Bennartz, R.; Bugliaro, L.; Derrien, M.; Francis, P. N.; Heidinger, A.; Joro, S.; Kniffka, A.; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20150002800'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20150002800_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20150002800_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20150002800_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20150002800_hide"></p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>The role of clouds remains the largest uncertainty in climate projections. They influence solar and thermal radiative transfer and the earth's water cycle. Therefore, there is an urgent need for accurate cloud observations to validate climate models and to monitor climate change. Passive satellite imagers measuring radiation at visible to thermal infrared (IR) wavelengths provide a wealth of information on cloud properties. Among others, the cloud top height (CTH) - a crucial parameter to estimate the thermal cloud radiative forcing - can be retrieved. In this paper we investigate the skill of ten current retrieval algorithms to estimate the CTH using observations from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) onboard Meteosat Second Generation (MSG). In the first part we compare ten SEVIRI cloud top pressure (CTP) data sets with each other. The SEVIRI algorithms catch the latitudinal variation of the CTP in a similar way. The agreement is better in the extratropics than in the tropics. In the tropics multi-layer clouds and thin cirrus layers complicate the CTP retrieval, whereas a good agreement among the algorithms is found for trade wind cumulus, marine stratocumulus and the optically thick cores of the deep convective system. In the second part of the paper the SEVIRI retrievals are compared to CTH observations from the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instruments. It is important to note that the different measurement techniques cause differences in the retrieved CTH data. SEVIRI measures a radiatively effective CTH, while the CTH of the active instruments is derived from the return time of the emitted radar or lidar signal. Therefore, some systematic differences are expected. On average the CTHs detected by the SEVIRI algorithms are 1.0 to 2.5 kilometers lower than CALIOP observations, and the correlation coefficients between the SEVIRI and the CALIOP data sets range between 0.77 and 0.90. The average CTHs derived by the SEVIRI algorithms are closer to the CPR measurements than to CALIOP measurements. The biases between SEVIRI and CPR retrievals range from -0.8 kilometers to 0.6 kilometers. The correlation coefficients of CPR and SEVIRI observations vary between 0.82 and 0.89. To discuss the origin of the CTH deviation, we investigate three cloud categories: optically thin and thick single layer as well as multi-layer clouds. For optically thick clouds the correlation coefficients between the SEVIRI and the reference data sets are usually above 0.95. For optically thin single layer clouds the correlation coefficients are still above 0.92. For this cloud category the SEVIRI algorithms yield CTHs that are lower than CALIOP and similar to CPR observations. Most challenging are the multi-layer clouds, where the correlation coefficients are for most algorithms between 0.6 and 0.8. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the SEVIRI retrievals for boundary layer clouds. While the CTH retrieval for this cloud type is relatively accurate, there are still considerable differences between the algorithms. These are related to the uncertainties and limited vertical resolution of the assumed temperature profiles in combination with the presence of temperature inversions, which lead to ambiguities in the CTH retrieval. Alternative approaches for the CTH retrieval of low clouds are discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MsT.........47A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MsT.........47A"><span>The Intrinsic Variability in the Water Vapor Saturation Ratio Due to Turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Anderson, Jesse Charles</p> <p></p> <p>The water vapor concentration plays an important role for many atmospheric processes. The mean concentration is key to understand water vapor's effect on the climate as a greenhouse gas. The fluctuations about the mean are important to understand heat fluxes between Earth's surface and the boundary layer. These fluctuations are linked to turbulence that is present in the boundary layer. Turbulent conditions are simulated in Michigan Tech's multiphase, turbulent reaction chamber, the pi chamber. Measurements for temperature and water vapor concentration were recorded under forced Rayleigh- Benard convection at several turbulent intensities. These were used to calculate the saturation ratio, often referred to as the relative humidity. The fluctuations in the water vapor concentration were found to be the more important than the temperature for the variability of the saturation ratio. The fluctuations in the saturation ratio result in some cloud droplets experiencing a higher supersaturation than other cloud droplets, causing those "lucky" droplets to grow at a faster rate than other droplets. This difference in growth rates could contribute to a broadening of the size distribution of cloud droplets, resulting in the enhancement of collision-coalescence. These fluctuations become more pronounced with more intense turbulence.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1248745-differences-between-nonprecipitating-tropical-trade-wind-marine-shallow-cumuli','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1248745-differences-between-nonprecipitating-tropical-trade-wind-marine-shallow-cumuli"><span>Differences between nonprecipitating tropical and trade wind marine shallow cumuli</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Ghate, Virendra P.; Miller, Mark A.; Zhu, Ping</p> <p>2015-11-13</p> <p>In this study, 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 scalemore » 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« less</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_14");'>14</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li class="active"><span>16</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_16 --> <div id="page_17" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li class="active"><span>17</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="321"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1371481-using-large-eddy-simulations-reveal-size-strength-phase-updraft-downdraft-cores-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus-cloud','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1371481-using-large-eddy-simulations-reveal-size-strength-phase-updraft-downdraft-cores-arctic-mixed-phase-stratocumulus-cloud"><span>Using large eddy simulations to reveal the size, strength, and phase of updraft and downdraft cores of an Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus cloud</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Roesler, Erika L.; Posselt, Derek J.; Rood, Richard B.</p> <p>2017-04-06</p> <p>Three-dimensional large eddy simulations (LES) are used to analyze a springtime Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus observed on 26 April 2008 during the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign. Two subgrid-scale turbulence parameterizations are compared. The first scheme is a 1.5-order turbulent kinetic energy (1.5-TKE) parameterization that has been previously applied to boundary layer cloud simulations. The second scheme, Cloud Layers Unified By Binormals (CLUBB), provides higher-order turbulent closure with scale awareness. The simulations, in comparisons with observations, show that both schemes produce the liquid profiles within measurement variability but underpredict ice water mass and overpredict ice number concentration. The simulation using CLUBBmore » underpredicted liquid water path more than the simulation using the 1.5-TKE scheme, so the turbulent length scale and horizontal grid box size were increased to increase liquid water path and reduce dissipative energy. The LES simulations show this stratocumulus cloud to maintain a closed cellular structure, similar to observations. The updraft and downdraft cores self-organize into a larger meso-γ-scale convective pattern with the 1.5-TKE scheme, but the cores remain more isotropic with the CLUBB scheme. Additionally, the cores are often composed of liquid and ice instead of exclusively containing one or the other. Furthermore, these results provide insight into traditionally unresolved and unmeasurable aspects of an Arctic mixed-phase cloud. From analysis, this cloud's updraft and downdraft cores appear smaller than other closed-cell stratocumulus such as midlatitude stratocumulus and Arctic autumnal mixed-phase stratocumulus due to the weaker downdrafts and lower precipitation rates.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1248745','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1248745"><span>Differences between nonprecipitating tropical and trade wind marine shallow cumuli</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Ghate, Virendra P.; Miller, Mark A.; Zhu, Ping</p> <p></p> <p>In this study, 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 scalemore » 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« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.epa.gov/scram/air-modeling-observational-meteorological-data','PESTICIDES'); return false;" href="https://www.epa.gov/scram/air-modeling-observational-meteorological-data"><span>Air Modeling - Observational Meteorological Data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/search.htm">EPA Pesticide Factsheets</a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Observed meteorological data for use in air quality modeling consist of physical parameters that are measured directly by instrumentation, and include temperature, dew point, wind direction, wind speed, cloud cover, cloud layer(s), ceiling height,</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995JAtS...52.4159G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995JAtS...52.4159G"><span>Dynamical Structure and Turbulence in Cirrus Clouds: Aircraft Observations during FIRE.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gultepe, I.; Starr, D. O'c.</p> <p>1995-12-01</p> <p>Aircraft data collected during the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Regional Experiment (FIRE)I are used to examine dynamical processes operating in cirrus cloud systems observed on 19 and 28 October 1986. Measurements from Lagrangian spiral soundings and constant-altitude flight legs are analyzed. Comparisons are made with observations in clear air. Each cirrus case contained a statically stable layer, a conditionally unstable or neutrally stratified layer (ice pseudoadiabatic) in which convection was prevalent, and a neutral layer in which convection was intermittent. The analysis indicates that a mixture of phenomena occurred including small-scale convective cells, gravity waves (2-9 km), quasi-two-dimensional waves (10-20 km), and larger two-dimensional mesoscale waves (100 km). The intermediate-scale waves, observed both in clear air and in the cloud systems, likely played an important role in the development of the cloud systems given the magnitude of the associated vertical air velocity. The spectra of perturbations of wind components for layers where convection was prevalent were characterized by a 5/3 power law dependence, while a 2/4 dependence was found at other levels in the cloud systems. A steeper spectral slope (3) was found in the more stable cloud-base layer on 19 October. Samples in clear air also showed a (2.4) dependence. Flight-leg-averaged eddy potential heat fluxes (H=±8 W m2) were comparable to observations in marine stratocumulus clouds. Calculated turbulence dissipation rates agree with previously published studies, which indicate a general enhancement within cloud systems (106 to 103 m2 s<IMG border="0" src="/charent/ISO_CHARACTERS_MIXED/LOWERCASE/minus.gif">3 in cloud versus values less than 0.5×10<IMG border="0" src="/charent/ISO_CHARACTERS_MIXED/LOWERCASE/minus.gif">6 m2 s<IMG border="0" src="/charent/ISO_CHARACTERS_MIXED/LOWERCASE/minus.gif">3 in clear air).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080023285','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080023285"><span>Cloud-System Resolving Models: Status and Prospects</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Tao, Wei-Kuo; Moncreiff, Mitch</p> <p>2008-01-01</p> <p>Cloud-system resolving models (CRM), which are based on the nonhydrostatic equations of motion and typically have a grid-spacing of about a kilometer, originated as cloud-process models in the 1970s. This paper reviews the status and prospects of CRMs across a wide range of issues, such as microphysics and precipitation; interaction between clouds and radiation; and the effects of boundary-layer and surface-processes on cloud systems. Since CRMs resolve organized convection, tropical waves and the large-scale circulation, there is the prospect for several advances in both basic knowledge of scale-interaction requisite to parameterizing mesoscale processes in climate models. In superparameterization, CRMs represent convection, explicitly replacing many of the assumptions necessary in contemporary parameterization. Global CRMs have been run on an experimental basis, giving prospect to a new generation of climate weather prediction in a decade, and climate models due course. CRMs play a major role in the retrieval of surface-rain and latent heating from satellite measurements. Finally, enormous wide dynamic ranges of CRM simulations present new challenges for model validation against observations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014cosp...40E1776L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014cosp...40E1776L"><span>Preliminary results of fluid dynamic model calculation of convective motion induced by solar heating at the Venus cloud top level.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lee, Yeon Joo; Imamura, Takeshi; Maejima, Yasumitsu; Sugiyama, Ko-ichiro</p> <p></p> <p>The thick cloud layer of Venus reflects solar radiation effectively, resulting in a Bond albedo of 76% (Moroz et al., 1985). Most of the incoming solar flux is absorbed in the upper cloud layer at 60-70 km altitude. An unknown UV absorber is a major sink of the solar energy at the cloud top level. It produces about 40-60% of the total solar heating near the cloud tops, depending on its vertical structure (Crisp et al., 1986; Lee et al., in preparation). UV images of Venus show a clear difference in morphology between laminar flow shaped clouds on the morning side and convective-like cells on the afternoon side of the planet in the equatorial region (Titov et al., 2012). This difference is probably related to strong solar heating at the cloud tops at the sub-solar point, rather than the influence from deeper level convection in the low and middle cloud layers (Imamura et al., 2014). Also, small difference in cloud top structures may trigger horizontal convection at this altitude, because various cloud top structures can significantly alter the solar heating and thermal cooling rates at the cloud tops (Lee et al., in preparation). Performing radiative forcing calculations for various cloud top structures using a radiative transfer model (SHDOM), we investigate the effect of solar heating at the cloud tops on atmospheric dynamics. We use CReSS (Cloud Resolving Storm Simulator), and consider the altitude range from 35 km to 90 km, covering a full cloud deck.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170001667','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170001667"><span>First Transmitted Hyperspectral Light Measurements and Cloud Properties from Recent Field Campaign Sampling Clouds Under Biomass Burning Aerosol</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Leblanc, S.; Redemann, Jens; Shinozuka, Yohei; Flynn, Connor J.; Segal Rozenhaimer, Michal; Kacenelenbogen, Meloe Shenandoah; Pistone, Kristina Marie Myers; Schmidt, Sebastian; Cochrane, Sabrina</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>We present a first view of data collected during a recent field campaign aimed at measuring biomass burning aerosol above clouds from airborne platforms. The NASA ObseRvations of CLouds above Aerosols and their intEractionS (ORACLES) field campaign recently concluded its first deployment sampling clouds and overlying aerosol layer from the airborne platform NASA P3. We present results from the Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR), in conjunction with the Solar Spectral Flux Radiometers (SSFR). During this deployment, 4STAR sampled transmitted solar light either via direct solar beam measurements and scattered light measurements, enabling the measurement of aerosol optical thickness and the retrieval of information on aerosol particles in addition to overlying cloud properties. We focus on the zenith-viewing scattered light measurements, which are used to retrieve cloud optical thickness, effective radius, and thermodynamic phase of clouds under a biomass burning layer. The biomass burning aerosol layer present above the clouds is the cause of potential bias in retrieved cloud optical depth and effective radius from satellites. We contrast the typical reflection based approach used by satellites to the transmission based approach used by 4STAR during ORACLES for retrieving cloud properties. It is suspected that these differing approaches will yield a change in retrieved properties since light transmitted through clouds is sensitive to a different cloud volume than reflected light at cloud top. We offer a preliminary view of the implications of these differences in sampling volumes to the calculation of cloud radiative effects (CRE).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910071326&hterms=microwaves+water+structure&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dmicrowaves%2Bwater%2Bstructure','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910071326&hterms=microwaves+water+structure&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dmicrowaves%2Bwater%2Bstructure"><span>Ice water path estimation and characterization using passive microwave radiometry</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Vivekanandan, J.; Turk, J.; Bringi, V. N.</p> <p>1991-01-01</p> <p>Model computations of top-of-atmospheric microwave brightness temperatures T(B) from layers of precipitation-sized ice of variable bulk density and ice water content (IWC) are presented. It is shown that the 85-GHz T(B) depends essentially on the ice optical thickness. The results demonstrate the potential usefulness of scattering-based channels for characterizing the ice phase and suggest a top-down methodology for retrieval of cloud vertical structure and precipitation estimation from multifrequency passive microwave measurements. Attention is also given to radiative transfer model results based on the multiparameter radar data initialization from the Cooperative Huntsville Meteorological Experiment (COHMEX) in northern Alabama. It is shown that brightness temperature warming effects due to the inclusion of a cloud liquid water profile are especially significant at 85 GHz during later stages of cloud evolution.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040082142','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040082142"><span>Measurements of Ocean Surface Scattering Using an Airborne 94-GHz Cloud Radar: Implication for Calibration of Airborne and Spaceborne W-band Radars</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Li, Li-Hua; Heymsfield, Gerald M.; Tian, Lin; Racette, Paul E.</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>Scattering properties of the Ocean surface have been widely used as a calibration reference for airborne and spaceborne microwave sensors. However, at millimeter-wave frequencies, the ocean surface backscattering mechanism is still not well understood, in part, due to the lack of experimental measurements. During the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE), measurements of ocean surface backscattering were made using a 94-GHz (W-band) cloud radar onboard a NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft. The measurement set includes the normalized Ocean surface cross section over a range of the incidence angles under a variety of wind conditions. Analysis of the radar measurements shows good agreement with a quasi-specular scattering model. This unprecedented dataset enhances our knowledge about the Ocean surface scattering mechanism at 94 GHz. The results of this work support the proposition of using the Ocean surface as a calibration reference for airborne millimeter-wave cloud radars and for the ongoing NASA CloudSat mission, which will use a 94-GHz spaceborne cloud radar for global cloud measurements.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AMT....11..593C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AMT....11..593C"><span>All-sky photogrammetry techniques to georeference a cloud field</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Crispel, Pierre; Roberts, Gregory</p> <p>2018-01-01</p> <p>In this study, we present a novel method of identifying and geolocalizing cloud field elements from a portable all-sky camera stereo network based on the ground and oriented towards zenith. The methodology is mainly based on stereophotogrammetry which is a 3-D reconstruction technique based on triangulation from corresponding stereo pixels in rectified images. In cases where clouds are horizontally separated, identifying individual positions is performed with segmentation techniques based on hue filtering and contour detection algorithms. Macroscopic cloud field characteristics such as cloud layer base heights and velocity fields are also deduced. In addition, the methodology is fitted to the context of measurement campaigns which impose simplicity of implementation, auto-calibration, and portability. Camera internal geometry models are achieved a priori in the laboratory and validated to ensure a certain accuracy in the peripheral parts of the all-sky image. Then, stereophotogrammetry with dense 3-D reconstruction is applied with cameras spaced 150 m apart for two validation cases. The first validation case is carried out with cumulus clouds having a cloud base height at 1500 m a.g.l. The second validation case is carried out with two cloud layers: a cumulus fractus layer with a base height at 1000 m a.g.l. and an altocumulus stratiformis layer with a base height of 2300 m a.g.l. Velocity fields at cloud base are computed by tracking image rectangular patterns through successive shots. The height uncertainty is estimated by comparison with a Vaisala CL31 ceilometer located on the site. The uncertainty on the horizontal coordinates and on the velocity field are theoretically quantified by using the experimental uncertainties of the cloud base height and camera orientation. In the first cumulus case, segmentation of the image is performed to identify individuals clouds in the cloud field and determine the horizontal positions of the cloud centers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017DPS....4941824N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017DPS....4941824N"><span>A Numerical Study of Convection in a Condensing CO2 Atmosphere under Early Mars-Like Conditions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Nakajima, Kensuke; Yamashita, Tatsuya; Odaka, Masatsugu; Sugiyama, Ko-ichiro; Ishiwatari, Masaki; Nishizawa, Seiya; Takahashi, Yoshiyuki O.; Hayashi, Yoshi-Yuki</p> <p>2017-10-01</p> <p>Cloud convection of a CO2 atmosphere where the major constituent condenses is numerically investigated under a setup idealizing a possible warm atmosphere of early Mars, utilizing a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model forced by a fixed cooling profile as a substitute for a radiative process. The authors compare two cases with different critical saturation ratios as condensation criteria and also examine sensitivity to number mixing ratio of condensed particles given externally.When supersaturation is not necessary for condensation, the entire horizontal domain above the condensation level is continuously covered by clouds irrespective of number mixing ratio of condensed particles. Horizontal-mean cloud mass density decreases exponentially with height. The circulations below and above the condensation level are dominated by dry cellular convection and buoyancy waves, respectively.When 1.35 is adopted as the critical saturation ratio, clouds appear exclusively as intense, short-lived, quasi-periodic events. Clouds start just above the condensation level and develop upward, but intense updrafts exist only around the cloud top; they do not extend to the bottom of the condensation layer. The cloud layer is rapidly warmed by latent heat during the cloud events, and then the layer is slowly cooled by the specified thermal forcing, and supersaturation gradually develops leading to the next cloud event. The periodic appearance of cloud events does not occur when number mixing ratio of condensed particles is large.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020027885','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020027885"><span>Impact of Albedo Contrast Between Cirrus and Boundary-Layer Clouds on Climate Sensitivity</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Chou, Ming-Dah; Lindzen, R. S.; Hou, A. Y.; Lau, William K. M. (Technical Monitor)</p> <p>2001-01-01</p> <p>In assessing the iris effect suggested by Lindzen et al. (2001), Fu et al. (2001) found that the response of high-level clouds to the sea surface temperature had an effect of reducing the climate sensitivity to external radiative forcing, but the effect was not as strong as LCH found. This weaker reduction in climate sensitivity was due to the smaller contrasts in albedos and effective emitting temperatures between cirrus clouds and the neighboring regions. FBH specified the albedos and the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) in the LCH 3.5-box radiative-convective model by requiring that the model radiation budgets at the top of the atmosphere be consistent with that inferred from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). In point of fact, the constraint by radiation budgets alone is not sufficient for deriving the correct contrast in radiation properties between cirrus clouds and the neighboring regions, and the approach of FBH to specifying those properties is, we feel inappropriate for assessing the iris effect.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFMGC21D0964V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFMGC21D0964V"><span>"Analysis of the multi-layered cloud radiative effects at the surface using A-train data"</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Viudez-Mora, A.; Smith, W. L., Jr.; Kato, S.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Clouds cover about 74% of the planet and they are an important part of the climate system and strongly influence the surface energy budget. The cloud vertical distribution has important implications in the atmospheric heating and cooling rates. Based on observations by active sensors in the A-train satellite constellation, CALIPSO [Winker et. al, 2010] and CloudSat [Stephens et. al, 2002], more than 1/3 of all clouds are multi-layered. Detection and retrieval of multi-layer cloud physical properties are needed in understanding their effects on the surface radiation budget. This study examines the sensitivity of surface irradiances to cloud properties derived from satellite sensors. Surface irradiances were computed in two different ways, one using cloud properties solely from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the other using MODIS data supplemented with CALIPSO and CloudSat (hereafter CLCS) cloud vertical structure information [Kato et. al, 2010]. Results reveal that incorporating more precise and realistic cloud properties from CLCS into radiative transfer calculations yields improved estimates of cloud radiative effects (CRE) at the surface (CREsfc). The calculations using only MODIS cloud properties, comparisons of the computed CREsfc for 2-layer (2L) overcast CERES footprints, CLCS reduces the SW CRE by 1.5±26.7 Wm-2, increases the LW CRE by 4.1±12.7 Wm-2, and increases the net CREsfc by 0.9±46.7 Wm-2. In a subsequent analysis, we classified up to 6 different combinations of multi-layered clouds depending on the cloud top height as: High-high (HH), high-middle (HM), high-low (HL), middle-middle (MM), middle-low (ML) and low-low (LL). The 3 most frequent 2L cloud systems were: HL (56.1%), HM (22.3%) and HH (12.1%). For these cases, the computed CREsfc estimated using CLCS data presented the most significant differences when compared using only MODIS data. For example, the differences for the SW and Net CRE in the case HH was 12.3±47.3 Wm-2 and 16.0±48.45 Wm-2, respectively. For the case of HM, the LW CRE difference was -9.9±14.0 Wm-2. Kato, S., et al. (2010), J. Geophys. Res., 115. Stephens, G. L., et al. (2002), Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83. Winker, D. M., et al., (2010),Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 91.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010hocc.book....3F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010hocc.book....3F"><span>Cloud Computing Fundamentals</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Furht, Borko</p> <p></p> <p>In the introductory chapter we define the concept of cloud computing and cloud services, and we introduce layers and types of cloud computing. We discuss the differences between cloud computing and cloud services. New technologies that enabled cloud computing are presented next. We also discuss cloud computing features, standards, and security issues. We introduce the key cloud computing platforms, their vendors, and their offerings. We discuss cloud computing challenges and the future of cloud computing.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A21C3034S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A21C3034S"><span>A New Methodology for Simultaneous Multi-layer Retrievals of Ice and Liquid Water Cloud Properties</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sourdeval, O.; Labonnote, L.; Baran, A. J.; Brogniez, G.</p> <p>2014-12-01</p> <p>It is widely recognized that the study of clouds has nowadays become one of the major concern of the climate research community. Consequently, a multitude of retrieval methodologies have been developed during the last decades in order to obtain accurate retrievals of cloud properties that can be supplied to climate models. Most of the current methodologies have proven to be satisfactory for separately retrieving ice or liquid cloud properties, but very few of them have attempted simultaneous retrievals of these two cloud types. Recent studies nevertheless show that the omission of one of these layers can have strong consequences on the retrievals and their accuracy. In this study, a new methodology that simultaneously retrieves the properties of ice and liquid clouds is presented. The optical thickness and the effective radius of up to two liquid cloud layers and the ice water path of one ice cloud layer are simultaneously retrieved, along with an accurate estimation of their uncertainties. Radiometric measurements ranging from the visible to the thermal infrared are used for performing the retrievals. In order to quantify the capabilities and limitations of our methodology, the results of a theoretical information content analysis are first presented. This analysis allows obtaining an a priori understanding of how much information should be expected on each of the retrieval parameters in different atmospheric conditions, and which set of channels is likely to provide this information. After such theoretical considerations, global retrievals corresponding to several months of A-Train data are presented. Comparisons of our retrievals with operational products from active and passive instruments are effectuated and show good global agreements. These comparisons are useful for validating our retrievals but also for testing how operational products can be influenced by multi-layer configurations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ACP....16.8643J','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ACP....16.8643J"><span>Aerosols, clouds, and precipitation in the North Atlantic trades observed during the Barbados aerosol cloud experiment - Part 1: Distributions and variability</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Jung, Eunsil; Albrecht, Bruce A.; Feingold, Graham; Jonsson, Haflidi H.; Chuang, Patrick; Donaher, Shaunna L.</p> <p>2016-07-01</p> <p>Shallow marine cumulus clouds are by far the most frequently observed cloud type over the Earth's oceans; but they are poorly understood and have not been investigated as extensively as stratocumulus clouds. This study describes and discusses the properties and variations of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation associated with shallow marine cumulus clouds observed in the North Atlantic trades during a field campaign (Barbados Aerosol Cloud Experiment- BACEX, March-April 2010), which took place off Barbados where African dust periodically affects the region. The principal observing platform was the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter (TO) research aircraft, which was equipped with standard meteorological instruments, a zenith pointing cloud radar and probes that measured aerosol, cloud, and precipitation characteristics.The temporal variation and vertical distribution of aerosols observed from the 15 flights, which included the most intense African dust event during all of 2010 in Barbados, showed a wide range of aerosol conditions. During dusty periods, aerosol concentrations increased substantially in the size range between 0.5 and 10 µm (diameter), particles that are large enough to be effective giant cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The 10-day back trajectories showed three distinct air masses with distinct vertical structures associated with air masses originating in the Atlantic (typical maritime air mass with relatively low aerosol concentrations in the marine boundary layer), Africa (Saharan air layer), and mid-latitudes (continental pollution plumes). Despite the large differences in the total mass loading and the origin of the aerosols, the overall shapes of the aerosol particle size distributions were consistent, with the exception of the transition period.The TO was able to sample many clouds at various phases of growth. Maximum cloud depth observed was less than ˜ 3 km, while most clouds were less than 1 km deep. Clouds tend to precipitate when the cloud is thicker than 500-600 m. Distributions of cloud field characteristics (depth, radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity, precipitation) were well identified in the reflectivity-velocity diagram from the cloud radar observations. Two types of precipitation features were observed for shallow marine cumulus clouds that may impact boundary layer differently: first, a classic cloud-base precipitation where precipitation shafts were observed to emanate from the cloud base; second, cloud-top precipitation where precipitation shafts emanated mainly near the cloud tops, sometimes accompanied by precipitation near the cloud base. The second type of precipitation was more frequently observed during the experiment. Only 42-44 % of the clouds sampled were non-precipitating throughout the entire cloud layer and the rest of the clouds showed precipitation somewhere in the cloud, predominantly closer to the cloud top.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A33I0380Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A33I0380Z"><span>On the dominant impact of vertical moisture gradient on mesoscale cloud cellular organization of stratocumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhou, X.; Ackerman, A. S.; Fridlind, A. M.; Kollias, P.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Large-eddy simulations are performed to study the mechanisms of stratocumulus organization. Precipitation tends to increase horizontal cloud scales, but is not required for cloud mesoscale organization. A study of the terms in the prognostic equation for total water mixing ratio variance shows the critical impact of vertical moisture gradient on cloud scale. For precipitating clouds, the organization originates from the negative moisture gradient in the boundary layer resulting from evaporation of precipitation. This hypothesis is supported by simulations in which thermodynamics profiles are nudged to their initial well-mixed state, which reduces cloud scales. Cold pools effect are surprisingly found to respond to rather than determine the cloud mesoscale variability. For non-precipitating clouds, organization results from turbulent transport of moisture variance originating primarily from cloud top, where dry air is entrained into the boundary layer through convection driven by cloud top longwave (LW) cooling. Both LW cooling and a moisture gradient above cloud top are essential for the growth of mesoscale fluctuations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AtmEn.177...75T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AtmEn.177...75T"><span>Four dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) impacts on WRF performance in simulating inversion layer structure and distributions of CMAQ-simulated winter ozone concentrations in Uintah Basin</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Tran, Trang; Tran, Huy; Mansfield, Marc; Lyman, Seth; Crosman, Erik</p> <p>2018-03-01</p> <p>Four-dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) was applied in WRF-CMAQ model sensitivity tests to study the impact of observational and analysis nudging on model performance in simulating inversion layers and O3 concentration distributions within the Uintah Basin, Utah, U.S.A. in winter 2013. Observational nudging substantially improved WRF model performance in simulating surface wind fields, correcting a 10 °C warm surface temperature bias, correcting overestimation of the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) and correcting underestimation of inversion strengths produced by regular WRF model physics without nudging. However, the combined effects of poor performance of WRF meteorological model physical parameterization schemes in simulating low clouds, and warm and moist biases in the temperature and moisture initialization and subsequent simulation fields, likely amplified the overestimation of warm clouds during inversion days when observational nudging was applied, impacting the resulting O3 photochemical formation in the chemistry model. To reduce the impact of a moist bias in the simulations on warm cloud formation, nudging with the analysis water mixing ratio above the planetary boundary layer (PBL) was applied. However, due to poor analysis vertical temperature profiles, applying analysis nudging also increased the errors in the modeled inversion layer vertical structure compared to observational nudging. Combining both observational and analysis nudging methods resulted in unrealistically extreme stratified stability that trapped pollutants at the lowest elevations at the center of the Uintah Basin and yielded the worst WRF performance in simulating inversion layer structure among the four sensitivity tests. The results of this study illustrate the importance of carefully considering the representativeness and quality of the observational and model analysis data sets when applying nudging techniques within stable PBLs, and the need to evaluate model results on a basin-wide scale.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2445P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2445P"><span>Low Cloud Feedback to Surface Warming in the World's First Global Climate Model with Explicit Embedded Boundary Layer Turbulence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Parishani, H.; Pritchard, M. S.; Bretherton, C. S.; Wyant, M. C.; Khairoutdinov, M.; Singh, B.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Biases and parameterization formulation uncertainties in the representation of boundary layer clouds remain a leading source of possible systematic error in climate projections. Here we show the first results of cloud feedback to +4K SST warming in a new experimental climate model, the ``Ultra-Parameterized (UP)'' Community Atmosphere Model, UPCAM. We have developed UPCAM as an unusually high-resolution implementation of cloud superparameterization (SP) in which a global set of cloud resolving arrays is embedded in a host global climate model. In UP, the cloud-resolving scale includes sufficient internal resolution to explicitly generate the turbulent eddies that form marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus clouds. This is computationally costly but complements other available approaches for studying low clouds and their climate interaction, by avoiding parameterization of the relevant scales. In a recent publication we have shown that UP, while not without its own complexity trade-offs, can produce encouraging improvements in low cloud climatology in multi-month simulations of the present climate and is a promising target for exascale computing (Parishani et al. 2017). Here we show results of its low cloud feedback to warming in multi-year simulations for the first time. References: Parishani, H., M. S. Pritchard, C. S. Bretherton, M. C. Wyant, and M. Khairoutdinov (2017), Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence, J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 9, doi:10.1002/2017MS000968.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170003249','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170003249"><span>A Ten-Year Global Record of Absorbing Aerosols Above Clouds from OMI's Near-UV Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jethva, Hiren; Torres, Omar; Ahn, Changwoo</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>Aerosol-cloud interaction continues to be one of the leading uncertain components of climate models, primarily due to the lack of an adequate knowledge of the complex microphysical and radiative processes associated with the aerosol-cloud system. The situations when aerosols and clouds are found in the same atmospheric column, for instance, when light-absorbing aerosols such as biomass burning generated carbonaceous particles or wind-blown dust overlay low-level cloud decks, are commonly found over several regional of the world. Contrary to the cloud-free scenario over dark surface, for which aerosols are known to produce a net cooling effect (negative radiative forcing) on climate, the overlapping situation of absorbing aerosols over cloud can potentially exert a significant level of atmospheric absorption and produces a positive radiative forcing at top-of-atmosphere. The magnitude of direct radiative effects of aerosols above cloud depends directly on the aerosol loading, microphysical-optical properties of the aerosol layer and the underlying cloud deck, and geometric cloud fraction. We help in addressing this problem by introducing a novel product of optical depth of absorbing aerosols above clouds retrieved from near-UV observations made by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA's Aura platform. The presence of absorbing aerosols above cloud reduces the upwelling radiation reflected by cloud and produces a strong 'color ratio' effect in the near-UV region, which can be unambiguously detected in the OMI measurements. Physically based on this effect, the OMACA algorithm retrieves the optical depths of aerosols and clouds simultaneously under a prescribed state of atmosphere. The algorithm architecture and results from a ten-year global record including global climatology of frequency of occurrence and above-cloud aerosol optical depth, and a discussion on related future field campaigns are presented.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_15");'>15</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li class="active"><span>17</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_17 --> <div id="page_18" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li class="active"><span>18</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="341"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAMES..10..466W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAMES..10..466W"><span>The Sensitivity of Numerical Simulations of Cloud-Topped Boundary Layers to Cross-Grid Flow</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wyant, Matthew C.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Blossey, Peter N.</p> <p>2018-02-01</p> <p>In mesoscale and global atmospheric simulations with large horizontal domains, strong horizontal flow across the grid is often unavoidable, but its effects on cloud-topped boundary layers have received comparatively little study. Here the effects of cross-grid flow on large-eddy simulations of stratocumulus and trade-cumulus marine boundary layers are studied across a range of grid resolutions (horizontal × vertical) between 500 m × 20 m and 35 m × 5 m. Three cases are simulated: DYCOMS nocturnal stratocumulus, BOMEX trade cumulus, and a GCSS stratocumulus-to-trade cumulus case. Simulations are performed with a stationary grid (with 4-8 m s-1 horizontal winds blowing through the cyclic domain) and a moving grid (equivalent to subtracting off a fixed vertically uniform horizontal wind) approximately matching the mean boundary-layer wind speed. For stratocumulus clouds, cross-grid flow produces two primary effects on stratocumulus clouds: a filtering of fine-scale resolved turbulent eddies, which reduces stratocumulus cloud-top entrainment, and a vertical broadening of the stratocumulus-top inversion which enhances cloud-top entrainment. With a coarse (20 m) vertical grid, the former effect dominates and leads to strong increases in cloud cover and LWP, especially as horizontal resolution is coarsened. With a finer (5 m) vertical grid, the latter effect is stronger and leads to small reductions in cloud cover and LWP. For the BOMEX trade cumulus case, cross-grid flow tends to produce fewer and larger clouds with higher LWP, especially for coarser vertical grid spacing. The results presented are robust to choice of scalar advection scheme and Courant number.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMT.....7.2757C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMT.....7.2757C"><span>Comparing the cloud vertical structure derived from several methods based on radiosonde profiles and ground-based remote sensing measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Costa-Surós, M.; Calbó, J.; González, J. A.; Long, C. N.</p> <p>2014-08-01</p> <p>The cloud vertical distribution and especially the cloud base height, which is linked to cloud type, are important characteristics in order to describe the impact of clouds on climate. In this work, several methods for estimating the cloud vertical structure (CVS) based on atmospheric sounding profiles are compared, considering the number and position of cloud layers, with a ground-based system that is taken as a reference: the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL). All methods establish some conditions on the relative humidity, and differ in the use of other variables, the thresholds applied, or the vertical resolution of the profile. In this study, these methods are applied to 193 radiosonde profiles acquired at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains site during all seasons of the year 2009 and endorsed by Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) images, to confirm that the cloudiness conditions are homogeneous enough across their trajectory. The perfect agreement (i.e., when the whole CVS is estimated correctly) for the methods ranges between 26 and 64%; the methods show additional approximate agreement (i.e., when at least one cloud layer is assessed correctly) from 15 to 41%. Further tests and improvements are applied to one of these methods. In addition, we attempt to make this method suitable for low-resolution vertical profiles, like those from the outputs of reanalysis methods or from the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Global Telecommunication System. The perfect agreement, even when using low-resolution profiles, can be improved by up to 67% (plus 25% of the approximate agreement) if the thresholds for a moist layer to become a cloud layer are modified to minimize false negatives with the current data set, thus improving overall agreement.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMTD....7.3681C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AMTD....7.3681C"><span>Comparing the cloud vertical structure derived from several methods based on measured atmospheric profiles and active surface measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Costa-Surós, M.; Calbó, J.; González, J. A.; Long, C. N.</p> <p>2014-04-01</p> <p>The cloud vertical distribution and especially the cloud base height, which is linked to cloud type, is an important characteristic in order to describe the impact of clouds on climate. In this work several methods to estimate the cloud vertical structure (CVS) based on atmospheric sounding profiles are compared, considering number and position of cloud layers, with a ground based system which is taken as a reference: the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL). All methods establish some conditions on the relative humidity, and differ on the use of other variables, the thresholds applied, or the vertical resolution of the profile. In this study these methods are applied to 193 radiosonde profiles acquired at the ARM Southern Great Plains site during all seasons of year 2009 and endorsed by GOES images, to confirm that the cloudiness conditions are homogeneous enough across their trajectory. The perfect agreement (i.e. when the whole CVS is correctly estimated) for the methods ranges between 26-64%; the methods show additional approximate agreement (i.e. when at least one cloud layer is correctly assessed) from 15-41%. Further tests and improvements are applied on one of these methods. In addition, we attempt to make this method suitable for low resolution vertical profiles, like those from the outputs of reanalysis methods or from the WMO's Global Telecommunication System. The perfect agreement, even when using low resolution profiles, can be improved up to 67% (plus 25% of approximate agreement) if the thresholds for a moist layer to become a cloud layer are modified to minimize false negatives with the current data set, thus improving overall agreement.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA16837.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-PIA16837.html"><span>Peering Deep into Jupiter Atmosphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2013-03-14</p> <p>The dark hot spot in this false-color image from NASA Cassini spacecraft is a window deep into Jupiter atmosphere. All around it are layers of higher clouds, with colors indicating which layer of the atmosphere the clouds are in.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.1872H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..19.1872H"><span>Super-cooled liquid water topped sub-arctic clouds and precipitation - investigation based on combination of ground-based in-situ and remote-sensing observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Hirsikko, Anne; Brus, David; O'Connor, Ewan J.; Filioglou, Maria; Komppula, Mika; Romakkaniemi, Sami</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>In the high and mid latitudes super-cooled liquid water layers are frequently observed on top of clouds. These layers are difficult to forecast with numerical weather prediction models, even though, they have strong influence on atmospheric radiative properties, cloud microphysical properties, and subsequently, precipitation. This work investigates properties of super-cooled liquid water layer topped sub-arctic clouds and precipitation observed with ground-based in-situ (cloud probes) and remote-sensing (a cloud radar, Doppler and multi-wavelength lidars) instrumentation during two-month long Pallas Cloud Experiment (PaCE 2015) in autumn 2015. Analysis is based on standard Cloudnet scheme supplemented with new retrieval products of the specific clouds and their properties. Combination of two scales of observation provides new information on properties of clouds and precipitation in the sub-arctic Pallas region. Current status of results will be presented during the conference. The authors acknowledge financial support by the Academy of Finland (Centre of Excellence Programme, grant no 272041; and ICINA project, grant no 285068), the ACTRIS2 - European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654109, the KONE foundation, and the EU FP7 project BACCHUS (grant no 603445).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.1046C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..18.1046C"><span>Cloud and aerosol occurrences in the UTLS region across Pakistan during summer monsoon seasons using CALIPSO and CloudSat observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Chishtie, Farrukh</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>As part of the A-train NASA constellation, Coudsat and CALIPSO provide an unprecedented vertical observation of clouds and aerosols. Using observational data from both of these satellites, we conduct a multi-year analysis from 2006-2014, of the UTLS (Upper Troposphere and the Lower Stratosphere) region. We map out cloud and aerosol occurrences in this region across Pakistan, specifically around the summer monsoon season. Over the past five years, Pakistan has faced tremendous challenges due to massive flooding as well as earlier brief monsoon seasons of low precipitation and short drought periods. Hence, this motivates the present study towards understanding the deep convective and related dynamics in this season which can possibly influence cloud and aerosol transport in the region. Further, while global studies are conducted, the goal of this study is to conduct a detailed study of cloud, aerosols and their interplay, across Pakistan. Due to a dearth of ground observations, this study provides a dedicated focus on the UTLS domain. Vertical profiling satellites in this region are deemed important as there are no ground observations being done. This is important as both the properties and dynamics of clouds and aerosols have to be studied in a wider context in order to better understand the monsoon season and its onset in this region. With the CALIPSO Vertical Feature Mask (VFM), Total Attenuated Backscatter (TAB) and Depolarization Ratio (DR) as well as the combined CloudSat's 2B-GEOPROF-LIDAR (Radar-Lidar Cloud Geometrical Profile) and 2B-CLDCLASS-LIDAR (Radar-Lidar Cloud Classification) products, we find the presence of thin cirrus clouds in the UTLS region in the periods of June-September from the 2006-2014 period. There are marked differences in day observations as compared to night in both of these satellite retrievals, with the latter period finding more occurrences of clouds in the UTLS region. Dedicated CloudSat products 2B-CLDCLASS (cloud classification) and 2C-TAU (Cloud Optical Depth) further confirm the presence of sub-visual and thin cirrus clouds in the UTLS region, during the summer monsoon season. From CALIPSO observations, there is significant presence of aerosol layers before the onset of precipitation in the troposphere. This thickness ranges from 1-4 km, with increasing thickness observed the 2009-2014 period. Implications of these findings are detailed in this presentation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090025402','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20090025402"><span>Convective and Stratiform Precipitation Processes and their Relationship to Latent Heating</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Tao, Wei-Kuo; Lang, Steve; Zeng, Xiping; Shige, Shoichi; Takayabu, Yukari</p> <p>2009-01-01</p> <p>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. An improved convective -stratiform heating (CSH) algorithm has been developed to obtain the 3D structure of cloud heating over the Tropics based on two sources of information: 1) rainfall information, namely its amount and the fraction due to light rain intensity, observed directly from the Precipitation Radar (PR) on board the TRMM satellite and 2) synthetic cloud physics information obtained from cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations of cloud systems. The cloud simulations provide details on cloud processes, specifically latent heating, eddy heat flux convergence and radiative heating/cooling, that. are not directly observable by satellite. The new CSH algorithm-derived heating has a noticeably different heating structure over both ocean and land regions compared to the previous CSH algorithm. One of the major differences between new and old algorithms is that the level of maximum cloud heating occurs 1 to 1.5 km lower in the atmosphere in the new algorithm. This can effect the structure of the implied air currents associated with the general circulation of the atmosphere in the Tropics. The new CSH algorithm will be used provide retrieved heating data to other heating algorithms to supplement their performance.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....17..899A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....17..899A"><span>Nocturnal low-level clouds over southern West Africa analysed using high-resolution simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Adler, Bianca; Kalthoff, Norbert; Gantner, Leonhard</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>We performed a high-resolution numerical simulation to study the development of extensive low-level clouds that frequently form over southern West Africa during the monsoon season. This study was made in preparation for a field campaign in 2016 within the Dynamics-aerosol-chemistry-cloud interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) project and focuses on an area around the city of Savè in southern Benin. Nocturnal low-level clouds evolve a few hundred metres above the ground around the same level as a distinct low-level jet. Several processes are found to determine the spatio-temporal evolution of these clouds including (i) significant cooling of the nocturnal atmosphere caused by horizontal advection with the south-westerly monsoon flow during the first half of the night, (ii) vertical cold air advection due to gravity waves leading to clouds in the wave crests and (iii) enhanced convergence and upward motion upstream of existing clouds that trigger new clouds. The latter is caused by an upward shift of the low-level jet in cloudy areas leading to horizontal convergence in the lower part and to horizontal divergence in the upper part of the cloud layer. Although this single case study hardly allows for a generalisation of the processes found, the results added to the optimisation of the measurements strategy for the field campaign and the observations will be used to test the hypotheses for cloud formation resulting from this study.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1901D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1901D"><span>Assessment of Changes in Cloud Microphysical Properties and Rainfall in the Southeast Atlantic During the ORACLES 2016 Deployment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Diamond, M. S.; Dzambo, A.; L'Ecuyer, T.; Wood, R.; Durden, S. L.; Sy, O. O.; Tanelli, S.; Freitag, S.; Howell, S. G.; Smirnow, N.; Small Griswold, J. D.; Heikkila, A.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Complex interactions between aerosol particles and clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in present-day radiative forcing and future projections of anthropogenic climate change. Unlike that of well-mixed greenhouse gases, the pattern of forcing for aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) is regionally heterogeneous; one region of particular interest is the southeast Atlantic Ocean (SEA) off the western coast of Africa. During the southern African biomass burning (BB) season from July to October, a persistent layer of BB aerosol has been observed overlying one of the world's three semi-permanent stratocumulus (Sc) cloud decks. The vertical distribution of smoke over the SEA region remains poorly understood, particularly how much BB aerosol mixes into the Sc deck, which alters the clouds' microphysical properties. To investigate the effects of BB aerosols over the SEA Sc deck, we utilize data from the Airborne Third Generation Precipitation Radar (APR-3), an assortment of cloud probes, the Hawaii Group for Environmental Aerosol Research (HIGEAR) nephelometer, and other in-situ instruments on the P-3 aircraft during NASA's ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) 2016 campaign. Nearly all clouds observed in this experiment have a cloud top altitude of 1.5 km or less, with cloud top reflectivities rarely exceeding -15 dBZ. Two representative flights, the Aug. 31 and Sept. 6 missions, have cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) values approximately between 250 and 350 per cubic centimeter (cc), with values exceeding 400/cc near the coast. Retrieved rainfall estimates suggest intermittent drizzle production occurs but rarely exceeds 0.1 mm h-1 further into the BB layer, and any drizzle production corresponds to CDNC values of approximately 300/cc or less. These two particular flights show that, when CDNC exceeds 400/cc, clouds drizzle less than 1% of the time. The distance between the Sc deck and BB layer is computed. Although a majority of cases show the Sc deck and BB layer are in contact, CDNC is not primarily controlled by this "gap" distance, suggesting that BB layer-Sc deck contact is not sufficient enough to explain cloud microphysical variability in the SEA region. Trajectory analyses of air masses are also presented to highlight underlying meteorological controls.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993JApMe..32..729K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1993JApMe..32..729K"><span>Effect of Amazon Smoke on Cloud Microphysics and Albedo-Analysis from Satellite Imagery.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kaufman, Yoram J.; Nakajima, Teruyuki</p> <p>1993-04-01</p> <p>NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer images taken over the Brazilian Amazon Basin during the biomass burning season of 1987 are used to study the effect of smoke aerosol particles on the properties of low cumulus and stratocumulus clouds. The reflectance at a wavelength of 0.64 µm and the drop size, derived from the cloud reflectance at 3.75 µm, are studied for tens of thousands of clouds. The opacity of the smoke layer adjacent to each cloud is also monitored simultaneously. Though from satellite data it is impossible to derive all the parameters that influence cloud properties and smoke cloud interaction (e.g., detailed aerosol particles size distribution and chemistry, liquid water content, etc.); satellite data can be used to generate large-scale statistics of the properties of clouds and surrounding aerosol (e.g., smoke optical thickness, cloud-drop size, and cloud reflection of solar radiation) from which the interaction of aerosol with clouds can be surmised. In order to minimize the effect of variations in the precipitable water vapor and in other smoke and cloud properties, biomass burning in the tropics is chosen as the study topic, and the results are averaged for numerous clouds with the same ambient smoke optical thickness.It is shown in this study that the presence of dense smoke (an increase in the optical thickness from 0.1 to 2.0) can reduce the remotely sensed drop size of continental cloud drops from 15 to 9 µm. Due to both the high initial reflectance of clouds in the visible part of the spectrum and the presence of graphitic carbon, the average cloud reflectance at 0.64 µm is reduced from 0.71 to 0.68 for an increase in smoke optical thickness from 0.1 to 2.0. The measurements are compared to results from other years, and it is found that, as predicted, high concentration of aerosol particles causes a decrease in the cloud-drop size and that smoke darkens the bright Amazonian clouds. Comparison with theoretical computations based on Twomey's model show that by using the measured reduction in the cloud-drop size due to the presence of smoke it is possible to explain the reduction in the cloud reflectance at 0.64 µm for smoke imagery index of 0.02 to 0.03.Smoke particles are hygroscopic and have a similar size distribution to maritime and anthropogenic sulfuric aerosol particles. Therefore, these results may also be representative of the interaction of sulfuric particles with clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACPD...1525503C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACPD...1525503C"><span>Observations of high droplet number concentrations in Southern Ocean boundary layer clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Chubb, T.; Huang, Y.; Jensen, J.; Campos, T.; Siems, S.; Manton, M.</p> <p>2015-09-01</p> <p>Data from the standard cloud physics payload during the NSF/NCAR High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) campaigns provide a snapshot of unusual wintertime microphysical conditions in the boundary layer over the Southern Ocean. On 29 June 2011, the HIAPER sampled the boundary layer in a region of pre-frontal warm air advection between 58 and 48° S to the south of Tasmania. Cloud droplet number concentrations were consistent with climatological values in the northernmost profiles but were exceptionally high for wintertime in the Southern Ocean at 100-200 cm-3 in the southernmost profiles. Sub-micron (0.06<D<1 μm) aerosol concentrations for the southern profiles were up to 400 cm-3. Analysis of back trajectories and atmospheric chemistry observations revealed that while conditions in the troposphere were more typical of a clean remote ocean airmass, there was some evidence of continental or anthropogenic influence. However, the hypothesis of long range transport of continental aerosol fails to explain the magnitude of the aerosol and cloud droplet concentration in the boundary layer. Instead, the gale force surface winds in this case (wind speed at 167 m above sea level was >25 m s-1) were most likely responsible for production of sea spray aerosol which influenced the microphysical properties of the boundary layer clouds. The smaller size and higher number concentration of cloud droplets is inferred to increase the albedo of these clouds, and these conditions occur regularly, and are expected to increase in frequency, over windy parts of the Southern Ocean.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0003C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFM.A51A0003C"><span>Characterizing the Retrieval of Cloud Optical Thickness and Droplet Effective Radius to Overlying Aerosols Using a General Inverse Theory Approach</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Coddington, O.; Pilewskie, P.; Schmidt, S.</p> <p>2013-12-01</p> <p>The upwelling shortwave irradiance measured by the airborne Solar Spectral Flux Radiometer (SSFR) flying above a cloud and aerosol layer is influenced by the properties of the cloud and aerosol particles below, just as would the radiance measured from satellite. Unlike satellite measurements, those from aircraft provide the unique capability to fly a lower-level leg above the cloud, yet below the aerosol layer, to characterize the extinction of the aerosol layer and account for its impact on the measured cloud albedo. Previous work [Coddington et al., 2010] capitalized on this opportunity to test the effects of aerosol particles (or more appropriately, the effects of neglecting aerosols in forward modeling calculations) on cloud retrievals using data obtained during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment/Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation of anthropogenic pollution (INTEX-A/ITCT) study. This work showed aerosols can cause a systematic bias in the cloud retrieval and that such a bias would need to be distinguished from a true aerosol indirect effect (i.e. the brightening of a cloud due to aerosol effects on cloud microphysics) as theorized by Haywood et al., [2004]. The effects of aerosols on clouds are typically neglected in forward modeling calculations because their pervasiveness, variable microphysical properties, loading, and lifetimes makes forward modeling calculations under all possible combinations completely impractical. Using a general inverse theory technique, which propagates separate contributions from measurement and forward modeling errors into probability distributions of retrieved cloud optical thickness and droplet effective radius, we have demonstrated how the aerosol presence can be introduced as a spectral systematic error in the distributions of the forward modeling solutions. The resultant uncertainty and bias in cloud properties induced by the aerosols is identified by the shape and peak of the posteriori retrieval distributions. In this work, we apply this general inverse theory approach to extend our analysis of the spectrally-dependent impacts of overlying aerosols on cloud properties over a broad range in cloud optical thickness and droplet effective radius. We investigate the relative impacts of this error source and compare and contrast results to biases and uncertainties in cloud properties induced by varying surface conditions (ocean, land, snow). We perform the analysis for two different measurement accuracies (3% and 0.3%) that are typical of current passive imagers, such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [Platnick et al., 2003], and that are expected for future passive imagers, such as the HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) [Kopp et al., 2010]. Coddington, O., P. Pilewskie, et al., 2010, J. Geophys. Res., 115, doi: 10.1029/2009JD012829. Haywood, J. M., S. R. Osborne, and S. J. Abel, 2004, Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 130, 779-800. Kopp, G., et al., 2010, Hyperspectral Imagery Radiometry Improvements for Visible and Near-Infrared Climate Studies, paper presented at 2010 Earth Science Technology Forum, Arlington, VA, USA. Platnick, S., et al., 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 41(2), 459- 473.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1054049-climatology-formation-tropical-midlevel-clouds-darwin-arm-site','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1054049-climatology-formation-tropical-midlevel-clouds-darwin-arm-site"><span>Climatology and Formation of Tropical Midlevel Clouds at the Darwin ARM Site</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, Laura D.; McFarlane, Sally A.; Comstock, Jennifer M.</p> <p></p> <p>A 4-yr climatology of midlevel clouds is presented from vertically pointing cloud lidar and radar measurements at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) site at Darwin, Australia. Few studies exist of tropical midlevel clouds using a dataset of this length. Seventy percent of clouds with top heights between 4 and 8 km are less than 2 km thick. These thin layer clouds have a peak in cloud-top temperature around the melting level (0°C) and also a second peak around -12.5°C. The diurnal frequency of thin clouds is highest during the night and reaches a minimum around noon, consistent with variationmore » caused by solar heating. Using a 1.5-yr subset of the observations, the authors found that thin clouds have a high probability of containing supercooled liquid water at low temperatures: ~20% of clouds at -30°C, ~50% of clouds at -20°C, and ~65% of clouds at -10°C contain supercooled liquid water. The authors hypothesize that thin midlevel clouds formed at the melting level are formed differently during active and break monsoon periods and test this over three monsoon seasons. A greater frequency of thin midlevel clouds are likely formed by increased condensation following the latent cooling of melting during active monsoon periods when stratiform precipitation is most frequent. This is supported by the high percentage (65%) of midlevel clouds with preceding stratiform precipitation and the high frequency of stable layers slightly warmer than 0°C. In the break monsoon, a distinct peak in the frequency of stable layers at 0°C matches the peak in thin midlevel cloudiness, consistent with detrainment from convection.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20000033817','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20000033817"><span>Sensitivity of Cirrus Bidirectional Reflectance at MODIS Bands to Vertical Inhomogeneity of Ice Crystal Habits and Size Distribution</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Yang, P.; Gao, B.-C.; Baum, B. A.; Wiscombe, W.; Hu, Y.; Nasiri, S. L.; Soulen, P. F.; Heymsfield, A. J.; McFarquhar, G. M.; Miloshevich, L. M.</p> <p>2000-01-01</p> <p>A common assumption in satellite imager-based cirrus retrieval algorithms is that the radiative properties of a cirrus cloud may be represented by those associated with a specific ice crystal shape (or habit) and a single particle size distribution. However, observations of cirrus clouds have shown that the shapes and sizes of ice crystals may vary substantially with height within the clouds. In this study we investigate the sensitivity of the top-of-atmosphere bidirectional reflectances at two MODIS bands centered at 0.65 micron and 2.11 micron to the cirrus models assumed to be either a single homogeneous layer or three distinct but contiguous, layers. First, we define the single- and three-layer cirrus cloud models with respect to ice crystal habit and size distribution on the basis of in situ replicator data acquired during the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE-II), held in Kansas during the fall of 1991. Subsequently, fundamental light scattering and radiative transfer theory is employed to determine the single scattering and the bulk radiative properties of the cirrus cloud. Regarding the radiative transfer computations, we present a discrete form of the adding/doubling principle by introducing a direct transmission function, which is computationally straightforward and efficient an improvement over previous methods. For the 0.65 micron band, at which absorption by ice is negligible, there is little difference between the bidirectional reflectances calculated for the one- and three-layer cirrus models, suggesting that the vertical inhomogeneity effect is relatively unimportant. At the 2.11 micron band, the bidirectional reflectances computed for both optically thin (tau = 1) and thick (tau = 10) cirrus clouds show significant differences between the results for the one- and three-layer models. The reflectances computed for the three-layer cirrus model are substantially larger than those computed for the single-layer cirrus. Finally, we find that cloud reflectance is very sensitive to the optical properties of the small crystals that predominate in the top layer of the three-layer cirrus model. It is critical to define the most realistic geometric shape for the small "quasi-spherical" ice crystals in the top layer for obtaining reliable single-scattering parameters and bulk radiative properties of cirrus.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004BAMS...85.1305T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004BAMS...85.1305T"><span>The Summertime Arctic Atmosphere: Meteorological Measurements during the Arctic Ocean Experiment 2001.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Tjernström, Michael; Leck, Caroline; Persson, P. Ola G.; Jensen, Michael L.; Oncley, Steven P.; Targino, Admir</p> <p>2004-09-01</p> <p>An atmospheric boundary layer experiment into the high Arctic was carried out on the Swedish ice-breaker Oden during the summer of 2001, with the primary boundary layer observations obtained while the icebreaker drifted with the ice near 89°N during 3 weeks in August. The purposes of the experiment were to gain an understanding of atmospheric boundary layer structure and transient mixing mechanisms, in addition to their relationships to boundary layer clouds and aerosol production. Using a combination of in situ and remote sensing instruments, with temporal and spatial resolutions previously not deployed in the Arctic, continuous measurements of the lower-troposphere structure and boundary layer turbulence were taken concurrently with atmospheric gas and particulate chemistry, and marine biology measurements.The boundary layer was strongly controlled by ice thermodynamics and local turbulent mixing. Near-surface temperatures mostly remained between near the melting points of the sea- and freshwater, and near-surface relative humidity was high. Low clouds prevailed and fog appeared frequently. Visibility outside of fog was surprisingly good even with very low clouds, probably due to a lack of aerosol particles preventing the formation of haze. The boundary layer was shallow but remained well mixed, capped by an occasionally very strong inversion. Specific humidity often increased with height across the capping inversion.In contrast to the boundary layer, the free troposphere often retained its characteristics from well beyond the Arctic. Elevated intrusions of warm, moist air from open seas to the south were frequent. The picture that the Arctic atmosphere is less affected by transport from lower latitudes in summer than the winter may, thus, be an artifact of analyzing only surface measurements. The transport of air from lower latitudes at heights above the boundary layer has a major impact on the Arctic boundary layer, even very close to the North Pole. During a few week-long periods synoptic-scale weather systems appeared, while weaker and shallower mesoscale fronts were frequent. While frontal passages changed the properties of the free troposphere, changes in the boundary layer were more determined by local effects that often led to changes contrary to those aloft. For example, increasing winds associated with a cold front often led to a warming of the near-surface air by mixing and entrainment.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010049377','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010049377"><span>Analysis of Aircraft, Radiosonde and Radar Observations in Cirrus Clouds Observed During FIRE II: The Interactions Between Environmental Structure, Turbulence and Cloud Microphysical Properties</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Smith, Samantha A.; DelGenio, Anthony D.</p> <p>1999-01-01</p> <p>Ways to determine the turbulence intensity and the horizontal variability in cirrus clouds have been investigated using FIRE-II aircraft, radiosonde and radar data. Higher turbulence intensities were found within some, but not all, of the neutrally stratified layers. It was also demonstrated that the stability of cirrus layers with high extinction values decrease in time, possibly as a result of radiative destabilization. However, these features could not be directly related to each other in any simple manner. A simple linear relationship was observed between the amount of horizontal variability in the ice water content and its average value. This was also true for the extinction and ice crystal number concentrations. A relationship was also suggested between the variability in cloud depth and the environmental stability across the depth of the cloud layer, which requires further investigation.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999KPCB...15..193M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999KPCB...15..193M"><span>Model of the vertical structure of the optical parameters of the Neptune atmosphere.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Morozhenko, A. V.</p> <p></p> <p>Analyzes the wavelength dependence of the geometric albedo of Neptune's disk and estimates some parameters of the planet's atmosphere by the method based on the determination of deviations of the vertical structure of the cloud layer from the homogeneity condition. The ratio between the methane and gas scale heights is found to be about 0.4. For the upper atmosphere, components of methane, aerosol, the mean geometric radius of particles, the turbulent mixing coefficient are determined. Two solutions were found for deeper atmospheric layers. The first one suggests a rather dense cloud; in the second solution the lower cloud layer is an extension of the upper aerosol layer.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015SPIE.9794E..2QW','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015SPIE.9794E..2QW"><span>Cloud-based robot remote control system for smart factory</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wu, Zhiming; Li, Lianzhong; Xu, Yang; Zhai, Jingmei</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>With the development of internet technologies and the wide application of robots, there is a prospect (trend/tendency) of integration between network and robots. A cloud-based robot remote control system over networks for smart factory is proposed, which enables remote users to control robots and then realize intelligent production. To achieve it, a three-layer system architecture is designed including user layer, service layer and physical layer. Remote control applications running on the cloud server is developed on Microsoft Azure. Moreover, DIV+ CSS technologies are used to design human-machine interface to lower maintenance cost and improve development efficiency. Finally, an experiment is implemented to verify the feasibility of the program.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JAMES...8.1565T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JAMES...8.1565T"><span>Large-eddy simulation of subtropical cloud-topped boundary layers: 1. A forcing framework with closed surface energy balance</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Tan, Zhihong; Schneider, Tapio; Teixeira, João.; Pressel, Kyle G.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Large-eddy simulation (LES) of clouds has the potential to resolve a central question in climate dynamics, namely, how subtropical marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds respond to global warming. However, large-scale processes need to be prescribed or represented parameterically in the limited-area LES domains. It is important that the representation of large-scale processes satisfies constraints such as a closed energy balance in a manner that is realizable under climate change. For example, LES with fixed sea surface temperatures usually do not close the surface energy balance, potentially leading to spurious surface fluxes and cloud responses to climate change. Here a framework of forcing LES of subtropical MBL clouds is presented that enforces a closed surface energy balance by coupling atmospheric LES to an ocean mixed layer with a sea surface temperature (SST) that depends on radiative fluxes and sensible and latent heat fluxes at the surface. A variety of subtropical MBL cloud regimes (stratocumulus, cumulus, and stratocumulus over cumulus) are simulated successfully within this framework. However, unlike in conventional frameworks with fixed SST, feedbacks between cloud cover and SST arise, which can lead to sudden transitions between cloud regimes (e.g., stratocumulus to cumulus) as forcing parameters are varied. The simulations validate this framework for studies of MBL clouds and establish its usefulness for studies of how the clouds respond to climate change.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I2000D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11I2000D"><span>Comparisons of Cloud Properties over the Southern Ocean between In situ Observations and WRF Simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>D'Alessandro, J.; Diao, M.; Wu, C.; Liu, X.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Numerical weather models often struggle at representing clouds since small scale cloud processes must be parameterized. For example, models often utilize simple parameterizations for transitioning from liquid to ice, usually set as a function of temperature. However, supercooled liquid water (SLW) often persists at temperatures much lower than threshold values used in microphysics parameterizations. Previous observational studies of clouds over the Southern Ocean have found high frequencies of SLW (e.g., Morrison et al., 2011). Many of these studies have relied on satellite retrievals, which provide relatively low resolution observations and are often associated with large uncertainties due to assumptions of microphysical properties (e.g., particle size distributions). Recently, the NSF/NCAR O2/N2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean Study (ORCAS) campaign took observations via the NSF/NCAR HIAPER research aircraft during January and February of 2016, providing in situ observations over the Southern Ocean (50°W to 92°W). We compare simulated results from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with in situ observations from ORCAS. Differences between observations and simulations are evaluated via statistical analyses. Initial results from ORCAS reveal a high frequency of SLW at temperatures as low as -15°C, and the existence of SLW around -30°C. Recent studies have found that boundary layer clouds are underestimated by WRF in regions unaffected by cyclonic activity (Huang et al., 2014), suggesting a lack of low-level moisture due to local processes. To explore this, relative humidity distributions are examined and controlled by cloud microphysical characteristics (e.g., total water content) and relevant ambient properties (e.g., vertical velocity). A relatively low frequency of simulated SLW may in part explain the discrepancies in WRF, as cloud-top SLW results in stronger radiative cooling and turbulent motions conducive for long-lived cloud regimes. Results presented in this study will help improve our understanding of Southern Ocean clouds and the observed discrepancies seen in WRF simulations.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_16");'>16</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li class="active"><span>18</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_18 --> <div id="page_19" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li class="active"><span>19</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="361"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AMT.....9..909F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AMT.....9..909F"><span>Synergy of stereo cloud top height and ORAC optimal estimation cloud retrieval: evaluation and application to AATSR</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Fisher, Daniel; Poulsen, Caroline A.; Thomas, Gareth E.; Muller, Jan-Peter</p> <p>2016-03-01</p> <p>In this paper we evaluate the impact on the cloud parameter retrievals of the ORAC (Optimal Retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud) algorithm following the inclusion of stereo-derived cloud top heights as a priori information. This is performed in a mathematically rigorous way using the ORAC optimal estimation retrieval framework, which includes the facility to use such independent a priori information. Key to the use of a priori information is a characterisation of their associated uncertainty. This paper demonstrates the improvements that are possible using this approach and also considers their impact on the microphysical cloud parameters retrieved. The Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) instrument has two views and three thermal channels, so it is well placed to demonstrate the synergy of the two techniques. The stereo retrieval is able to improve the accuracy of the retrieved cloud top height when compared to collocated Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), particularly in the presence of boundary layer inversions and high clouds. The impact of the stereo a priori information on the microphysical cloud properties of cloud optical thickness (COT) and effective radius (RE) was evaluated and generally found to be very small for single-layer clouds conditions over open water (mean RE differences of 2.2 (±5.9) microns and mean COD differences of 0.5 (±1.8) for single-layer ice clouds over open water at elevations of above 9 km, which are most strongly affected by the inclusion of the a priori).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1167615-improving-subtropical-boundary-layer-cloudiness-ncep-gfs','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1167615-improving-subtropical-boundary-layer-cloudiness-ncep-gfs"><span>Improving Subtropical Boundary Layer Cloudiness in the 2011 NCEP GFS</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Fletcher, J. K.; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Xiao, Heng</p> <p>2014-09-23</p> <p>The current operational version of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecasting System (GFS) shows significant low cloud bias. These biases also appear in the Coupled Forecast System (CFS), which is developed from the GFS. These low cloud biases degrade seasonal and longer climate forecasts, particularly of short-wave cloud radiative forcing, and affect predicted sea surface temperature. Reducing this bias in the GFS will aid the development of future CFS versions and contributes to NCEP's goal of unified weather and climate modelling. Changes are made to the shallow convection and planetary boundary layer parameterisations to make them more consistentmore » with current knowledge of these processes and to reduce the low cloud bias. These changes are tested in a single-column version of GFS and in global simulations with GFS coupled to a dynamical ocean model. In the single-column model, we focus on changing parameters that set the following: the strength of shallow cumulus lateral entrainment, the conversion of updraught liquid water to precipitation and grid-scale condensate, shallow cumulus cloud top, and the effect of shallow convection in stratocumulus environments. Results show that these changes improve the single-column simulations when compared to large eddy simulations, in particular through decreasing the precipitation efficiency of boundary layer clouds. These changes, combined with a few other model improvements, also reduce boundary layer cloud and albedo biases in global coupled simulations.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.P53A2643W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.P53A2643W"><span>The Venus Emissivity Mapper - Investigating the Atmospheric Structure and Dynamics of Venus' Polar Region</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Widemann, T.; Marcq, E.; Tsang, C.; Mueller, N. T.; Kappel, D.; Helbert, J.; Dyar, M. D.; Smrekar, S. E.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Venus' climate evolution is driven by the energy balance of its global cloud layers. Venus displays the best-known case of polar vortices evolving in a fast-rotating atmosphere. Polar vortices are pervasive in the Solar System and may also be present in atmosphere-bearing exoplanets. While much progress has been made since the early suggestion that the Venus clouds are H2O-H2SO4 liquid droplets (Young 1973), several cloud parameters are still poorly constrained, particularly in the lower cloud layer and optically thicker polar regions. The average particle size is constant over most of the planet but increases toward the poles. This indicates that cloud formation processes are different at latitudes greater than 60°, possibly as a result of the different dynamical regimes that exist in the polar vortices (Carlson et al. 1993, Wilson et al. 2008, Barstow et al. 2012). Few wind measurements exist in the polar region due to unfavorable viewing geometry of currently available observations. Cloud-tracking data indicate circumpolar circulation close to solid-body rotation. E-W winds decrease to zero velocity close to the pole. N-S circulation is marginal, with extremely variable morphology and complex vorticity patterns (Sanchez-Lavega et al. 2008, Luz et al. 2011, Garate-Lopez et al. 2013). The Venus Emissivity Mapper (VEM; Helbert et al., 2016) proposed for NASA's Venus Origins Explorer (VOX) and the ESA M5/EnVision orbiters has the capability to better constrain the microphysics (vertical, horizontal, time dependence of particle size distribution, or/and composition) of the lower cloud particles in three spectral bands at 1.195, 1.310 and 1.510 μm at a spatial resolution of 10 km. Circular polar orbit geometry would provide an unprecedented study of both polar regions within the same mission. In addition, VEM's pushbroom method will allow short timescale cloud dynamics to be assessed, as well as local wind speeds, using repeated imagery at 90 minute intervals. Tracking lower cloud motions as proxies for wind measurements at high spatial resolutions will greatly benefit modeling of the vortice's physics, as well as wave-generating dynamical instabilities (Garate-Lopez et al. 2015).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140000877','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140000877"><span>Cloud Simulations in Response to Turbulence Parameterizations in the GISS Model E GCM</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Yao, Mao-Sung; Cheng, Ye</p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>The response of cloud simulations to turbulence parameterizations is studied systematically using the GISS general circulation model (GCM) E2 employed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).Without the turbulence parameterization, the relative humidity (RH) and the low cloud cover peak unrealistically close to the surface; with the dry convection or with only the local turbulence parameterization, these two quantities improve their vertical structures, but the vertical transport of water vapor is still weak in the planetary boundary layers (PBLs); with both local and nonlocal turbulence parameterizations, the RH and low cloud cover have better vertical structures in all latitudes due to more significant vertical transport of water vapor in the PBL. The study also compares the cloud and radiation climatologies obtained from an experiment using a newer version of turbulence parameterization being developed at GISS with those obtained from the AR5 version. This newer scheme differs from the AR5 version in computing nonlocal transports, turbulent length scale, and PBL height and shows significant improvements in cloud and radiation simulations, especially over the subtropical eastern oceans and the southern oceans. The diagnosed PBL heights appear to correlate well with the low cloud distribution over oceans. This suggests that a cloud-producing scheme needs to be constructed in a framework that also takes the turbulence into consideration.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A12A..02Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A12A..02Z"><span>Assessing cloud radiative effects on tropospheric photolysis rates and key oxidants during aircraft campaigns using satellite cloud observations and a global chemical transport model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, B.; Liu, H.; Crawford, J. H.; Chen, G.; Voulgarakis, A.; Fairlie, T. D.; Duncan, B. N.; Ham, S. H.; Kato, S.; Payer Sulprizio, M.; Yantosca, R.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Clouds affect tropospheric photochemistry through modifying solar radiation that determines photolysis rates. Observational and modeling studies have indicated that photolysis rates are enhanced above and in the upper portion of cloud layers and are reduced below optically thick clouds due to their dominant backscattering effect. However, large uncertainties exist in the representation of cloud spatiotemporal (especially vertical) distributions in global models, which makes understanding of cloud radiative effects on tropospheric chemistry challenging. Our previous study using a global 3-D chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) driven by various meteorological data sets showed that the radiative effects of clouds on photochemistry are more sensitive to the differences in the vertical distribution of clouds than to those in the magnitude of column cloud optical depths. In this work, we evaluate monthly mean cloud optical properties and distributions in the MERRA-2 reanalysis with those in C3M, a 3-D cloud data product developed at NASA Langley Research Center and merged from multiple A-Train satellite (CERES, CloudSat, CALIPSO, and MODIS) observations. We conduct tropospheric chemistry simulations for the periods of several aircraft campaigns, including ARCTAS (April, June-July, 2008), DC3 (May-June, 2012), and SEAC4RS (August-September, 2013) with GEOS-Chem driven by MERRA-2. We compare model simulations with and without constraints of cloud optical properties and distributions from C3M, and evaluate model photolysis rates (J[O1D] and J[NO2]) and key oxidants (e.g., OH and ozone) with aircraft profile measurements. We will assess whether the constraints provided by C3M improve model simulations of photolysis rates and oxidants as well as their variabilities.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1355939-cloud-circulation-feedbacks-near-global-aquaplanet-cloud-resolving-model','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1355939-cloud-circulation-feedbacks-near-global-aquaplanet-cloud-resolving-model"><span>Cloud and circulation feedbacks in a near-global aquaplanet cloud-resolving model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Narenpitak, Pornampai; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Khairoutdinov, Marat F.</p> <p>2017-05-08</p> <p>A near-global aquaplanet cloud-resolving model (NGAqua) with fixed meridionally varying sea-surface temperature (SST) is used to investigate cloud feedbacks due to three climate perturbations: a uniform 4 K SST increase, a quadrupled-CO2 concentration, and both combined. NGAqua has a horizontal resolution of 4 km with no cumulus parameterization. Its domain is a zonally periodic 20,480 km-long tropical channel, spanning 46°S–N. It produces plausible mean distributions of clouds, rainfall, and winds. After spin-up, 80 days are analyzed for the control and increased-SST simulations, and 40 days for those with quadrupled CO 2. The Intertropical Convergence Zone width and tropical cloud covermore » are not strongly affected by SST warming or CO 2 increase, except for the expected upward shift in high clouds with warming, but both perturbations weaken the Hadley circulation. Increased SST induces a statistically significant increase in subtropical low cloud fraction and in-cloud liquid water content but decreases midlatitude cloud, yielding slightly positive domain-mean shortwave cloud feedbacks. CO 2 quadrupling causes a slight shallowing and a statistically insignificant reduction of subtropical low cloud fraction. Warming-induced low cloud changes are strongly correlated with changes in estimated inversion strength, which increases modestly in the subtropics but decreases in the midlatitudes. Enhanced clear-sky boundary layer radiative cooling in the warmer climate accompanies the robust subtropical low cloud increase. The probability distribution of column relative humidity across the tropics and subtropics is compared between the control and increased-SST simulations. It shows no evidence of bimodality or increased convective aggregation in a warmer climate.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1355939-cloud-circulation-feedbacks-near-global-aquaplanet-cloud-resolving-model','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1355939-cloud-circulation-feedbacks-near-global-aquaplanet-cloud-resolving-model"><span>Cloud and circulation feedbacks in a near-global aquaplanet cloud-resolving model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Narenpitak, Pornampai; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Khairoutdinov, Marat F.</p> <p></p> <p>A near-global aquaplanet cloud-resolving model (NGAqua) with fixed meridionally varying sea-surface temperature (SST) is used to investigate cloud feedbacks due to three climate perturbations: a uniform 4 K SST increase, a quadrupled-CO2 concentration, and both combined. NGAqua has a horizontal resolution of 4 km with no cumulus parameterization. Its domain is a zonally periodic 20,480 km-long tropical channel, spanning 46°S–N. It produces plausible mean distributions of clouds, rainfall, and winds. After spin-up, 80 days are analyzed for the control and increased-SST simulations, and 40 days for those with quadrupled CO 2. The Intertropical Convergence Zone width and tropical cloud covermore » are not strongly affected by SST warming or CO 2 increase, except for the expected upward shift in high clouds with warming, but both perturbations weaken the Hadley circulation. Increased SST induces a statistically significant increase in subtropical low cloud fraction and in-cloud liquid water content but decreases midlatitude cloud, yielding slightly positive domain-mean shortwave cloud feedbacks. CO 2 quadrupling causes a slight shallowing and a statistically insignificant reduction of subtropical low cloud fraction. Warming-induced low cloud changes are strongly correlated with changes in estimated inversion strength, which increases modestly in the subtropics but decreases in the midlatitudes. Enhanced clear-sky boundary layer radiative cooling in the warmer climate accompanies the robust subtropical low cloud increase. The probability distribution of column relative humidity across the tropics and subtropics is compared between the control and increased-SST simulations. It shows no evidence of bimodality or increased convective aggregation in a warmer climate.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACP....1012261S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACP....1012261S"><span>Simulation of low clouds in the Southeast Pacific by the NCEP GFS: sensitivity to vertical mixing</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sun, R.; Moorthi, S.; Xiao, H.; Mechoso, C. R.</p> <p>2010-12-01</p> <p>The NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) model has an important systematic error shared by many other models: stratocumuli are missed over the subtropical eastern oceans. It is shown that this error can be alleviated in the GFS by introducing a consideration of the low-level inversion and making two modifications in the model's representation of vertical mixing. The modifications consist of (a) the elimination of background vertical diffusion above the inversion and (b) the incorporation of a stability parameter based on the cloud-top entrainment instability (CTEI) criterion, which limits the strength of shallow convective mixing across the inversion. A control simulation and three experiments are performed in order to examine both the individual and combined effects of modifications on the generation of the stratocumulus clouds. Individually, both modifications result in enhanced cloudiness in the Southeast Pacific (SEP) region, although the cloudiness is still low compared to the ISCCP climatology. If the modifications are applied together, however, the total cloudiness produced in the southeast Pacific has realistic values. This nonlinearity arises as the effects of both modifications reinforce each other in reducing the leakage of moisture across the inversion. Increased moisture trapped below the inversion than in the control run without modifications leads to an increase in cloud amount and cloud-top radiative cooling. Then a positive feedback due to enhanced turbulent mixing in the planetary boundary layer by cloud-top radiative cooling leads to and maintains the stratocumulus cover. Although the amount of total cloudiness obtained with both modifications has realistic values, the relative contributions of low, middle, and high layers tend to differ from the observations. These results demonstrate that it is possible to simulate realistic marine boundary clouds in large-scale models by implementing direct and physically based improvements in the model parameterizations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACPD...1018467S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACPD...1018467S"><span>Simulation of low clouds in the Southeast Pacific by the NCEP GFS: sensitivity to vertical mixing</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sun, R.; Moorthi, S.; Xiao, H.; Mechoso, C.-R.</p> <p>2010-08-01</p> <p>The NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) model has an important systematic error shared by many other models: stratocumuli are missed over the subtropical eastern oceans. It is shown that this error can be alleviated in the GFS by introducing a consideration of the low-level inversion and making two modifications in the model's representation of vertical mixing. The modifications consist of (a) the elimination of background vertical diffusion above the inversion and (b) the incorporation of a stability parameter based on the cloud-top entrainment instability (CTEI) criterion, which limits the strength of shallow convective mixing across the inversion. A control simulation and three experiments are performed in order to examine both the individual and combined effects of modifications on the generation of the stratocumulus clouds. Individually, both modifications result in enhanced cloudiness in the Southeast Pacific (SEP) region, although the cloudiness is still low compared to the ISCCP climatology. If the modifications are applied together, however, the total cloudiness produced in the southeast Pacific has realistic values. This nonlinearity arises as the effects of both modifications reinforce each other in reducing the leakage of moisture across the inversion. Increased moisture trapped below the inversion than in the control run without modifications leads to an increase in cloud amount and cloud-top radiative cooling. Then a positive feedback due to enhanced turbulent mixing in the planetary boundary layer by cloud-top radiative cooling leads to and maintains the stratocumulus cover. Although the amount of total cloudiness obtained with both modifications has realistic values, the relative contributions of low, middle, and high layers tend to differ from the observations. These results demonstrate that it is possible to simulate realistic marine boundary clouds in large-scale models by implementing direct and physically based improvements in the model parameterizations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4850808B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016DPS....4850808B"><span>Accurate Spectral Fits of Jupiter's Great Red Spot: VIMS Visual Spectra Modelled with Chromophores Created by Photolyzed Ammonia Reacting with Acetyleneχ±</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Baines, Kevin; Sromovsky, Lawrence A.; Fry, Patrick M.; Carlson, Robert W.; Momary, Thomas W.</p> <p>2016-10-01</p> <p>We report results incorporating the red-tinted photochemically-generated aerosols of Carlson et al (2016, Icarus 274, 106-115) in spectral models of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS). Spectral models of the 0.35-1.0-micron spectrum show good agreement with Cassini/VIMS near-center-meridian and near-limb GRS spectra for model morphologies incorporating an optically-thin layer of Carlson (2016) aerosols at high altitudes, either at the top of the tropospheric GRS cloud, or in a distinct stratospheric haze layer. Specifically, a two-layer "crème brûlée" structure of the Mie-scattering Carlson et al (2016) chromophore attached to the top of a conservatively scattering (hereafter, "white") optically-thick cloud fits the spectra well. Currently, best agreement (reduced χ2 of 0.89 for the central-meridian spectrum) is found for a 0.195-0.217-bar, 0.19 ± 0.02 opacity layer of chromophores with mean particle radius of 0.14 ± 0.01 micron. As well, a structure with a detached stratospheric chromophore layer ~0.25 bar above a white tropospheric GRS cloud provides a good spectral match (reduced χ2 of 1.16). Alternatively, a cloud morphology with the chromophore coating white particles in a single optically- and physically-thick cloud (the "coated-shell model", initially explored by Carlson et al 2016) was found to give significantly inferior fits (best reduced χ2 of 2.9). Overall, we find that models accurately fit the GRS spectrum if (1) most of the optical depth of the chromophore is in a layer near the top of the main cloud or in a distinct separated layer above it, but is not uniformly distributed within the main cloud, (2) the chromophore consists of relatively small, 0.1-0.2-micron-radius particles, and (3) the chromophore layer optical depth is small, ~ 0.1-0.2. Thus, our analysis supports the exogenic origin of the red chromophore consistent with the Carlson et al (2016) photolytic production mechanism rather than an endogenic origin, such as upwelling of material from the depths of Jupiter.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A34E..05K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A34E..05K"><span>Exploiting Cloud Radar Doppler Spectra of Mixed-Phase Clouds during ACCEPT Field Experiment to Identify Microphysical Processes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kalesse, H.; Myagkov, A.; Seifert, P.; Buehl, J.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>Cloud radar Doppler spectra offer much information about cloud processes. By analyzing millimeter radar Doppler spectra from cloud-top to -base in mixed-phase clouds in which super-cooled liquid-layers are present we try to tell the microphysical evolution story of particles that are present by disentangling the contributions of the solid and liquid particles to the total radar returns. Instead of considering vertical profiles, dynamical effects are taken into account by following the particle population evolution along slanted paths which are caused by horizontal advection of the cloud. The goal is to identify regions in which different microphysical processes such as new particle formation (nucleation), water vapor deposition, aggregation, riming, or sublimation occurr. Cloud radar measurements are supplemented by Doppler lidar and Raman lidar observations as well as observations with MWR, wind profiler, and radio sondes. The presence of super-cooled liquid layers is identified by positive liquid water paths in MWR measurements, the vertical location of liquid layers (in non-raining systems and below lidar extinction) is derived from regions of high-backscatter and low depolarization in Raman lidar observations. In collocated cloud radar measurements, we try to identify cloud phase in the cloud radar Doppler spectrum via location of the Doppler peak(s), the existence of multi-modalities or the spectral skewness. Additionally, within the super-cooled liquid layers, the radar-identified liquid droplets are used as air motion tracer to correct the radar Doppler spectrum for vertical air motion w. These radar-derived estimates of w are validated by independent estimates of w from collocated Doppler lidar measurements. A 35 GHz vertically pointing cloud Doppler radar (METEK MIRA-35) in linear depolarization (LDR) mode is used. Data is from the deployment of the Leipzig Aerosol and Cloud Remote Observations System (LACROS) during the Analysis of the Composition of Clouds with Extended Polarization Techniques (ACCEPT) field experiment in Cabauw, Netherlands in Fall 2014. There, another MIRA-35 was operated in simultaneous transmission and simultaneous reception (STSR) mode for obtaining measurements of differential reflectivity (ZDR) and correlation coefficient ρhv.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AIPC.1100..295M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AIPC.1100..295M"><span>Estimation of Microphysical and Radiative Parameters of Precipitating Cloud Systems Using mm-Wavelength Radars</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Matrosov, Sergey Y.</p> <p>2009-03-01</p> <p>A remote sensing approach is described to retrieve cloud and rainfall parameters within the same precipitating system. This approach is based on mm-wavelength radar signal attenuation effects which are observed in a layer of liquid precipitation containing clouds and rainfall. The parameters of ice clouds in the upper part of startiform precipitating systems are then retrieved using the absolute measurements of radar reflectivity. In case of the ground-based radar location, these measurements are corrected for attenuation in the intervening layer of liquid hydrometers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012APS..DFDH14001K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012APS..DFDH14001K"><span>Validity of Molecular Tagging Velocimetry in a Cavitating Flow for Turbopump Analysis</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kuzmich, Kayla; Bohl, Doug</p> <p>2012-11-01</p> <p>This research establishes multi-phase molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) use and explores its limitations. The flow conditions and geometry in the inducer of an upper stage liquid Oxygen (LOX)/LH2 engine frequently cause cavitation which decreases turbopump performance. Complications arise in performing experiments in liquid hydrogen and oxygen due to high costs, high pressures, extremely low fluid temperatures, the presence of cavitation, and associated safety risks. Due to the complex geometry and hazardous nature of the fluids, a simplified throat geometry with water as a simulant fluid is used. Flow characteristics are measured using MTV, a noninvasive flow diagnostic technique. MTV is found to be an applicable tool in cases of low cavitation. Highly cavitating flows reflect and scatter most of the laser beam disallowing penetration into the cavitation cloud. However, data can be obtained in high cavitation cases near the cloud boundary layer. Distribution A: Public Release, Public Affairs Clearance Number: 12654</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ApPhB..55..391S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ApPhB..55..391S"><span>Formation of a knudsen layer in electronically induced desorption</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sibold, D.; Urbassek, H. M.</p> <p>1992-10-01</p> <p>For intense desorption fluxes, particles desorbed by electronic transitions (DIET) from a surface into a vacuum may thermalize in the gas cloud forming above the surface. In immediate vicinity to the surface, however, a non-equilibrium layer (the Knudsen layer) exists which separates the recently desorbed, non-thermal particles from the thermalized gas cloud. We investigate by Monte Carlo computer simulation the time it takes to form a Knudsen layer, and its properties. It is found that a Knudsen layer, and thus also a thermalized gas cloud, is formed after around 200 mean free flight times of the desorbing particles, corresponding to a desorption of 20 monolayers. At the end of the Knudsen layer, the gas density will be higher, and the flow velocity and temperature smaller, than literature values indicate for thermal desorption. These data are of fundamental interest for the modeling of gas-kinetic and gas-dynamic effects in DIET.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120017005','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120017005"><span>Radiative Impacts of Cloud Heterogeneity and Overlap in an Atmospheric General Circulation Model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Oreopoulos, L.; Lee, D.; Sud, Y. C.; Suarez, M. J.</p> <p>2012-01-01</p> <p>The radiative impacts of introducing horizontal heterogeneity of layer cloud condensate, and vertical overlap of condensate and cloud fraction are examined with the aid of a new radiation package operating in the GEOS-5 Atmospheric General Circulation Model. The impacts are examined in terms of diagnostic top-of-the-atmosphere shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) cloud radiative effect (CRE) calculations for a range of assumptions and parameter specifications about the overlap. The investigation is conducted for two distinct cloud schemes, the one that comes with the standard GEOS-5 distribution, and another which has been recently used experimentally for its enhanced GEOS-5 distribution, and another which has been recently used experimentally for its enhanced cloud microphysical capabilities; both are coupled to a cloud generator allowing arbitrary cloud overlap specification. We find that cloud overlap radiative impacts are significantly stronger for the operational cloud scheme for which a change of cloud fraction overlap from maximum-random to generalized results to global changes of SW and LW CRE of approximately 4 Watts per square meter, and zonal changes of up to approximately 10 Watts per square meter. This is because of fewer occurrences compared to the other scheme of large layer cloud fractions and of multi-layer situations with large numbers of atmospheric being simultaneously cloudy, conditions that make overlap details more important. The impact on CRE of the details of condensate distribution overlap is much weaker. Once generalized overlap is adopted, both cloud schemes are only modestly sensitive to the exact values of the overlap parameters. We also find that if one of the CRE components is overestimated and the other underestimated, both cannot be driven towards observed values by adjustments to cloud condensate heterogeneity and overlap alone.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1914659K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1914659K"><span>Sensitivity of the southern West African mean atmospheric state to variations in low-level cloud cover as simulated by ICON</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kniffka, Anke; Knippertz, Peter; Fink, Andreas</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>This contribution presents first results of numerical sensitivity experiments that are carried out in the framework of the project DACCIWA (Dynamics-Aerosol-Chemistry-Cloud Interactions in West Africa). DACCIWA aims to investigate the impact of the drastic increase in anthropogenic emissions in West Africa on the local weather and climate, for example through cloud-aerosol interactions or impacts on radiation and stability. DACCIWA organised a major international field campaign in West Africa in June-July 2016 and involves a wide range of modelling activities. Several studies have shown - and first results of the DACCIWA campaign confirm - that extensive ultra-low stratus clouds form in the southern parts of West Africa (8°W-8°E, 5-10°N) at night in connection with strong nocturnal low-level jets. The clouds persist long after sunrise and have therefore a substantial impact on the surface radiation budget and consequently on the diurnal evolution of the daytime, convectively mixed boundary layer. The objective of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of the West African monsoon system and its diurnal cycle to the radiative effects of these low clouds. The study is based on a series of daily 5-day sensitivity simulations using ICON, the operational numerical weather prediction model of the German Weather Service during the months July - September 2006. In these simulations, low clouds are made transparent, by artificially lowering the optical thickness information passed on to the model's radiation scheme. Results reveal a noticeable influence of the low-level cloud cover on the atmospheric mean state of our region of interest and beyond. Also the diurnal development of the convective boundary layer is influenced by the cloud modification. In the transparent-cloud experiments, the cloud deck tends to break up later in the day and is shifted to a higher altitude, thereby causing a short-lived intensification around 11 LT. The average rainfall patterns are modified as well, though no conclusion on the long-term impact on rainfall can be made due to the forced initial conditions in the presented experiment. In the future, the impact on the development of the West African monsoon system will be assessed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010072068','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010072068"><span>Cloud Overlapping Detection Algorithm Using Solar and IR Wavelengths With GOSE Data Over ARM/SGP Site</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Kawamoto, Kazuaki; Minnis, Patrick; Smith, William L., Jr.</p> <p>2001-01-01</p> <p>One of the most perplexing problems in satellite cloud remote sensing is the overlapping of cloud layers. Although most techniques assume a 1-layer cloud system in a given retrieval of cloud properties, many observations are affected by radiation from more than one cloud layer. As such, cloud overlap can cause errors in the retrieval of many properties including cloud height, optical depth, phase, and particle size. A variety of methods have been developed to identify overlapped clouds in a given satellite imager pixel. Baum el al. (1995) used CO2 slicing and a spatial coherence method to demonstrate a possible analysis method for nighttime detection of multilayered clouds. Jin and Rossow (1997) also used a multispectral CO2 slicing technique for a global analysis of overlapped cloud amount. Lin et al. (1999) used a combination infrared, visible, and microwave data to detect overlapped clouds over water. Recently, Baum and Spinhirne (2000) proposed 1.6 and 11 microns. bispectral threshold method. While all of these methods have made progress in solving this stubborn problem, none have yet proven satisfactory for continuous and consistent monitoring of multilayer cloud systems. It is clear that detection of overlapping clouds from passive instruments such as satellite radiometers is in an immature stage of development and requires additional research. Overlapped cloud systems also affect the retrievals of cloud properties over the ARM domains (e.g., Minnis et al 1998) and hence should identified as accurately as possible. To reach this goal, it is necessary to determine which information can be exploited for detecting multilayered clouds from operational meteorological satellite data used by ARM. This paper examines the potential information available in spectral data available on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager and the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) used over the ARM SGP and NSA sites to study the capability of detecting overlapping clouds</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010110104','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20010110104"><span>Cloud Overlapping Detection Algorithm Using Solar and IR Wavelengths with GOES Data Over ARM/SGP Site</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Kawamoto, K.; Minnis, P.; Smith, W. L., Jr.</p> <p>2001-01-01</p> <p>One of the most perplexing problems in satellite cloud remote sensing is the overlapping of cloud layers. Although most techniques assume a one layer cloud system in a given retrieval of cloud properties, many observations are affected by radiation from more than one cloud layer. As such, cloud overlap can cause errors in the retrieval of many properties including cloud height, optical depth, phase, and particle size. A variety of methods have been developed to identify overlapped clouds in a given satellite imager pixel. Baum et al used CO2 slicing and a spatial coherence method to demonstrate a possible analysis method for nighttime detection of multilayered clouds. Jin and Rossow also used a multispectral CO2 slicing technique for a global analysis of overlapped cloud amount. Lin et al. used a combination infrared (IR), visible (VIS), and microwave data to detect overlapped clouds over water. Recently, Baum and Spinhirne proposed a 1.6 and 11 micron bispectral threshold method. While all of these methods have made progress in solving this stubborn problem none have yet proven satisfactory for continuous and consistent monitoring of multilayer cloud systems. It is clear that detection of overlapping clouds from passive instruments such as satellite radiometers is in an immature stage of development and requires additional research. Overlapped cloud systems also affect the retrievals of cloud properties over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) domains and hence should be identified as accurately as possible. To reach this goal, it is necessary to determine which information can be exploited for detecting multilayered clouds from operational meteorological satellite data used by ARM. This paper examines the potential information available in spectral data available on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) imager and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) used over the ARM Program's Southern Great Plains (SGP), and North Slope of Alaska (NSA) sites to study the capability of detecting overlapping clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1376169-anthropogenic-pollution-elevates-peak-height-new-particle-formation-from-planetary-boundary-layer-lower-free-troposphere','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1376169-anthropogenic-pollution-elevates-peak-height-new-particle-formation-from-planetary-boundary-layer-lower-free-troposphere"><span>Anthropogenic pollution elevates the peak height of new particle formation from planetary boundary layer to lower free troposphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Quan, Jiannong; Liu, Yangang; Liu, Quan</p> <p></p> <p>New particle formation (NPF) and subsequent growth are primary sources of atmospheric aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei. Previous studies have been conducted in relatively clean environments; investigation of NPF events over highly polluted megacities is still lacking. Here in this paper we show, based on a recent yearlong aircraft campaign conducted over Beijing, China, from April 2011 to June 2012, that NPF occurrence peaks in the lower free troposphere (LT), instead of planetary boundary layer (PBL), as most previous studies have found and that the distance of NPF peak to PBL top increases with increasing aerosol loading. Further analysismore » reveals that increased aerosols suppress NPF in PBL, but enhance NPF in LT due to a complex chain of aerosol-radiation-photochemistry interactions that affect both NPF sources and sinks. These findings shed new light on our understanding of NPF occurrence, NPF vertical distribution, and thus their effects on atmospheric photochemistry, clouds, and climate.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1376169-anthropogenic-pollution-elevates-peak-height-new-particle-formation-from-planetary-boundary-layer-lower-free-troposphere','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1376169-anthropogenic-pollution-elevates-peak-height-new-particle-formation-from-planetary-boundary-layer-lower-free-troposphere"><span>Anthropogenic pollution elevates the peak height of new particle formation from planetary boundary layer to lower free troposphere</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Quan, Jiannong; Liu, Yangang; Liu, Quan; ...</p> <p>2017-07-21</p> <p>New particle formation (NPF) and subsequent growth are primary sources of atmospheric aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei. Previous studies have been conducted in relatively clean environments; investigation of NPF events over highly polluted megacities is still lacking. Here in this paper we show, based on a recent yearlong aircraft campaign conducted over Beijing, China, from April 2011 to June 2012, that NPF occurrence peaks in the lower free troposphere (LT), instead of planetary boundary layer (PBL), as most previous studies have found and that the distance of NPF peak to PBL top increases with increasing aerosol loading. Further analysismore » reveals that increased aerosols suppress NPF in PBL, but enhance NPF in LT due to a complex chain of aerosol-radiation-photochemistry interactions that affect both NPF sources and sinks. These findings shed new light on our understanding of NPF occurrence, NPF vertical distribution, and thus their effects on atmospheric photochemistry, clouds, and climate.« less</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_17");'>17</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li class="active"><span>19</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_19 --> <div id="page_20" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li class="active"><span>20</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="381"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1913789G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017EGUGA..1913789G"><span>Investigation of aerosol effects on shallow marine convection - Lidar measurements during NARVAL-I and NARVAL-II</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Groß, Silke; Wirth, Martin; Gutleben, Manuel; Ewald, Florian; Kiemle, Christoph; Kölling, Tobias; Mayer, Bernhard</p> <p>2017-04-01</p> <p>Clouds and aerosols have a large impact on the Earth's radiation budget by scattering and absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation. Furthermore aerosols can modify cloud properties and distribution. Up to now no sufficient understanding in aerosol-cloud interaction and in climate feedback of clouds is achieved. Especially shallow marine convection in the trade wind regions show large uncertainties in climate feedback. Thus a better understanding of these shallow marine convective clouds and how aerosols affect these clouds, e.g. by changing the cloud properties and distribution, is highly demanded. During NARVAL-I (Next-generation airborne remote-sensing for validation studies) and NARVAL-II a set of active and passive remote sensing instruments, i.e. a cloud radar, an aerosol and water vapor lidar system, microwave radiometer, a hyper spectral imager (NARVAL-II only) and radiation measurements, were installed on the German research aircraft HALO. Measurements were performed out of Barbados over the tropical North-Atlantic region in December 2013 and August 2016 to study shallow trade wind convection as well as its environment in the dry and wet season. While no or only few aerosol layers were observed above the marine boundary layer during the dry season in December 2013, part of the measurement area was influenced by high aerosol load caused by long-range transport of Saharan dust during the NARVAL-II measurements in August 2016. Measurement flights during NARVAL-II were conducted the way that we could probed aerosol influenced regions as well as areas with low aerosol load. Thus the measurements during both campaigns provide the opportunity to investigate if and how the transported aerosol layers change the distribution and formation of the shallow marine convection by altering their properties and environment. In our presentation we will focus on the lidar measurements performed during NARVAL-I and NARVAL-II. We will give an overview of the measurements and of the general aerosol and cloud situation, and we will show first results how cloud properties and distribution of shallow marine convection change in the presence of lofted aerosol layers. In particular we will determine if aerosols modify horizontal cloud distribution and cloud top height distribution by looking on the correlations between aerosol load and cloud distribution, and we will investigate if and how the presence of the lofted aerosol layer changes the properties of the clouds, e.g. by acting as ice nuclei.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120002052&hterms=remote+sensing+satellites&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dremote%2Bsensing%2Bsatellites','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120002052&hterms=remote+sensing+satellites&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dremote%2Bsensing%2Bsatellites"><span>Boundary Layer Remote Sensing with Combined Active and Passive Techniques: GPS Radio Occultation and High-Resolution Stereo Imaging (WindCam) Small Satellite Concept</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Mannucci, A.J.; Wu, D.L.; Teixeira, J.; Ao, C.O.; Xie, F.; Diner, D.J.; Wood, R.; Turk, Joe</p> <p>2012-01-01</p> <p>Objective: significant progress in understanding low-cloud boundary layer processes. This is the Single largest uncertainty in climate projections. Radio occultation has unique features suited to boundary layer remote sensing (1) Cloud penetrating (2) Very high vertical resolution (approximately 50m-100m) (3) Sensitivity to thermodynamic variables</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1233295','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1233295"><span>Vertical microphysical profiles of convective clouds as a tool for obtaining aerosol cloud-mediated climate forcings</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Rosenfeld, Daniel</p> <p></p> <p>Quantifying the aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative effect at a global scale requires simultaneous satellite retrievals of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and cloud base updraft velocities (Wb). Hitherto, the inability to do so has been a major cause of high uncertainty regarding anthropogenic aerosol/cloud-mediated radiative forcing. This can be addressed by the emerging capability of estimating CCN and Wb of boundary layer convective clouds from an operational polar orbiting weather satellite. Our methodology uses such clouds as an effective analog for CCN chambers. The cloud base supersaturation (S) is determined by Wb and the satellite-retrieved cloud base drop concentrations (Ndb), which ismore » the same as CCN(S). Developing and validating this methodology was possible thanks to the ASR/ARM measurements of CCN and vertical updraft profiles. Validation against ground-based CCN instruments at the ARM sites in Oklahoma, Manaus, and onboard a ship in the northeast Pacific showed a retrieval accuracy of ±25% to ±30% for individual satellite overpasses. The methodology is presently limited to boundary layer not raining convective clouds of at least 1 km depth that are not obscured by upper layer clouds, including semitransparent cirrus. The limitation for small solar backscattering angles of <25º restricts the satellite coverage to ~25% of the world area in a single day. This methodology will likely allow overcoming the challenge of quantifying the aerosol indirect effect and facilitate a substantial reduction of the uncertainty in anthropogenic climate forcing.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ClDy...50.3097F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ClDy...50.3097F"><span>The influence of extratropical cloud phase and amount feedbacks on climate sensitivity</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Frey, William R.; Kay, Jennifer E.</p> <p>2018-04-01</p> <p>Global coupled climate models have large long-standing cloud and radiation biases, calling into question their ability to simulate climate and climate change. This study assesses the impact of reducing shortwave radiation biases on climate sensitivity within the Community Earth System Model (CESM). The model is modified by increasing supercooled cloud liquid to better match absorbed shortwave radiation observations over the Southern Ocean while tuning to reduce a compensating tropical shortwave bias. With a thermodynamic mixed-layer ocean, equilibrium warming in response to doubled CO2 increases from 4.1 K in the control to 5.6 K in the modified model. This 1.5 K increase in equilibrium climate sensitivity is caused by changes in two extratropical shortwave cloud feedbacks. First, reduced conversion of cloud ice to liquid at high southern latitudes decreases the magnitude of a negative cloud phase feedback. Second, warming is amplified in the mid-latitudes by a larger positive shortwave cloud feedback. The positive cloud feedback, usually associated with the subtropics, arises when sea surface warming increases the moisture gradient between the boundary layer and free troposphere. The increased moisture gradient enhances the effectiveness of mixing to dry the boundary layer, which decreases cloud amount and optical depth. When a full-depth ocean with dynamics and thermodynamics is included, ocean heat uptake preferentially cools the mid-latitude Southern Ocean, partially inhibiting the positive cloud feedback and slowing warming. Overall, the results highlight strong connections between Southern Ocean mixed-phase cloud partitioning, cloud feedbacks, and ocean heat uptake in a climate forced by greenhouse gas changes.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19860018365','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19860018365"><span>A model for the estimation of the surface fluxes of momentum, heat and moisture of the cloud topped marine atmospheric boundary layer from satellite measurable parameters. M.S. Thesis</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Allison, D. E.</p> <p>1984-01-01</p> <p>A model is developed for the estimation of the surface fluxes of momentum, heat, and moisture of the cloud topped marine atmospheric boundary layer by use of satellite remotely sensed parameters. The parameters chosen for the problem are the integrated liquid water content, q sub li, the integrated water vapor content, q sub vi, the cloud top temperature, and either a measure of the 10 meter neutral wind speed or the friction velocity at the surface. Under the assumption of a horizontally homogeneous, well-mixed boundary layer, the model calculates the equivalent potential temperature and total water profiles of the boundary layer along with the boundary layer height from inputs of q sub li, q sub vi, and cloud top temperature. These values, along with the 10m neutral wind speed or friction velocity and the sea surface temperature are then used to estimate the surface fluxes. The development of a scheme to parameterize the integrated water vapor outside of the boundary layer for the cases of cold air outbreak and California coastal stratus is presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PhDT........54G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PhDT........54G"><span>Aerosol cloud interactions in southeast Pacific stratocumulus: satellite observations, in situ data and regional modeling</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>George, Rhea</p> <p></p> <p>The influence of anthropogenic aerosols on cloud radiative properties in the persistent southeast Pacific stratocumulus deck is investigated using MODIS satellite observations, in situ data from the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx), and WRF-Chem, a regional model with interactive chemistry and aerosols. An albedo proxy is derived based on the fractional coverage of low cloud (a macrophysical field) and the cloud albedo, with the latter broken down into contributions from microphysics (cloud droplet concentration, Nd and macrophysics (liquid water path). Albedo variability is dominated by low cloud fraction variability, except within 10-15° of the South American coast, where cloud albedo variability contributes significantly. Covariance between cloud fraction and cloud albedo also contributes significantly to the variance in albedo, which highlights how complex and inseparable the factors controlling albedo are. N d variability contributes only weakly, which emphasizes that attributing albedo variability to the indirect effects of aerosols against the backdrop of natural meteorological variability is extremely challenging. Specific cases of aerosol changes can have strong impacts on albedo. We identify a pathway for periodic anthropogenic aerosol transport to the unpolluted marine stratocumulus >1000 km offshore, which strongly enhances Nd and albedo in zonally-elongated 'hook'-shaped arc. Hook development occurs with Nd increasing to polluted levels over the remote ocean primarily due to entrainment of a large number of small aerosols from the free troposphere that contribute a relatively small amount of aerosol mass to the marine boundary layer. Strong, deep offshore flow needed to transport continental aerosols to the remote ocean is favored by a trough approaching the South American coast and a southeastward shift of the climatological subtropical high pressure system. DMS significantly influences the aerosol number and size distributions, but does not cause hooks. The Twomey effect contributes 50-80% of the total aerosol indirect effect (AIE) both near sources and offshore during hook events. Meteorological variability between simulations can swamp the signal of AIEs, particularly due to the binary model cloud fraction field and distinguishing AIE requires determination of appropriate spatial and temporal averaging scales over which AIE is significant above this noise.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008JGRD..113.4210A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008JGRD..113.4210A"><span>Influence of Saharan dust on cloud glaciation in southern Morocco during the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ansmann, A.; Tesche, M.; Althausen, D.; Müller, D.; Seifert, P.; Freudenthaler, V.; Heese, B.; Wiegner, M.; Pisani, G.; Knippertz, P.; Dubovik, O.</p> <p>2008-02-01</p> <p>Multiwavelength lidar, Sun photometer, and radiosonde observations were conducted at Ouarzazate (30.9°N, 6.9°W, 1133 m above sea level, asl), Morocco, in the framework of the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM) in May-June 2006. The field site is close to the Saharan desert. Information on the depolarization ratio, backscatter and extinction coefficients, and lidar ratio of the dust particles, estimates of the available concentration of atmospheric ice nuclei at cloud level, profiles of temperature, humidity, and the horizontal wind vector as well as backward trajectory analysis are used to study cases of cloud formation in the dust with focus on heterogeneous ice formation. Surprisingly, most of the altocumulus clouds that form at the top of the Saharan dust layer, which reaches into heights of 4-7 km asl and has layer top temperatures of -8°C to -18°C, do not show any ice formation. According to the lidar observations the presence of a high number of ice nuclei (1-20 cm-3) does not automatically result in the obvious generation of ice particles, but the observations indicate that cloud top temperatures must typically reach values as low as -20°C before significant ice production starts. Another main finding is that liquid clouds are obviously required before ice crystals form via heterogeneous freezing mechanisms, and, as a consequence, that deposition freezing is not an important ice nucleation process. An interesting case with cloud seeding in the free troposphere above the dust layer is presented in addition. Small water clouds formed at about -30°C and produced ice virga. These virga reached water cloud layers several kilometers below the initiating cloud cells and caused strong ice production in these clouds at temperatures as high as -12°C to -15°C.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A53C0297T','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A53C0297T"><span>A Global, Decadal, Quantitative Record of Absorbing Aerosols above Cloud Using OMI's Near-UV Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Torres, O.; Jethva, H. T.; Ahn, C.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Aerosol-cloud interaction continues to be one of the leading uncertain components of climate models, primarily due to the lack of an adequate knowledge of the complex microphysical and radiative processes of the aerosol-cloud system. The situations when aerosols and clouds are found in the same atmospheric column, for instance, when light-absorbing aerosols such as biomass burning generated carbonaceous particles or wind-blown dust overlay low-level cloud decks, are commonly found over several regions of the world. Contrary to the known cooling effects of these aerosols in cloud-free scenario over dark surface, the overlapping situation of absorbing aerosols over cloud can potentially exert a significant level of atmospheric absorption and produces a positive radiative forcing (warming) at top-of-atmosphere. The magnitude of direct radiative effects of aerosols above cloud directly depends on the aerosol loading, microphysical and optical properties of the aerosol layer and the underlying cloud deck, and geometric cloud fraction. We help in addressing this problem by introducing a novel product of above-cloud aerosol optical depth (ACAOD) of absorbing aerosols retrieved from near-UV observations made by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA's Aura platform. Physically based on the strong `color ratio' effect in the near-UV caused by the spectral absorption of aerosols above cloud, the algorithm, formally named as OMACA, retrieves the optical depths of aerosols and clouds simultaneously under a prescribed state of atmosphere. Here, we present the algorithm architecture and results from an 11-year global record (2005-2015) including global climatology of frequency of occurrence and ACAOD. The theoretical uncertainty analysis and planned validation activities using measurements from upcoming field campaigns are also discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUFM.A51G0190W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUFM.A51G0190W"><span>Assessment of the NPOESS/VIIRS Nighttime Infrared Cloud Optical Properties Algorithms</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wong, E.; Ou, S. C.</p> <p>2008-12-01</p> <p>In this paper we will describe two NPOESS VIIRS IR algorithms used to retrieve microphysical properties for water and ice clouds during nighttime conditions. Both algorithms employ four VIIRS IR channels: M12 (3.7 μm), M14 (8.55 μm), M15 (10.7 μm) and M16 (12 μm). The physical basis for the two algorithms is similar in that while the Cloud Top Temperature (CTT) is derived from M14 and M16 for ice clouds the Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) and Cloud Effective Particle Size (CEPS) are derived from M12 and M15. The two algorithms depart in the different radiative transfer parameterization equations used for ice and water clouds. Both the VIIRS nighttime IR algorithms and the CERES split-window method employ the 3.7 μm and 10.7 μm bands for cloud optical properties retrievals, apparently based on similar physical principles but with different implementations. It is reasonable to expect that the VIIRS and CERES IR algorithms produce comparable performance and similar limitations. To demonstrate the VIIRS nighttime IR algorithm performance, we will select a number of test cases using NASA MODIS L1b radiance products as proxy input data for VIIRS. The VIIRS retrieved COT and CEPS will then be compared to cloud products available from the MODIS, NASA CALIPSO, CloudSat and CERES sensors. For the MODIS product, the nighttime cloud emissivity will serve as an indirect comparison to VIIRS COT. For the CALIPSO and CloudSat products, the layered COT will be used for direct comparison. Finally, the CERES products will provide direct comparison with COT as well as CEPS. This study can only provide a qualitative assessment of the VIIRS IR algorithms due to the large uncertainties in these cloud products.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1043372-assessing-regional-scale-predictions-aerosols-marine-stratocumulus-interactions-during-vocals-rex-using-wrf-chem','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1043372-assessing-regional-scale-predictions-aerosols-marine-stratocumulus-interactions-during-vocals-rex-using-wrf-chem"><span>Assessing regional scale predictions of aerosols, marine stratocumulus, and their interactions during VOCALS-REx using WRF-Chem</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Yang Q.; Lee Y.; Gustafson Jr., W. I.</p> <p>2011-12-02</p> <p>This study assesses the ability of the recent chemistry version (v3.3) of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-Chem) model to simulate boundary layer structure, aerosols, stratocumulus clouds, and energy fluxes over the Southeast Pacific Ocean. Measurements from the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) and satellite retrievals (i.e., products from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), and GOES-10) are used for this assessment. The Morrison double-moment microphysics scheme is newly coupled with interactive aerosols in the model. The 31-day (15 October-16 November 2008) WRF-Chem simulation with aerosol-cloud interactions (AERO hereafter) is also comparedmore » to a simulation (MET hereafter) with fixed cloud droplet number concentrations in the microphysics scheme and simplified cloud and aerosol treatments in the radiation scheme. The well-simulated aerosol quantities (aerosol number, mass composition and optical properties), and the inclusion of full aerosol-cloud couplings lead to significant improvements in many features of the simulated stratocumulus clouds: cloud optical properties and microphysical properties such as cloud top effective radius, cloud water path, and cloud optical thickness. In addition to accounting for the aerosol direct and semi-direct effects, these improvements feed back to the simulation of boundary-layer characteristics and energy budgets. Particularly, inclusion of interactive aerosols in AERO strengthens the temperature and humidity gradients within the capping inversion layer and lowers the marine boundary layer (MBL) depth by 130 m from that of the MET simulation. These differences are associated with weaker entrainment and stronger mean subsidence at the top of the MBL in AERO. Mean top-of-atmosphere outgoing shortwave fluxes, surface latent heat, and surface downwelling longwave fluxes are in better agreement with observations in AERO, compared to the MET simulation. Nevertheless, biases in some of the simulated meteorological quantities (e.g., MBL temperature and humidity) and aerosol quantities (e.g., underestimations of accumulation mode aerosol number) might affect simulated stratocumulus and energy fluxes over the Southeastern Pacific, and require further investigation. The well-simulated timing and outflow patterns of polluted and clean episodes demonstrate the model's ability to capture daily/synoptic scale variations of aerosol and cloud properties, and suggest that the model is suitable for studying atmospheric processes associated with pollution outflow over the ocean. The overall performance of the regional model in simulating mesoscale clouds and boundary layer properties is encouraging and suggests that reproducing gradients of aerosol and cloud droplet concentrations and coupling cloud-aerosol-radiation processes are important when simulating marine stratocumulus over the Southeast Pacific.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2458K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43B2458K"><span>Lagrangian large eddy simulations of boundary layer clouds on ERA-Interim and ERA5 trajectories</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kazil, J.; Feingold, G.; Yamaguchi, T.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>This exploratory study examines Lagrangian large eddy simulations of boundary layer clouds along wind trajectories from the ERA-Interim and ERA5 reanalyses. The study is motivated by the need for statistically representative sets of high resolution simulations of cloud field evolution in realistic meteorological conditions. The study will serve as a foundation for the investigation of biomass burning effects on the transition from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus clouds in the South-East Atlantic. Trajectories that pass through a location with radiosonde data (St. Helena) and which exhibit a well-defined cloud structure and evolution were identified in satellite imagery, and sea surface temperature and atmospheric vertical profiles along the trajectories were extracted from the reanalysis data sets. The System for Atmospheric Modeling (SAM) simulated boundary layer turbulence and cloud properties along the trajectories. Mean temperature and moisture (in the free troposphere) and mean wind speed (at all levels) were nudged towards the reanalysis data. Atmospheric and cloud properties in the large eddy simulations were compared with those from the reanalysis products, and evaluated with satellite imagery and radiosonde data. Simulations using ERA-Interim data and the higher resolution ERA5 data are contrasted.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1405931-influences-drizzle-stratocumulus-cloudiness-organization-influences-drizzle-cloudiness-stratocumulus-organization','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1405931-influences-drizzle-stratocumulus-cloudiness-organization-influences-drizzle-cloudiness-stratocumulus-organization"><span>Influences of drizzle on stratocumulus cloudiness and organization [Influences of drizzle on cloudiness and stratocumulus organization</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Heus, Thijs; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p>2017-06-06</p> <p>Large-eddy simulations are used to study the influence of drizzle on stratocumulus organization, based on measurements made as part of the Second Dynamics and Chemistry of the Marine Stratocumulus field study-II. Cloud droplet number concentration ( N c) is prescribed and considered as the proxy for different aerosol loadings. Our study shows that the amount of cloudiness does not decrease linearly with precipitation rate. An N c threshold is observed below which the removal of cloud water via precipitation efficiently reduces cloud depth, allowing evaporation to become efficient and quickly remove the remaining thin clouds, facilitating a fast transition frommore » closed cells to open cells. Using Fourier analysis, stratocumulus length scales are found to increase with drizzle rates. Raindrop evaporation below 300 m lowers the cloud bases and amplifies moisture variances in the subcloud layer, while it does not alter the horizontal scales in the cloud layer, suggesting that moist cold pool dynamic forcings are not essential for mesoscale organization of stratocumulus. Furthermore, the cloud scales are greatly increased when the boundary layer is too deep to maintain well mixed.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1405931','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1405931"><span>Influences of drizzle on stratocumulus cloudiness and organization [Influences of drizzle on cloudiness and stratocumulus organization</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Heus, Thijs; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p></p> <p>Large-eddy simulations are used to study the influence of drizzle on stratocumulus organization, based on measurements made as part of the Second Dynamics and Chemistry of the Marine Stratocumulus field study-II. Cloud droplet number concentration ( N c) is prescribed and considered as the proxy for different aerosol loadings. Our study shows that the amount of cloudiness does not decrease linearly with precipitation rate. An N c threshold is observed below which the removal of cloud water via precipitation efficiently reduces cloud depth, allowing evaporation to become efficient and quickly remove the remaining thin clouds, facilitating a fast transition frommore » closed cells to open cells. Using Fourier analysis, stratocumulus length scales are found to increase with drizzle rates. Raindrop evaporation below 300 m lowers the cloud bases and amplifies moisture variances in the subcloud layer, while it does not alter the horizontal scales in the cloud layer, suggesting that moist cold pool dynamic forcings are not essential for mesoscale organization of stratocumulus. Furthermore, the cloud scales are greatly increased when the boundary layer is too deep to maintain well mixed.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19900018945','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19900018945"><span>FIRE aircraft observations of horizontal and vertical transport in marine stratocumulus</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Paluch, Ilga R.; Lenschow, Donald H.</p> <p>1990-01-01</p> <p>A major goal of research on marine stratocumulus is to try to understand the processes that generate and dissipate them. One approach to studying this problem is to investigate the boundary layer structure in the vicinity of a transition from a cloudy to a cloud-free region to document the differences in structure on each side of the transition. Since stratiform clouds have a major impact on the radiation divergence in the boundary layer, the transition from a cloudy to a clear boundary layer is a region of large horizontal inhomogeneity in air temperature and turbulence intensity. This leads to a considerable difference in horizontal and vertical transports between the cloudy and cloud-free regions. Measurements are used from the NCAR Electra aircraft during flights 5 (7 July 1987) and 10 (18 July 1987) of FIRE for this purpose. Flight 5 coincided with a LANDSAT overflight, and was designed to investigate the transition across a well-defined N-S cloud boundary, since the LANDSAT image can document the cloud cover in considerable detail. Turbulence legs were flown about 60 km on both sides of the cloud boundary. Flight 10 was flown at night in an area of scattered small cumuli and broken cloud patches.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160007039','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160007039"><span>Lidar Measurements of Wind and Cloud Around Venus from an Orbiting or Floating/flying Platform</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Singh, Upendra N.; Limaye, Sanjay; Emmitt, George D.; Refaat, Tamer F.; Kavaya, Michael J.; Yu, Jirong; Petros, Mulugeta</p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Given the presence of clouds and haze in the upper portion of the Venus atmosphere, it is reasonable to consider a Doppler wind lidar (DWL) for making remote measurements of the 3-dimensional winds within the tops of clouds and the overlying haze layer. Assuming an orbit altitude of 250 kilometers and cloud tops at 60 kilometers (within the upper cloud layer), an initial performance assessment of an orbiting DWL was made using a numerical instrument and atmospheres model developed for both Earth and Mars. It is reasonable to expect vertical profiles of the 3-dimensional wind speed with 1 kilometer vertical resolution and horizontal spacing of 25 kilometers to several 100 kilometers depending upon the desired integration times. These profiles would begin somewhere just below the tops of the highest clouds and extend into the overlying haze layer to some to-be-determined height. Getting multiple layers of cloud returns is also possible with no negative impact on velocity measurement accuracy. The knowledge and expertise for developing coherent Doppler wind lidar technologies and techniques, for Earth related mission at NASA Langley Research Center is being leveraged to develop an appropriate system suitable for wind measurement around Venus. We are considering a fiber-laser-based lidar system of high efficiency and smaller size and advancing the technology level to meet the requirements for DWL system for Venus from an orbiting or floating/flying platform. This presentation will describe the concept, simulation and technology development plan for wind and cloud measurements on Venus.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890045056&hterms=rust&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Drust','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890045056&hterms=rust&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Drust"><span>Electrical structure in two thunderstorm anvil clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Marshall, Thomas C.; Rust, W. David; Winn, William P.; Gilbert, Kenneth E.</p> <p>1989-01-01</p> <p>Electrical structures in two thunderstorm anvil clouds (or 'anvils'), one in New Mexico, the other in Oklahoma, were investigated, using measurements of electric field by balloon-carried instruments and a one-dimensional model to calculate the time and spatial variations of electrical parameters in the clear air below the anvil. The electric field soundings through the two thunderstorm anvils showed similar charge structures; namely, negatively charged screening layers on the top and the bottom surfaces, a layer of positive charge in the interior, and one or two layers of zero charge. It is suggested that the positive charge originated in the main positive charge region normally found at high altitudes in the core of thunderclouds, and the negatively charged layers probably formed as screening layers, resulting from the discontinuity in the electrical conductivity at the cloud boundaries.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.6500S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..16.6500S"><span>Ice formation in altocumulus clouds over Leipzig: Remote sensing measurements and detailed model simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Simmel, Martin; Bühl, Johannes; Ansmann, Albert; Tegen, Ina</p> <p>2014-05-01</p> <p>Over Leipzig, altocumulus clouds are frequently observed using a suite of remote sensing instruments. These observations cover a wide range of heights, temperatures, and microphysical properties of the clouds ranging from purely liquid to heavily frozen. For the current study, two cases were chosen to test the sensitivity of these clouds with respect to several microphysical and dynamical parameters such as aerosol properties (CCN, IN), ice particle shape as well as turbulence. The mixed-phase spectral microphysical model SPECS was coupled to a dynamical model of the Asai-Kasahara type resulting in the model system AK-SPECS. The relatively simple dynamics allows for a fine vertical resolution needed for the rather shallow cloud layers observed. Additionally, the proper description of hydrometeor sedimentation is important especially for the fast growing ice crystals to realistically capture their interaction with the vapour and liquid phase (Bergeron-Findeisen process). Since the focus is on the cloud microphysics, the dynamics in terms of vertical velocity profile is prescribed for the model runs and the feedback of the microphysics on dynamics by release or consumption of latent heat due to phase transfer is not taken into account. The microphysics focuses on (1) ice particle shape allowing hexagonal plates and columns with size-dependant axis ratios and (2) the ice nuclei (IN) budget realized with a prognostic temperature resolved field of potential IN allowing immersion freezing only when active IN and supercooled drops above a certain size threshold are present within a grid cell. Sensitivity studies show for both cases that ice particle shape seems to have the major influence on ice mass formation under otherwise identical conditions. This is due to the effect (1) on terminal fall velocity of the individual ice particle allowing for longer presence times in conditions supersaturated with respect to ice and (2) on water vapour deposition which is enhanced due to increased capacitance because of deviation from the spherical shape.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA04322&hterms=casting&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dcasting','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=PIA04322&hterms=casting&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dcasting"><span>Casting Light and Shadows on a Saharan Dust Storm</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p></p> <p>2003-01-01</p> <p><p/> On March 2, 2003, near-surface winds carried a large amount of Saharan dust aloft and transported the material westward over the Atlantic Ocean. These observations from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) aboard NASA's Terra satellite depict an area near the Cape Verde Islands (situated about 700 kilometers off of Africa's western coast) and provide images of the dust plume along with measurements of its height and motion. Tracking the three-dimensional extent and motion of air masses containing dust or other types of aerosols provides data that can be used to verify and improve computer simulations of particulate transport over large distances, with application to enhancing our understanding of the effects of such particles on meteorology, ocean biological productivity, and human health.<p/>MISR images the Earth by measuring the spatial patterns of reflected sunlight. In the upper panel of the still image pair, the observations are displayed as a natural-color snapshot from MISR's vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. High-altitude cirrus clouds cast shadows on the underlying ocean and dust layer, which are visible in shades of blue and tan, respectively. In the lower panel, heights derived from automated stereoscopic processing of MISR's multi-angle imagery show the cirrus clouds (yellow areas) to be situated about 12 kilometers above sea level. The distinctive spatial patterns of these clouds provide the necessary contrast to enable automated feature matching between images acquired at different view angles. For most of the dust layer, which is spatially much more homogeneous, the stereoscopic approach was unable to retrieve elevation data. However, the edges of shadows cast by the cirrus clouds onto the dust (indicated by blue and cyan pixels) provide sufficient spatial contrast for a retrieval of the dust layer's height, and indicate that the top of layer is only about 2.5 kilometers above sea level.<p/>Motion of the dust and clouds is directly observable with the assistance of the multi-angle 'fly-over' animation (Below). The frames of the animation consist of data acquired by the 70-degree, 60-degree, 46-degree and 26-degree forward-viewing cameras in sequence, followed by the images from the nadir camera and each of the four backward-viewing cameras, ending with 70-degree backward image. Much of the south-to-north shift in the position of the clouds is due to geometric parallax between the nine view angles (rather than true motion), whereas the west-to-east motion is due to actual motion of the clouds over the seven minutes during which all nine cameras observed the scene. MISR's automated data processing retrieved a primarily westerly (eastward) motion of these clouds with speeds of 30-40 meters per second. Note that there is much less geometric parallax for the cloud shadows owing to the relatively low altitude of the dust layer upon which the shadows are cast (the amount of parallax is proportional to elevation and a feature at the surface would have no geometric parallax at all); however, the westerly motion of the shadows matches the actual motion of the clouds. The automated processing was not able to resolve a velocity for the dust plume, but by manually tracking dust features within the plume images that comprise the animation sequence we can derive an easterly (westward) speed of about 16 meters per second. These analyses and visualizations of the MISR data demonstrate that not only are the cirrus clouds and dust separated significantly in elevation, but they exist in completely different wind regimes, with the clouds moving toward the east and the dust moving toward the west.<p/> [figure removed for brevity, see original site] <p/>(Click on image above for high resolution version)<p/>The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 17040. The panels cover an area of about 312 kilometers x 242 kilometers, and use data from blocks 74 to 77 within World Reference System-2 path 207.<p/>MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1391809-clouds-aerosols-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-arm-mobile-facility-deployment','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1391809-clouds-aerosols-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-arm-mobile-facility-deployment"><span>Clouds, Aerosols, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer: An Arm Mobile Facility Deployment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Wood, Robert; Wyant, Matthew; Bretherton, Christopher S.</p> <p></p> <p>The Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores generated a 21 month (April 2009-December 2010) comprehensive dataset documenting clouds, aerosols and precipitation using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF). The scientific aim of the deployment is to gain improved understanding of the interactions of clouds, aerosols and precipitation in the marine boundary layer. Graciosa Island straddles the boundary between the subtropics and midlatitudes in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, and consequently experiences a great diversity of meteorological and cloudiness conditions. Low clouds are the dominant cloud type, with stratocumulusmore » and cumulus occurring regularly. Approximately half of all clouds contained precipitation detectable as radar echoes below the cloud base. Radar and satellite observations show that clouds with tops from 1- 11 km contribute more or less equally to surface-measured precipitation at Graciosa. A wide range of aerosol conditions was sampled during the deployment consistent with the diversity of sources as indicated by back trajectory analysis. Preliminary findings suggest important two-way interactions between aerosols and clouds at Graciosa, with aerosols affecting light precipitation and cloud radiative properties while being controlled in part by precipitation scavenging. The data from at Graciosa are being compared with short-range forecasts made a variety of models. A pilot analysis with two climate and two weather forecast models shows that they reproduce the observed time-varying vertical structure of lower-tropospheric cloud fairly well, but the cloud-nucleating aerosol concentrations less well. The Graciosa site has been chosen to be a permanent fixed ARM site that became operational in October 2013.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1201336-clouds-aerosol-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-arm-mobile-facility-deployment','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1201336-clouds-aerosol-precipitation-marine-boundary-layer-arm-mobile-facility-deployment"><span>Clouds, aerosol, and precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer: An ARM mobile facility deployment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Wood, Robert; Luke, Ed; Wyant, Matthew; ...</p> <p>2014-04-27</p> <p>The Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores generated a 21-month (April 2009-December 2010) comprehensive dataset documenting clouds, aerosols, and precipitation using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF). The scientific aim of the deployment is to gain improved understanding of the interactions of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation in the marine boundary layer. Graciosa Island straddles the boundary between the subtropics and midlatitudes in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and consequently experiences a great diversity of meteorological and cloudiness conditions. Low clouds are the dominant cloud type, with stratocumulusmore » and cumulus occurring regularly. Approximately half of all clouds contained precipitation detectable as radar echoes below the cloud base. Radar and satellite observations show that clouds with tops from 1-11 km contribute more or less equally to surface-measured precipitation at Graciosa. A wide range of aerosol conditions was sampled during the deployment consistent with the diversity of sources as indicated by back-trajectory analysis. Preliminary findings suggest important two-way interactions between aerosols and clouds at Graciosa, with aerosols affecting light precipitation and cloud radiative properties while being controlled in part by precipitation scavenging.The data from Graciosa are being compared with short-range forecasts made with a variety of models. A pilot analysis with two climate and two weather forecast models shows that they reproduce the observed time-varying vertical structure of lower-tropospheric cloud fairly well but the cloud-nucleating aerosol concentrations less well. The Graciosa site has been chosen to be a permanent fixed ARM site that became operational in October 2013.« less</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_18");'>18</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li class="active"><span>20</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_20 --> <div id="page_21" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li class="active"><span>21</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="401"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1255441','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1255441"><span>Clouds, Aerosols, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer: An Arm Mobile Facility Deployment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Wood, Robert; Wyant, Matthew; Bretherton, Christopher S.</p> <p></p> <p>The Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) 38 deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores generated a 21 month (April 2009-December 2010) 39 comprehensive dataset documenting clouds, aerosols and precipitation using the Atmospheric 40 Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF). The scientific aim of the deployment is 41 to gain improved understanding of the interactions of clouds, aerosols and precipitation in the 42 marine boundary layer. 43 Graciosa Island straddles the boundary between the subtropics and midlatitudes in the 44 Northeast Atlantic Ocean, and consequently experiences a great diversity of meteorological and 45 cloudiness conditions. Lowmore » clouds are the dominant cloud type, with stratocumulus and cumulus 46 occurring regularly. Approximately half of all clouds contained precipitation detectable as radar 47 echoes below the cloud base. Radar and satellite observations show that clouds with tops from 1-48 11 km contribute more or less equally to surface-measured precipitation at Graciosa. A wide 49 range of aerosol conditions was sampled during the deployment consistent with the diversity of 50 sources as indicated by back trajectory analysis. Preliminary findings suggest important two-way 51 interactions between aerosols and clouds at Graciosa, with aerosols affecting light precipitation 52 and cloud radiative properties while being controlled in part by precipitation scavenging. 53 The data from at Graciosa are being compared with short-range forecasts made a variety 54 of models. A pilot analysis with two climate and two weather forecast models shows that they 55 reproduce the observed time-varying vertical structure of lower-tropospheric cloud fairly well, 56 but the cloud-nucleating aerosol concentrations less well. The Graciosa site has been chosen to 57 be a long-term ARM site that became operational in October 2013.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040171157&hterms=coverage&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dcoverage','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040171157&hterms=coverage&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dcoverage"><span>Cloud Coverage and Height Distribution from the GLAS Polar Orbiting Lidar: Comparison to Passive Cloud Retrievals</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Spinhime, J. D.; Palm, S. P.; Hlavka, D. L.; Hart, W. D.; Mahesh, A.</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) began full on orbit operations in September 2003. A main application of the two-wavelength GLAS lidar is highly accurate detection and profiling of global cloud cover. Initial analysis indicates that cloud and aerosol layers are consistently detected on a global basis to cross-sections down to 10(exp -6) per meter. Images of the lidar data dramatically and accurately show the vertical structure of cloud and aerosol to the limit of signal attenuation. The GLAS lidar has made the most accurate measurement of global cloud coverage and height to date. In addition to the calibrated lidar signal, GLAS data products include multi level boundaries and optical depth of all transmissive layers. Processing includes a multi-variable separation of cloud and aerosol layers. An initial application of the data results is to compare monthly cloud means from several months of GLAS observations in 2003 to existing cloud climatologies from other satellite measurement. In some cases direct comparison to passive cloud retrievals is possible. A limitation of the lidar measurements is nadir only sampling. However monthly means exhibit reasonably good global statistics and coverage results, at other than polar regions, compare well with other measurements but show significant differences in height distribution. For polar regions where passive cloud retrievals are problematic and where orbit track density is greatest, the GLAS results are particularly an advance in cloud cover information. Direct comparison to MODIS retrievals show a better than 90% agreement in cloud detection for daytime, but less than 60% at night. Height retrievals are in much less agreement. GLAS is a part of the NASA EOS project and data products are thus openly available to the science community (see http://glo.gsfc.nasa.gov).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSM.A33C..08K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008AGUSM.A33C..08K"><span>Cloud vertical profiles derived from CALIPSO and CloudSat and a comparison with MODIS derived clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kato, S.; Sun-Mack, S.; Miller, W. F.; Rose, F. G.; Minnis, P.; Wielicki, B. A.; Winker, D. M.; Stephens, G. L.; Charlock, T. P.; Collins, W. D.; Loeb, N. G.; Stackhouse, P. W.; Xu, K.</p> <p>2008-05-01</p> <p>CALIPSO and CloudSat from the a-train provide detailed information of vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. The vertical distribution of cloud occurrence is derived from one month of CALIPSO and CloudSat data as a part of the effort of merging CALIPSO, CloudSat and MODIS with CERES data. This newly derived cloud profile is compared with the distribution of cloud top height derived from MODIS on Aqua from cloud algorithms used in the CERES project. The cloud base from MODIS is also estimated using an empirical formula based on the cloud top height and optical thickness, which is used in CERES processes. While MODIS detects mid and low level clouds over the Arctic in April fairly well when they are the topmost cloud layer, it underestimates high- level clouds. In addition, because the CERES-MODIS cloud algorithm is not able to detect multi-layer clouds and the empirical formula significantly underestimates the depth of high clouds, the occurrence of mid and low-level clouds is underestimated. This comparison does not consider sensitivity difference to thin clouds but we will impose an optical thickness threshold to CALIPSO derived clouds for a further comparison. The effect of such differences in the cloud profile to flux computations will also be discussed. In addition, the effect of cloud cover to the top-of-atmosphere flux over the Arctic using CERES SSF and FLASHFLUX products will be discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A34E..06F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A34E..06F"><span>Response of mixed-phase boundary layer clouds with rapid and slow ice nucleation processes to cloud-top temperature trend</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Fridlind, A. M.; Avramov, A.; Ackerman, A. S.; Alpert, P. A.; Knopf, D. A.; DeMott, P. J.; Brooks, S. D.; Glen, A.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>It has been argued on the basis of some laboratory data sets, observed mixed-phase cloud systems, and numerical modeling studies that weakly active or slowly consumed ice forming nuclei (IFN) may be important to natural cloud systems. It has also been argued on the basis of field measurements that ice nucleation under mixed-phase conditions appears to occur predominantly via a liquid-phase mechanism, requiring the presence of liquid droplets prior to substantial ice nucleation. Here we analyze the response of quasi-Lagrangian large-eddy simulations of mixed-phase cloud layers to IFN operating via a liquid-phase mode using assumptions that result in either slow or rapid depletion of IFN from the cloudy boundary layer. Using several generalized case studies that do not exhibit riming or drizzle, based loosely on field campaign data, we vary environmental conditions such that the cloud-top temperature trend varies. One objective of this work is to identify differing patterns in ice formation intensity that may be distinguishable from ground-based or satellite platforms.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980200853','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980200853"><span>Trade-Wind Cloudiness and Climate</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Randall, David A.</p> <p>1997-01-01</p> <p>Closed Mesoscale Cellular Convection (MCC) consists of mesoscale cloud patches separated by narrow clear regions. Strong radiative cooling occurs at the cloud top. A dry two-dimensional Bousinesq model is used to study the effects of cloud-top cooling on convection. Wide updrafts and narrow downdrafts are used to indicate the asymmetric circulations associated with the mesoscale cloud patches. Based on the numerical results, a conceptual model was constructed to suggest a mechanism for the formation of closed MCC over cool ocean surfaces. A new method to estimate the radioative and evaporative cooling in the entrainment layer of a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer has been developed. The method was applied to a set of Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) results and to a set of tethered-balloon data obtained during FIRE. We developed a statocumulus-capped marine mixed layer model which includes a parameterization of drizzle based on the use of a predicted Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) number concentration. We have developed, implemented, and tested a very elaborate new stratiform cloudiness parameterization for use in GCMs. Finally, we have developed a new, mechanistic parameterization of the effects of cloud-top cooling on the entrainment rate.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002EGSGA..27.2157K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002EGSGA..27.2157K"><span>Gravito-electrodynamics, Ehd and Their Applications To Natural Hazards and Laboratory Devices</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kikuchi, H.</p> <p></p> <p>For the past two decades, theory of dusty and dirty plasmas in space and in the labo - ratory has been developed on the basis of both unconventional gravito-electrody- nam ics and a new EHD (electrohydrodynamics) with novel concepts of electric re- connection and critical ionization velocity as well as modern concepts of self-organ- ization and chaos and has been applied to explanations of a variety of new dust-re- lated and meteorologyico-electric phenomena such as planetary (Saturn's and Jupi- ter's) dust layer or ring formation, terrestrial dust layer formation, terrestrial light - ning including winter thunderstorms, rocket and tower triggered lightning, planetary (Saturn's, Jupiter's, and Io's) lightning, nebular lightning, ball lightning, tornadic thunderstorms, whirlwinds, cloud-to-ionosphere discharges, pre-earthquake atmo- sphereic and ionospheric effects, and new laboratory devices such as electric undu - lators, a universal electric-cusp type plasma reactor for basic laboratory studies, sim- ulations of atmospheric phenomena and pollution control and gas cleaning, plasma processing and new material production for industrial applications, and new devices such as towards cancer treatment for biological and medical applications. Reference H. Kikuchi, Electrohydrodynamics in Dusty and Dirty plasmas, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/The Netherlands, 2001. For describing any plasmas, particle dynamics plays always fundamental and impor - tant roles in understanding all of plasma behaviors. A variety of descriptions in a magnetic field such as a guiding center approach have well been developed as a test-particle approach particularly for a base of MHD. This is still true for EHD or EMHD, but additional factors become significant due to the existence of space charges and electric fields for EHD or EMHD in dielectric or semiconducting fluids. In cosmic plasmas, the existence of double layers, electric and magnetic dipoles or quadru-poles often affects the particle motions drastically even if particles are uncharged, and can play a crucial role in planetary dust layer or ring formation. This is a new discov-ery and has been discussed in detail for the past several EGS meetings. In the presenc e of quadrupole-like charged cloud configurations which constitute electric cusps and mirrors, a neutral or uncharged particle can be accelerated in an electric cusp, reaching a maximum speed near a cusp boundary, if the environment is a tenuous gas whatever it may be neutral or ionized, and also can be reflected back at a mirror point. Otherwise, a dust in an electric cusp is capable for a source origin of plasma layer formation, gas discharges or lightnings due to additional effect of `criti-cal velocity' if the local electric fields around the dust produced by quadrupole-like charged clouds are sufficiently high beyond a gas-breakdown threshold. Then electric reconnection through the dust is followed by streamer or leader formation due to the critical ionization effect and consequent gas discharges or lightnings. One of major features of new electrodynamics, gravito-electrodynamics, and EHD is a new addition of two basic concepts of electric reconnection and critical ionization . First, one may recall that a distribution of scattered charged clouds is so ubiquitous in space and in the laboratory, even in our daily life, whatever they are of large-scale or small-scale, like thunderclouds in the atmosphere, charged clouds in interstellar space, charges on the belt of Van de Graff generator, and a system of miniature thunder-clouds produced by frictional electricity almost everywhere, typically on human hairs. All those cases are capable for electric reconnection. Whenever electric reconnection occurs through dusts in the atmosphere, it can be accompanied by a critical ioniza-tion flow . In this way, electric reconnection and critical ionization could be a signifi-cant cause of electrification and electric discharge and play important roles in a varie-ty of phenomena in meteorologico-electric, dusty and dirty plasma environments.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160006625','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160006625"><span>Nearly a Decade of CALIPSO Observations of Asian and Saharan Dust Properties Near Source and Transport Regions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Omar, Ali H.; Liu, Z.; Tackett, J.; Vaughan, M.; Trepte, C.; Winker, D.; H. Yu,</p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>The lidar on the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission, makes robust measurements of dust and has generated a length of record that is significant both seasonally and inter-annually. We exploit this record to determine a multi-year climatology of the properties of Asian and Saharan dust, in particular seasonal optical depths, layer frequencies, and layer heights of dust gridded in accordance with the Level 3 data products protocol, between 2006-2015. The data are screened using standard CALIPSO quality assurance flags, cloud aerosol discrimination (CAD) scores, overlying features and layer properties. To evaluate the effects of transport on the morphology, vertical extent and size of the dust layers, we compare probability distribution functions of the layer integrated volume depolarization ratios, geometric depths and integrated attenuated color ratios near the source to the same distributions in the far field or transport region. CALIPSO is collaboration between NASA and Centre National D'études Spatiales (CNES), was launched in April 2006 to provide vertically resolved measurements of cloud and aerosol distributions. The primary instrument on the CALIPSO satellite is the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), a near-nadir viewing two-wavelength polarization-sensitive instrument. The unique nature of CALIOP measurements make it quite challenging to validate backscatter profiles, aerosol type, and cloud phase, all of which are used to retrieve extinction and optical depth. To evaluate the uncertainty in the lidar ratios, we compare the values computed from dust layers overlying opaque water clouds, considered nominal, with the constant lidar ratio value used in the CALIOP algorithms for dust. We also explore the effects of noise on the CALIOP retrievals at daytime by comparing the distributions of the properties at daytime to the nighttime distributions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19960027548','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19960027548"><span>Lidar measurements of boundary layers, aerosol scattering and clouds during project FIFE</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Eloranta, Edwin W. (Principal Investigator)</p> <p>1995-01-01</p> <p>A detailed account of progress achieved under this grant funding is contained in five journal papers. The titles of these papers are: The calculation of area-averaged vertical profiles of the horizontal wind velocity using volume imaging lidar data; Volume imaging lidar observation of the convective structure surrounding the flight path of an instrumented aircraft; Convective boundary layer mean depths, cloud base altitudes, cloud top altitudes, cloud coverages, and cloud shadows obtained from Volume Imaging Lidar data; An accuracy analysis of the wind profiles calculated from Volume Imaging Lidar data; and Calculation of divergence and vertical motion from volume-imaging lidar data. Copies of these papers form the body of this report.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-ARC-1979-AC79-7105.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-ARC-1979-AC79-7105.html"><span>ARC-1979-AC79-7105</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>1979-07-06</p> <p>Range : 3.2 million km This image returned by Voyager 2 shows one of the long dark clouds observed in the North Equatorial Belt of Jupiter. A high, white cloud is seen moving over the darker cloud, providing an indication of the structure of the cloud layers. Thin white clouds are also seen within the dark cloud. At right, blue areas, free of high clouds, are seen.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A44F..08S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A44F..08S"><span>Top-down and Bottom-up aerosol-cloud-closure: towards understanding sources of unvertainty in deriving cloud radiative flux</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sanchez, K.; Roberts, G.; Calmer, R.; Nicoll, K.; Hashimshoni, E.; Rosenfeld, D.; Ovadnevaite, J.; Preissler, J.; Ceburnis, D.; O'Dowd, C. D. D.; Russell, L. M.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Top-down and bottom-up aerosol-cloud shortwave radiative flux closures were conducted at the Mace Head atmospheric research station in Galway, Ireland in August 2015. Instrument platforms include ground-based, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and satellite measurements of aerosols, clouds and meteorological variables. The ground-based and airborne measurements of aerosol size distributions and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration were used to initiate a 1D microphysical aerosol-cloud parcel model (ACPM). UAVs were equipped for a specific science mission, with an optical particle counter for aerosol distribution profiles, a cloud sensor to measure cloud extinction, or a 5-hole probe for 3D wind vectors. These are the first UAV measurements at Mace Head. ACPM simulations are compared to in-situ cloud extinction measurements from UAVs to quantify closure in terms of cloud shortwave radiative flux. Two out of seven cases exhibit sub-adiabatic vertical temperature profiles within the cloud, which suggests that entrainment processes affect cloud microphysical properties and lead to an overestimate of simulated cloud shortwave radiative flux. Including an entrainment parameterization and explicitly calculating the entrainment fraction in the ACPM simulations both improved cloud-top radiative closure. Entrainment reduced the difference between simulated and observation-derived cloud-top shortwave radiative flux (δRF) by between 25 W m-2 and 60 W m-2. After accounting for entrainment, satellite-derived cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) were within 30% of simulated CDNC. In cases with a well-mixed boundary layer, δRF is no greater than 20 W m-2 after accounting for cloud-top entrainment, and up to 50 W m-2 when entrainment is not taken into account. In cases with a decoupled boundary layer, cloud microphysical properties are inconsistent with ground-based aerosol measurements, as expected, and δRF is as high as 88 W m-2, even high (> 30 W m-2) after accounting for cloud-top entrainment. This work demonstrates the need to take in-situ measurements of aerosol properties for cases where the boundary layer is decoupled as well as consider cloud-top entrainment to accurately model stratocumulus cloud radiative flux.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A44F..08S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016AGUFM.A44F..08S"><span>Top-down and Bottom-up aerosol-cloud-closure: towards understanding sources of unvertainty in deriving cloud radiative flux</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sanchez, K.; Roberts, G.; Calmer, R.; Nicoll, K.; Hashimshoni, E.; Rosenfeld, D.; Ovadnevaite, J.; Preissler, J.; Ceburnis, D.; O'Dowd, C. D. D.; Russell, L. M.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>Top-down and bottom-up aerosol-cloud shortwave radiative flux closures were conducted at the Mace Head atmospheric research station in Galway, Ireland in August 2015. Instrument platforms include ground-based, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and satellite measurements of aerosols, clouds and meteorological variables. The ground-based and airborne measurements of aerosol size distributions and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration were used to initiate a 1D microphysical aerosol-cloud parcel model (ACPM). UAVs were equipped for a specific science mission, with an optical particle counter for aerosol distribution profiles, a cloud sensor to measure cloud extinction, or a 5-hole probe for 3D wind vectors. These are the first UAV measurements at Mace Head. ACPM simulations are compared to in-situ cloud extinction measurements from UAVs to quantify closure in terms of cloud shortwave radiative flux. Two out of seven cases exhibit sub-adiabatic vertical temperature profiles within the cloud, which suggests that entrainment processes affect cloud microphysical properties and lead to an overestimate of simulated cloud shortwave radiative flux. Including an entrainment parameterization and explicitly calculating the entrainment fraction in the ACPM simulations both improved cloud-top radiative closure. Entrainment reduced the difference between simulated and observation-derived cloud-top shortwave radiative flux (δRF) by between 25 W m-2 and 60 W m-2. After accounting for entrainment, satellite-derived cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) were within 30% of simulated CDNC. In cases with a well-mixed boundary layer, δRF is no greater than 20 W m-2 after accounting for cloud-top entrainment, and up to 50 W m-2 when entrainment is not taken into account. In cases with a decoupled boundary layer, cloud microphysical properties are inconsistent with ground-based aerosol measurements, as expected, and δRF is as high as 88 W m-2, even high (> 30 W m-2) after accounting for cloud-top entrainment. This work demonstrates the need to take in-situ measurements of aerosol properties for cases where the boundary layer is decoupled as well as consider cloud-top entrainment to accurately model stratocumulus cloud radiative flux.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990041082&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Ddehydration','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990041082&hterms=dehydration&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D20%26Ntt%3Ddehydration"><span>Dehydration of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere by Subvisible Cirrus Clouds Near the Tropical Tropopause</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Jensen, Eric J.; Toon, Owen B.; Pfister, Leonhard; Selkirk, Henry B.</p> <p>1996-01-01</p> <p>The extreme dryness of the lower stratosphere is believed to be caused by freeze-drying of air as it enters the stratosphere through the cold tropical tropopause. Previous investigations have been focused on dehydration occurring at the tops of deep convective cloud systems, However, recent observations of a ubiquitous stratiform cirrus cloud layer near the tropical tropopause suggest the possibility of dehydration as air is slowly lifted by large-scale motions, In this study, we have evaluated this possibility using a detailed ice cloud model. Simulations of ice cloud formation in the temperature minima of gravity waves (wave periods of 1 - 2 hours) indicate that large numbers of ice crystals will likely form due to the low temperatures and rapid cooling. As a result, the crystals do not grow larger than about 10 microns, fallspeeds are no greater than a few cm/s, and little or no precipitation or dehydration occurs. However, ice cloud's formed by large-scale vertical motions (with lifetimes of a day or more) should have,fever crystals and more time for crystal sedimentation to occur, resulting in water vapor depletions as large as 1 ppmv near the tropopause. We suggest that gradual lifting near the tropical tropopause, accompanied by formation of thin cirrus, may account for the dehydration.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACPD...1012261K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACPD...1012261K"><span>Aerosol nucleation and its role for clouds and Earth's radiative forcing in the aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kazil, J.; Stier, P.; Zhang, K.; Quaas, J.; Kinne, S.; O'Donnell, D.; Rast, S.; Esch, M.; Ferrachat, S.; Lohmann, U.; Feichter, J.</p> <p>2010-05-01</p> <p>Nucleation from the gas phase is an important source of aerosol particles in the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to the number of cloud condensation nuclei, which form cloud droplets. We have implemented in the aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM a new scheme for neutral and charged nucleation of sulfuric acid and water based on laboratory data, and nucleation of an organic compound and sulfuric acid using a parametrization of cluster activation based on field measurements. We give details of the implementation, compare results with observations, and investigate the role of the individual aerosol nucleation mechanisms for clouds and the Earth's radiative budget. The results of our simulations are most consistent with observations when neutral and charged nucleation of sulfuric acid proceed throughout the troposphere and nucleation due to cluster activation is limited to the forested boundary layer. The globally averaged annual mean contributions of the individual nucleation processes to total absorbed solar short-wave radiation via the direct, semi-direct, indirect cloud-albedo and cloud-lifetime effects in our simulations are -1.15 W/m2 for charged H2SO4/H2O nucleation, -0.235 W/m2 for cluster activation, and -0.05 W/m2 for neutral H2SO4/H2O nucleation. The overall effect of nucleation is -2.55 W/m2, which exceeds the sum of the individual terms due to feedbacks and interactions in the model. Aerosol nucleation contributes over the oceans with -2.18 W/m2 to total absorbed solar short-wave radiation, compared to -0.37 W/m2 over land. We explain the higher effect of aerosol nucleation on Earth's radiative budget over the oceans with the larger area covered by ocean clouds, due to the larger contrast in albedo between clouds and the ocean surface compared to continents, and the larger susceptibility of pristine clouds owing to the saturation of effects. The large effect of charged nucleation in our simulations is not in contradiction with small effects seen in local measurements: over southern Finland, where cluster activation proceeds efficiently, we find that charged nucleation of sulfuric acid and water contributes on average less than 10% to ultrafine aerosol concentrations, in good agreement with observations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACP....1010733K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010ACP....1010733K"><span>Aerosol nucleation and its role for clouds and Earth's radiative forcing in the aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kazil, J.; Stier, P.; Zhang, K.; Quaas, J.; Kinne, S.; O'Donnell, D.; Rast, S.; Esch, M.; Ferrachat, S.; Lohmann, U.; Feichter, J.</p> <p>2010-11-01</p> <p>Nucleation from the gas phase is an important source of aerosol particles in the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to the number of cloud condensation nuclei, which form cloud droplets. We have implemented in the aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM a new scheme for neutral and charged nucleation of sulfuric acid and water based on laboratory data, and nucleation of an organic compound and sulfuric acid using a parametrization of cluster activation based on field measurements. We give details of the implementation, compare results with observations, and investigate the role of the individual aerosol nucleation mechanisms for clouds and the Earth's radiative forcing. The results of our simulations are most consistent with observations when neutral and charged nucleation of sulfuric acid proceed throughout the troposphere and nucleation due to cluster activation is limited to the forested boundary layer. The globally averaged annual mean contributions of the individual nucleation processes to total absorbed solar short-wave radiation via the direct, semi-direct, indirect cloud-albedo and cloud-lifetime effects in our simulations are -1.15 W/m2 for charged H2SO4/H2O nucleation, -0.235 W/m2 for cluster activation, and -0.05 W/m2 for neutral H2SO4/H2O nucleation. The overall effect of nucleation is -2.55 W/m2, which exceeds the sum of the individual terms due to feedbacks and interactions in the model. Aerosol nucleation contributes over the oceans with -2.18 W/m2 to total absorbed solar short-wave radiation, compared to -0.37 W/m2 over land. We explain the higher effect of aerosol nucleation on Earth's radiative forcing over the oceans with the larger area covered by ocean clouds, due to the larger contrast in albedo between clouds and the ocean surface compared to continents, and the larger susceptibility of pristine clouds owing to the saturation of effects. The large effect of charged nucleation in our simulations is not in contradiction with small effects seen in local measurements: over southern Finland, where cluster activation proceeds efficiently, we find that charged nucleation of sulfuric acid and water contributes on average less than 10% to ultrafine aerosol concentrations, in good agreement with observations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1130188-aerosol-impacts-california-winter-clouds-precipitation-during-calwater-local-pollution-versus-long-range-transported-dust','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1130188-aerosol-impacts-california-winter-clouds-precipitation-during-calwater-local-pollution-versus-long-range-transported-dust"><span>Aerosol Impacts on California Winter Clouds and Precipitation during CalWater 2011: Local Pollution versus Long-Range Transported Dust</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Fan, Jiwen; Leung, Lai-Yung R.; DeMott, Paul J.</p> <p>2014-01-03</p> <p>Mineral dust aerosols often observed over California in winter and spring, associated with long-range transport from Asia and Sahara, have been linked to enhanced precipitation based on observations. Local anthropogenic pollution, on the other hand, was shown in previous observational and modeling studies to reduce precipitation. Here we incorporate recent developments in ice nucleation parameterizations to link aerosols with ice crystal formation in a spectral-bin cloud microphysical model coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, to examine the relative and combined impacts of dust and local pollution particles on cloud properties and precipitation type and intensity. Simulations aremore » carried out for two cloud cases with contrasting meteorology and cloud dynamics that occurred on February 16 (FEB16) and March 02 (MAR02) from the CalWater 2011 field campaign. In both cases, observations show the presence of dust and biological particles in a relative pristine environment. The simulated cloud microphysical properties and precipitation show reasonable agreement with aircraft and surface measurements. Model sensitivity experiments indicate that in the pristine environment, the dust and biological aerosol layers increase the accumulated precipitation by 10-20% from the Central Valley to the Sierra Nevada Mountains for both FEB16 and MAR02 due to a ~40% increase in snow formation, validating the observational hypothesis. Model results show that local pollution increases precipitation over the windward slope of the mountains by few percent due to increased snow formation when dust is present but reduces precipitation by 5-8% if dust is removed on FEB16. The effects of local pollution on cloud microphysics and precipitation strongly depend on meteorology including the strength of the Sierra Barrier Jet, and cloud dynamics. This study further underscores the importance of the interactions between local pollution, dust, and environmental conditions for assessing aerosol effects on cold season precipitation in California.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150018428&hterms=budget&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dbudget','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150018428&hterms=budget&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3Dbudget"><span>Assessment of NASA GISS CMIP5 and Post-CMIP5 Simulated Clouds and TOA Radiation Budgets Using Satellite Observations. Part 2; TOA Radiation Budget and CREs</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Stanfield, Ryan E.; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Del Genio, Anthony D.; Minnis, Patrick; Doelling, David; Loeb, Norman</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>In Part I of this study, the NASA GISS Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and post-CMIP5 (herein called C5 and P5, respectively) simulated cloud properties were assessed utilizing multiple satellite observations, with a particular focus on the southern midlatitudes (SMLs). This study applies the knowledge gained from Part I of this series to evaluate the modeled TOA radiation budgets and cloud radiative effects (CREs) globally using CERES EBAF (CE) satellite observations and the impact of regional cloud properties and water vapor on the TOA radiation budgets. Comparisons revealed that the P5- and C5-simulated global means of clear-sky and all-sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) match well with CE observations, while biases are observed regionally. Negative biases are found in both P5- and C5-simulated clear-sky OLR. P5-simulated all-sky albedo slightly increased over the SMLs due to the increase in low-level cloud fraction from the new planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme. Shortwave, longwave, and net CRE are quantitatively analyzed as well. Regions of strong large-scale atmospheric upwelling/downwelling motion are also defined to compare regional differences across multiple cloud and radiative variables. In general, the P5 and C5 simulations agree with the observations better over the downwelling regime than over the upwelling regime. Comparing the results herein with the cloud property comparisons presented in Part I, the modeled TOA radiation budgets and CREs agree well with the CE observations. These results, combined with results in Part I, have quantitatively estimated how much improvement is found in the P5-simulated cloud and radiative properties, particularly over the SMLs and tropics, due to the implementation of the new PBL and convection schemes.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26438280','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26438280"><span>Insights into low-latitude cloud feedbacks from high-resolution models.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Bretherton, Christopher S</p> <p>2015-11-13</p> <p>Cloud feedbacks are a leading source of uncertainty in the climate sensitivity simulated by global climate models (GCMs). Low-latitude boundary-layer and cumulus cloud regimes are particularly problematic, because they are sustained by tight interactions between clouds and unresolved turbulent circulations. Turbulence-resolving models better simulate such cloud regimes and support the GCM consensus that they contribute to positive global cloud feedbacks. Large-eddy simulations using sub-100 m grid spacings over small computational domains elucidate marine boundary-layer cloud response to greenhouse warming. Four observationally supported mechanisms contribute: 'thermodynamic' cloudiness reduction from warming of the atmosphere-ocean column, 'radiative' cloudiness reduction from CO2- and H2O-induced increase in atmospheric emissivity aloft, 'stability-induced' cloud increase from increased lower tropospheric stratification, and 'dynamical' cloudiness increase from reduced subsidence. The cloudiness reduction mechanisms typically dominate, giving positive shortwave cloud feedback. Cloud-resolving models with horizontal grid spacings of a few kilometres illuminate how cumulonimbus cloud systems affect climate feedbacks. Limited-area simulations and superparameterized GCMs show upward shift and slight reduction of cloud cover in a warmer climate, implying positive cloud feedbacks. A global cloud-resolving model suggests tropical cirrus increases in a warmer climate, producing positive longwave cloud feedback, but results are sensitive to subgrid turbulence and ice microphysics schemes. © 2015 The Author(s).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140000878','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140000878"><span>The MJO Transition from Shallow to Deep Convection in CloudSat/CALIPSO Data and GISS GCM Simulations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>DelGenio, Anthony G.; Chen, Yonghua; Kim, Daehyun; Yao, Mao-Sung</p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>The relationship between convective penetration depth and tropospheric humidity is central to recent theories of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). It has been suggested that general circulation models (GCMs) poorly simulate the MJO because they fail to gradually moisten the troposphere by shallow convection and simulate a slow transition to deep convection. CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) data are analyzed to document the variability of convection depth and its relation to water vapor during the MJO transition from shallow to deep convection and to constrain GCM cumulus parameterizations. Composites of cloud occurrence for 10MJO events show the following anticipatedMJO cloud structure: shallow and congestus clouds in advance of the peak, deep clouds near the peak, and upper-level anvils after the peak. Cirrus clouds are also frequent in advance of the peak. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EarthObserving System (EOS) (AMSR-E) columnwater vapor (CWV) increases by;5 mmduring the shallow- deep transition phase, consistent with the idea of moisture preconditioning. Echo-top height of clouds rooted in the boundary layer increases sharply with CWV, with large variability in depth when CWV is between;46 and 68 mm. International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project cloud classifications reproduce these climatological relationships but correctly identify congestus-dominated scenes only about half the time. A version of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Model E2 (GISS-E2) GCM with strengthened entrainment and rain evaporation that produces MJO-like variability also reproduces the shallow-deep convection transition, including the large variability of cloud-top height at intermediate CWV values. The variability is due to small grid-scale relative humidity and lapse rate anomalies for similar values of CWV. 1.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008JGRD..11315126Y','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008JGRD..11315126Y"><span>Cloud patterns lee of Hawaii Island: A synthesis of satellite observations and numerical simulation</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Yang, Yang; Xie, Shang-Ping; Hafner, Jan</p> <p>2008-08-01</p> <p>Standing well above the trade wind inversion, Hawaii Island (maximum elevation ˜4.2 km) splits the northeast trade winds and induces a westerly reverse flow in the wake. Satellite observations and regional model simulations are used to investigate circulation effects on lee cloud formation during summer. Over the island, the cloud distribution is consistent with orographic-induced vertical motions. Over the lee ocean, our analysis reveals a cloud band that extends southwestward over a few tens of kilometers from the southwest coast of the island. This southwest lee cloud band is most pronounced in the afternoon, anchored by strong convergence and maintained by in situ cloud production in the upward motion. Such an offshore cloud band is not found off the northwest coast, an asymmetry possibly due to the Coriolis effect on the orographic flow. Off the Kona coast, the dynamically induced westerly reverse flow keeps the wake cool and nearly free of clouds during the day. Along the Kona coast, clouds are blown offshore from the island by the easterly trades in the afternoon in a layer above the reverse flow. Deprived of in situ production, these afternoon Kona coast clouds dissipate rapidly offshore. At night, the offshore land/valley breezes converge onto the onshore reverse flow, and a cloud deck forms on and off the Kona coast, bringing nighttime rain as observed at land stations. To illustrate the circulation effect, lee cloud formation is compared between tall Hawaii and short Kauai/Oahu Islands, which feature the flow-around and flow-over regimes, respectively. Effects of trade wind strength on the leeside cloudiness are also studied.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005682','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20140005682"><span>CGILS: Results from the First Phase of an International Project to Understand the Physical Mechanisms of Low Cloud Feedbacks in Single Column Models</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, Minghua; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Blossey, Peter N.; Austin, Phillip H.; Bacmeister, Julio T.; Bony, Sandrine; Brient, Florent; Cheedela, Suvarchal K.; Cheng, Anning; DelGenio, Anthony; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20140005682'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20140005682_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20140005682_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20140005682_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20140005682_hide"></p> <p>2013-01-01</p> <p>1] CGILS-the CFMIP-GASS Intercomparison of Large Eddy Models (LESs) and single column models (SCMs)-investigates the mechanisms of cloud feedback in SCMs and LESs under idealized climate change perturbation. This paper describes the CGILS results from 15 SCMs and 8 LES models. Three cloud regimes over the subtropical oceans are studied: shallow cumulus, cumulus under stratocumulus, and well-mixed coastal stratus/stratocumulus. In the stratocumulus and coastal stratus regimes, SCMs without activated shallow convection generally simulated negative cloud feedbacks, while models with active shallow convection generally simulated positive cloud feedbacks. In the shallow cumulus alone regime, this relationship is less clear, likely due to the changes in cloud depth, lateral mixing, and precipitation or a combination of them. The majority of LES models simulated negative cloud feedback in the well-mixed coastal stratus/stratocumulus regime, and positive feedback in the shallow cumulus and stratocumulus regime. A general framework is provided to interpret SCM results: in a warmer climate, the moistening rate of the cloudy layer associated with the surface-based turbulence parameterization is enhanced; together with weaker large-scale subsidence, it causes negative cloud feedback. In contrast, in the warmer climate, the drying rate associated with the shallow convection scheme is enhanced. This causes positive cloud feedback. These mechanisms are summarized as the "NESTS" negative cloud feedback and the "SCOPE" positive cloud feedback (Negative feedback from Surface Turbulence under weaker Subsidence-Shallow Convection PositivE feedback) with the net cloud feedback depending on how the two opposing effects counteract each other. The LES results are consistent with these interpretations</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_19");'>19</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li class="active"><span>21</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_21 --> <div id="page_22" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li class="active"><span>22</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="421"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1413959-impacts-solar-absorbing-aerosol-layers-transition-stratocumulus-trade-cumulus-clouds','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1413959-impacts-solar-absorbing-aerosol-layers-transition-stratocumulus-trade-cumulus-clouds"><span>Impacts of solar-absorbing aerosol layers on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Fridlind, Ann M.; ...</p> <p>2017-10-26</p> <p>Here, the effects of an initially overlying layer of solar-absorbing aerosol on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds are examined using large-eddy simulations. For lightly drizzling cloud the transition is generally hastened, resulting mainly from increased cloud droplet number concentration ( N c) induced by entrained aerosol. The increased N c slows sedimentation of cloud droplets and shortens their relaxation time for diffusional growth, both of which accelerate entrainment of overlying air and thereby stratocumulus breakup. However, the decrease in albedo from cloud breakup is more than offset by redistributing cloud water over a greater number of droplets,more » such that the diurnal-average shortwave forcing at the top of the atmosphere is negative. The negative radiative forcing is enhanced by sizable longwave contributions, which result from the greater cloud breakup and a reduced boundary layer height associated with aerosol heating. A perturbation of moisture instead of aerosol aloft leads to a greater liquid water path and a more gradual transition. Adding absorbing aerosol to that atmosphere results in substantial reductions in liquid water path (LWP) and cloud cover that lead to positive shortwave and negative longwave forcings on average canceling each other. Only for heavily drizzling clouds is the breakup delayed, as inhibition of precipitation overcomes cloud water loss from enhanced entrainment. Considering these simulations as an imperfect proxy for biomass burning plumes influencing Namibian stratocumulus, we expect regional indirect plus semi-direct forcings to be substantially negative to negligible at the top of the atmosphere, with its magnitude sensitive to background and perturbation properties.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1413959','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1413959"><span>Impacts of solar-absorbing aerosol layers on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Fridlind, Ann M.</p> <p></p> <p>Here, the effects of an initially overlying layer of solar-absorbing aerosol on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds are examined using large-eddy simulations. For lightly drizzling cloud the transition is generally hastened, resulting mainly from increased cloud droplet number concentration ( N c) induced by entrained aerosol. The increased N c slows sedimentation of cloud droplets and shortens their relaxation time for diffusional growth, both of which accelerate entrainment of overlying air and thereby stratocumulus breakup. However, the decrease in albedo from cloud breakup is more than offset by redistributing cloud water over a greater number of droplets,more » such that the diurnal-average shortwave forcing at the top of the atmosphere is negative. The negative radiative forcing is enhanced by sizable longwave contributions, which result from the greater cloud breakup and a reduced boundary layer height associated with aerosol heating. A perturbation of moisture instead of aerosol aloft leads to a greater liquid water path and a more gradual transition. Adding absorbing aerosol to that atmosphere results in substantial reductions in liquid water path (LWP) and cloud cover that lead to positive shortwave and negative longwave forcings on average canceling each other. Only for heavily drizzling clouds is the breakup delayed, as inhibition of precipitation overcomes cloud water loss from enhanced entrainment. Considering these simulations as an imperfect proxy for biomass burning plumes influencing Namibian stratocumulus, we expect regional indirect plus semi-direct forcings to be substantially negative to negligible at the top of the atmosphere, with its magnitude sensitive to background and perturbation properties.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....1712725Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ACP....1712725Z"><span>Impacts of solar-absorbing aerosol layers on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Fridlind, Ann M.; Wood, Robert; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p>2017-10-01</p> <p>The effects of an initially overlying layer of solar-absorbing aerosol on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds are examined using large-eddy simulations. For lightly drizzling cloud the transition is generally hastened, resulting mainly from increased cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) induced by entrained aerosol. The increased Nc slows sedimentation of cloud droplets and shortens their relaxation time for diffusional growth, both of which accelerate entrainment of overlying air and thereby stratocumulus breakup. However, the decrease in albedo from cloud breakup is more than offset by redistributing cloud water over a greater number of droplets, such that the diurnal-average shortwave forcing at the top of the atmosphere is negative. The negative radiative forcing is enhanced by sizable longwave contributions, which result from the greater cloud breakup and a reduced boundary layer height associated with aerosol heating. A perturbation of moisture instead of aerosol aloft leads to a greater liquid water path and a more gradual transition. Adding absorbing aerosol to that atmosphere results in substantial reductions in liquid water path (LWP) and cloud cover that lead to positive shortwave and negative longwave forcings on average canceling each other. Only for heavily drizzling clouds is the breakup delayed, as inhibition of precipitation overcomes cloud water loss from enhanced entrainment. Considering these simulations as an imperfect proxy for biomass burning plumes influencing Namibian stratocumulus, we expect regional indirect plus semi-direct forcings to be substantially negative to negligible at the top of the atmosphere, with its magnitude sensitive to background and perturbation properties.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21I2266A','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21I2266A"><span>Seasonal Differences in Tropical Western Pacific Cloud Ice, Water Vapor and Aerosols Observed From Space During ATTREX-III and POSIDON</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Avery, M. A.; Rosenlof, K. H.; Vaughan, M.; Getzewich, B. J.; Thornberry, T. D.; Gao, R. S.; Rollins, A. W.; Woods, S.; Yorks, J. E.; Jensen, E. J.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Recent aircraft missions sampling the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) in the tropical Western Pacific have provided a wealth of detailed cloud microphysical and associated aerosol, water vapor and temperature data for understanding processes that regulate stratospheric composition and hydration. This presentation seeks to provide a regional context for these measurements by comparing and contrasting active space-based observations from these time periods (Feb-Mar 2014 for ATTREX-III and Oct 2016 for POSIDON), primarily from the Clouds and Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), with the addition of Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) and the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) where these data sets are available. While the ATTREX III and POSIDON aircraft field missions both took place from Guam in the Western Pacific, there were striking differences between the amount, geographical distribution and properties of cirrus clouds and aerosols in the Tropical TTL. In addition to cloud and aerosol amount and location, we present geometric properties, including cloud top heights, transparent cloud and aerosol layer thicknesses and location of the 532 nm backscatter centroid, which is roughly equivalent to the layer vertical center of mass. We also present differences in the distribution of cirrus cloud extinction coefficients and ice water content, and aerosol optical depths, as detected from space, and compare these with in situ measurements and with temperature and water vapor distributions from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). We find that there is more intense convection reaching the tropical tropopause during the POSIDON mission, and consequently more associated cloud ice observed during POSIDON than during ATTREX-III.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170011275&hterms=layer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dlayer','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170011275&hterms=layer&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D10%26Ntt%3Dlayer"><span>Impacts of Solar-Absorbing Aerosol Layers on the Transition of Stratocumulus to Trade Cumulus Clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Zhou, Xiaoli; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Fridlind, Ann M.; Wood, Robert; Kollias, Pavlos</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>The effects of an initially overlying layer of solar-absorbing aerosol on the transition of stratocumulus to trade cumulus clouds are examined using large-eddy simulations. For lightly drizzling cloud the transition is generally hastened, resulting mainly from increased cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) induced by entrained aerosol. The increased Nc slows sedimentation of cloud droplets and shortens their relaxation time for diffusional growth, both of which accelerate entrainment of overlying air and thereby stratocumulus breakup. However, the decrease in albedo from cloud breakup is more than offset by redistributing cloud water over a greater number of droplets, such that the diurnal-average shortwave forcing at the top of the atmosphere is negative. The negative radiative forcing is enhanced by sizable longwave contributions, which result from the greater cloud breakup and a reduced boundary layer height associated with aerosol heating. A perturbation of moisture instead of aerosol aloft leads to a greater liquid water path and a more gradual transition. Adding absorbing aerosol to that atmosphere results in substantial reductions in liquid water path (LWP) and cloud cover that lead to positive short-wave and negative longwave forcings on average canceling each other. Only for heavily drizzling clouds is the breakup delayed, as inhibition of precipitation overcomes cloud water loss from enhanced entrainment. Considering these simulations as an imperfect proxy for biomass burning plumes influencing Namibian stratocumulus, we expect regional indirect plus semi-direct forcings to be substantially negative to negligible at the top of the atmosphere, with its magnitude sensitive to background and perturbation properties.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JGRD..12114558M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016JGRD..12114558M"><span>Statistical retrieval of thin liquid cloud microphysical properties using ground-based infrared and microwave observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Marke, Tobias; Ebell, Kerstin; Löhnert, Ulrich; Turner, David D.</p> <p>2016-12-01</p> <p>In this article, liquid water cloud microphysical properties are retrieved by a combination of microwave and infrared ground-based observations. Clouds containing liquid water are frequently occurring in most climate regimes and play a significant role in terms of interaction with radiation. Small perturbations in the amount of liquid water contained in the cloud can cause large variations in the radiative fluxes. This effect is enhanced for thin clouds (liquid water path, LWP <100 g/m2), which makes accurate retrieval information of the cloud properties crucial. Due to large relative errors in retrieving low LWP values from observations in the microwave domain and a high sensitivity for infrared methods when the LWP is low, a synergistic retrieval based on a neural network approach is built to estimate both LWP and cloud effective radius (reff). These statistical retrievals can be applied without high computational demand but imply constraints like prior information on cloud phase and cloud layering. The neural network retrievals are able to retrieve LWP and reff for thin clouds with a mean relative error of 9% and 17%, respectively. This is demonstrated using synthetic observations of a microwave radiometer (MWR) and a spectrally highly resolved infrared interferometer. The accuracy and robustness of the synergistic retrievals is confirmed by a low bias in a radiative closure study for the downwelling shortwave flux, even for marginally invalid scenes. Also, broadband infrared radiance observations, in combination with the MWR, have the potential to retrieve LWP with a higher accuracy than a MWR-only retrieval.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5664745','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5664745"><span>The Potential Impact of Satellite-Retrieved Cloud Parameters on Ground-Level PM2.5 Mass and Composition</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Chang, Howard H.; Wang, Yujie; Hu, Xuefei; Lyapustin, Alexei</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Satellite-retrieved aerosol optical properties have been extensively used to estimate ground-level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in support of air pollution health effects research and air quality assessment at the urban to global scales. However, a large proportion, ~70%, of satellite observations of aerosols are missing as a result of cloud-cover, surface brightness, and snow-cover. The resulting PM2.5 estimates could therefore be biased due to this non-random data missingness. Cloud-cover in particular has the potential to impact ground-level PM2.5 concentrations through complex chemical and physical processes. We developed a series of statistical models using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) aerosol product at 1 km resolution with information from the MODIS cloud product and meteorological information to investigate the extent to which cloud parameters and associated meteorological conditions impact ground-level aerosols at two urban sites in the US: Atlanta and San Francisco. We find that changes in temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, planetary boundary layer height, convective available potential energy, precipitation, cloud effective radius, cloud optical depth, and cloud emissivity are associated with changes in PM2.5 concentration and composition, and the changes differ by overpass time and cloud phase as well as between the San Francisco and Atlanta sites. A case-study at the San Francisco site confirmed that accounting for cloud-cover and associated meteorological conditions could substantially alter the spatial distribution of monthly ground-level PM2.5 concentrations. PMID:29057838</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170011284&hterms=accounting&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Daccounting','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20170011284&hterms=accounting&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Daccounting"><span>The Potential Impact of Satellite-Retrieved Cloud Parameters on Ground-Level PM2.5 Mass and Composition</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Belle, Jessica H.; Chang, Howard H.; Wang, Yujie; Hu, Xuefei; Lyapustin, Alexei; Liu, Yang</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Satellite-retrieved aerosol optical properties have been extensively used to estimate ground-level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in support of air pollution health effects research and air quality assessment at the urban to global scales. However, a large proportion, approximately 70%, of satellite observations of aerosols are missing as a result of cloud-cover, surface brightness, and snow-cover. The resulting PM2.5 estimates could therefore be biased due to this non-random data missingness. Cloud-cover in particular has the potential to impact ground-level PM2.5 concentrations through complex chemical and physical processes. We developed a series of statistical models using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) aerosol product at 1 km resolution with information from the MODIS cloud product and meteorological information to investigate the extent to which cloud parameters and associated meteorological conditions impact ground-level aerosols at two urban sites in the US: Atlanta and San Francisco. We find that changes in temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, planetary boundary layer height, convective available potential energy, precipitation, cloud effective radius, cloud optical depth, and cloud emissivity are associated with changes in PM2.5 concentration and composition, and the changes differ by overpass time and cloud phase as well as between the San Francisco and Atlanta sites. A case-study at the San Francisco site confirmed that accounting for cloud-cover and associated meteorological conditions could substantially alter the spatial distribution of monthly ground-level PM2.5 concentrations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29057838','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29057838"><span>The Potential Impact of Satellite-Retrieved Cloud Parameters on Ground-Level PM2.5 Mass and Composition.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Belle, Jessica H; Chang, Howard H; Wang, Yujie; Hu, Xuefei; Lyapustin, Alexei; Liu, Yang</p> <p>2017-10-18</p> <p>Satellite-retrieved aerosol optical properties have been extensively used to estimate ground-level fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentrations in support of air pollution health effects research and air quality assessment at the urban to global scales. However, a large proportion, ~70%, of satellite observations of aerosols are missing as a result of cloud-cover, surface brightness, and snow-cover. The resulting PM 2.5 estimates could therefore be biased due to this non-random data missingness. Cloud-cover in particular has the potential to impact ground-level PM 2.5 concentrations through complex chemical and physical processes. We developed a series of statistical models using the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) aerosol product at 1 km resolution with information from the MODIS cloud product and meteorological information to investigate the extent to which cloud parameters and associated meteorological conditions impact ground-level aerosols at two urban sites in the US: Atlanta and San Francisco. We find that changes in temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, planetary boundary layer height, convective available potential energy, precipitation, cloud effective radius, cloud optical depth, and cloud emissivity are associated with changes in PM 2.5 concentration and composition, and the changes differ by overpass time and cloud phase as well as between the San Francisco and Atlanta sites. A case-study at the San Francisco site confirmed that accounting for cloud-cover and associated meteorological conditions could substantially alter the spatial distribution of monthly ground-level PM 2.5 concentrations.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JQSRT.209...19E','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JQSRT.209...19E"><span>IPRT polarized radiative transfer model intercomparison project - Three-dimensional test cases (phase B)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Emde, Claudia; Barlakas, Vasileios; Cornet, Céline; Evans, Frank; Wang, Zhen; Labonotte, Laurent C.; Macke, Andreas; Mayer, Bernhard; Wendisch, Manfred</p> <p>2018-04-01</p> <p>Initially unpolarized solar radiation becomes polarized by scattering in the Earth's atmosphere. In particular molecular scattering (Rayleigh scattering) polarizes electromagnetic radiation, but also scattering of radiation at aerosols, cloud droplets (Mie scattering) and ice crystals polarizes. Each atmospheric constituent produces a characteristic polarization signal, thus spectro-polarimetric measurements are frequently employed for remote sensing of aerosol and cloud properties. Retrieval algorithms require efficient radiative transfer models. Usually, these apply the plane-parallel approximation (PPA), assuming that the atmosphere consists of horizontally homogeneous layers. This allows to solve the vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE) efficiently. For remote sensing applications, the radiance is considered constant over the instantaneous field-of-view of the instrument and each sensor element is treated independently in plane-parallel approximation, neglecting horizontal radiation transport between adjacent pixels (Independent Pixel Approximation, IPA). In order to estimate the errors due to the IPA approximation, three-dimensional (3D) vector radiative transfer models are required. So far, only a few such models exist. Therefore, the International Polarized Radiative Transfer (IPRT) working group of the International Radiation Commission (IRC) has initiated a model intercomparison project in order to provide benchmark results for polarized radiative transfer. The group has already performed an intercomparison for one-dimensional (1D) multi-layer test cases [phase A, 1]. This paper presents the continuation of the intercomparison project (phase B) for 2D and 3D test cases: a step cloud, a cubic cloud, and a more realistic scenario including a 3D cloud field generated by a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model and typical background aerosols. The commonly established benchmark results for 3D polarized radiative transfer are available at the IPRT website (http://www.meteo.physik.uni-muenchen.de/ iprt).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-GSFC_20171208_Archive_e002150.html','SCIGOVIMAGE-NASA'); return false;" href="https://images.nasa.gov/#/details-GSFC_20171208_Archive_e002150.html"><span>Open-cell and closed-cell clouds off Peru [detail</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://images.nasa.gov/">NASA Image and Video Library</a></p> <p></p> <p>2017-12-08</p> <p>2010/107 - 04/17 at 21 :05 UTC. Open-cell and closed-cell clouds off Peru, Pacific Ocean. To view the full fame of this image to go: www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4557497219/ Resembling a frosted window on a cold winter's day, this lacy pattern of marine clouds was captured off the coast of Peru in the Pacific Ocean by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite on April 19, 2010. The image reveals both open- and closed-cell cumulus cloud patterns. These cells, or parcels of air, often occur in roughly hexagonal arrays in a layer of fluid (the atmosphere often behaves like a fluid) that begins to "boil," or convect, due to heating at the base or cooling at the top of the layer. In "closed" cells warm air is rising in the center, and sinking around the edges, so clouds appear in cell centers, but evaporate around cell edges. This produces cloud formations like those that dominate the lower left. The reverse flow can also occur: air can sink in the center of the cell and rise at the edge. This process is called "open cell" convection, and clouds form at cell edges around open centers, which creates a lacy, hollow-looking pattern like the clouds in the upper right. Closed and open cell convection represent two stable atmospheric configurations — two sides of the convection coin. But what determines which path the "boiling" atmosphere will take? Apparently the process is highly chaotic, and there appears to be no way to predict whether convection will result in open or closed cells. Indeed, the atmosphere may sometimes flip between one mode and another in no predictable pattern. Satellite: Aqua NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team To learn more about MODIS go to: rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?latest NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PhDT........59G','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013PhDT........59G"><span>Convective Cloud and Rainfall Processes Over the Maritime Continent: Simulation and Analysis of the Diurnal Cycle</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Gianotti, Rebecca L.</p> <p></p> <p>The Maritime Continent experiences strong moist convection, which produces significant rainfall and drives large fluxes of heat and moisture to the upper troposphere. Despite the importance of these processes to global circulations, current predictions of climate change over this region are still highly uncertain, largely due to inadequate representation of the diurnally-varying processes related to convection. In this work, a coupled numerical model of the land-atmosphere system (RegCM3-IBIS) is used to investigate how more physically-realistic representations of these processes can be incorporated into large-scale climate models. In particular, this work improves simulations of convective-radiative feedbacks and the role of cumulus clouds in mediating the diurnal cycle of rainfall. Three key contributions are made to the development of RegCM3-IBIS. Two pieces of work relate directly to the formation and dissipation of convective clouds: a new representation of convective cloud cover, and a new parameterization of convective rainfall production. These formulations only contain parameters that can be directly quantified from observational data, are independent of model user choices such as domain size or resolution, and explicitly account for subgrid variability in cloud water content and nonlinearities in rainfall production. The third key piece of work introduces a new method for representation of cloud formation within the boundary layer. A comprehensive evaluation of the improved model was undertaken using a range of satellite-derived and ground-based datasets, including a new dataset from Singapore's Changi airport that documents diurnal variation of the local boundary layer height. The performance of RegCM3-IBIS with the new formulations is greatly improved across all evaluation metrics, including cloud cover, cloud liquid water, radiative fluxes and rainfall, indicating consistent improvement in physical realism throughout the simulation. This work demonstrates that: (1) moist convection strongly influences the near surface environment by mediating the incoming solar radiation and net radiation at the surface; (2) dissipation of convective cloud via rainfall plays an equally important role in the convectiveradiative feedback as the formation of that cloud; and (3) over parts of the Maritime Continent, rainfall is a product of diurnally-varying convective processes that operate at small spatial scales, on the order of 1 km. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - docs@mit.edu)</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1025461-aerosol-concentration-size-distribution-measured-below-above-cloud-from-doe-during-vocals-rex','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1025461-aerosol-concentration-size-distribution-measured-below-above-cloud-from-doe-during-vocals-rex"><span>Aerosol concentration and size distribution measured below, in, and above cloud from the DOE G-1 during VOCALS-REx</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Kleinman, L.I.; Daum, P. H.; Lee, Y.-N.</p> <p>2011-06-21</p> <p>During the VOCALS Regional Experiment, the DOE G-1 aircraft was used to sample a varying aerosol environment pertinent to properties of stratocumulus clouds over a longitude band extending 800 km west from the Chilean coast at Arica. Trace gas and aerosol measurements are presented as a function of longitude, altitude, and dew point in this study. Spatial distributions are consistent with an upper atmospheric source for O{sub 3} and South American coastal sources for marine boundary layer (MBL) CO and aerosol, most of which is acidic sulfate in agreement with the dominant pollution source being SO{sub 2} from Cu smeltersmore » and power plants. Pollutant layers in the free troposphere (FT) can be a result of emissions to the north in Peru or long range transport from the west. At a given altitude in the FT (up to 3 km), dew point varies by 40 C with dry air descending from the upper atmospheric and moist air having a BL contribution. Ascent of BL air to a cold high altitude results in the condensation and precipitation removal of all but a few percent of BL water along with aerosol that served as CCN. Thus, aerosol volume decreases with dew point in the FT. Aerosol size spectra have a bimodal structure in the MBL and an intermediate diameter unimodal distribution in the FT. Comparing cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) and pre-cloud aerosol (Dp > 100 nm) gives a linear relation up to a number concentration of {approx}150 cm{sup -3}, followed by a less than proportional increase in CDNC at higher aerosol number concentration. A number balance between below cloud aerosol and cloud droplets indicates that {approx}25% of aerosol in the PCASP size range are interstitial (not activated). One hundred and two constant altitude cloud transects were identified and used to determine properties of interstitial aerosol. One transect is examined in detail as a case study. Approximately 25 to 50% of aerosol with D{sub p} > 110 nm were not activated, the difference between the two approaches possibly representing shattered cloud droplets or unknown artifact. CDNC and interstitial aerosol were anti-correlated in all cloud transects, consistent with the occurrence of dry in-cloud areas due to entrainment or circulation mixing.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015JPhCS.664b2015D','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015JPhCS.664b2015D"><span>Identity federation in OpenStack - an introduction to hybrid clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Denis, Marek; Castro Leon, Jose; Ormancey, Emmanuel; Tedesco, Paolo</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>We are evaluating cloud identity federation available in the OpenStack ecosystem that allows for on premise bursting into remote clouds with use of local identities (i.e. domain accounts). Further enhancements to identity federation are a clear way to hybrid cloud architectures - virtualized infrastructures layered across independent private and public clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040139773','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040139773"><span>Development of a Global Multilayered Cloud Retrieval System</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Huang, J.; Minnis, P.; Lin, B.; Yi, Y.; Ayers, J. K.; Khaiyer, M. M.; Arduini, R.; Fan, T.-F</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>A more rigorous multilayered cloud retrieval system has been developed to improve the determination of high cloud properties in multilayered clouds. The MCRS attempts a more realistic interpretation of the radiance field than earlier methods because it explicitly resolves the radiative transfer that would produce the observed radiances. A two-layer cloud model was used to simulate multilayered cloud radiative characteristics. Despite the use of a simplified two-layer cloud reflectance parameterization, the MCRS clearly produced a more accurate retrieval of ice water path than simple differencing techniques used in the past. More satellite data and ground observation have to be used to test the MCRS. The MCRS methods are quite appropriate for interpreting the radiances when the high cloud has a relatively large optical depth (tau(sub I) greater than 2). For thinner ice clouds, a more accurate retrieval might be possible using infrared methods. Selection of an ice cloud retrieval and a variety of other issues must be explored before a complete global application of this technique can be implemented. Nevertheless, the initial results look promising.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1041884','DTIC-ST'); return false;" href="http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1041884"><span>An Algorithm for the Vertical Structure of Aerosol Extinction in the Lowest Kilometer of the Atmosphere: Rev. 1</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.dtic.mil/">DTIC Science & Technology</a></p> <p></p> <p>2017-11-01</p> <p>inversion layer, or the well-mixed boundary layer. In such cases a low cloud ceiling is not present. In all instances the atmospheric extinction profiles...height, radiation fog depth, or the inversion layer height. The visibility regions and several representative vertical profiles of extinction are...the coefficient B can be found by B = ln(D/A) . (2) The coefficient B is sometimes a function of the cloud ceiling height, the inversion layer height</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22129724','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22129724"><span>The case against climate regulation via oceanic phytoplankton sulphur emissions.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Quinn, P K; Bates, T S</p> <p>2011-11-30</p> <p>More than twenty years ago, a biological regulation of climate was proposed whereby emissions of dimethyl sulphide from oceanic phytoplankton resulted in the formation of aerosol particles that acted as cloud condensation nuclei in the marine boundary layer. In this hypothesis--referred to as CLAW--the increase in cloud condensation nuclei led to an increase in cloud albedo with the resulting changes in temperature and radiation initiating a climate feedback altering dimethyl sulphide emissions from phytoplankton. Over the past two decades, observations in the marine boundary layer, laboratory studies and modelling efforts have been conducted seeking evidence for the CLAW hypothesis. The results indicate that a dimethyl sulphide biological control over cloud condensation nuclei probably does not exist and that sources of these nuclei to the marine boundary layer and the response of clouds to changes in aerosol are much more complex than was recognized twenty years ago. These results indicate that it is time to retire the CLAW hypothesis.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19860020281','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19860020281"><span>Chemical analysis of aerosol in the Venusian cloud layer by reaction gas chromatography on board the Vega landers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Gelman, B. G.; Drozdov, Y. V.; Melnikov, V. V.; Rotin, V. A.; Khokhlov, V. N.; Bondarev, V. B.; Dolnikov, G. G.; Dyachkov, A. V.; Nenarokov, D. F.; Mukhin, L. M.</p> <p>1986-01-01</p> <p>The experiment on sulfuric acid aerosol determination in the Venusian cloud layer on board the Vega landers is described. An average content of sulfuric acid of approximately 1 mg/cu m was found for the samples taken from the atmosphere at heights from 63 to 48 km and analyzed with the SIGMA-3 chromatograph. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) was revealed in the gaseous sample at the height of 48 km. From the experimental results and blank run measurements, a suggestion is made that the Venusian cloud layer aerosol consists of more complicated particles than the sulfuric acid water solution does.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1898L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1898L"><span>Aerosol and cloud properties derived from hyperspectral transmitted light in the southeast Atlantic sampled during field campaign deployments in 2016 and 2017</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>LeBlanc, S. E.; Redemann, J.; Flynn, C. J.; Segal-Rosenhaimer, M.; Kacenelenbogen, M. S.; Shinozuka, Y.; Pistone, K.; Karol, Y.; Schmidt, S.; Cochrane, S.; Chen, H.; Meyer, K.; Ferrare, R. A.; Burton, S. P.; Hostetler, C. A.; Hair, J. W.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>We present aerosol and cloud properties collected from airborne remote-sensing measurements in the southeast Atlantic during the recent NASA ObseRvations of CLouds above Aerosols and their intEractionS (ORACLES) field campaign. During the biomass burning seasons of September 2016 and August 2017, we sampled aerosol layers which overlaid marine stratocumulus clouds off the southwestern coast of Africa. We sampled these aerosol layers and the underlying clouds from the NASA P3 airborne platform with the Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research (4STAR). Aerosol optical depth (AOD), along with trace gas content in the atmospheric column (water vapor, NO2, and O3), is obtained from the attenuation in the sun's direct beam, measured at the altitude of the airborne platform. Using hyperspectral transmitted light measurements from 4STAR, in conjunction with hyperspectral hemispheric irradiance measurements from the Solar Spectral Flux Radiometers (SSFR), we also obtained aerosol intensive properties (asymmetry parameter, single scattering albedo), aerosol size distributions, cloud optical depth (COD), cloud particle effective radius, and cloud thermodynamic phase. Aerosol intensive properties are retrieved from measurements of angularly resolved skylight and flight level spectral albedo using the inversion used with measurements from AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) that has been modified for airborne use. The cloud properties are obtained from 4STAR measurements of scattered light below clouds. We show a favorable initial comparison of the above-cloud AOD measured by 4STAR to this same product retrieved from measurements by the MODIS instrument on board the TERRA and AQUA satellites. The layer AOD observed above clouds will also be compared to integrated aerosol extinction profile measurements from the High Spectral Resolution Lidar-2 (HSRL-2).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A22A..07R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015AGUFM.A22A..07R"><span>Using In Situ Observations and Satellite Retrievals to Constrain Large-Eddy Simulations and Single-Column Simulations: Implications for Boundary-Layer Cloud Parameterization in the NASA GISS GCM</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Remillard, J.</p> <p>2015-12-01</p> <p>Two low-cloud periods from the CAP-MBL deployment of the ARM Mobile Facility at the Azores are selected through a cluster analysis of ISCCP cloud property matrices, so as to represent two low-cloud weather states that the GISS GCM severely underpredicts not only in that region but also globally. The two cases represent (1) shallow cumulus clouds occurring in a cold-air outbreak behind a cold front, and (2) stratocumulus clouds occurring when the region was dominated by a high-pressure system. Observations and MERRA reanalysis are used to derive specifications used for large-eddy simulations (LES) and single-column model (SCM) simulations. The LES captures the major differences in horizontal structure between the two low-cloud fields, but there are unconstrained uncertainties in cloud microphysics and challenges in reproducing W-band Doppler radar moments. The SCM run on the vertical grid used for CMIP-5 runs of the GCM does a poor job of representing the shallow cumulus case and is unable to maintain an overcast deck in the stratocumulus case, providing some clues regarding problems with low-cloud representation in the GCM. SCM sensitivity tests with a finer vertical grid in the boundary layer show substantial improvement in the representation of cloud amount for both cases. GCM simulations with CMIP-5 versus finer vertical gridding in the boundary layer are compared with observations. The adoption of a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme in the GCM is also tested in this framework. The methodology followed in this study, with the process-based examination of different time and space scales in both models and observations, represents a prototype for GCM cloud parameterization improvements.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_20");'>20</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li class="active"><span>22</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_22 --> <div id="page_23" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li class="active"><span>23</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>25</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="441"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990115889&hterms=1094&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3D%2526%25231094','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19990115889&hterms=1094&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3D%2526%25231094"><span>Radiative Forcing by Contrails</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Meerkoetter, R.; Schumann, U.; Doelling, D. R.; Nakajima, T.; Tsushima, Y.</p> <p>1999-01-01</p> <p>A parametric study of the instantaneous radiative impact of contrails is presented using three different radiative transfer models for a series of model atmospheres and cloud parameters. Contrails are treated as geometrically and optically thin plane parallel homogeneous cirrus layers in a static atmospheres The ice water content is varied as a function of ambient temperature. The model atmospheres include tropical, mid-latitude, and subarctic summer and winter atmospheres Optically thin contrails cause a positive net forcing at top of the atmosphere. At the surface the radiative forcing is negative during daytime. The forcing increases with the optical depth and the amount of contrail cover. At the top of the atmosphere a mean contrail cover of 0.1% with average optical depth of 0.2 to 0.5 causes about 0.01 to 0.03 W/m(exp 2)a daily mean instantaneous radiative forcing. Contrails cool the surface during the day and heat the surface during the night, and hence reduce the daily temperature amplitude The net effect depends strongly on the daily variation of contrail cloud cover. The indirect radiative forcing due to particle changes in natural cirrus clouds may be of the same magnitude as the direct one due to additional cover.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A33N..06S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A33N..06S"><span>On the existence of tropical anvil clouds</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Seeley, J.; Jeevanjee, N.; Langhans, W.; Romps, D.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>In the deep tropics, extensive anvil clouds produce a peak in cloud cover below the tropopause. The dominant paradigm for cloud cover attributes this anvil peak to a layer of enhanced mass convergence in the clear-sky upper-troposphere, which is presumed to force frequent detrainment of convective anvils. However, cloud cover also depends on the lifetime of cloudy air after it detrains, which raises the possibility that anvil clouds may be the signature of slow cloud decay rather than enhanced detrainment. Here we measure the cloud decay timescale in cloud-resolving simulations, and find that cloudy updrafts that detrain in the upper troposphere take much longer to dissipate than their shallower counterparts. We show that cloud lifetimes are long in the upper troposphere because the saturation specific humidity becomes orders of magnitude smaller than the typical condensed water loading of cloudy updrafts. This causes evaporative cloud decay to act extremely slowly, thereby prolonging cloud lifetimes in the upper troposphere. As a consequence, extensive anvil clouds still occur in a convecting atmosphere that is forced to have no preferential clear-sky convergence layer. On the other hand, when cloud lifetimes are fixed at a characteristic lower-tropospheric value, extensive anvil clouds do not form. Our results support a revised understanding of tropical anvil clouds, which attributes their existence to the microphysics of slow cloud decay rather than a peak in clear-sky convergence.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25404677','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25404677"><span>Process-model simulations of cloud albedo enhancement by aerosols in the Arctic.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Kravitz, Ben; Wang, Hailong; Rasch, Philip J; Morrison, Hugh; Solomon, Amy B</p> <p>2014-12-28</p> <p>A cloud-resolving model is used to simulate the effectiveness of Arctic marine cloud brightening via injection of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), either through geoengineering or other increased sources of Arctic aerosols. An updated cloud microphysical scheme is employed, with prognostic CCN and cloud particle numbers in both liquid and mixed-phase marine low clouds. Injection of CCN into the marine boundary layer can delay the collapse of the boundary layer and increase low-cloud albedo. Albedo increases are stronger for pure liquid clouds than mixed-phase clouds. Liquid precipitation can be suppressed by CCN injection, whereas ice precipitation (snow) is affected less; thus, the effectiveness of brightening mixed-phase clouds is lower than for liquid-only clouds. CCN injection into a clean regime results in a greater albedo increase than injection into a polluted regime, consistent with current knowledge about aerosol-cloud interactions. Unlike previous studies investigating warm clouds, dynamical changes in circulation owing to precipitation changes are small. According to these results, which are dependent upon the representation of ice nucleation processes in the employed microphysical scheme, Arctic geoengineering is unlikely to be effective as the sole means of altering the global radiation budget but could have substantial local radiative effects. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=4240951','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=4240951"><span>Process-model simulations of cloud albedo enhancement by aerosols in the Arctic</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Kravitz, Ben; Wang, Hailong; Rasch, Philip J.; Morrison, Hugh; Solomon, Amy B.</p> <p>2014-01-01</p> <p>A cloud-resolving model is used to simulate the effectiveness of Arctic marine cloud brightening via injection of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), either through geoengineering or other increased sources of Arctic aerosols. An updated cloud microphysical scheme is employed, with prognostic CCN and cloud particle numbers in both liquid and mixed-phase marine low clouds. Injection of CCN into the marine boundary layer can delay the collapse of the boundary layer and increase low-cloud albedo. Albedo increases are stronger for pure liquid clouds than mixed-phase clouds. Liquid precipitation can be suppressed by CCN injection, whereas ice precipitation (snow) is affected less; thus, the effectiveness of brightening mixed-phase clouds is lower than for liquid-only clouds. CCN injection into a clean regime results in a greater albedo increase than injection into a polluted regime, consistent with current knowledge about aerosol–cloud interactions. Unlike previous studies investigating warm clouds, dynamical changes in circulation owing to precipitation changes are small. According to these results, which are dependent upon the representation of ice nucleation processes in the employed microphysical scheme, Arctic geoengineering is unlikely to be effective as the sole means of altering the global radiation budget but could have substantial local radiative effects. PMID:25404677</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020044951','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020044951"><span>Coordinated Parameterization Development and Large-Eddy Simulation for Marine and Arctic Cloud-Topped Boundary Layers</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Bretherton, Christopher S.</p> <p>2002-01-01</p> <p>The goal of this project was to compare observations of marine and arctic boundary layers with: (1) parameterization systems used in climate and weather forecast models; and (2) two and three dimensional eddy resolving (LES) models for turbulent fluid flow. Based on this comparison, we hoped to better understand, predict, and parameterize the boundary layer structure and cloud amount, type, and thickness as functions of large scale conditions that are predicted by global climate models. The principal achievements of the project were as follows: (1) Development of a novel boundary layer parameterization for large-scale models that better represents the physical processes in marine boundary layer clouds; and (2) Comparison of column output from the ECMWF global forecast model with observations from the SHEBA experiment. Overall the forecast model did predict most of the major precipitation events and synoptic variability observed over the year of observation of the SHEBA ice camp.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080014265','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20080014265"><span>A Climatology of Midlatitude Continental Clouds from the ARM SGP Central Facility. Part II; Cloud Fraction and Radiative Forcing</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Minnis, Patrick</p> <p>2006-01-01</p> <p>Data collected at the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) central facility are analyzed for determining the variability of cloud fraction and radiative forcing at several temporal scales between January 1997 and December 2002. Cloud fractions are estimated for total cloud cover and for single-layer low (0-3 km), middle (3-6 km), and high clouds (greater than 6 km) using ARM SGP ground-based paired lidar-radar measurements. Shortwave (SW), longwave (LW), and net cloud radiative forcings (CRF) are derived from up- and down-looking standard precision spectral pyranometers and precision infrared radiometer measurements. The annual averages of total, and single-layer, nonoverlapped low, middle and high cloud fractions are 0.49, 0.11, 0.03, and 0.17, respectively. Total and low cloud amounts were greatest from December through March and least during July and August. The monthly variation of high cloud amount is relatively small with a broad maximum from May to August. During winter, total cloud cover varies diurnally with a small amplitude, mid-morning maximum and early evening minimum, and during summer it changes by more than 0.14 over the daily cycle with a pronounced early evening minimum. The diurnal variations of mean single-layer cloud cover change with season and cloud height. Annual averages of all-sky, total, and single-layer high, middle, and low LW CRFs are 21.4, 40.2, 16.7, 27.2, and 55.0 Wm(sup -2), respectively; and their SW CRFs are -41.5, -77.2, -37.0, -47.0, and -90.5 Wm(sup -2). Their net CRFs range from -20 to -37 Wm(sup -2). For all-sky, total, and low clouds, the maximum negative net CRFs of -40.1, -70, and -69.5 Wm(sup -2), occur during April; while the respective minimum values of -3.9, -5.7, and -4.6 Wm(sup -2), are found during December. July is the month having maximum negative net CRF of -46.2 Wm(sup -2) for middle clouds, and May has the maximum value of -45.9 Wm(sup -2) for high clouds. An uncertainty analysis demonstrates that the calculated CRFs are not significantly affected by the difference between clear-sky and cloudy conditions. A more comprehensive cloud fraction study from both surface and satellite observations will follow.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011JGRD..116.0T11L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011JGRD..116.0T11L"><span>Testing cloud microphysics parameterizations in NCAR CAM5 with ISDAC and M-PACE observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Liu, Xiaohong; Xie, Shaocheng; Boyle, James; Klein, Stephen A.; Shi, Xiangjun; Wang, Zhien; Lin, Wuyin; Ghan, Steven J.; Earle, Michael; Liu, Peter S. K.; Zelenyuk, Alla</p> <p>2011-01-01</p> <p>Arctic clouds simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) are evaluated with observations from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE), which were conducted at its North Slope of Alaska site in April 2008 and October 2004, respectively. Model forecasts for the Arctic spring and fall seasons performed under the Cloud-Associated Parameterizations Testbed framework generally reproduce the spatial distributions of cloud fraction for single-layer boundary-layer mixed-phase stratocumulus and multilayer or deep frontal clouds. However, for low-level stratocumulus, the model significantly underestimates the observed cloud liquid water content in both seasons. As a result, CAM5 significantly underestimates the surface downward longwave radiative fluxes by 20-40 W m-2. Introducing a new ice nucleation parameterization slightly improves the model performance for low-level mixed-phase clouds by increasing cloud liquid water content through the reduction of the conversion rate from cloud liquid to ice by the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process. The CAM5 single-column model testing shows that changing the instantaneous freezing temperature of rain to form snow from -5°C to -40°C causes a large increase in modeled cloud liquid water content through the slowing down of cloud liquid and rain-related processes (e.g., autoconversion of cloud liquid to rain). The underestimation of aerosol concentrations in CAM5 in the Arctic also plays an important role in the low bias of cloud liquid water in the single-layer mixed-phase clouds. In addition, numerical issues related to the coupling of model physics and time stepping in CAM5 are responsible for the model biases and will be explored in future studies.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17808492','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17808492"><span>Skirt clouds associated with the soufriere eruption of 17 april 1979.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Barr, S</p> <p>1982-06-04</p> <p>A fortuitous and dramatic photograph of the Soufriere eruption column of 17 April 1979 displays a series of highly structured skirt clouds. The gentle distortion of thin, quasi-horizontal layers of moist air has been documented in meteorological situations. It is proposed that at St. Vincent subhorizontal layers of moist air were intensely deformed by the rapidly rising eruption column and were carried to higher altitudes, where they condensed to form the skirt clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950031210&hterms=cloud+computing&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dcloud%2Bcomputing','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19950031210&hterms=cloud+computing&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D80%26Ntt%3Dcloud%2Bcomputing"><span>Fast two-stream method for computing diurnal-mean actinic flux in vertically inhomogeneous atmospheres</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Filyushkin, V. V.; Madronich, S.; Brasseur, G. P.; Petropavlovskikh, I. V.</p> <p>1994-01-01</p> <p>Based on a derivation of the two-stream daytime-mean equations of radiative flux transfer, a method for computing the daytime-mean actinic fluxes in the absorbing and scattering vertically inhomogeneous atmosphere is suggested. The method applies direct daytime integration of the particular solutions of the two-stream approximations or the source functions. It is valid for any duration of period of averaging. The merit of the method is that the multiple scattering computation is carried out only once for the whole averaging period. It can be implemented with a number of widely used two-stream approximations. The method agrees with the results obtained with 200-point multiple scattering calculations. The method was also tested in runs with a 1-km cloud layer with optical depth of 10, as well as with aerosol background. Comparison of the results obtained for a cloud subdivided into 20 layers with those obtained for a one-layer cloud with the same optical parameters showed that direct integration of particular solutions possesses an 'analytical' accuracy. In the case of the source function interpolation, the actinic fluxes calculated above the one-layer and 20-layer clouds agreed within 1%-1.5%, while below the cloud they may differ up to 5% (in the worst case). The ways of enhancing the accuracy (in a 'two-stream sense') and computational efficiency of the method are discussed.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980237907','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980237907"><span>Cloud-Scale Numerical Modeling of the Arctic Boundary Layer</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Krueger, Steven K.</p> <p>1998-01-01</p> <p>The interactions between sea ice, open ocean, atmospheric radiation, and clouds over the Arctic Ocean exert a strong influence on global climate. Uncertainties in the formulation of interactive air-sea-ice processes in global climate models (GCMs) result in large differences between the Arctic, and global, climates simulated by different models. Arctic stratus clouds are not well-simulated by GCMs, yet exert a strong influence on the surface energy budget of the Arctic. Leads (channels of open water in sea ice) have significant impacts on the large-scale budgets during the Arctic winter, when they contribute about 50 percent of the surface fluxes over the Arctic Ocean, but cover only 1 to 2 percent of its area. Convective plumes generated by wide leads may penetrate the surface inversion and produce condensate that spreads up to 250 km downwind of the lead, and may significantly affect the longwave radiative fluxes at the surface and thereby the sea ice thickness. The effects of leads and boundary layer clouds must be accurately represented in climate models to allow possible feedbacks between them and the sea ice thickness. The FIRE III Arctic boundary layer clouds field program, in conjunction with the SHEBA ice camp and the ARM North Slope of Alaska and Adjacent Arctic Ocean site, will offer an unprecedented opportunity to greatly improve our ability to parameterize the important effects of leads and boundary layer clouds in GCMs.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MAP...129..611W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MAP...129..611W"><span>The thermodynamic evolution of the hurricane boundary layer during eyewall replacement cycles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Williams, Gabriel J.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Eyewall replacement cycles (ERCs) are frequently observed during the lifecycle of mature tropical cyclones. Although the kinematic structure and intensity changes during an ERC have been well-documented, comparatively little research has been done to examine the evolution of the tropical cyclone boundary layer (TCBL) during an ERC. This study will examine how the inner core thermal structure of the TCBL is affected by the presence of multiple concentric eyewalls using a high-resolution moist, hydrostatic, multilayer diagnostic boundary layer model. Within the concentric eyewalls above the cloud base, latent heat release and vertical advection (due to the eyewall updrafts) dominate the heat and moisture budgets, whereas vertical advection (due to subsidence) and vertical diffusion dominate the heat and moisture budgets for the moat region. Furthermore, it is shown that the development of a moat region within the TCBL depends sensitively on the moat width in the overlying atmosphere and the relative strength of the gradient wind field in the overlying atmosphere. These results further indicate that the TCBL contributes to outer eyewall formation through a positive feedback process between the vorticity in the nascent outer eyewall, boundary layer convergence, and boundary layer moist convection.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999JVGR...89..159F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999JVGR...89..159F"><span>The 15 September 1991 pyroclastic flows at Unzen Volcano (Japan): a flow model for associated ash-cloud surges</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Fujii, Toshitsugu; Nakada, Setsuya</p> <p>1999-04-01</p> <p>Large-scale collapse of a dacite dome in the late afternoon of 15 September 1991 generated a series of pyroclastic-flow events at Unzen Volcano. Pyroclastic flows with a volume of 1×10 6 m 3 (as DRE) descended the northeastern slope of the volcano, changing their courses to the southeast due to topographic control. After they exited a narrow gorge, an ash-cloud surge rushed straight ahead, detaching the main body of the flow that turned and followed the topographic lows to the east. The surge swept the Kita-Kamikoba area, which had been devastated by the previous pyroclastic-flow events, and transported a car as far as 120 m. Following detachment, the surge lost its force after it moved several hundred meters, but maintained a high temperature. The deposits consist of a bottom layer of better-sorted ash (unit 1), a thick layer of block and ash (unit 2), and a thin top layer of fall-out ash (unit 3). Unit 2 overlies unit 1 with an erosional contact. The upper part of unit 2 grades into better-sorted ash. At distal block-and-ash flow deposits, the bottom part of unit 2 also consists of better-sorted ash, and the contact with the unit 1 deposits becomes ambiguous. Video footage of cascading pyroclastic flows during the 1991-1995 eruption, traveling over surfaces without any topographic barriers, revealed that lobes of ash cloud protruded intermittently from the moving head and sides, and that these lobes surged ahead on the ground surface. This fact, together with the inspection by helicopter shortly after the events, suggests that the protruded lobes consisted of better-sorted ash, and resulted in the deposits of unit 1. The highest ash-cloud plume at the Oshigadani valley exit, and the thickest deposition of fall-out ash over Kita-Kamikoba and Ohnokoba, indicate that abundant ash was also produced when the flow passed through a narrow gorge. In the model presented here, the ash clouds from the pyroclastic flows were composed of a basal turbulent current of high concentration (main body), an overriding and intermediate fluidization zone, and an overlying dilute cloud. Release of pressurized gas in lava block pores, due to collisions among blocks and the resulting upward current, caused a zone of fluidization just above the main body. The mixture of gas and ash sorted in the fluidization zone moved ahead and to the side of the main body as a gravitational current, where the ash was deposited as surge deposits. The main body, which had high internal friction and shear near its base, then overran the surge deposits, partially eroding them. When the upward current of gas (fluidization) waned, better-sorted ash suspended in the fluidization zone was deposited on block-and-ash deposits. In the distal places of block-and-ash deposits, unit 2 probably was deposited in non-turbulent fashion without any erosion of the underlying layer (unit 1).</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFM.A54B..06M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AGUFM.A54B..06M"><span>Evaluation of Passive Multilayer Cloud Detection Using Preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO Cloud Profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Chang, F.; Huang, J.; Nguyen, L.; Ayers, J. K.; Spangenberg, D. A.; Yi, Y.; Trepte, C. R.</p> <p>2006-12-01</p> <p>During the last few years, several algorithms have been developed to detect and retrieve multilayered clouds using passive satellite data. Assessing these techniques has been difficult due to the need for active sensors such as cloud radars and lidars that can "see" through different layers of clouds. Such sensors have been available only at a few surface sites and on aircraft during field programs. With the launch of the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites on April 28, 2006, it is now possible to observe multilayered systems all over the globe using collocated cloud radar and lidar data. As part of the A- Train, these new active sensors are also matched in time ad space with passive measurements from the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E). The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) has been developing and testing algorithms to detect ice-over-water overlapping cloud systems and to retrieve the cloud liquid path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP) for those systems. One technique uses a combination of the CERES cloud retrieval algorithm applied to MODIS data and a microwave retrieval method applied to AMSR-E data. The combination of a CO2-slicing cloud retireval technique with the CERES algorithms applied to MODIS data (Chang et al., 2005) is used to detect and analyze such overlapped systems that contain thin ice clouds. A third technique uses brightness temperature differences and the CERES algorithms to detect similar overlapped methods. This paper uses preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO data to begin a global scale assessment of these different methods. The long-term goals are to assess and refine the algorithms to aid the development of an optimal combination of the techniques to better monitor ice 9and liquid water clouds in overlapped conditions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUSM.A54B..06M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUSM.A54B..06M"><span>Evaluation of Passive Multilayer Cloud Detection Using Preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO Cloud Profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Minnis, P.; Sun-Mack, S.; Chang, F.; Huang, J.; Nguyen, L.; Ayers, J. K.; Spangenberg, D. A.; Yi, Y.; Trepte, C. R.</p> <p>2005-05-01</p> <p>During the last few years, several algorithms have been developed to detect and retrieve multilayered clouds using passive satellite data. Assessing these techniques has been difficult due to the need for active sensors such as cloud radars and lidars that can "see" through different layers of clouds. Such sensors have been available only at a few surface sites and on aircraft during field programs. With the launch of the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites on April 28, 2006, it is now possible to observe multilayered systems all over the globe using collocated cloud radar and lidar data. As part of the A- Train, these new active sensors are also matched in time ad space with passive measurements from the Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - EOS (AMSR-E). The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) has been developing and testing algorithms to detect ice-over-water overlapping cloud systems and to retrieve the cloud liquid path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP) for those systems. One technique uses a combination of the CERES cloud retrieval algorithm applied to MODIS data and a microwave retrieval method applied to AMSR-E data. The combination of a CO2-slicing cloud retireval technique with the CERES algorithms applied to MODIS data (Chang et al., 2005) is used to detect and analyze such overlapped systems that contain thin ice clouds. A third technique uses brightness temperature differences and the CERES algorithms to detect similar overlapped methods. This paper uses preliminary CloudSat and CALIPSO data to begin a global scale assessment of these different methods. The long-term goals are to assess and refine the algorithms to aid the development of an optimal combination of the techniques to better monitor ice 9and liquid water clouds in overlapped conditions.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACP....15.8147S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015ACP....15.8147S"><span>Airborne observations and simulations of three-dimensional radiative interactions between Arctic boundary layer clouds and ice floes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Schäfer, M.; Bierwirth, E.; Ehrlich, A.; Jäkel, E.; Wendisch, M.</p> <p>2015-07-01</p> <p>Based on airborne spectral imaging observations, three-dimensional (3-D) radiative effects between Arctic boundary layer clouds and highly variable Arctic surfaces were identified and quantified. A method is presented to discriminate between sea ice and open water under cloudy conditions based on airborne nadir reflectivity γλ measurements in the visible spectral range. In cloudy cases the transition of γλ from open water to sea ice is not instantaneous but horizontally smoothed. In general, clouds reduce γλ above bright surfaces in the vicinity of open water, while γλ above open sea is enhanced. With the help of observations and 3-D radiative transfer simulations, this effect was quantified to range between 0 and 2200 m distance to the sea ice edge (for a dark-ocean albedo of αwater = 0.042 and a sea-ice albedo of αice = 0.91 at 645 nm wavelength). The affected distance Δ L was found to depend on both cloud and sea ice properties. For a low-level cloud at 0-200 m altitude, as observed during the Arctic field campaign VERtical Distribution of Ice in Arctic clouds (VERDI) in 2012, an increase in the cloud optical thickness τ from 1 to 10 leads to a decrease in Δ L from 600 to 250 m. An increase in the cloud base altitude or cloud geometrical thickness results in an increase in Δ L; for τ = 1/10 Δ L = 2200 m/1250 m in case of a cloud at 500-1000 m altitude. To quantify the effect for different shapes and sizes of ice floes, radiative transfer simulations were performed with various albedo fields (infinitely long straight ice edge, circular ice floes, squares, realistic ice floe field). The simulations show that Δ L increases with increasing radius of the ice floe and reaches maximum values for ice floes with radii larger than 6 km (500-1000 m cloud altitude), which matches the results found for an infinitely long, straight ice edge. Furthermore, the influence of these 3-D radiative effects on the retrieved cloud optical properties was investigated. The enhanced brightness of a dark pixel next to an ice edge results in uncertainties of up to 90 and 30 % in retrievals of τ and effective radius reff, respectively. With the help of Δ L, an estimate of the distance to the ice edge is given, where the retrieval uncertainties due to 3-D radiative effects are negligible.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20160003596&hterms=concise+mixed+methods&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dconcise%2Bmixed%2Bmethods%26Nf%3DPublication-Date%257CGT%2B20100101','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20160003596&hterms=concise+mixed+methods&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Dconcise%2Bmixed%2Bmethods%26Nf%3DPublication-Date%257CGT%2B20100101"><span>RACORO Continental Boundary Layer Cloud Investigations: 1. Case Study Development and Ensemble Large-Scale Forcings</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Vogelmann, Andrew M.; Fridlind, Ann M.; Toto, Tami; Endo, Satoshi; Lin, Wuyin; Wang, Jian; Feng, Sha; Zhang, Yunyan; Turner, David D.; Liu, Yangang; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20160003596'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20160003596_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20160003596_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20160003596_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20160003596_hide"></p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Observation-based modeling case studies of continental boundary layer clouds have been developed to study cloudy boundary layers, aerosol influences upon them, and their representation in cloud- and global-scale models. Three 60 h case study periods span the temporal evolution of cumulus, stratiform, and drizzling boundary layer cloud systems, representing mixed and transitional states rather than idealized or canonical cases. Based on in situ measurements from the Routine AAF (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerial Facility) CLOWD (Clouds with Low Optical Water Depth) Optical Radiative Observations (RACORO) field campaign and remote sensing observations, the cases are designed with a modular configuration to simplify use in large-eddy simulations (LES) and single-column models. Aircraft measurements of aerosol number size distribution are fit to lognormal functions for concise representation in models. Values of the aerosol hygroscopicity parameter, kappa, are derived from observations to be approximately 0.10, which are lower than the 0.3 typical over continents and suggestive of a large aerosol organic fraction. Ensemble large-scale forcing data sets are derived from the ARM variational analysis, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and a multiscale data assimilation system. The forcings are assessed through comparison of measured bulk atmospheric and cloud properties to those computed in "trial" large-eddy simulations, where more efficient run times are enabled through modest reductions in grid resolution and domain size compared to the full-sized LES grid. Simulations capture many of the general features observed, but the state-of-the-art forcings were limited at representing details of cloud onset, and tight gradients and high-resolution transients of importance. Methods for improving the initial conditions and forcings are discussed. The cases developed are available to the general modeling community for studying continental boundary clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015JGRD..120.5962V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015JGRD..120.5962V"><span>RACORO continental boundary layer cloud investigations: 1. Case study development and ensemble large-scale forcings</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Vogelmann, Andrew M.; Fridlind, Ann M.; Toto, Tami; Endo, Satoshi; Lin, Wuyin; Wang, Jian; Feng, Sha; Zhang, Yunyan; Turner, David D.; Liu, Yangang; Li, Zhijin; Xie, Shaocheng; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Zhang, Minghua; Khairoutdinov, Marat</p> <p>2015-06-01</p> <p>Observation-based modeling case studies of continental boundary layer clouds have been developed to study cloudy boundary layers, aerosol influences upon them, and their representation in cloud- and global-scale models. Three 60 h case study periods span the temporal evolution of cumulus, stratiform, and drizzling boundary layer cloud systems, representing mixed and transitional states rather than idealized or canonical cases. Based on in situ measurements from the Routine AAF (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerial Facility) CLOWD (Clouds with Low Optical Water Depth) Optical Radiative Observations (RACORO) field campaign and remote sensing observations, the cases are designed with a modular configuration to simplify use in large-eddy simulations (LES) and single-column models. Aircraft measurements of aerosol number size distribution are fit to lognormal functions for concise representation in models. Values of the aerosol hygroscopicity parameter, κ, are derived from observations to be 0.10, which are lower than the 0.3 typical over continents and suggestive of a large aerosol organic fraction. Ensemble large-scale forcing data sets are derived from the ARM variational analysis, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and a multiscale data assimilation system. The forcings are assessed through comparison of measured bulk atmospheric and cloud properties to those computed in "trial" large-eddy simulations, where more efficient run times are enabled through modest reductions in grid resolution and domain size compared to the full-sized LES grid. Simulations capture many of the general features observed, but the state-of-the-art forcings were limited at representing details of cloud onset, and tight gradients and high-resolution transients of importance. Methods for improving the initial conditions and forcings are discussed. The cases developed are available to the general modeling community for studying continental boundary clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1565929','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1565929"><span>[Do volcanic eruptions and wide-spread fires affect our climate?].</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Primault, B</p> <p>1992-03-31</p> <p>During the first half of 1991, the press, radio and TV have often reported about large fires (Kuwait, forest fires in Portugal) or volcanic eruptions (Mount Unzen, Pinatubo). Starting with the facts, the author investigates first the kind of particles constituting such smoke clouds and in particular their size. He places the main cloud in the atmosphere and asks; the cloud remains near the soil, whether it reaches the upper layers of the troposphere or it breaks out into the stratosphere? The transport of the cloud depends on particle-size and of the winds blowing in the reached layer. All these clouds have an impact on the weather. The author analyses finally the credible influence of such clouds on weather elements: radiation and temperature as well as the extent of these effects. He corroborates his analysis by visual observations or measurements.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1423787-diurnal-cycle-clouds-precipitation-arm-sgp-site-cloud-radar-observations-simulations-from-multiscale-modeling-framework','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1423787-diurnal-cycle-clouds-precipitation-arm-sgp-site-cloud-radar-observations-simulations-from-multiscale-modeling-framework"><span>The diurnal cycle of clouds and precipitation at the ARM SGP site: Cloud radar observations and simulations from the multiscale modeling framework</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Zhao, Wei; Marchand, Roger; Fu, Qiang</p> <p>2017-07-08</p> <p>Millimeter Wavelength Cloud Radar (MMCR) data from December 1996 to December 2010, collected at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program Southern Great Plains (SGP) site, are used to examine the diurnal cycle of hydrometeor occurrence. These data are categorized into clouds (-40 dBZ e ≤ reflectivity < -10 dBZ e), drizzle and light precipitation (-10 dBZ e ≤ reflectivity < 10 dBZ e), and heavy precipitation (reflectivity ≥ 10 dBZ e). The same criteria are implemented for the observation-equivalent reflectivity calculated by feeding outputs from a Multiscale Modeling Framework (MMF) climate model into a radar simulator.more » The MMF model consists of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model with conventional cloud parameterizations replaced by a cloud-resolving model. We find that a radar simulator combined with the simple reflectivity categories can be an effective approach for evaluating diurnal variations in model hydrometeor occurrence. It is shown that the MMF only marginally captures observed increases in the occurrence of boundary layer clouds after sunrise in spring and autumn and does not capture diurnal changes in boundary layer clouds during the summer. Above the boundary layer, the MMF captures reasonably well diurnal variations in the vertical structure of clouds and light and heavy precipitation in the summer but not in the spring.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACPD...1314405C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ACPD...1314405C"><span>Comparing the cloud vertical structure derived from several methods based on measured atmospheric profiles and active surface measurements</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Costa-Surós, M.; Calbó, J.; González, J. A.; Long, C. N.</p> <p>2013-06-01</p> <p>The cloud vertical distribution and especially the cloud base height, which is linked to cloud type, is an important characteristic in order to describe the impact of clouds in a changing climate. In this work several methods to estimate the cloud vertical structure (CVS) based on atmospheric sounding profiles are compared, considering number and position of cloud layers, with a ground based system which is taken as a reference: the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL). All methods establish some conditions on the relative humidity, and differ on the use of other variables, the thresholds applied, or the vertical resolution of the profile. In this study these methods are applied to 125 radiosonde profiles acquired at the ARM Southern Great Plains site during all seasons of year 2009 and endorsed by GOES images, to confirm that the cloudiness conditions are homogeneous enough across their trajectory. The overall agreement for the methods ranges between 44-88%; four methods produce total agreements around 85%. Further tests and improvements are applied on one of these methods. In addition, we attempt to make this method suitable for low resolution vertical profiles, which could be useful in atmospheric modeling. The total agreement, even when using low resolution profiles, can be improved up to 91% if the thresholds for a moist layer to become a cloud layer are modified to minimize false negatives with the current data set, thus improving overall agreement.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li class="active"><span>23</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>25</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_23 --> <div id="page_24" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li class="active"><span>24</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>25</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="461"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..1710595B','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015EGUGA..1710595B"><span>A cloud masking algorithm for EARLINET lidar systems</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Binietoglou, Ioannis; Baars, Holger; D'Amico, Giuseppe; Nicolae, Doina</p> <p>2015-04-01</p> <p>Cloud masking is an important first step in any aerosol lidar processing chain as most data processing algorithms can only be applied on cloud free observations. Up to now, the selection of a cloud-free time interval for data processing is typically performed manually, and this is one of the outstanding problems for automatic processing of lidar data in networks such as EARLINET. In this contribution we present initial developments of a cloud masking algorithm that permits the selection of the appropriate time intervals for lidar data processing based on uncalibrated lidar signals. The algorithm is based on a signal normalization procedure using the range of observed values of lidar returns, designed to work with different lidar systems with minimal user input. This normalization procedure can be applied to measurement periods of only few hours, even if no suitable cloud-free interval exists, and thus can be used even when only a short period of lidar measurements is available. Clouds are detected based on a combination of criteria including the magnitude of the normalized lidar signal and time-space edge detection performed using the Sobel operator. In this way the algorithm avoids misclassification of strong aerosol layers as clouds. Cloud detection is performed using the highest available time and vertical resolution of the lidar signals, allowing the effective detection of low-level clouds (e.g. cumulus humilis). Special attention is given to suppress false cloud detection due to signal noise that can affect the algorithm's performance, especially during day-time. In this contribution we present the details of algorithm, the effect of lidar characteristics (space-time resolution, available wavelengths, signal-to-noise ratio) to detection performance, and highlight the current strengths and limitations of the algorithm using lidar scenes from different lidar systems in different locations across Europe.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.4715P','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018ACP....18.4715P"><span>Precipitation regimes over central Greenland inferred from 5 years of ICECAPS observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Pettersen, Claire; Bennartz, Ralf; Merrelli, Aronne J.; Shupe, Matthew D.; Turner, David D.; Walden, Von P.</p> <p>2018-04-01</p> <p>A novel method for classifying Arctic precipitation using ground based remote sensors is presented. Using differences in the spectral variation of microwave absorption and scattering properties of cloud liquid water and ice, this method can distinguish between different types of snowfall events depending on the presence or absence of condensed liquid water in the clouds that generate the precipitation. The classification reveals two distinct, primary regimes of precipitation over the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS): one originating from fully glaciated ice clouds and the other from mixed-phase clouds. Five years of co-located, multi-instrument data from the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) are used to examine cloud and meteorological properties and patterns associated with each precipitation regime. The occurrence and accumulation of the precipitation regimes are identified and quantified. Cloud and precipitation observations from additional ICECAPS instruments illustrate distinct characteristics for each regime. Additionally, reanalysis products and back-trajectory analysis show different synoptic-scale forcings associated with each regime. Precipitation over the central GIS exhibits unique microphysical characteristics due to the high surface elevations as well as connections to specific large-scale flow patterns. Snowfall originating from the ice clouds is coupled to deep, frontal cloud systems advecting up and over the southeast Greenland coast to the central GIS. These events appear to be associated with individual storm systems generated by low pressure over Baffin Bay and Greenland lee cyclogenesis. Snowfall originating from mixed-phase clouds is shallower and has characteristics typical of supercooled cloud liquid water layers, and slowly propagates from the south and southwest of Greenland along a quiescent flow above the GIS.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120010219','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20120010219"><span>Retrieval of Aerosol Optical Depth Above Clouds from OMI Observations: Sensitivity Analysis, Case Studies</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Torres, O.; Jethva, H.; Bhartia, P. K.</p> <p>2012-01-01</p> <p>A large fraction of the atmospheric aerosol load reaching the free troposphere is frequently located above low clouds. Most commonly observed aerosols above clouds are carbonaceous particles generally associated with biomass burning and boreal forest fires, and mineral aerosols originated in arid and semi-arid regions and transported across large distances, often above clouds. Because these aerosols absorb solar radiation, their role in the radiative transfer balance of the earth atmosphere system is especially important. The generally negative (cooling) top of the atmosphere direct effect of absorbing aerosols, may turn into warming when the light-absorbing particles are located above clouds. The actual effect depends on the aerosol load and the single scattering albedo, and on the geometric cloud fraction. In spite of its potential significance, the role of aerosols above clouds is not adequately accounted for in the assessment of aerosol radiative forcing effects due to the lack of measurements. In this paper we discuss the basis of a simple technique that uses near-UV observations to simultaneously derive the optical depth of both the aerosol layer and the underlying cloud for overcast conditions. The two-parameter retrieval method described here makes use of the UV aerosol index and reflectance measurements at 388 nm. A detailed sensitivity analysis indicates that the measured radiances depend mainly on the aerosol absorption exponent and aerosol-cloud separation. The technique was applied to above-cloud aerosol events over the Southern Atlantic Ocean yielding realistic results as indicated by indirect evaluation methods. An error analysis indicates that for typical overcast cloudy conditions and aerosol loads, the aerosol optical depth can be retrieved with an accuracy of approximately 54% whereas the cloud optical depth can be derived within 17% of the true value.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29618847','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29618847"><span>Monte Carlo Bayesian inference on a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution cloud observations. Part 1: Method.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Norris, Peter M; da Silva, Arlindo M</p> <p>2016-07-01</p> <p>A method is presented to constrain a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution satellite cloud data. The method can be used for large-scale model parameter estimation or cloud data assimilation. The gridcolumn model includes assumed probability density function (PDF) intra-layer horizontal variability and a copula-based inter-layer correlation model. The observables used in the current study are Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud-top pressure, brightness temperature and cloud optical thickness, but the method should be extensible to direct cloudy radiance assimilation for a small number of channels. The algorithm is a form of Bayesian inference with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to characterizing the posterior distribution. This approach is especially useful in cases where the background state is clear but cloudy observations exist. In traditional linearized data assimilation methods, a subsaturated background cannot produce clouds via any infinitesimal equilibrium perturbation, but the Monte Carlo approach is not gradient-based and allows jumps into regions of non-zero cloud probability. The current study uses a skewed-triangle distribution for layer moisture. The article also includes a discussion of the Metropolis and multiple-try Metropolis versions of MCMC.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160012260','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20160012260"><span>Monte Carlo Bayesian Inference on a Statistical Model of Sub-Gridcolumn Moisture Variability Using High-Resolution Cloud Observations. Part 1: Method</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Norris, Peter M.; Da Silva, Arlindo M.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>A method is presented to constrain a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution satellite cloud data. The method can be used for large-scale model parameter estimation or cloud data assimilation. The gridcolumn model includes assumed probability density function (PDF) intra-layer horizontal variability and a copula-based inter-layer correlation model. The observables used in the current study are Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud-top pressure, brightness temperature and cloud optical thickness, but the method should be extensible to direct cloudy radiance assimilation for a small number of channels. The algorithm is a form of Bayesian inference with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to characterizing the posterior distribution. This approach is especially useful in cases where the background state is clear but cloudy observations exist. In traditional linearized data assimilation methods, a subsaturated background cannot produce clouds via any infinitesimal equilibrium perturbation, but the Monte Carlo approach is not gradient-based and allows jumps into regions of non-zero cloud probability. The current study uses a skewed-triangle distribution for layer moisture. The article also includes a discussion of the Metropolis and multiple-try Metropolis versions of MCMC.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5880330','PMC'); return false;" href="https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=5880330"><span>Monte Carlo Bayesian inference on a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution cloud observations. Part 1: Method</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pmc">PubMed Central</a></p> <p>Norris, Peter M.; da Silva, Arlindo M.</p> <p>2018-01-01</p> <p>A method is presented to constrain a statistical model of sub-gridcolumn moisture variability using high-resolution satellite cloud data. The method can be used for large-scale model parameter estimation or cloud data assimilation. The gridcolumn model includes assumed probability density function (PDF) intra-layer horizontal variability and a copula-based inter-layer correlation model. The observables used in the current study are Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud-top pressure, brightness temperature and cloud optical thickness, but the method should be extensible to direct cloudy radiance assimilation for a small number of channels. The algorithm is a form of Bayesian inference with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to characterizing the posterior distribution. This approach is especially useful in cases where the background state is clear but cloudy observations exist. In traditional linearized data assimilation methods, a subsaturated background cannot produce clouds via any infinitesimal equilibrium perturbation, but the Monte Carlo approach is not gradient-based and allows jumps into regions of non-zero cloud probability. The current study uses a skewed-triangle distribution for layer moisture. The article also includes a discussion of the Metropolis and multiple-try Metropolis versions of MCMC. PMID:29618847</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AMT....11.1515R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AMT....11.1515R"><span>Information content of OCO-2 oxygen A-band channels for retrieving marine liquid cloud properties</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Richardson, Mark; Stephens, Graeme L.</p> <p>2018-03-01</p> <p>Information content analysis is used to select channels for a marine liquid cloud retrieval using the high-spectral-resolution oxygen A-band instrument on NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2). Desired retrieval properties are cloud optical depth, cloud-top pressure and cloud pressure thickness, which is the geometric thickness expressed in hectopascals. Based on information content criteria we select a micro-window of 75 of the 853 functioning OCO-2 channels spanning 763.5-764.6 nm and perform a series of synthetic retrievals with perturbed initial conditions. We estimate posterior errors from the sample standard deviations and obtain ±0.75 in optical depth and ±12.9 hPa in both cloud-top pressure and cloud pressure thickness, although removing the 10 % of samples with the highest χ2 reduces posterior error in cloud-top pressure to ±2.9 hPa and cloud pressure thickness to ±2.5 hPa. The application of this retrieval to real OCO-2 measurements is briefly discussed, along with limitations and the greatest caution is urged regarding the assumption of a single homogeneous cloud layer, which is often, but not always, a reasonable approximation for marine boundary layer clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040079827','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040079827"><span>A Study of the Response of Deep Tropical Clouds to Mesoscale Processes. Part 2; Sensitivities to Microphysics, Radiation, and Surface Fluxes</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Johnson, Daniel; Tao, Wei-Kuo; Simpson, Joanne</p> <p>2004-01-01</p> <p>The Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model is used to examine the sensitivities of surface fluxes, explicit radiation, and ice microphysical processes on multi-day simulations of deep tropical convection over the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The simulations incorporate large-scale advective temperature and moisture forcing, as well as large-scale momentum, that are updated every time step on a periodic lateral boundary grid. This study shows that when surface fluxes are eliminated, the mean atmosphere is much cooler and drier, convection and CAPE are much weaker, precipitation is less, and cloud coverage in stratiform regions much greater. Surface fluxes using the TOGA COARE flux algorithm are weaker than with the aerodynamic formulation, but closer to the observed fluxes. In addition, similar trends noted above for the case without surface fluxes are produced for the TOGA flux case, albeit to a much lesser extent. The elimination of explicit shortwave and longwave radiation is found to have only minimal effects on the mean thermodynamics, convection, and precipitation. However explicit radiation does have a significant impact on cloud temperatures and structure above 200 mb and on the overall mean vertical circulation. The removal of ice processes produces major changes in the structure of the cloud. Much of the liquid water is transported aloft and into anvils above the melting layer (600 mb), leaving narrow, but intense bands of rainfall in convective regions. The elimination of melting processes leads to greater hydrometeor mass below the melting layer, and produces a much warmer and moister boundary layer, leading to a greater mean CAPE. Finally, the elimination of the graupel species has only a small impact on mean total precipitation, thermodynamics, and dynamics of the simulation, but does produce much greater snow mass just above the melting layer. Some of these results differ from previous CRM studies of tropical systems, which is likely due to the type of simulated system, total time integration, and model setup.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150023388&hterms=jasmine&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Djasmine','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150023388&hterms=jasmine&qs=N%3D0%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntt%3Djasmine"><span>Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer: An ARM Mobile Facility Deployment</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Wood, Robert; Wyant, Matthew; Bretherton, Christopher S.; Remillard, Jasmine; Kollias, Pavlos; Fletcher, Jennifer; Stemmler, Jayson; de Szoeke, Simone; Yuter, Sandra; Miller, Matthew; <a style="text-decoration: none; " href="javascript:void(0); " onClick="displayelement('author_20150023388'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20150023388_show'); toggleEditAbsImage('author_20150023388_hide'); "> <img style="display:inline; width:12px; height:12px; " src="images/arrow-up.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20150023388_show"> <img style="width:12px; height:12px; display:none; " src="images/arrow-down.gif" width="12" height="12" border="0" alt="hide" id="author_20150023388_hide"></p> <p>2015-01-01</p> <p>Capsule: A 21-month deployment to Graciosa Island in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean is providing an unprecedented record of the clouds, aerosols and meteorology in a poorly-sampled remote marine environment The Clouds, Aerosol, and Precipitation in the Marine Boundary Layer (CAP-MBL) deployment at Graciosa Island in the Azores generated a 21 month (April 2009- December 2010) comprehensive dataset documenting clouds, aerosols and precipitation using the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF). The scientific aim of the deployment is to gain improved understanding of the interactions of clouds, aerosols and precipitation in the marine boundary layer. Graciosa Island straddles the boundary between the subtropics and midlatitudes in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, and consequently experiences a great diversity of meteorological and cloudiness conditions. Low clouds are the dominant cloud type, with stratocumulus and cumulus occurring regularly. Approximately half of all clouds contained precipitation detectable as radar echoes below the cloud base. Radar and satellite observations show that clouds with tops from 1- 11 km contribute more or less equally to surface-measured precipitation at Graciosa. A wide range of aerosol conditions was sampled during the deployment consistent with the diversity of sources as indicated by back trajectory analysis. Preliminary findings suggest important two-way interactions between aerosols and clouds at Graciosa, with aerosols affecting light precipitation and cloud radiative properties while being controlled in part by precipitation scavenging. The data from at Graciosa are being compared with short-range forecasts made a variety of models. A pilot analysis with two climate and two weather forecast models shows that they reproduce the observed time-varying vertical structure of lower-tropospheric cloud fairly well, but the cloud-nucleating aerosol concentrations less well. The Graciosa site has been chosen to be a permanent fixed ARM site that became operational in October 2013.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43M..01L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A43M..01L"><span>Cloud vertical structure, precipitation, and cloud radiative effects over Tibetan Plateau</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Liu, Y.; Yan, Y.; Lu, J.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The vertical structure of clouds and its connection with precipitation and cloud radiative effects (CRE) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are analyzed and compared with its neighboring land and tropical oceans based on CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) products and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation data. Unique characteristics of cloud vertical structure and CRE over the TP are found. The cloud amount shows seasonal variation over the TP, which presents a single peak (located in 7-11 km) during January to April and two peaks (located in 5-8 km and 11-17 km separately) after mid-June, and then resumes to one peak (located in 5-10 km) after mid-August. Topography-induced restriction on moisture supply leads to a compression effect on clouds, i.e., the reduction in both cloud thickness and number of cloud layers, over the TP. The topography-induced compression effect is also shown in the range in the variation of cloud thickness and cloud-top height corresponding to different precipitation intensity, which is much smaller over the TP than its neighboring regions. In summer, cloud ice particles over the TP are mostly located at lower altitude (5-10 km) with richer variety of sizes and aggregation in no rain conditions compared to other regions. Ice water content becomes abundant and the number concentration tends to be dense at higher levels when precipitation is enhanced. The longwave CRE in the atmosphere over the TP is a net cooling effect. The vertical structure of CRE over the TP is unique compared to other regions: there exists a strong cooling layer of net CRE at the altitude of 8 km, from June to the beginning of October; the net radiative heating layer above the surface is shallower but stronger underneath 7 km and with a stronger seasonal variation over the TP.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PASJ...70S..46F','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PASJ...70S..46F"><span>Molecular clouds toward three Spitzer bubbles S116, S117, and S118: Evidence for a cloud-cloud collision which formed the three H II regions and a 10 pc scale molecular cavity</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Fukui, Yasuo; Ohama, Akio; Kohno, Mikito; Torii, Kazufumi; Fujita, Shinji; Hattori, Yusuke; Nishimura, Atsushi; Yamamoto, Hiroaki; Tachihara, Kengo</p> <p>2018-05-01</p> <p>We carried out a molecular-line study toward the three Spitzer bubbles S116, S117, and S118, which show active formation of high-mass stars. We found molecular gas consisting of two components with a velocity difference of ˜5 km s-1. One of them, the small cloud, has a typical velocity of -63 km s-1 and the other, the large cloud, has one of -58 km s-1. The large cloud has a nearly circular intensity depression, the size of which is similar to that of the small cloud. We present an interpretation that its cavity was created by a collision between the two clouds and that this collision compressed the gas into a dense layer elongating along the western rim of the small cloud. In this scenario, the O stars including those in the three Spitzer bubbles were formed in the interface layer compressed by the collision. Assuming that the relative motion of the clouds has a tilt of 45° to the line of sight, we estimate that the collision continued for the last 1 Myr at a relative velocity of ˜10 km s-1. In the S116-S117-S118 system the H II regions are located outside of the cavity. This morphology is ascribed to the density-bound distribution of the large cloud which caused the H II regions to expand more easily toward the outer part of the large cloud than towards the inside of the cavity. The present case proves that a cloud-cloud collision creates a cavity without the action of O-star feedback, and suggests that the collision-compressed layer is highly filamentary.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.2351Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017JGRD..122.2351Z"><span>Intercomparisons of marine boundary layer cloud properties from the ARM CAP-MBL campaign and two MODIS cloud products</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, Zhibo; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Song, Hua; Ma, Po-Lun; Ghan, Steven J.; Platnick, Steven; Minnis, Patrick</p> <p>2017-02-01</p> <p>From April 2009 to December 2010, the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program carried out an observational field campaign on Graciosa Island, targeting the marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the Azores region. In this paper, we present an intercomparison of the MBL cloud properties, namely, cloud liquid water path (LWP), cloud optical thickness (COT), and cloud-droplet effective radius (CER), among retrievals from the ARM mobile facility and two Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud products (Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)-MODIS and Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System-MODIS). A total of 63 daytime single-layer MBL cloud cases are selected for intercomparison. Comparison of collocated retrievals indicates that the two MODIS cloud products agree well on both COT and CER retrievals, with the correlation coefficient R > 0.95, despite their significant difference in spatial sampling. In both MODIS products, the CER retrievals based on the 2.1 µm band (CER2.1) are significantly larger than those based on the 3.7 µm band (CER3.7). The GSFC-MODIS cloud product is collocated and compared with ground-based ARM observations at several temporal-spatial scales. In general, the correlation increases with more precise collocation. For the 63 selected MBL cloud cases, the GSFC-MODIS LWP and COT retrievals agree reasonably well with the ground-based observations with no apparent bias and correlation coefficient R around 0.85 and 0.70, respectively. However, GSFC-MODIS CER3.7 and CER2.1 retrievals have a lower correlation (R 0.5) with the ground-based retrievals. For the 63 selected cases, they are on average larger than ground observations by about 1.5 µm and 3.0 µm, respectively. Taking into account that the MODIS CER retrievals are only sensitive to cloud top reduces the bias only by 0.5 µm.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29426185','PUBMED'); return false;" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29426185"><span>Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated with PM2.5 within boundary layer: Cloud/fog and regional transport.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed">PubMed</a></p> <p>Yang, Minmin; Wang, Yan; Li, Hongli; Li, Tao; Nie, Xiaoling; Cao, Fangfang; Yang, Fengchun; Wang, Zhe; Wang, Tao; Qie, Guanghao; Jin, Tong; Du, Lili; Wang, Wenxing</p> <p>2018-06-15</p> <p>A study of PM 2.5 -associated PAHs analysis at Mount Lushan (1165m) was conducted to investigate the distributions of PAHs in PM 2.5 and influences of cloud/fog. The main purpose was to quantify the main emission sources of PAHs and estimate regional transport effects within the boundary layer. Mount Lushan is located between the boundary layer and troposphere, which is an ideal site for atmosphere transport investigation. The concentrations of PAHs in PM 2.5 were analyzed with GC-MS. The results showed that the volume concentration was 6.98ng/m 3 with a range from 1.47 to 25.17ng/m 3 and PAHs mass were 160.24μg/g (from 63.86 to 427.97μg/g) during the sampling time at Mount Lushan. The dominant compounds are BbF, Pyr and BP. In terms of aromatic-ring PAHs distributions, 4-6-ring PAHs are predominant, indicating that the high-ring PAHs tend to contribute more than low-ring PAHs in particulates. Due to frequent cloud/fog days at Mount Lushan, PAHs concentrations in the PM 2.5 were determined before and after cloud/fog weather. The results demonstrated that the cloud/fog and rain conditions cause lower PAHs levels. Regression analysis was used for studying the relationship of PAHs distributions with meteorological conditions like temperature, humidity and wind. The results showed that the temperature and wind speed were inversely related with PAHs concentration but humidity had no significant relationship. Furthermore, backward trajectories and PCA combined with DR (diagnostic ratio analysis) were employed to identify the influences of regional transport and main emission sources. The results revealed that PAHs in PM 2.5 were mainly affected by regional transport with the main emissions by mobile vehicle and steel industry, which contributed about 56.0% to the total PAHs in the area of Mount Lushan. In addition, backward trajectories revealed that the dominant air masses were from the northwest accounting for about one third of total PAHs. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AtmRe.201...46L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AtmRe.201...46L"><span>Characteristics of cloud occurrence using ceilometer measurements and its relationship to precipitation over Seoul</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lee, Sanghee; Hwang, Seung-On; Kim, Jhoon; Ahn, Myoung-Hwan</p> <p>2018-03-01</p> <p>Clouds are an important component of the atmosphere that affects both climate and weather, however, their contributions can be very difficult to determine. Ceilometer measurements can provide high resolution information on atmospheric conditions such as cloud base height (CBH) and vertical frequency of cloud occurrence (CVF). This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of CBH and CVF derived using Vaisala CL51 ceilometers at two urban stations in Seoul, Korea, during a three-year period from January 2014 to December 2016. The average frequency of cloud occurrence detected by the ceilometers is 54.3%. It is found that the CL51 is better able to capture CBH as compared to another ceilometer CL31 at a nearby meteorological station because it could detect high clouds more accurately. Frequency distributions for CBH up to 13,000 m providing detailed vertical features with 500-m interval show 55% of CBHs below 2 km for aggregated CBHs. A bimodal frequency distribution was observed for three-layers CBHs. A monthly variation of CVF reveals that frequency concentration of lower clouds is found in summer and winter, and higher clouds more often detected in spring and autumn. Monthly distribution features of cloud occurrence and precipitation are depending on seasons and it might be easy to define their relationship due to higher degree of variability of precipitation than cloud occurrence. However, a fluctuation of cloud occurrence frequency in summer is similar to precipitation in trend, whereas clouds in winter are relatively frequent but precipitation is not accompanied. In addition, recent decrease of summer precipitation could be mostly explained by a decrease of cloud occurrence. Anomalous precipitation recorded sometimes is considerably related to corresponding cloud occurrence. The diurnal and daily variations of CBH and CVF from ceilometer observations and the analysis of microwave radiometer measurements for two typical cloudiness cases are also reviewed in parallel. This analysis in finer temporal scale exhibits that utilization of ground-based observations together could help to analyze the cloud behaviors.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999JGR...10411961K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999JGR...10411961K"><span>Sensitivity of a cloud parameterization package in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kao, C.-Y. J.; Smith, W. S.</p> <p>1999-05-01</p> <p>A physically based cloud parameterization package, which includes the Arakawa-Schubert (AS) scheme for subgrid-scale convective clouds and the Sundqvist (SUN) scheme for nonconvective grid-scale layered clouds (hereafter referred to as the SUNAS cloud package), is incorporated into the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model, Version 2 (CCM2). The AS scheme is used for a more reasonable heating distribution due to convective clouds and their associated precipitation. The SUN scheme allows for the prognostic computation of cloud water so that the cloud optical properties are more physically determined for shortwave and longwave radiation calculations. In addition, the formation of anvil-like clouds from deep convective systems is able to be simulated with the SUNAS package. A 10-year simulation spanning the period from 1980 to 1989 is conducted, and the effect of the cloud package on the January climate is assessed by comparing it with various available data sets and the National Center for Environmental Protection/NCAR reanalysis. Strengths and deficiencies of both the SUN and AS methods are identified and discussed. The AS scheme improves some aspects of the model dynamics and precipitation, especially with respect to the Pacific North America (PNA) pattern. CCM2's tendency to produce a westward bias of the 500 mbar stationary wave (time-averaged zonal anomalies) in the PNA sector is remedied apparently because of a less "locked-in" heating pattern in the tropics. The additional degree of freedom added by the prognostic calculation of cloud water in the SUN scheme produces interesting results in the modeled cloud and radiation fields compared with data. In general, too little cloud water forms in the tropics, while excessive cloud cover and cloud liquid water are simulated in midlatitudes. This results in a somewhat degraded simulation of the radiation budget. The overall simulated precipitation by the SUNAS package is, however, substantially improved over the original CCM2.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20080044857&hterms=thermodynamics&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dthermodynamics','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20080044857&hterms=thermodynamics&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D60%26Ntt%3Dthermodynamics"><span>Comparison of the MODIS Multilayer Cloud Detection and Thermodynamic Phase Products with CALIPSO and CloudSat</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Platnick, Steven; King, Michael D.; Wind, Gala; Holz, Robert E.; Ackerman, Steven A.; Nagle, Fred W.</p> <p>2008-01-01</p> <p>CALIPSO and CloudSat, launched in June 2006, provide global active remote sensing measurements of clouds and aerosols that can be used for validation of a variety of passive imager retrievals derived from instruments flying on the Aqua spacecraft and other A-Train platforms. The most recent processing effort for the MODIS Atmosphere Team, referred to as the "Collection 5" stream, includes a research-level multilayer cloud detection algorithm that uses both thermodynamic phase information derived from a combination of solar and thermal emission bands to discriminate layers of different phases, as well as true layer separation discrimination using a moderately absorbing water vapor band. The multilayer detection algorithm is designed to provide a means of assessing the applicability of 1D cloud models used in the MODIS cloud optical and microphysical product retrieval, which are generated at a 1 h resolution. Using pixel-level collocations of MODIS Aqua, CALIOP, and CloudSat radar measurements, we investigate the global performance of the thermodynamic phase and multilayer cloud detection algorithms.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014Icar..229...71S','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014Icar..229...71S"><span>Numerical simulations of Jupiter’s moist convection layer: Structure and dynamics in statistically steady states</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Sugiyama, K.; Nakajima, K.; Odaka, M.; Kuramoto, K.; Hayashi, Y.-Y.</p> <p>2014-02-01</p> <p>A series of long-term numerical simulations of moist convection in Jupiter’s atmosphere is performed in order to investigate the idealized characteristics of the vertical structure of multi-composition clouds and the convective motions associated with them, varying the deep abundances of condensable gases and the autoconversion time scale, the latter being one of the most questionable parameters in cloud microphysical parameterization. The simulations are conducted using a two-dimensional cloud resolving model that explicitly represents the convective motion and microphysics of the three cloud components, H2O, NH3, and NH4SH imposing a body cooling that substitutes the net radiative cooling. The results are qualitatively similar to those reported in Sugiyama et al. (Sugiyama, K. et al. [2011]. Intermittent cumulonimbus activity breaking the three-layer cloud structure of Jupiter. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L13201. doi:10.1029/2011GL047878): stable layers associated with condensation and chemical reaction act as effective dynamical and compositional boundaries, intense cumulonimbus clouds develop with distinct temporal intermittency, and the active transport associated with these clouds results in the establishment of mean vertical profiles of condensates and condensable gases that are distinctly different from the hitherto accepted three-layered structure (e.g., Atreya, S.K., Romani, P.N. [1985]. Photochemistry and clouds of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. In: Recent Advances in Planetary Meteorology. Cambridge Univ. Press, London, pp. 17-68). Our results also demonstrate that the period of intermittent cloud activity is roughly proportional to the deep abundance of H2O gas. The autoconversion time scale does not strongly affect the results, except for the vertical profiles of the condensates. Changing the autoconversion time scale by a factor of 100 changes the intermittency period by a factor of less than two, although it causes a dramatic increase in the amount of condensates in the upper troposphere. The moist convection layer becomes potentially unstable with respect to an air parcel rising from below the H2O lifting condensation level (LCL) well before the development of cumulonimbus clouds. The instability accumulates until an appropriate trigger is provided by the H2O condensate that falls down through the H2O LCL; the H2O condensate drives a downward flow below the H2O LCL as a result of the latent cooling associated with the re-evaporation of the condensate, and the returning updrafts carry moist air from below to the moist convection layer. Active cloud development is terminated when the instability is completely exhausted. The period of intermittency is roughly equal to the time obtained by dividing the mean temperature increase, which is caused by active cumulonimbus development, by the body cooling rate.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21P..07K','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21P..07K"><span>Phase-partitioning in mixed-phase clouds - An approach to characterize the entire vertical column</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Kalesse, H.; Luke, E. P.; Seifert, P.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The characterization of the entire vertical profile of phase-partitioning in mixed-phase clouds is a challenge which can be addressed by synergistic profiling measurements with ground-based polarization lidars and cloud radars. While lidars are sensitive to small particles and can thus detect supercooled liquid (SCL) layers, cloud radar returns are dominated by larger particles (like ice crystals). The maximum lidar observation height is determined by complete signal attenuation at a penetrated optical depth of about three. In contrast, cloud radars are able to penetrate multiple liquid layers and can thus be used to expand the identification of cloud phase to the entire vertical column beyond the lidar extinction height, if morphological features in the radar Doppler spectrum can be related to the existence of SCL. Relevant spectral signatures such as bimodalities and spectral skewness can be related to cloud phase by training a neural network appropriately in a supervised learning scheme, with lidar measurements functioning as supervisor. The neural network output (prediction of SCL location) derived using cloud radar Doppler spectra can be evaluated with several parameters such as liquid water path (LWP) detected by microwave radiometer (MWR) and (liquid) cloud base detected by ceilometer or Raman lidar. The technique has been previously tested on data from Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) instruments in Barrow, Alaska and is in this study utilized for observations from the Leipzig Aerosol and Cloud Remote Observations System (LACROS) during the Analysis of the Composition of Clouds with Extended Polarization Techniques (ACCEPT) field experiment in Cabauw, Netherlands in Fall 2014. Comparisons to supercooled-liquid layers as classified by CLOUDNET are provided.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JCli...13..245N','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JCli...13..245N"><span>Low Cloud Type over the Ocean from Surface Observations. Part III: Relationship to Vertical Motion and the Regional Surface Synoptic Environment.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Norris, Joel R.; Klein, Stephen A.</p> <p>2000-01-01</p> <p>Composite large-scale dynamical fields contemporaneous with low cloud types observed at midlatitude Ocean Weather Station (OWS) C and eastern subtropical OWS N are used to establish representative relationships between low cloud type and the synoptic environment. The composites are constructed by averaging meteorological observations of surface wind and sea level pressure from volunteering observing ships (VOS) and analyses of sea level pressure, 1000-mb wind, and 700-mb pressure vertical velocity from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis project on those dates and times of day when a particular low cloud type was reported at the OWS.VOS and NCEP results for OWS C during summer show that bad-weather stratus occurs with strong convergence and ascent slightly ahead of a surface low center and trough. Cumulus-under-stratocumulus and moderate and large cumulus occur with divergence and subsidence in the cold sector of an extratropical cyclone. Both sky-obscuring fog and no-low-cloud typically occur with southwesterly flow from regions of warmer sea surface temperature and differ primarily according to slight surface convergence and stronger warm advection in the case of sky-obscuring fog or surface divergence and weaker warm advection in the case of no-low-cloud. Fair-weather stratus and ordinary stratocumulus are associated with a mixture of meteorological conditions, but differ with respect to vertical motion in the environment. Fair-weather stratus occurs most commonly in the presence of slight convergence and ascent, while stratocumulus often occurs in the presence of divergence and subsidence.Surface divergence and estimated subsidence at the top of the boundary layer are calculated from VOS observations. At both OWS C and OWS N during summer and winter these values are large for ordinary stratocumulus, less for cumulus-under-stratocumulus, and least (and sometimes slightly negative) for moderate and large cumulus. Subsidence interpolated from NCEP analyses to the top of the boundary layer does not exhibit such variation, but the discrepancy may be due to deficiencies in the analysis procedure or the boundary layer parameterization of the NCEP model. The VOS results suggest that decreasing divergence and subsidence in addition to increasing sea surface temperature may promote the transition from stratocumulus to trade cumulus observed over low-latitude oceans.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..1612468V','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014EGUGA..1612468V"><span>Retrieval of volcanic ash properties from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Ventress, Lucy; Carboni, Elisa; Smith, Andrew; Grainger, Don; Dudhia, Anu; Hayer, Catherine</p> <p>2014-05-01</p> <p>The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), on board both the MetOp-A and MetOp-B platforms, is a Fourier transform spectrometer covering the mid-infrared (IR) from 645-2760cm-1 (3.62-15.5 μm) with a spectral resolution of 0.5cm-1 (apodised) and a pixel diameter at nadir of 12km. These characteristics allow global coverage to be achieved twice daily for each instrument and make IASI a very useful tool for the observation of larger aerosol particles (such as desert dust and volcanic ash) and the tracking of volcanic plumes. In recent years, following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, interest in the the ability to detect and characterise volcanic ash plumes has peaked due to the hazards to aviation. The thermal infrared spectra shows a rapid variation with wavelength due to absorption lines from atmospheric and volcanic gases as well as broad scale features principally due to particulate absorption. The ash signature depends upon both the composition and size distribution of ash particles as well as the altitude of the volcanic plume. To retrieve ash properties, IASI brightness temperature spectra are analysed using an optimal estimation retrieval scheme and a forward model based on RTTOV. Initially, IASI pixels are flagged for the presence of volcanic ash using a linear retrieval detection method based on departures from a background state. Given a positive ash signal, the RTTOV output for a clean atmosphere (containing atmospheric gases but no cloud or aerosol/ash) is combined with an ash/cloud layer using the same scheme as for the Oxford-RAL Retrieval of Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) algorithm. The retrieved parameters are ash optical depth (at a reference wavelength of 550nm), ash effective radius, layer altitude and surface temperature. The potential for distinguishing between different ash types is explored and a sensitivity study of the retrieval algorithm is presented. Results are shown from studies of the evolution and composition of ash plumes for recent volcanic eruptions.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li class="active"><span>24</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>25</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_24 --> <div id="page_25" class="hiddenDiv"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li class="active"><span>25</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col-sm-12"> <ol class="result-class" start="481"> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AdSpR..50..828Z','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012AdSpR..50..828Z"><span>Time dependent charging of layer clouds in the global electric circuit</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Zhou, Limin; Tinsley, Brian A.</p> <p>2012-09-01</p> <p>There is much observational data consistent with the hypothesis that the ionosphere-earth current density (Jz) in the global electric circuit, which is modulated by both solar activity and thunderstorm activity, affects atmospheric dynamics and cloud cover. One candidate mechanism involves Jz causing the accumulation of space charge on droplets and aerosol particles, that affects the rate of scavenging of the latter, notably those of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) and Ice Forming Nuclei (IFN) (Tinsley, 2008, 2010). Space charge is the difference, per unit volume, between total positive and total negative electrical charge that is on droplets, aerosol particles (including the CCN and IFN) and air ions. The cumulative effects of the scavenging in stratiform clouds and aerosol layers in an air mass over the lifetime of the aerosol particles of 1-10 days affects the concentration and size distribution of the CCN, so that in subsequent episodes of cloud formation (including deep convective clouds) there can be effects on droplet size distribution, coagulation, precipitation processes, and even storm dynamics.Because the time scales for charging for some clouds can be long compared to cloud lifetimes, the amount of charge at a given time, and its effect on scavenging, depend more on the charging rate than on the equilibrium charge that would eventually be attained. To evaluate this, a new time-dependent charging model has been developed. The results show that for typical altostratus clouds with typical droplet radii 10 μm and aerosol particles of radius of 0.04 μm, the time constant for charging in response to a change in Jz is about 800 s, which is comparable to cloud formation and dissipation timescales for some cloud situations. The charging timescale is found to be strong functions of altitude and aerosol concentration, with the time constant for droplet charging at 2 km in air with a high concentration of aerosols being about an hour, and for clouds at 10 km in clean air being about a minute. The charging timescale is also a strong function of droplet size, with the rate for 15 μm radii droplets being about 70% longer than that for 10 μm droplets, and the rate for 5 μm radii droplets being about 50% smaller. The equilibrium charges accumulated on droplets ranged from tens to hundreds of elementary charges, which is comparable to observed values, and to vary approximately directly with Jz and inversely with the ion production rate q, which is due to the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) flux and depends strongly on altitude.For the case of Jz varying directly with q, which to some extent is the case during Forbush decreases of the GCR flux, the effects on the equilibrium charge tend to cancel. In one run with the model, both q and Jz were decreased by 30%. There was little change in equilibrium charge, but the timescale for charging increased by about 40%, or equivalently, the rate of charging decreased by about 40%. Thus, for exploring the hypothesis that space charge provides a link between GCR (and other inputs that modulate Jz) and changes in clouds and atmospheric dynamics, it is necessary to consider variations in the rate of charging. The present work is intended to provide illustrative examples of time dependent charging for several different types of layer clouds.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A51E2100Q','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A51E2100Q"><span>Arctic boundary layer properties and its influence on cloud occurrence frequency, phase and structure in autumn season</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Qiu, S.; Dong, X.; Xi, B.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>In this study, autumnal boundary layer characteristics and cloud properties have been investigated using data collected at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement North Slope of Alaska (ARM NSA) site from January 2002 to December 2008. We found that both cloud and planetary boundary layer (PBL) properties can be well distinguished by surface wind directions. When the ARM NSA site is dominated by a northerly wind during the period September- November, the PBL is at near saturation for all three months; while the maximum RH layer varies from low and thin in September, to higher and thicker in October, and then it becomes close to surface again in November. Both the ceilometer and the MPL derived cloud base heights coincide well with the RH maximum layer in the PBL for all three autumnal months. The frequencies of occurrence of mixed phase clouds in September and October are around 60-80% under a northerly wind, which are about 1.5 times higher than those during a southerly wind. Under northerly wind, the PDFs of PBL temperature and specific humidity are narrow and unimodal, with a peak probability around 0.4-0.5. Under a southerly wind, on the other hand, the PBL is both warmer and wetter than northerly wind profiles, which result in lower RH values (10-15% lower) in September and October; and the PDFs of PBL temperature and specific humidity are more evenly distributed with larger distribution range and lower PDF peak values (<0.3). In September, colder and dryer PBL is more favorable for mixed phase cloud formation, cloud occurrence frequency decreases from 90% to 60% as PBL temperature and specific humidity increase. In October, the frequency of occurrence of mixed phase clouds also decreases from 90% to 50-60% as PBL temperature increases. While in November, it increases first and then decreases with increasing PBL temperature and specific humidity. The frequency of occurrence of mixed phase clouds is linearly correlated to PBL RH values: for all three months, it increases from 20-90% as PBL RH value increases from 50-100%, with R2 values of 0.85-0.95. Liquid-only cloud occurrence frequency has little relationship with PBL RH values, while it increases from 1% to 20% as PBL specific humidity increases from 0-5 g/kg, with R2 values of 0.6-0.85.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1904H','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A11C1904H"><span>The dependence of entrainment and drizzle in marine stratiform clouds on biomass burning aerosols derived from stable isotope and thermodynamic profiles</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Henze, D.; Noone, D.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>A third of the world's biomass burning aerosol (BBA) particles are generated in southern Africa, and these particles are swept into the midlevel troposphere over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. The presence of these aerosols over the marine environment of the south east Atlantic offers a unique natural laboratory for studying aerosol effects on climate, and specifically a modification to the hydrologic cycle and microphysical characteristics of clouds. Different rates of condensation with high aerosol numbers change the precipitation rates in drizzling stratiform clouds, while the mixing of aerosols into the cloud layer is synonymous with entrainment from above cloud top near the top of the subtropical inversion. To better understanding the magnitude of the aerosol influence on southeast Atlantic boundary layer clouds we analyze the cloud-top entrainment and drizzle as a function of aerosol loading to determine the impact of BBA. Entrainment was determined from mixing line analysis based on profile measurements of moist static energy, total water, and the two most common heavy isotopes of water - HDO and H218O. Data was collected on the P-3 Orion aircraft during the NASA 2017 ORACLES campaign. Using these measurements, a box model was constructed using the combined conservation laws associated with all four of these quantities to estimate the entrainment and rainout of cloud liquid. The population of profiles sampled by the aircraft over the course of the 30 day mission spans varying concentrations of BBA. Initial plots of the water isotope mixing lines show where and to what degree the BBA air mass has mixed into the boundary layer air mass from above. This is demonstrated by the fact that the mixing end-members are the same for the different areas sampled, but the rate at which the various mixing lines are traversed as a function of altitude varies. Further, the mixing lines as a function of height traverse back and forth between end members multiple times over one profile. This suggests that air masses are mixing by `layering' into each other, and helps us to better represent entrainment in our box model. Meanwhile, isotope ratios measured below vs above the cloud layer show that the air above the clouds is depleted of heavy water isotopes in comparison to below - the degree of depletion could correspond to drizzle amount.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19820017798&hterms=Cox&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3DCox%25E2%2580%2599s','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19820017798&hterms=Cox&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D30%26Ntt%3DCox%25E2%2580%2599s"><span>Characteristics of middle and upper tropospheric clouds as deduced from rawinsonde data</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Starr, D. D. O.; Cox, S. K.</p> <p>1982-01-01</p> <p>The static environment of middle and upper tropospheric clouds is characterized. Computed relative humidity with respect to ice is used to diagnose the presence of cloud layer. The deduced seasonal mean cloud cover estimates based on this technique are shown to be reasonable. The cases are stratified by season and pressure thickness, and the dry static stability, vertical wind speed shear, and Richardson number are computed for three layers for each case. Mean values for each parameter are presented for each stratification and layer. The relative frequency of occurrence of various structures is presented for each stratification. The observed values of each parameter and the observed structure of each parameter are quite variable. Structures corresponding to any of a number of different conceptual models may be found. Moist adiabatic conditions are not commonly observed and the stratification based on thickness yields substantially different results for each group.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1816783C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1816783C"><span>First results from the THOR experiment imaging thunderstorm activity from the ISS.</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Chanrion, Olivier; Neubert, Torsten; Mogensen, Andreas; Yair, Yoav; Stendel, Martin; Larsen, Niels</p> <p>2016-04-01</p> <p>Video imaging from the THOR experiment conducted on International Space Station by the Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen has been analyzed. The observations we report in this paper were taken with a color camera from the vantage point of the Cupola, tracking thunderstorm activity over the Bay of Bengal. Among many lightning, the observations contain a sprite, a blue jet and numerous small blue discharge regions at the top of a tall cumulonimbus cloud. The latter are interpreted as electric discharges between layers at the uppermost layers of the cloud and to the screening layer formed at the very edge between the cloud and the surrounding atmosphere. The observations are the first of their kind and give new insights into the charge structure at the top of clouds in the tropical tropopause regions, a region that is difficult to observe and to access.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040034204','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20040034204"><span>Passive and Active Detection of Clouds: Comparisons between MODIS and GLAS Observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Mahesh, Ashwin; Gray, Mark A.; Palm, Stephen P.; Hart, William D.; Spinhirne, James D.</p> <p>2003-01-01</p> <p>The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), launched on board the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite in January 2003 provides space-borne laser observations of atmospheric layers. GLAS provides opportunities to validate passive observations of the atmosphere for the first time from space with an active optical instrument. Data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer aboard the Aqua satellite is examined along with GLAS observations of cloud layers. In more than three-quarters of the cases, MODIS scene identification from spectral radiances agrees with GLAS. Disagreement between the two platforms is most significant over snow-covered surfaces in the northern hemisphere. Daytime clouds detected by GLAS are also more easily seen in the MODIS data as well, compared to observations made at night. These comparisons illustrate the capabilities of active remote sensing to validate and assess passive measurements, and also to complement them in studies of atmospheric layers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1440552-investigation-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-ccn-properties-under-coupled-decoupled-conditions-over-azores','SCIGOV-DOEP'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/pages/biblio/1440552-investigation-marine-boundary-layer-cloud-ccn-properties-under-coupled-decoupled-conditions-over-azores"><span>Investigation of the marine boundary layer cloud and CCN properties under coupled and decoupled conditions over the Azores</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/pages">DOE PAGES</a></p> <p>Dong, Xiquan; Schwantes, Adam C.; Xi, Baike; ...</p> <p>2015-06-10</p> <p>Here, six coupled and decoupled marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds were chosen from the 19 month Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility data set over the Azores. Thresholds of liquid water potential temperature difference Δθ L < 0.5 K (>0.5 K) and total water mixing ratio difference Δq t < 0.5 g/kg (>0.5 g/kg) below the cloud base were used for selecting the coupled (decoupled) cases. A schematic diagram was given to demonstrate the coupled and decoupled MBL vertical structures and how they associate with nondrizzle, virga, and rain drizzle events. Out of a total of 2676 5 min samples, 34.5%more » were classified as coupled and 65.5% as decoupled, 36.2% as nondrizzle and 63.8% as drizzle (47.7% as virga and 16.1% as rain), and 33.4% as daytime and 66.6% as nighttime. The decoupled cloud layer is deeper (0.406 km) than coupled cloud layer (0.304 km), and its liquid water path and cloud droplet effective radius (r e) values (122.1 gm -2 and 13.0 µm) are higher than coupled ones (83.7 gm -2 and 10.4 µm). Conversely, decoupled stratocumuli have lower cloud droplet number concentration (N d) and surface cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) concentration (N CCN) (74.5 cm -3 and 150.9 cm -3) than coupled stratocumuli (111.7 cm -3 and 216.4 cm -3). The linear regressions between r e and N d with N CCN have demonstrated that coupled r e and N d strongly depend on N CCN and have higher correlations (-0.56 and 0.59) with N CCN than decoupled results (-0.14 and 0.25). The MBL cloud properties under nondrizzle and virga drizzle conditions are similar to each other but significantly different to those of rain drizzle.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10103459','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10103459"><span>Boundary-layer cumulus over land: Some observations and conceptual models</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Stull, R.B.</p> <p>1993-09-01</p> <p>Starting in 1980, the Boundary Layer Research Team at the University of Wisconsin has been systematically studying the formation and evolution of nonprecipitating boundary-layer cumulus clouds (BLCu) in regions of fair weather (anticyclones) over land (Stull, 1980). Our approach is to quantify the average statistical characteristics of the surface, thermals, boundary layer, and clouds over horizontal regions of roughly 20 km in diameter. Within such a region over land, there is typically quite a variation in land use, and associated variations in surface albedo and moisture.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19850052908&hterms=planetary+boundaries&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dplanetary%2Bboundaries','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19850052908&hterms=planetary+boundaries&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchall%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26No%3D40%26Ntt%3Dplanetary%2Bboundaries"><span>Seasonal simulations of the planetary boundary layer and boundary-layer stratocumulus clouds with a general circulation model</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Randall, D. A.; Abeles, J. A.; Corsetti, T. G.</p> <p>1985-01-01</p> <p>The formulation of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and stratocumulus parametrizations in the UCLA general circulation model (GCM) are briefly summarized, and extensive new results are presented illustrating some aspects of the simulated seasonal changes of the global distributions of PBL depth, stratocumulus cloudiness, cloud-top entrainment instability, the cumulus mass flux, and related fields. Results from three experiments designed to reveal the sensitivity of the GCM results to aspects of the PBL and stratocumulus parametrizations are presented. The GCM results show that the layer cloud instability appears to limit the extent of the marine subtropical stratocumulus regimes, and that instability frequently occurs in association with cumulus convection over land. Cumulus convection acts as a very significant sink of PBL mass throughout the tropics and over the midlatitude continents in winter.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A41B3036Y','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AGUFM.A41B3036Y"><span>Cloud Radiative Effect to Downward Longwave Radiation in the Polar Regions</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Yamada, K.; Hayasaka, T.</p> <p>2014-12-01</p> <p>Downward longwave radiation is important factor to affect climate change. In polar regions, estimation of the radiative effect of cloud on the downward longwave radiation has large uncertainty. Relatively large cloud effect to the radiation occurs there due to low temperature, small amount of water vapor, and strong inversion layer. The cloud effect is, however, not evaluated sufficiently because the long term polar night and high surface albedo make satellite retrieval difficult. The intent of the present study is to quantify cloud radiative effect for downward longwave radiation in the polar regions by in-situ observation and radiative transfer calculation. The observation sites in this study are Ny-Ålesund (NYA), Syowa (SYO), and South Pole (SPO). These stations belong to the Baseline Surface Radiation Network. The period of data analysis is from 2003 to 2012. The effect of cloud on the downward longwave radiation is evaluated by subtraction of calculated downward longwave radiation under clear-sky condition from observed value under all-sky condition. Radiative transfer model was used for the evaluation of clear sky radiation with vertical temperature and humidity profile obtained by radiosonde observations. Calculated result shows good correlation with observation under clear-sky condition. The RMSE is +0.83±5.0. The cloud effect varied from -10 - +110 W/m2 (-10 - +40 %). Cloud effect increased with increasing of cloud fraction and decreasing of cloud base height and precipitable water. In SYO negative effects were sometimes obtained. The negative cloud effect emerged under dry and temperature inversion condition lower than 2 km. One of reasons of negative effect is considered to be existence of cloud at temperature inversion altitude. When the cloud effect is smaller than -5 W/m2 (standard deviation between calculation and observation), 50 % of them have a condition with cloud base height estimated by micro pulse lidar lower than 2 km.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170004664','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170004664"><span>A Method for Obtaining High Frequency, Global, IR-Based Convective Cloud Tops for Studies of the TTL</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Pfister, Leonhard; Ueyama, Rei; Jensen, Eric; Schoeberl, Mark</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>Models of varying complexity that simulate water vapor and clouds in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) show that including convection directly is essential to properly simulating the water vapor and cloud distribution. In boreal winter, for example, simulations without convection yield a water vapor distribution that is too uniform with longitude, as well as minimal cloud distributions. Two things are important for convective simulations. First, it is important to get the convective cloud top potential temperature correctly, since unrealistically high values (reaching above the cold point tropopause too frequently) will cause excessive hydration of the stratosphere. Second, one must capture the time variation as well, since hydration by convection depends on the local relative humidity (temperature), which has substantial variation on synoptic time scales in the TTL. This paper describes a method for obtaining high frequency (3-hourly) global convective cloud top distributions which can be used in trajectory models. The method uses rainfall thresholds, standard IR brightness temperatures, meteorological temperature analyses, and physically realistic and documented corrections IR brightness temperature corrections to derive cloud top altitudes and potential temperatures. The cloud top altitudes compare well with combined CLOUDSAT and CALIPSO data, both in time-averaged overall vertical and horizontal distributions and in individual cases (correlations of .65-.7). An important finding is that there is significant uncertainty (nearly .5 km) in evaluating the statistical distribution of convective cloud tops even using lidar. Deep convection whose tops are in regions of high relative humidity (such as much of the TTL), will cause clouds to form above the actual convection. It is often difficult to distinguish these clouds from the actual convective cloud due to the uncertainties of evaluating ice water content from lidar measurements. Comparison with models show that calculated cloud top altitudes are generally higher than those calculated by global analyses (e.g., MERRA). Interannual variability in the distribution of convective cloud top altitudes is also investigated.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20180001498','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20180001498"><span>Intercomparisons of Marine Boundary Layer Cloud Properties from the ARM CAP-MBL Campaign and Two MODIS Cloud Products</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Zhang, Zhibo; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Song, Hua; Ma, Po-Lun; Ghan, Steven J.; Platnick, Steven; Minnis, Patrick</p> <p>2017-01-01</p> <p>From April 2009 to December 2010, the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program carried out an observational field campaign on Graciosa Island, targeting the marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds over the Azores region. In this paper, we present an inter-comparison of the MBL cloud properties, namely, cloud liquid water path (LWP), cloud optical thickness (COT) and cloud-droplet effective radius (CER), among retrievals from the ARM mobile facility (AMF) and two Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud products (GSFC-MODIS and CERES-MODIS). A total of 63 daytime single-layer MBL cloud cases are selected for inter-comparison. Comparison of collocated retrievals indicates that the two MODIS cloud products agree well on both COT and CER retrievals, with the correlation coefficient R greater than 0.95 despite their significant difference in spatial sampling. In both MODIS products, the CER retrievals based on the 2.1 micrometers band (CER(sub 2.1)) is significantly smaller than that based on the 3.7 micrometers band (CER(sub 3.7)). The GSFC-MODIS cloud product is collocated and compared with ground-based ARM observations at several temporal spatial scales. In general, the correlation increases with more precise collocation. For the 63 selected MBL cloud cases, the GSFC-MODIS LWP and COT retrievals agree reasonably well with the ground-based observations with no apparent bias and correlation coefficient R around 0.85 and 0.70, respectively. However, GSFC-MODIS CER(sub 3.7) and CER(sub 2.1) retrievals have a lower correlation (R is approximately 0.5) with the ground-based retrievals. For the 63 selected cases, they are on average larger than ground observations by about 1.5 micrometers and 3.0 micrometers, respectively. Taking into account that the MODIS CER retrievals are only sensitive to cloud top reduces the bias only by 0.5 micrometers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..04M','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A41J..04M"><span>A Marine Boundary Layer Water Vapor Climatology Derived from Microwave and Near-Infrared Imagery</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Millan Valle, L. F.; Lebsock, M. D.; Teixeira, J.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The synergy of the collocated Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides daily global estimates of partial marine planetary boundary layer water vapor. AMSR microwave radiometry provides the total column water vapor, while MODIS near-infrared imagery provides the water vapor above the cloud layers. The difference between the two gives the vapor between the surface and the cloud top, which may be interpreted as the boundary layer water vapor. Comparisons against radiosondes, and GPS-Radio occultation data demonstrate the robustness of these boundary layer water vapor estimates. We exploit the 14 years of AMSR-MODIS synergy to investigate the spatial, seasonal, and inter-annual variations of the boundary layer water vapor. Last, it is shown that the measured AMSR-MODIS partial boundary layer water vapor can be generally prescribed using sea surface temperature, cloud top pressure and the lifting condensation level. The multi-sensor nature of the analysis demonstrates that there exists more information on boundary layer water vapor structure in the satellite observing system than is commonly assumed when considering the capabilities of single instruments. 2017 California Institute of Technology. U.S. Government sponsorship acknowledged.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1237963','SCIGOV-STC'); return false;" href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1237963"><span></span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.osti.gov/search">DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)</a></p> <p>Riihimaki, L.; McFarlane, S.; Sivaraman, C.</p> <p></p> <p>The ndrop_mfrsr value-added product (VAP) provides an estimate of the cloud droplet number concentration of overcast water clouds retrieved from cloud optical depth from the multi-filter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) instrument and liquid water path (LWP) retrieved from the microwave radiometer (MWR). When cloud layer information is available from vertically pointing lidar and radars in the Active Remote Sensing of Clouds (ARSCL) product, the VAP also provides estimates of the adiabatic LWP and an adiabatic parameter (beta) that indicates how divergent the LWP is from the adiabatic case. quality control (QC) flags (qc_drop_number_conc), an uncertainty estimate (drop_number_conc_toterr), and a cloudmore » layer type flag (cloud_base_type) are useful indicators of the quality and accuracy of any given value of the retrieval. Examples of these major input and output variables are given in sample plots in section 6.0.« less</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013JQSRT.116..122W','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013JQSRT.116..122W"><span>A fast radiative transfer model for visible through shortwave infrared spectral reflectances in clear and cloudy atmospheres</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Wang, Chenxi; Yang, Ping; Nasiri, Shaima L.; Platnick, Steven; Baum, Bryan A.; Heidinger, Andrew K.; Liu, Xu</p> <p>2013-02-01</p> <p>A computationally efficient radiative transfer model (RTM) for calculating visible (VIS) through shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectances is developed for use in satellite and airborne cloud property retrievals. The full radiative transfer equation (RTE) for combinations of cloud, aerosol, and molecular layers is solved approximately by using six independent RTEs that assume the plane-parallel approximation along with a single-scattering approximation for Rayleigh scattering. Each of the six RTEs can be solved analytically if the bidirectional reflectance/transmittance distribution functions (BRDF/BTDF) of the cloud/aerosol layers are known. The adding/doubling (AD) algorithm is employed to account for overlapped cloud/aerosol layers and non-Lambertian surfaces. Two approaches are used to mitigate the significant computational burden of the AD algorithm. First, the BRDF and BTDF of single cloud/aerosol layers are pre-computed using the discrete ordinates radiative transfer program (DISORT) implemented with 128 streams, and second, the required integral in the AD algorithm is numerically implemented on a twisted icosahedral mesh. A concise surface BRDF simulator associated with the MODIS land surface product (MCD43) is merged into a fast RTM to accurately account for non-isotropic surface reflectance. The resulting fast RTM is evaluated with respect to its computational accuracy and efficiency. The simulation bias between DISORT and the fast RTM is large (e.g., relative error >5%) only when both the solar zenith angle (SZA) and the viewing zenith angle (VZA) are large (i.e., SZA>45° and VZA>70°). For general situations, i.e., cloud/aerosol layers above a non-Lambertian surface, the fast RTM calculation rate is faster than that of the 128-stream DISORT by approximately two orders of magnitude.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21A2133R','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21A2133R"><span>New GOES-R Risk Reduction Activities at CIRA</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Rogers, M. A.; Miller, S. D.; Grasso, L. D.; Haynes, J. M.; NOH, Y. J.; Forsythe, J.; Zupanski, M.; Lindsey, D. T.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>A team of atmospheric scientists at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at the Colorado State University has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES-R Risk Reduction (GOES-R3) science program to develop applications to enhance the utilization of the GOES-R sensors, including the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). The selected project topics follow NOAA's Research and Development Objectives listed in its 5-year Strategic Plan. The projects will be carried out over a three-year period which started on 1 July 2017 and will end on 30 June 2019. CIRA is working on five GOES-R3 application developments: 1) Developing an Environmental Awareness Repertoire of ABI Imagery (`DEAR-ABII') to Advise the Operational Weather Forecaster. DEAR-ABII maximizes the vast potential of the new GOES-R/GOES-16 sensor technology. 2) GOES-R ABI channel differencing used to reveal cloud-free zones of `precursors of convective initiation'. This product identifies where convective initiation may occur in cloud free skies. 3) Improving the ABI Cloud Layers Product for Multiple Layer Cloud Systems and Aviation Forecast Applications. This project aims to improve the GOES-16 cloud layer product by providing information on the boundaries of cloud layers even when one layer overlies another. 4) Using the New Capabilities of GOES-R to Improve Blended, Multisensor Water Vapor Products for Forecasters. GOES-R TPW retrievals will be merged with TPW derived from polar orbiter and surface data to improve the operational NOAA blended TPW product. 5) Data assimilation of GLM observations in HWRF/GSI system. Assimilation of GOES-R GLM observations for the NOAA operational hurricane model with the goal to improve operational hurricane forecasting. Examples for each of these applications will be presented.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170003796','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20170003796"><span>Daytime Cirrus Cloud Top-of-Atmosphere Radiative Forcing Properties at a Midlatitude Site and their Global Consequence</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Campbell, James R.; Lolli, Simone; Lewis, Jasper R.; Gu, Yu; Welton, Ellsworth J.</p> <p>2016-01-01</p> <p>One year of continuous ground-based lidar observations (2012) is analyzed for single-layer cirrus clouds at the NASA Micro Pulse Lidar Network site at the Goddard Space Flight Center to investigate top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) annual net daytime radiative forcing properties. A slight positive net daytime forcing is estimated (i.e., warming): 0.070.67 W m(exp -2) in sample-relative terms, which reduces to 0.030.27 W m(exp -2) in absolute terms after normalizing to unity based on a 40% midlatitude occurrence frequency rate estimated from satellite data. Results are based on bookend solutions for lidar extinction-to-backscatter (20 and 30 sr) and corresponding retrievals of the 532-nm cloud extinction coefficient. Uncertainties due to cloud under sampling, attenuation effects, sample selection, and lidar multiple scattering are described. A net daytime cooling effect is found from the very thinnest clouds (cloud optical depth of less than or equal to 0.01), which is attributed to relatively high solar zenith angles. A relationship involving positive negative daytime cloud forcing is demonstrated as a function of solar zenith angle and cloud-top temperature. These properties, combined with the influence of varying surface albedos, are used to conceptualize how daytime cloud forcing likely varies with latitude and season, with cirrus clouds exerting less positive forcing and potentially net TOA cooling approaching the summer poles (not ice and snow covered) versus greater warming at the equator. The existence of such a gradient would lead cirrus to induce varying daytime TOA forcing annually and seasonally, making it a far greater challenge than presently believed to constrain the daytime and diurnal cirrus contributions to global radiation budgets.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21O..07C','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A21O..07C"><span>Constraining the models' response of tropical low clouds to SST forcings using CALIPSO observations</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Cesana, G.; Del Genio, A. D.; Ackerman, A. S.; Brient, F.; Fridlind, A. M.; Kelley, M.; Elsaesser, G.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>Low-cloud response to a warmer climate is still pointed out as being the largest source of uncertainty in the last generation of climate models. To date there is no consensus among the models on whether the tropical low cloudiness would increase or decrease in a warmer climate. In addition, it has been shown that - depending on their climate sensitivity - the models either predict deeper or shallower low clouds. Recently, several relationships between inter-model characteristics of the present-day climate and future climate changes have been highlighted. These so-called emergent constraints aim to target relevant model improvements and to constrain models' projections based on current climate observations. Here we propose to use - for the first time - 10 years of CALIPSO cloud statistics to assess the ability of the models to represent the vertical structure of tropical low clouds for abnormally warm SST. We use a simulator approach to compare observations and simulations and focus on the low-layered clouds (i.e. z < 3.2km) as well the more detailed level perspective of clouds (40 levels from 0 to 19km). Results show that in most models an increase of the SST leads to a decrease of the low-layer cloud fraction. Vertically, the clouds deepen namely by decreasing the cloud fraction in the lowest levels and increasing it around the top of the boundary-layer. This feature is coincident with an increase of the high-level cloud fraction (z > 6.5km). Although the models' spread is large, the multi-model mean captures the observed variations but with a smaller amplitude. We then employ the GISS model to investigate how changes in cloud parameterizations affect the response of low clouds to warmer SSTs on the one hand; and how they affect the variations of the model's cloud profiles with respect to environmental parameters on the other hand. Finally, we use CALIPSO observations to constrain the model by determining i) what set of parameters allows reproducing the observed relationships and ii) what are the consequences on the cloud feedbacks. These results point toward process-oriented constraints of low-cloud responses to surface warming and environmental parameters.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A31E2225L','NASAADS'); return false;" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017AGUFM.A31E2225L"><span>Evaluation of WRF physical parameterizations against ARM/ASR Observations in the post-cold-frontal region to improve low-level clouds representation in CAM5</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html">NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)</a></p> <p>Lamraoui, F.; Booth, J. F.; Naud, C. M.</p> <p>2017-12-01</p> <p>The representation of subgrid-scale processes of low-level marine clouds located in the post-cold-frontal region poses a serious challenge for climate models. More precisely, the boundary layer parameterizations are predominantly designed for individual regimes that can evolve gradually over time and does not accommodate the cold front passage that can overly modify the boundary layer rapidly. Also, the microphysics schemes respond differently to the quick development of the boundary layer schemes, especially under unstable conditions. To improve the understanding of cloud physics in the post-cold frontal region, the present study focuses on exploring the relationship between cloud properties, the local processes and large-scale conditions. In order to address these questions, we explore the WRF sensitivity to the interaction between various combinations of the boundary layer and microphysics parameterizations, including the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) physical package in a perturbed physics ensemble. Then, we evaluate these simulations against ground-based ARM observations over the Azores. The WRF-based simulations demonstrate particular sensitivities of the marine cold front passage and the associated post-cold frontal clouds to the domain size, the resolution and the physical parameterizations. First, it is found that in multiple different case studies the model cannot generate the cold front passage when the domain size is larger than 3000 km2. Instead, the modeled cold front stalls, which shows the importance of properly capturing the synoptic scale conditions. The simulation reveals persistent delay in capturing the cold front passage and also an underestimated duration of the post-cold-frontal conditions. Analysis of the perturbed physics ensemble shows that changing the microphysics scheme leads to larger differences in the modeled clouds than changing the boundary layer scheme. The in-cloud heating tendencies are analyzed to explain this sensitivity.</p> </li> <li> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" onclick="trackOutboundLink('http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19930006312','NASA-TRS'); return false;" href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19930006312"><span>Cloud fraction, layer, and direction of movement results from sky cameras during the FIRE IFO, Coffeyville, Kansas, experiment for the period Nov. 12 through Dec. 9, 1991</span></a></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp">NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)</a></p> <p>Purgold, Gerald C.; Wheeler, Robert J.; Whitlock, Charles H.</p> <p>1992-01-01</p> <p>Tables and figures are presented which show local site observations of cloud fractions, the number of cloud layers, direction of movement, and precipitation data collected during the FIRE (First ISCCP Regional Experiment) Phase 2 Cirrus Intensive Field Observations (IFO) conducted in Coffeyville, Kansas during November and December, 1991. Selected data are also presented at the times of the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) satellite overpass. Several major scientific projects have used surface-based observations of clouds to compare directly with those being observed from satellites. Characterizing the physical properties of clouds is extremely useful in obtaining a more accurate analysis of the effect of clouds and their movements on weather and climate. It is the purpose of this paper to report data collected during the FIRE Phase 2 IFO experiment and to provide a brief history of such a surface-based system and the technical information required for recording local cloud parameters.</p> </li> </ol> <div class="pull-right"> <ul class="pagination"> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_1");'>«</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_21");'>21</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_22");'>22</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_23");'>23</a></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_24");'>24</a></li> <li class="active"><span>25</span></li> <li><a href="#" onclick='return showDiv("page_25");'>»</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!-- col-sm-12 --> </div><!-- row --> </div><!-- page_25 --> <div class="footer-extlink text-muted" style="margin-bottom:1rem; text-align:center;">Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.</div> </div><!-- container --> <a id="backToTop" href="#top"> Top </a> <footer> <nav> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/sitemap.html">Site Map</a></li> <li><a href="/website-policies.html">Website Policies</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.energy.gov/vulnerability-disclosure-policy" target="_blank">Vulnerability Disclosure Program</a></li> <li><a href="/contact.html">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> </nav> </footer> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- // var lastDiv = ""; function showDiv(divName) { // hide last div if (lastDiv) { document.getElementById(lastDiv).className = "hiddenDiv"; } //if value of the box is not nothing and an object with that name exists, then change the class if (divName && document.getElementById(divName)) { document.getElementById(divName).className = "visibleDiv"; lastDiv = divName; } } //--> </script> <script> /** * Function that tracks a click on an outbound link in Google Analytics. * This function takes a valid URL string as an argument, and uses that URL string * as the event label. */ var trackOutboundLink = function(url,collectionCode) { try { h = window.open(url); setTimeout(function() { ga('send', 'event', 'topic-page-click-through', collectionCode, url); }, 1000); } catch(err){} }; </script> <!-- Google Analytics --> <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-1122789-34', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <!-- End Google Analytics --> <script> showDiv('page_1') </script> </body> </html>