Satellite Observations of an Unusual Cloud Formation near the Tropopause

Ferlay, Nicolas; Garrett, Timothy J.; Minvielle, F.

doi:10.1175/jas-d-13-0361.1

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The following stage is driven by differential radiative heating, forming a self‐maintaining radiative convective mixed layer within an anvil. The existence of within‐anvil convective motions was confirmed by numerous observational and modeling studies (Dobbie & Jonas, ; Durran et al, ; Dinh et al, ; Ferlay et al, ; Jensen et al, ; Harrop & Hartmann, ). However, both Ackerman et al () and Lilly () neglected the latent heating, which leads to strong heating by deposition and freezing throughout most of the anvil, and cooling at and below‐cloud base due to sublimation, melting, and evaporation of precipitation (Houze, ; Liu et al, ; Lohmann & Roeckner, ; Schumacher et al, ; Starr & Cox, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Interestingly, deposition and sublimation often occur in what looks like the same location due to azimuthal and time averaging (Figures e and g). The cooccurrence of deposition in sublimation is further supported by the highly turbulent cloud interior with several small convective cells, which gives rise to an uneven cloud top and cloud base, reminiscent of mammatus clouds (Ferlay et al, ; Garrett et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Drives the Life Cycle of Tropical Anvil Clouds?

Gasparini

Blossey

Hartmann

et al. 2019

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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The net radiative effects of tropical clouds are determined by the evolution of thick, freshly detrained anvil clouds into thin anvil clouds. Thick anvil clouds reduce Earth's energy balance and cool the climate, while thin anvil clouds warm the climate. To determine role of these clouds in climate change we need to understand how interactions of their microphysical and macrophysical properties control their radiative properties. We explore anvil cloud evolution using a cloud‐resolving model in three‐simulation setups of increasing complexity to disentangle the impacts of the various components of diabatic heating and their interaction with cloud‐scale motions. The first phase of evolution and rapid cloud spreading is dominated by latent heating within convective updrafts. After the convective detrainment stops, most of the spreading and thinning of the anvil cloud is driven by cloud radiative processes and latent heating. The combination of radiative cooling at cloud top, latent cooling due to sublimation at cloud base, latent heating due to deposition and radiative heating in between leads to a sandwich‐like, cooling‐heating‐cooling structure. The heating sandwich promotes the development of two within‐anvil convective layers and a double cell circulation, dominated by strong outflow at 12‐km altitude with inflow above and below. Our study reveals how small‐scale processes including convective, microphysical processes, latent and radiative heating interact within the anvil cloud system. The absence or a different representation of only one component results in a significantly different cloud evolution with large impacts on cloud radiative effects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Drives the Life Cycle of Tropical Anvil Clouds?

Gasparini

Blossey

Hartmann

et al. 2019

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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Opinion: Tropical cirrus – from micro-scale processes to climate-scale impacts

Gasparini,

Sullivan,

Sokol

et al. 2023

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Tropical cirrus clouds, i.e., any type of ice cloud with tops above 400 hPa, play a critical role in the climate system and are a major source of uncertainty in our understanding of global warming. Tropical cirrus clouds involve processes spanning a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, from ice microphysics on cloud scales to mesoscale convective organization and planetary wave dynamics. This complexity makes tropical cirrus clouds notoriously difficult to model and has left many important questions stubbornly unanswered. At the same time, their multi-scale nature makes them well-positioned to benefit from the rise of global, high-resolution simulations of Earth's atmosphere and a growing abundance of remotely sensed and in situ observations. Rapid progress on our understanding of tropical cirrus requires coordinated efforts to take advantage of these modern computational and observational abilities. In this opinion paper, we review recent progress in cirrus studies, highlight important unanswered questions, and discuss promising paths forward. Significant progress has been made in understanding the life cycle of convectively generated “anvil” cirrus and the response of their macrophysical properties to large-scale controls. On the other hand, much work remains to be done to fully understand how small-scale anvil processes and the climatological anvil radiative effect will respond to global warming. Thin, in situ formed cirrus clouds are now known to be closely tied to the thermal structure and humidity of the tropical tropopause layer, but microphysical uncertainties prevent a full understanding of this link, as well as the precise amount of water vapor entering the stratosphere. Model representation of ice-nucleating particles, water vapor supersaturation, and ice depositional growth continue to pose great challenges to cirrus modeling. We believe that major advances in the understanding of tropical cirrus can be made through a combination of cross-tool synthesis and cross-scale studies conducted by cross-disciplinary research teams.

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Satellite Observations of an Unusual Cloud Formation near the Tropopause

Cited by 2 publications

References 45 publications

What Drives the Life Cycle of Tropical Anvil Clouds?

What Drives the Life Cycle of Tropical Anvil Clouds?

Opinion: Tropical cirrus – from micro-scale processes to climate-scale impacts

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