Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site during marine conditions is examined at monthly and daily timescales using 5 years of ground-based observations and output from the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis model. The annual cycl...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/3453/2023/ |
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:acp106094 2023-05-15T17:31:16+02:00 Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions Cadeddu, Maria P. Ghate, Virendra P. Turner, David D. Surleta, Thomas E. 2023-03-20 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/3453/2023/ eng eng doi:10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/3453/2023/ eISSN: 1680-7324 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 2023-03-27T16:23:13Z Boundary layer moisture variability at the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site during marine conditions is examined at monthly and daily timescales using 5 years of ground-based observations and output from the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis model. The annual cycle of the mixed-layer total water budgets is presented to estimate the relative contribution of large-scale advection, local moisture tendency, entrainment, and precipitation to balance the moistening due to surface latent heat flux on monthly timescales. When marine conditions prevail, advection of colder and dry air from the north acts as an important moisture sink ( ∼ 50 % of the overall budget) during fall and winter driving the seasonality of the budget. Entrainment and precipitation contribute to the drying of the boundary layer ( ∼ 25 % and ∼ 15 % respectively), and the local change in moisture contributes to a small residual part. On a daily temporal scale, moist and dry mesoscale columns of vapor ( ∼ 10 km) are analyzed during 10 selected days of precipitating stratocumulus clouds. Adjacent moist and dry columns present distinct mesoscale features that are strongly correlated with clouds and precipitation. Dry columns adjacent to moist columns have more frequent and stronger downdrafts immediately below the cloud base. Moist columns have more frequent updrafts, stronger cloud-top cooling, and higher liquid water path and precipitation compared to the dry columns. This study highlights the complex interaction between large-scale and local processes controlling the boundary layer moisture and the importance of spatial distribution of vapor to support convection and precipitation. Text North Atlantic Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 23 6 3453 3470 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site during marine conditions is examined at monthly and daily timescales using 5 years of ground-based observations and output from the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis model. The annual cycle of the mixed-layer total water budgets is presented to estimate the relative contribution of large-scale advection, local moisture tendency, entrainment, and precipitation to balance the moistening due to surface latent heat flux on monthly timescales. When marine conditions prevail, advection of colder and dry air from the north acts as an important moisture sink ( ∼ 50 % of the overall budget) during fall and winter driving the seasonality of the budget. Entrainment and precipitation contribute to the drying of the boundary layer ( ∼ 25 % and ∼ 15 % respectively), and the local change in moisture contributes to a small residual part. On a daily temporal scale, moist and dry mesoscale columns of vapor ( ∼ 10 km) are analyzed during 10 selected days of precipitating stratocumulus clouds. Adjacent moist and dry columns present distinct mesoscale features that are strongly correlated with clouds and precipitation. Dry columns adjacent to moist columns have more frequent and stronger downdrafts immediately below the cloud base. Moist columns have more frequent updrafts, stronger cloud-top cooling, and higher liquid water path and precipitation compared to the dry columns. This study highlights the complex interaction between large-scale and local processes controlling the boundary layer moisture and the importance of spatial distribution of vapor to support convection and precipitation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cadeddu, Maria P. Ghate, Virendra P. Turner, David D. Surleta, Thomas E. |
spellingShingle |
Cadeddu, Maria P. Ghate, Virendra P. Turner, David D. Surleta, Thomas E. Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
author_facet |
Cadeddu, Maria P. Ghate, Virendra P. Turner, David D. Surleta, Thomas E. |
author_sort |
Cadeddu, Maria P. |
title |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
title_short |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
title_full |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
title_fullStr |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Boundary layer moisture variability at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
title_sort |
boundary layer moisture variability at the atmospheric radiation measurement (arm) eastern north atlantic observatory during marine conditions |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/3453/2023/ |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
eISSN: 1680-7324 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/3453/2023/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3453-2023 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
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23 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
3453 |
op_container_end_page |
3470 |
_version_ |
1766128768904069120 |