Observed impact of meso-scale vertical motion on cloudiness

• Published in: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
• Main Authors: George, Geet, Stevens, Bjorn, Bony, Sandrine, Klingebiel, Marcus, Vogel, Raphaela
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03440242; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03440242/document; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03440242/file/%5B15200469%20-%20Journal%20of%20the%20Atmospheric%20Sciences%5D%20Observed%20Impact%20of%20Mesoscale%20Vertical%20Motion%20on%20Cloudiness.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-20-0335.1

International audience Abstract We use estimates of meso-scale vertical velocity and co-located cloud measurements from the second Next-Generation Aircraft Remote Sensing for Validation campaign (NARVAL2) in the tropical North Atlantic to show the observed impact of meso-scale vertical motion on tropical clouds. Our results not only confirm previously untested hypotheses about the role of dynamics being non-negligible in determining cloudiness, but go further to show that at the meso-scale, the dynamics has a more dominant control on cloudiness variability than thermodynamics. A simple mass-flux estimate reveals that meso-scale vertical velocity at the sub-cloud layer top explains much of the variations in peak shallow cumulus cloud fraction. In contrast, we find that thermodynamic cloud-controlling factors, such as humidity and stability, are unable to explain the variations in cloudiness at the meso-scale. Thus, capturing the observed variability of cloudiness may require not only a consideration of thermodynamic factors, but also dynamic ones such as the meso-scale vertical velocity.