The cloudy atmospheric boundary layer over the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean: Airborne-spaceborne lidar observations and numerical simulations

International audience This paper focuses on the structure of the marine boundary layer in an convergence region between easterly (trade winds) and westerly flows, over the Subtropical South Atlantic Ocean on 15 September 1994 using an unprecedented combination of spaceborne and airborne lidar obser...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research
Main Authors: Cosma-Averseng, Stéphanie, Flamant, Cyrille, Pelon, Jacques, Palm, Stephen P., Schwemmer, Geary K.
Other Authors: Service d'aéronomie (SA), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Science Systems and Applications, Inc. Lanham (SSAI), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2003
Subjects:
Boundary layer processes
Numerical modeling and data assimilation
Atmospheric Dynamics
atmospheric boundary layer
subtropical South Atlantic Ocean
lidar
meso-NH numerical simulations
Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
South Atlantic Ocean
Online Access:https://hal.science/hal-04110036
https://hal.science/hal-04110036/document
https://hal.science/hal-04110036/file/Journal%20of%20Geophysical%20Research%20Atmospheres%20-%202003%20-%20Cosma%E2%80%90Averseng%20-%20The%20cloudy%20atmospheric%20boundary%20layer%20over%20the.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002368
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Summary:International audience This paper focuses on the structure of the marine boundary layer in an convergence region between easterly (trade winds) and westerly flows, over the Subtropical South Atlantic Ocean on 15 September 1994 using an unprecedented combination of spaceborne and airborne lidar observations, airborne Radar Ocean Wave Spectrometer and dropsondes system, and three-dimensional modeling. Methodologies previously developed to determine the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) depth and cloud top heights from airborne lidar measurements are successfully applied to spaceborne measurements. Nested numerical simulations have been performed in this case study. It is shown that the MABL structure in this region (observed with lidar and simulated) collapsed dramatically in connection with a marked decrease of wind speed and near-zero turbulent kinetic energy due to specific synoptic conditions.

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