Drizzle, Turbulence, and Density Currents Below Post Cold Frontal Open Cellular Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Ghate, Virendra P., Cadeddu, Maria P., Wood, Robert
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1856036; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1856036; https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jd031586

Nine cases of postcold frontal marine stratocumulus clouds exhibiting open cellular mesoscale organization are analyzed to characterize the drizzle, turbulence, and density currents below them. Data collected by the vertically pointing Doppler cloud radar and multiple lidars part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site are used in these analyses. A total of 251 drizzle shafts passed over the site with 76 shafts sampled for more than 15 min by the vertically pointing instruments. On average the drizzle shafts were ~18 km wide with below-cloud drizzle water path of ~40 g m –2 , cloud base rain rate of 7.78 mm day –1 , and cloud base drizzle modal diameter of 393 μm. The widths of the drizzle shafts did not exhibit any relationship with the cloud base rain rate, below-cloud drizzle water path, and the total water removed from the cloud. The downdrafts in the lowest 500 m within the drizzle cells strengthened with increasing cloud base rain rates, while the updrafts within drizzle cells did not exhibit this behavior. On average, the surface air density, pressure, water vapor mixing ratio, and wind speed along the background wind during the drizzle shaft were higher by 1.88 g m –3 , 8.60 Pa, 0.24 g kg –1 , and 1.22 m s –1 , respectively, from their background values. On the other hand, the surface air temperature was lower by 0.43 K during the drizzle shaft than its background value. The coincident measurements highlight the drizzle-turbulence-surface coupling in these cloud systems.