David E. Stevens

The impact of humidity above stratiform clouds on indirect aerosol climate forcing

Some of the global warming from anthropogenic greenhouse gases is offset by increased reflection of solar radiation by clouds with smaller droplets that form in air polluted with aerosol particles that serve as cloud condensation nuclei. The resulting cooling tendency, termed the indirect aerosol forcing, is thought to be comparable in magnitude to the forcing by anthropogenic CO2, but it is difficult to estimate because the physical processes that determine global aerosol and cloud populations are poorly understood. Smaller cloud droplets not only reflect sunlight more effectively, but also inhibit precipitation, which is expected to result in increased cloud water. Such an increase in cloud water would result in even more reflective clouds, further increasing the indirect forcing. Marine boundary-layer clouds polluted by aerosol particles, however, are not generally observed to hold more water. Here we simulate stratocumulus clouds with a fluid dynamics model that includes detailed treatments of cloud microphysics and radiative transfer. Our simulations show that the response of cloud water to suppression of precipitation from increased droplet concentrations is determined by a competition between moistening from decreased surface precipitation and drying from increased entrainment of overlying air. Only when the overlying air is humid or droplet concentrations are very low does sufficient precipitation reach the surface to allow cloud water to increase with droplet concentrations. Otherwise, the response of cloud water to aerosol-induced suppression of precipitation is dominated by enhanced entrainment of overlying dry air. In this scenario, cloud water is reduced as droplet concentrations increase, which diminishes the indirect climate forcing.

Evaluation of Large-Eddy Simulations via Observations of Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus

Data from the first research flight (RF01) of the second Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus (DYCOMS-II) field study are used to evaluate the fidelity with which large-eddy simulations (LESs) can represent the turbulent structure of stratocumulus-topped boundary layers. The initial data and forcings for this case placed it in an interesting part of parameter space, near the boundary where cloud-top mixing is thought to render the cloud layer unstable on the one hand, or tending toward a decoupled structure on the other hand. The basis of this evaluation consists of sixteen 4-h simulations from 10 modeling centers over grids whose vertical spacing wa s5ma t thecloud-top interface and whose horizontal spacing was 35 m. Extensive sensitivity studies of both the configuration of the case and the numerical setup also enhanced the analysis. Overall it was found that (i) if efforts are made to reduce spurious mixing at cloud top, either by refining the vertical grid or limiting the effects of the subgrid model in this region, then the observed turbulent and thermodynamic structure of the layer can be reproduced with some fidelity; (ii) the base, or native configuration of most simulations greatly overestimated mixing at cloud top, tending toward a decoupled layer in which cloud liquid water path and turbulent intensities were grossly underestimated; (iii) the sensitivity of the simulations to the representation of mixing at cloud top is, to a certain extent, amplified by particulars of this case. Overall the results suggest that the use of LESs to map out the behavior of the stratocumulus-topped boundary layer in this interesting region of parameter space requires a more compelling representation of processes at cloud top. In the absence of significant leaps in the understanding of subgrid-scale (SGS) physics, such a representation can only be achieved by a significant refinement in resolution—a refinement that, while conceivable given existing resources, is probably still beyond the reach of most centers.

Reduction of Tropical Cloudiness by Soot

Measurements and models show that enhanced aerosol concentrations can augment cloud albedo not only by increasing total droplet cross-sectional area, but also by reducing precipitation and thereby increasing cloud water content and cloud coverage. Aerosol pollution is expected to exert a net cooling influence on the global climate through these conventional mechanisms. Here we demonstrate an opposite mechanism through which aerosols can reduce cloud cover and thus significantly offset aerosol-induced radiative cooling at the top of the atmosphere on a regional scale. In model simulations the daytime clearing of trade cumulus is hastened and intensified by solar heating in dark haze (as found over much of the northern Indian Ocean during the northeast monsoon).

Numerical Simulations and a Conceptual Model of the Stratocumulus to Trade Cumulus Transition

Abstract A two-dimensional eddy-resolving model is used to study the transition from the stratocumulus topped boundary layer to the trade cumulus boundary layer. The 10-day simulations use an idealized Lagrangian trajectory representative of summertime climatological conditions in the subtropical northeastern Pacific. The sea surface temperature is increased steadily at 1.5 K day−1, reflecting the southwestward advection of the subtropical marine boundary layer by the trade winds, while the free tropospheric temperature remains unchanged. Results from simulations with both a fixed diurnally averaged shortwave radiative forcing and a diurnally varying shortwave forcing are presented. A two-stage model for the boundary layer evolution consistent with these simulations is proposed. In the first stage, decoupling is induced by increased latent heat fluxes in the deepening boundary layer. After decoupling, cloud cover remains high, but the cloudiness regime changes from a single stratocumulus layer to sporadic...

Effects of Domain Size and Numerical Resolution on the Simulation of Shallow Cumulus Convection

The authors present three-dimensional numerical simulations of oceanic trade cumulus clouds underlying stratocumulus clouds. The case studied is a Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud System Study (GCSS) model intercomparison that is loosely based on observed conditions during the Atlantic Trade Cumulus Experiment (ATEX). It is motivated by the importance of this cloud type to global cloud radiative forcing, and their role as a feeder system for deep convection in the Tropics. This study focuses on the sensitivity of the modeled cloud field to the domain size and the grid spacing. Domain widths from 6.5 to 20 km and horizontal grid spacings ranging from 10 to 80 m, with corresponding vertical grid spacing ranging from 5 to 40 m, are studied, involving massively parallel computations on up to 2.5 billion grid cells. The combination of large domain size and small grid resolution provides an unprecedented perspective on this type of convection. The mean stratocumulus cloud fraction, optical depth, and vertical fluxes of heat, moisture, and momentum are found to be quite sensitive to both the domain size and the resolution. The sensitivities are associated with a strong feedback between cloud fraction, cloud-top radiative cooling, and entrainment. The properties of individual cumulus clouds rising into the stratocumulus are less affected than the stratocumulus clouds. The simulations with 80-m horizontal by 40-m vertical resolution are clearly under-resolved, with distinctly different distributions of liquid water within the clouds. Increasing the resolution to finer than 40 m horizontal/20 m vertical affects the inversion structure and entrainment processes somewhat, but has less impact on the structure of individual clouds. Large-domain simulations exhibit mesoscale structure in the cloud organization and liquid water path. This mesoscale variability feeds back on the domain-mean properties through the cloud-radiative feedback. These simulations suggest that very large computations are required to obtain meaningful cloud statistics for this case.

Enhancement of cloud cover and suppression of nocturnal drizzle in stratocumulus polluted by haze

A. S. Ackerman, 10. B. Toon, 2 D. E. Stevens, 3 and J. A. Coakley, Jr. 4Abstract. Recent satellite observations indicate a significant de-crease of cloud water in ship tracks, in contrast to an ensemble ofin situ ship-track measurements that show no average change incloud water relative to the surrounding clouds. We find throughlarge-eddy simulations of stratocumulus that the trend in the satel-lite data is likely an artifact of sampling only overcast clouds. Thesimulations instead show cloud cover increasing with droplet con-centrations. Our simulations also show that increases in cloud waterfrom drizzle suppression (by increasing droplet concentrations) arefavored at night or at extremely low droplet concentrations.

Spreading and growth of contrails in a sheared environment

A case study of persistent contrail evolution in a sheared environment is simulated over time-scales of 15–180 min using a large-eddy simulation model with detailed microphysics. Model results are compared to satellite and in situ measurements of persistent contrails from the Subsonic Aircraft: Contrail and Cloud Effects Special Study (SUCCESS) experiment. In simulations with large ambient supersaturations and moderate wind shear, crystals with lengths > 200 μm are generated within 45 min by depositional growth. These crystals fall rapidly, and the contrail horizontal extent increases due to the wind shear. Strong radiative heating (with rates up to 10 K d−1) drives a local updraft and lofts the contrail core several hundred meters. The observed rate of contrail spreading and maintenance of optical depths larger than 0.05 can be approximately explained simply by growth and precipitation of ice crystals nucleated during the initial contrail formation if the environmental humidity is very high (relative humidity with respect to ice >125%). This result is consistent with observed high humidities in regions where persistent contrails formed during SUCCESS.

On the Application of the Dynamic Smagorinsky Model to Large-Eddy Simulations of the Cloud-Topped Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Abstract In this paper the dynamic Smagorinsky model originally developed for engineering flows is adapted for simulations of the cloud-topped atmospheric boundary layer in which an anelastic form of the governing equations is used. The adapted model accounts for local buoyancy sources, vertical density stratification, and poor resolution close to the surface and calculates additional model coefficients for the subgrid-scale fluxes of potential temperature and total water mixing ratio. Results obtained with the dynamic model are compared with those obtained using two nondynamic models for simulations of a nocturnal marine stratocumulus cloud deck observed during the first research flight of the second Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus (DYCOMS-II) field experiment. The dynamic Smagorinsky model is found to give better agreement with the observations for all parameters and statistics. The dynamic model also gives improved spatial convergence and resolution independence over the nondynamic model...

Small scale processes and entrainment in a stratocumulus marine boundary layer

Numerical studies of boundary layer meteorology are increasingly reliant on large eddy simulation (LES) models, but few detailed validation studies of these types of models have been done. In this paper the authors investigate the behavior of an LES model for simulation of a marine boundary layer. Specifically, the authors focus on the mechanisms that control numerical predictions of entrainment into the tops of marine stratus in a moist generalization of the 1995 Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Cloud System Studies model intercomparison. For the computational study the authors present a sequence of simulations of varying resolution, from a typical resolution (50 m horizontal and 25 m vertical mesh size) to a fine resolution (8 m horizontal and 4 m vertical mesh size). The authors also explore variations in the model such as different subgrid models and modifications of the advection scheme. It was found that the thickness of the inversion, the depth of entraining eddies, and the shape of vertical velocity spectra were determined mainly by the mesh spacing used. However, the entrainment rate was found to have a distinct dependence on the amount of combined numerical and subgrid-scale mixing. This indicates that the use of large eddy simulation to study mixing in stratocumulus boundary layers needs to account for both sources of mixing.

A numerical study of nocturnal wavelike motion in forests

In this paper, we use a two-dimensional eddy-resolved model to investigate the instability of a parallel shear flow in a stably stratified boundary layer whose lower domain is occupied by a canopy. The results support our contention that wave motion in the canopy is initiated by shear in an air layer near the treetops. Significant modification by the wave motion of the mean velocity and temperature fields is found even before the wave reaches saturation. The wave fluxes of momentum and heat are not constant with height. Downwind tilting braids are found at the finite amplitude stage of the wave growth and could persist after wave breaking; these downwind tilting structures are believed to be the same as the temperature microfronts reported in the literature. We also present an analysis of the velocity and temperature fields of an observed wave event in the time-height domain and show that the simulation has captured the broad features of the observation.