K. K. Comstock

The Epic 2001 Stratocumulus Study

Abstract Overlaying the cool southeast Pacific Ocean is the most persistent subtropical stratocumulus cloud deck in the world. It produces a profound affect on tropical climate by shading the underlying ocean and radiatively cooling and stirring up turbulence in the atmosphere. In October 2001, the East Pacific Investigation of Climate undertook an exploratory cruise from the Galapagos Islands to Chile. The cruise gathered an unprecedented dataset, integrating radiosonde, surface, cloud remote sensing, aerosol, and ocean measurements. Scientific objectives included measuring the vertical structure of the ABL in this region, understanding what physical processes are determining the stra-tocumulus cloud albedo, and understanding the fluxes of heat and water that couple the atmosphere and ocean in this region. An unexpectedly well-mixed stratocumulus-capped boundary layer as a result of a strong inversion was encountered throughout. A strong diurnal cycle was observed, with thicker clouds and substantial dri...

Pockets of open cells and drizzle in marine stratocumulus

Data from recent field studies in the northeast and southeast Pacific are used to investigate pockets of open cells (POCs) that are embedded in otherwise uniform stratocumulus. The cellular structure within a POC resembles broader regions of open cellular convection typically found further offshore. In both regions, cells are composed of precipitating cell walls and cell interiors with depleted cloud water and even clearing. POCs are long lived and embedded in broader regions of stratocumulus where average droplet sizes are relatively large. In contrast, stratiform, or unbroken, cloud formations tend to be accompanied by less, or no, drizzle, suggesting that precipitation is necessary for the sustenance of the open cellular structure. Because, by definition, open cells are associated with a reduction in cloud cover these observations provide direct evidence of a connection between cloudiness and precipitation—a linchpin of hypotheses that posit a connection between changes in the atmospheric aerosol and c...

Mesoscale Variability and Drizzle in Southeast Pacific Stratocumulus

Abstract Observations from the East Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) 2001 field campaign are well suited for exploring the relationships among the diurnal cycle, mesoscale (10–100 km) structure, and precipitation in the stratocumulus region in the southeast Pacific. Meteorological time series and observations from a scanning C-band radar, vertically pointing cloud radar, and ceilometer, as well as satellite data, are used to show that drizzle is associated with increased variability in cloud and boundary layer properties compared to nondrizzling periods. The stratocumulus-topped boundary layer is typically well mixed at night, transitioning to less well mixed in the afternoon, with drizzle most frequently occurring in the early morning. Coherent patches of drizzle, or “cells,” can have large areas with radar reflectivities of greater than 5 dBZ of up to about 100 km2. Individual cells have long lifetimes, up to 2 h, and appear to be replenished by moisture in the boundary layer.

The Three-Dimensional Structure and Kinematics of Drizzling Stratocumulus

Abstract Drizzling marine stratocumulus are examined using observations from the 2001 East Pacific Investigation of Climate Stratocumulus (EPIC Sc) field experiment. This study uses a unique combination of satellite and shipborne Doppler radar data including both horizontal and vertical cross sections through drizzle cells. Stratocumulus cloud structure was classified as closed cellular, open cellular, or unclassifiable using infrared satellite images. Distributions of drizzle cell structure, size, and intensity are similar among the cloud-structure categories, though the open-cellular distributions are shifted toward higher values. Stronger and larger drizzle cells preferentially occur when the cloud field is broken (open-cellular and unclassifiable categories). Satellite observations of cloud structure may be useful to indicate the most likely distribution of rain rates associated with a set of scenes, but infrared data alone are not sufficient to develop routine precipitation retrievals for marine stra...