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Derived Properties of Warm Marine Low Clouds over the Southern Ocean: Precipitation Susceptibility and Sensitivity to Environmental Parameters Jay Mace Trevor Ferguson Stephanie Avey Steve Cooper. Photo Credit: patternsofnature.files.wordpress.com.
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Derived Properties of Warm Marine Low Clouds over the Southern Ocean: Precipitation Susceptibility and Sensitivity to Environmental Parameters Jay Mace Trevor Ferguson Stephanie Avey Steve Cooper Photo Credit: patternsofnature.files.wordpress.com
The Southern Ocean is one of the cloudiest regions on Earth… … and primarily populated by geometrically thin layers based in the boundary layer. e. f.
Methodology: Using WS climatology provided at GISS, collect A-Train hydrometeor layer statistics as a function of WS along the CloudSat Track Aggregate the RL-GEOPROF data for that weather state over a period of time to characterize the layer properties Examine regional similarities in hydrometeor layer distributions within a WS. Use 3-years of A-Train data (2007,8,9) across the Pacific Basin WS3: Anvils and Isolated Convection
WS 5: Polar and High Latitudes Dominated by low level clouds of moderate optical thickness – often with cirrus above.
WS 5: Polar and High Latitudes North: South:
The A-Train Observations: • Cloudsat CPR is sensitive to precip when precip is present but cloud otherwise • MODIS Vis and NIR Reflectances sensitive to Cloud properties primarily but precip contributes • Passive Microwave (from Cloudsat Noise - New!) responds to water path – mostly cloud but precip contributes • Together these measurements have independent (but tangled) information on the cloud and precipitation coexisting within a profile. ForwardModels: Radar ForwardModel: Posseltand Mace (2013). Mie backscatterandextinction. DirectintegrationofmodifiedgammaPSD’s. Accounts for airanddropletattenuation. MODIS reflectances simulated using Radiant 2.0 eigenmatrix solver (Christi and Gabriel, 2004) Microwave: Kummerow et al. (1993) with modifications by Lebsock. W-Band ocean emissivity developed by Greg Elsaesser at CSU. • The Inversion Algorithm • Assumption: Bimodal PSD– cloud mode and precipitation modes • Input: CloudSat Z Profile, 94 GHz Tb (New Product!), MODIS 0.55, 1.6, 2.1 um reflectances • Output: Cloud LWC, re, Nd, andPrecip LWC, re, Nd in each range bin. • Prior data from RICO and MASE
Southern Ocean Attenuation Comparison: Observed by Cloudsat– calculated from retrieved microphysics
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific 20070106, orbit 03691 NonPrecipitatingCase 94 GHz Tb: 246 K MODIS 550 nm: 0.62 MODIS 1.6 um: 0.48 MODIS 2.1 um: 0.31 Cloud Number: 80 cm-1 ±±60% Cloud LWC: 0.2 g m-3 ±70% Cloud re: 10 um ±30% Precipitating Case 94 GHz Tb: 259 K MODIS 550 nm: 0.63 MODIS 1.6 um: 0.45 MODIS 2.1 um: 0.23 Cloud Number: 80 cm-1 ±±120% Cloud LWC: 0.3 g m-3 ±130% Cloud re: 20 um ±180% Precip Rate: 80 mm/day ±40%
Examine the Co-Dependence of Albedo and Precipitation Susceptibility in Warm Shallow Clouds of the Southern Ocean Periods Considered: Winter, 2008, ~11,000 Profiles Summer, 2007, ~32,000 Profiles
Co-Dependence of Albedo and Precipitation Susceptibility: Seasonal Comparison Winter Summer # Profiles: 32389 # Profiles: 11140 • Winter Microphysics Stats • Ncld=9 cm-3 • LWP=98 g m-2 • Prate=23 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.2 • Prate> 1mm/day: 89% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 32% • Summer Microphysics Stats • Ncld=90 cm-3 • LWP=120 g m-2 • Prate=22 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.4 • Prate> 1mm/day: 68% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 20%
Consistency with Feingold et al., (2013) • Feingold et al. (2013) show that • Cloud environments dominated by autoconversionare sensitive to Nd • Cloud environments dominated by accretion are less sensitive to Nd • S0 maximum increases for autoconversion dominated environments • Accretion dominated environments transition rapidly to lower S0 Winter Summer Higher Nd, remains in autoconversion dominated regime with higher S0 and no obvious transition Lower Nd, Transitions to accretion dominated regime at lower S0 for LWP > 250 g/m2
Summary • Atrain provides unique information regarding the relationships between warm cloud properties and light precipitation properties • Information is distributed between radar, passive microwave, solar reflectance. • Uncertainties in cloud properties are substantial in the presence of precipitation when cloud property retrievals rely more on passive measurements. • Southern Ocean clouds and precipitation show large seasonal amplitudes in cloud and precipitation properties • Results consistent with seasonal oscillations in sulfate aerosol and sensitivity to sea salt aerosol due to surface winds • Results suggest • 1st indirect effect (albedo susceptibility) remains active in summer and winter • 2nd aerosol indirect effect (precip susceptibility) diminishes in winter consistent with Feingold et al. modeling work. Photo Credit: patternsofnature.files.wordpress.com
“If you look deeply, you can see the clouds in the rain …” ThichNahtHanh, Zen Buddhist Monk
Left Profile: • More LWC information. • Cloud droplets are bigger relative to precip, so radar contributes to information • Right Profile: • Less LWC information. • Cloud droplets are smaller relative to precip and passive data contributes more than radar.
re=25 um N=15 cm-3 re=15 um N=20 cm-3 re=110 um N=0.2 cm-3 re=110 um N=0.08 cm-3
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific NonPrecipitatingCase Precipitating Case Cloud Droplet Number
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific NonPrecipitatingCase Precipitating Case LWC Info Content
The ubiquitous low cloud cover over the Southern Ocean remains a challenge for climate model simulations From Klein et al., (2013)
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific NonPrecipitatingCase Precipitating Case Cloud Liquid Water
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific NonPrecipitatingCase Precipitating Case Cloud Effective Radius
Examples: Warm Shallow Cumulus in the SE Pacific NonPrecipitatingCase Precipitating Case LWC Sensitivity Note the magnitudes Note the relative contributions
Summer Winter
Summer Low Wind Summer High Wind
Winter Low Wind Winter High Wind
Summer Low Wind Winter Low Wind
Summer High Wind Winter High Wind
Knowledge of precipitation processes within dynamical environment are central to understanding …. Advanced cloud parameterizations (Weber and Quas, 2012) attempt to represent subgrid statistics of precip processes with little knowledge of what actually exists in nature (Morrison and Gettelemen, 2008) Our Goal: Build on Lebsock et al. to derive simultaneous cloud-precip property statistics within dynamical regimes of the Southern Ocean.
Examine the Co-Dependence of Albedo and Precipitation Susceptibility in Warm Shallow Clouds of the Southern Ocean Albedo Susceptibility (Platnick and Twomey, 1994): SA=dA/dlnN Precipitation Susceptibility (Feingold and Stevens, 2009): SA=dlnP/dlnN Sorooshian et al, 2009 Painemal and Minnis, 2012
Co-Dependence of Albedo and Precipitation Susceptibility: Summer – Low Wind vs. High Wind Low Wind Tercile (<5 m/s) High Wind Tercile (>12 m/s) # Profiles: 10796 # Profiles: 10796 • Summer High Wind Microphysics Stats • Ncld=133 cm-3 • LWP=125 g m-2 • Prate=23 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.40 • Prate> 1 mm/day: 70% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 22% • Summer Low Wind Microphysics Stats • Ncld=99 cm-3 • LWP=110 g m-2 • Prate=18 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.39 • Prate> 1 mm/day: 64% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 17%
Co-Dependence of Albedo and Precipitation Susceptibility: Winter - Low Wind vs. High Wind Low Wind Tercile High Wind Tercile # Profiles: 3715 # Profiles: 3715 • Winter Low Wind Microphysics Stats • Ncld=7 cm-3 • LWP=86 g m-2 • Prate=15 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.18 • Prate> 1 mm/day: 88% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 28% • Winter High Wind Microphysics Stats • Ncld=13 cm-3 • LWP=107 g m-2 • Prate=37 mm day-1 • Albedo=0.21 • Prate> 1 mm/day: 90% • Prate> 10 mm/day: 39%
So, What is going on? Ayers and Gras (1991) Cape Grim (41 S) Kloster et al (2005) Amsterdam Is. (37 S) • Sulfate aerosol decreases significantly from Summer to Winter • Sea salt aerosol increases with wind speed O’Dowd et al., 1997 Feingold et al., 2013: Is the precipitation process dominated by autoconversion (Nd dependent) or accretion? LES suggest that S diminishes with decreasing Nd at a given LWP.