An Observational View of Relationships Between Moisture Aggregation, Cloud, and Radiative Heating Profiles

Details

• Journal Title:
  Surveys in Geophysics
• Personal Author:
  Lebsock, Matthew D. ; L’Ecuyer, Tristan S. ; Pincus, Robert
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; PSL (Physical Sciences Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
• Description:
  Data from several coincident satellite sensors are analyzed to determine the dependence of cloud and precipitation characteristics of tropical regions on the variance in the water vapor field. Increased vapor variance is associated with decreased high cloud fraction and an enhancement of low-level radiative cooling in dry regions of the domain. The result is found across a range of sea surface temperatures and rain rates. This suggests the possibility of an enhanced low-level circulation feeding the moist convecting areas when vapor variance is large. These findings are consistent with idealized models of self-aggregation, in which the aggregation of convection is maintained by a combination of low-level radiative cooling in dry regions and mid-to-upper-level radiative warming in cloudy regions.
• Keywords:
  Convective Aggregation Observations Radiation Satellite Water Vapor Convective Aggregation Water Vapor
• Source:
  Surv Geophys 38, 1237–1254 (2017).
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-017-9449-8
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f6fc0774fd01a8bd94797f190ea2c16153f7b3bc59a03b7cbafad0d2c8e67bf6
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/31045/noaa_31045_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.73 MB ]