An observation and modeling study of Arctic multilayered mixed-phase boundary layer clouds
Open Access
- Author:
- Lai, Hui Wen
- Graduate Program:
- Meteorology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 13, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Eugene E. Clothiaux, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Fuqing Zhang, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Arctic
Boundary layer meteorology
Large eddy simulation
Mixed-phase clouds
Roll clouds - Abstract:
- To better understand the dynamic and thermodynamic processes that form and maintain Arctic multilayered mixed-phase clouds, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) radiances, High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) backscatter, and Ka-band ARM zenith radar (KAZR) returns along with balloon-borne sounding thermodynamic profiles, were analyzed from 1-3 May 2013. The observations, together with ERA-Interim Reanalysis data, indicate that three cloud regimes were present during this period. Frontal clouds occurred in a north to south band with Barrow located on their eastern edge at 00:00 UTC 2 May. By mid-day the frontal clouds had moved into the Barrow region. A broad low-altitude stratus deck existed to the west and north of Barrow, advecting into the Barrow region by the end of 2 May as the frontal clouds cleared the region. The stratus deck remained over Barrow throughout 3 May and several days beyond it. Boundary layer cellular convection was the predominant cloud type in the vicinity of the low pressure to the east and north of Barrow on 1-2 May. On 2 May 2013 shallow single- and multi-layered, mixed-phase clouds observed by the HSRL and KAZR were present above Barrow, Alaska, leading at various times to pristine crystals, rimed crystals and aggregates of crystals at the surface. During this case study period, a weak surface trough was located to the north and east of Barrow with a high pressure ridge to its west. The associated surface front was located over Barrow and extended to the north over the Arctic Ocean. High spatial (250-m) pixel resolution MODIS radiances show low level cloud streets in the vicinity of Barrow and just to its east oriented perpendicular to the mean wind around 00:00 UTC 2 May. Low altitude cloud streets also existed to the west of Barrow at this time, though oriented parallel to the mean wind. Finally, additional cloud streets to the southwest of Barrow and perpendicular to the mean wind also were present but in the higher altitude frontal clouds. The low altitude cloud streets just to the east and west of Barrow, and under the frontal cloud layer, were the source of the multilayered clouds on this day; this study focused on the ones to the west. These cloud streets formed in an environment of strong vertical wind shear with an underlying shallow buoyant layer near the surface. The Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model was used to conduct mesoscale simulations for this day and the two surrounding ones. For the three-day period from 1-3 May 2013 the 27-km spatial grid spacing WRF model reproduced mesoscale geopotential height, wind, relative humidity and sea-level pressure fields similar to those contained in the (0.75° lat/lon) ERA-Interim Reanalysis. Moreover, the model was able to reproduce the three cloud systems evident in the observations: the low cloud-liquid stratus to the west of Barrow, the deep frontal cloud layer in the vicinity of Barrow, and the more convective cloud cells with heights in-between to the east of Barrow. In the WRF modeling approach six nested domains were used with horizontal grid spacings starting from 27 km and scaling down in ratios of 3 to 1, with the finest domain run in large eddy simulation mode at 111-m horizontal grid spacing in an attempt to capture the short (~ 1.5-km) wavelength of the cloud streets apparent in the satellite data. Model results show that warm air advection and surface radiative heating created enhanced near surface instability, providing the buoyancy necessary to drive the initial convection. These buoyant parcels entered the region of strong vertical shear, leading to Richardson numbers around 0.2 and the conditions favorable for the formation of roll clouds. The wavelengths of the roll clouds produced by the inner four nested domains varied from 33 km for the outermost 3-km domain to 1 km for the finest 0.111-km grid spacing domain. The finest grid spacing domain roll-cloud wavelengths were comparable to those observed by MODIS, illustrating the necessity of using a grid spacing sufficiently small to place at least 7 to 10 grid points across a roll in order to resolve it.