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NASA NTRS2014

The Sensitivity of WRF Daily Summertime Simulations over West Africa to Alternative Parameterizations. Part 1: African Wave Circulation

The performance of the NCAR Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) as a West African regional-atmospheric model is evaluated. The study tests the sensitivity of WRF-simulated vorticity maxima associated with African easterly waves to 64 combinations of alternative parameterizations in a series of simulations in September. In all, 104 simulations of 12-day duration during 11 consecutive years are examined. The 64 combinations combine WRF parameterizations of cumulus convection, radiation transfer, surface hydrology, and PBL physics. Simulated daily and mean circulation results are validated against NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and NCEP/Department of Energy Global Reanalysis 2. Precipitation is considered in a second part of this two-part paper. A wide range of 700-hPa vorticity validation scores demonstrates the influence of alternative parameterizations. The best WRF performers achieve correlations against reanalysis of 0.40-0.60 and realistic amplitudes of spatiotemporal variability for the 2006 focus year while a parallel-benchmark simulation by the NASA Regional Model-3 (RM3) achieves higher correlations, but less realistic spatiotemporal variability. The largest favorable impact on WRF-vorticity validation is achieved by selecting the Grell-Devenyi cumulus convection scheme, resulting in higher correlations against reanalysis than simulations using the Kain-Fritch convection. Other parameterizations have less-obvious impact, although WRF configurations incorporating one surface model and PBL scheme consistently performed poorly. A comparison of reanalysis circulation against two NASA radiosonde stations confirms that both reanalyses represent observations well enough to validate the WRF results. Validation statistics for optimized WRF configurations simulating the parallel period during 10 additional years are less favorable than for 2006.

variability↗

NASA NTRS2013

Airborne Measurements of CO2 Column Concentration and Range Using a Pulsed Direct-Detection IPDA Lidar

We have previously demonstrated a pulsed direct detection IPDA lidar to measure range and the column concentration of atmospheric CO2. The lidar measures the atmospheric backscatter profiles and samples the shape of the 1,572.33 nm CO2 absorption line. We participated in the ASCENDS science flights on the NASA DC-8 aircraft during August 2011 and report here lidar measurements made on four flights over a variety of surface and cloud conditions near the US. These included over a stratus cloud deck over the Pacific Ocean, to a dry lake bed surrounded by mountains in Nevada, to a desert area with a coal-fired power plant, and from the Rocky Mountains to Iowa, with segments with both cumulus and cirrus clouds. Most flights were to altitudes >12 km and had 5-6 altitude steps. Analyses show the retrievals of lidar range, CO2 column absorption, and CO2 mixing ratio worked well when measuring over topography with rapidly changing height and reflectivity, through thin clouds, between cumulus clouds, and to stratus cloud tops. The retrievals shows the decrease in column CO2 due to growing vegetation when flying over Iowa cropland as well as a sudden increase in CO2 concentration near a coal-fired power plant. For regions where the CO2 concentration was relatively constant, the measured CO2 absorption lineshape (averaged for 50 s) matched the predicted shapes to better than 1% RMS error. For 10 s averaging, the scatter in the retrievals was typically 2-3 ppm and was limited by the received signal photon count. Retrievals were made using atmospheric parameters from both an atmospheric model and from in situ temperature and pressure from the aircraft. The retrievals had no free parameters and did not use empirical adjustments, and >70% of the measurements passed screening and were used in analysis. The differences between the lidar-measured retrievals and in situ measured average CO2 column concentrations were <1.4 ppm for flight measurement altitudes >6 km.

Lidar↗

NASA NTRS2018

How NASA is Building a Petabyte Scale Geospatial Archive in the Cloud

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is working towards a vision of a cloud-based, highly-flexible, ingest, archive, management, and distribution system for its ever-growing and evolving data holdings. This free and open source system, Cumulus, is emerging from its prototyping stages and is poised to make a huge impact on how NASA manages and disseminates its Earth science data. This talk outlines the motivation for this work, present the achievements and hurdles of the past 18 months and charts a course for the future expansion of Cumulus. We explore not just the technical, but also the socio-technical challenges that we face in evolving a system of this magnitude into the cloud. The NASA EOSDIS archive is currently at nearly 30 PBs and will grow to over 300PBs in the coming years. We've presented progress on this effort at AWS re:Invent and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in 2017 and hope to have the opportunity to share with FOSS4G attendees information on the availability of the open sourced software and how NASA intends on making its Earth Observing Geospatial data available for free to the public in the cloud.

NASA Archive↗

NASA NTRS2018

Characterizing Differences in the Aerosol Plume and Cloud Structure over Ascension Island During the 2016 and 2017 Biomass Burning Seasons

Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models. In many cases, the complex physical relationships between marine boundary cloud morphology and the environmental conditions in which the clouds exist are not well understood. Such uncertainties arise in the presence of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. It is likely that the absorbing and heating properties of these aerosols influence the microphysical composition and macrophysical arrangement of marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus in this region; however, this has yet to be quantified. The deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility #1 (AMF1) in support of LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) provided a unique opportunity to collect observations of cloud and aerosol properties during two consecutive biomass burning seasons during July through October of 2016 and 2017 over Ascension Island (7.96 S, 14.35 W). Through the use of AMF1 observations, the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), and back trajectories from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT), it will be demonstrated that differences in the atmospheric circulation during the two years result in varying aerosol conditions over Ascension Island. When the aerosol plume is overhead, the aerosol loading is higher during the 2016 season as a result of a weaker subtropical high-pressure system. Furthermore, the aerosol plume originates from central Africa in 2016, but further south in 2017. Contrasts in the season-to-season and day-to-day aerosol loading are used to categorize boundary layer cloud and sub-cloud turbulence measurements above Ascension Island using the AMF1 Doppler lidar and cloud radar.

Collow, Allison B. Marquardt↗

NASA NTRS2015

Remote Sensing Measurements of the CO2 Mixing Ratio in the Planetary Boundary Layer Using Cloud Slicing with Airborne Lidar

We have measured the CO2 volume mixing ratio (VMR) within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) using cloud slicing with an airborne pulsed integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar from flight altitudes of up to 13 km. During a flight over Iowa in summer 2011, simultaneous measurement of the optical range and CO2 absorption to clouds and the ground were made using time-resolved detection of pulse echoes from each scattering surface.We determined the CO2 absorption in the PBL by differencing the two lidar-measured absorption line shapes, one to a broken shallow cumulus cloud layer located at the top of the PBL and the other to the ground. Solving for the CO2 VMR in the PBL and that of the free troposphere, we measured a ≈15 ppm (4%) drawdown in the PBL. Both CO2 VMRs were within ≈3 ppm of in situ CO2 profile measurements. We have also demonstrated cloud slicing using scatter from thin, diffuse cirrus clouds and cumulus clouds, which allowed solving for the CO2 VMR for three vertical layers. The technique and retrieval algorithm are applicable to a space-based lidar instrument as well as to lidar IPDA measurements of other trace gases. Thus, lidar cloud slicing also offers promise toward space-based remote sensing of vertical trace gas profiles in the atmosphere using a variety of clouds.

VMR↗

NASA NTRS2019

Global Cloud-Resolving Models

Global cloud-resolving models (GCRMs) are a new category of atmospheric global models designed to solve different flavors of the nonhydrostatic equations through the use of kilometer-scale global meshes. GCRMs make it possible to explicitly simulate deep convection, thereby avoiding the need for cumulus parameterization and allowing for clouds to be “resolved” by microphysical models responding to grid-scale forcing. GCRMs require high-resolution discretization over the globe, for which a variety of mesh structures have been proposed and employed. The first GCRM was constructed 15 years ago, and in recent years, other groups have also begun adopting this approach, enabling the first intercomparison studies of such models. Because conventional general circulation models (GCMs) suffer from large biases associated with cumulus parameterization, GCRMs are attractive tools for researchers studying global weather and climate. In this review, GCRMs are described, with some emphasis on their historical development and the associated literature documenting their use. The advantages of GCRMs are presented, and currently existing GCRMs are listed and described. Future prospects for GCRMs are also presented in the final section.

Satoh, Masaki↗

NASA NTRS2019

Aerosol Radiative Effects over Ascension Island Using LASIC Observations and MERRA-2

Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models. In many cases, the complex physical relationships between marine boundary cloud morphology and the environmental conditions in which the clouds exist are not well understood. Such uncertainties arise in the presence of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. It is likely that the absorbing and heating properties of these aerosols influence the microphysical composition and macrophysical arrangement of marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus in this region; however, this has yet to be quantified. The deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility #1 (AMF1) in support of LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) provided a unique opportunity to collect observations of cloud and aerosol properties during two consecutive biomass burning seasons during July through October of 2016 and 2017 over Ascension Island (7.96 S, 14.35 W). Thermodynamic profiles will be analyzed through the unique combination of sounding data from radiosonde launches and microwave profiling radiometers, giving observations of additional quantities important for cloud development such as CAPE and CIN at a fine temporal resolution. The thermodynamic profiles will be presented in conjunction with detailed observations of the cloud structure over the site from a K-band cloud radar, micropulse lidar, and laser ceilometer. Finally, the observed thermodynamic and cloud profiles will be used as input forcing, alongside aerosols from the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), for the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM) to gain information regarding the radiative heating profiles. Idealized experiments using RRTM with and without aerosols will be used to quantify the impact of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol plumes as they pass over the site.

Collow, Allie↗

NASA NTRS2019

Thermodynamic, Cloud, and Radiative Heating Profiles over Ascension Island During the 2016 and 2017 Biomass Burning Seasons

Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models. In many cases, the complex physical relationships between marine boundary cloud morphology and the environmental conditions in which the clouds exist are not well understood. Such uncertainties arise in the presence of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. It is likely that the absorbing and heating properties of these aerosols influence the microphysical composition and macrophysical arrangement of marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus in this region; however, this has yet to be quantified. The deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility #1 (AMF1) in support of LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) provided a unique opportunity to collect observations of cloud and aerosol properties during two consecutive biomass burning seasons during July through October of 2016 and 2017 over Ascension Island (7.96 S, 14.35 W). Thermodynamic profiles will be analyzed through the unique combination of sounding data from radiosonde launches and microwave profiling radiometers, giving observations of additional quantities important for cloud development such as CAPE and CIN at a fine temporal resolution. The thermodynamic profiles will be presented in conjunction with detailed observations of the cloud structure over the site from a K-band cloud radar, micropulse lidar, and laser ceilometer. Finally, the observed thermodynamic and cloud profiles will be used as input forcing, alongside aerosols from the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), for the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM) to gain information regarding the radiative heating profiles. Idealized experiments using RRTM with and without aerosols will be used to quantify the impact of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol plumes as they pass over the site.

Collow, Allison B.↗

NASA NTRS2019

EARTHDATA PUB: A Data Publication Workflow Solution for NASA’s EOSDIS

Each NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) faces the challenge of dealing with an increasingly diverse number of publishable data products from diverse data producers. Data producers, on the other hand, may experience pain points when interacting with the EOSDIS for the first time or when publishing different data at different DAACs. As a result, there has been a growing need to develop a common software framework that serves as a common interface for data producers, rigorously defines the data publication procedure for DAAC staff, facilitates the management of various data publication processes, and tracks the progress of data publication. This software should also account for the different configurations at different DAACs. Currently, two primary data publication workflow and tracking tools exist in operation at the EOSDIS: Semi-Automated ingest System (SAuS) and Data Publication workflow Portal (DAPPeR). However, neither tool is cloud-ready. Automated data processing could be managed by Cumulus, an EOSDIS cloud-based data ingest, archive and management system. However, Cumulus does not support manual tasks or on-premise implementations. We propose to develop the Earthdata Publication Minimum Viable Product (Earthdata Pub MVP) -- a cloud-hosted solution that works with both cloud and on-premise systems and implements the communications and exchange requirements generated by the Earthdata Pub information architecture team.

Rice, Justin L.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Radiative Heating from Biomass Burning Aerosol and its Impact on Cloud Structure in the Southeast Atlantic

Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models. In many cases, the complex physical relationships between marine boundary cloud morphology and the environmental conditions in which the clouds exist are not well understood. Such uncertainties arise in the presence of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol, as is the case over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. It is likely that the absorbing and heating properties of these aerosols influence the microphysical composition and macrophysical arrangement of marine stratocumulus and trade cumulus in this region; however, this has yet to be quantified. The deployment of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility #1 (AMF1) in support of LASIC (Layered Atlantic Smoke Interactions with Clouds) provided a unique opportunity to collect observations of cloud and aerosol properties during two consecutive biomass burning seasons during July through October of 2016 and 2017 over Ascension Island (7.96 S, 14.35 W). Thermodynamic profiles will be analyzed through the unique combination of sounding data from radiosonde launches and microwave profiling radiometers, giving observations of additional quantities important for cloud development such as CAPE and CIN at a fine temporal resolution. The thermodynamic profiles will be presented in conjunction with detailed observations of the cloud structure over the site from a K-band cloud radar, micropulse lidar, and laser ceilometer. The observed thermodynamic and cloud profiles will be used as input forcing, alongside aerosols from the Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), for the Rapid Radiative Transfer Model (RRTM) to gain information regarding the radiative heating profiles. Idealized experiments using RRTM with and without aerosols will be used to quantify the impact of biomass burning carbonaceous aerosol plumes as they pass over the site. Due to documented discrepancies in the single scatter albedo (SSA) between models and observations, further sensitivity experiments will demonstrate the importance of the optical properties of biomass burning aerosol in accurately representing heating within the column. Finally, the heating rates will be put into context of the cloud structure over the site from the perspective of the mass flux closure from the University of Washington shallow convective scheme.

Collow, Allison↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar Measurements of Aerosol Distributions and Properties During the NASA CAMP2Ex Mission

The NASA Clouds, Aerosols and Monsoon Processes-Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) occurred during August-October, 2019,primarily over the ocean near the Philippines, including the ocean west of Luzon. CAMP2Ex attempts to characterize the role of anthropogenic and natural aerosol particles in modulating warm and mixed-phase precipitation in the maritime continent during the Southwest Monsoon. This mission is also examining relationships between spatial heterogeneity in the aerosol and cloud fields and radiative heating rates and studying the effects of aerosol concentration and composition on the microphysical properties of shallow cumulus and cumulus congestus clouds. Critical to the successful investigation of these objectives is profiling of aerosol, cloud and meteorological properties throughout the atmospheric column. For the CAMP2Ex experiment, we deployed the second generation NASA Langley airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) on the NASA P-3 aircraft to obtain profile measurements of aerosol and thin cloud extinction and optical thickness via the HSRL technique at 355 and 532 nm, and of backscatter and depolarization at 355, 532, and 1064 nm. The HSRL technique allows for the independent measurement of extinction and backscatter without the need to assume modeled lidar ratios. Additional HSRL-2 data products include aerosol type, mixed layer depth, and range-resolved aerosol microphysical parameters. The HSRL measurements reveal the temporal, spatial, and vertical variability of aerosol optical properties over these locations. The HSRL-2 measured these backscatter, extinction, and depolarization profiles during all nineteen science flights and the transit flights to and from the aircraft operations base at Clark International Airport.In this presentation, we use these HSRL-2 measurements to show the horizontal and vertical distributions of aerosols in the CAMP2Ex operational area as well as provide insight into the optical and physical characteristics of these aerosols. We also discuss how these aerosols are distributed within and above the mixed layer.

aerosol↗

NASA NTRS2021

Land-Atmosphere Coupling at the U.S. Southern Great Plains: A Comparison on Local Convective Regimes Between ARM Observations, Reanalysis, and Climate Model Simulations

Using the 9-yr warm-season observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains site, we assess the land-atmosphere (L-A) coupling in North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and two climate models: hindcasts with the Community Atmosphere Model version 5.1 by Cloud-Associated Parameterizations Testbed (CAM5-CAPT) and nudged runs with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1 Regionally Refined Model (EAMv1-RRM). We focus on three local convective regimes and diagnose model behaviors using the Local Coupling metrics (Santanello et al. 2018). NARR agrees well with observations except a slightly warmer and drier surface with higher downwelling shortwave radiation and lower evaporative fraction. On clear-sky days, it shows warmer and drier early-morning conditions in both models with significant underestimates in surface evaporation by EAMv1-RRM. On the majority of the ARM-observed shallow cumulus days, there is no or little low-level clouds in either model. When captured in models, the simulated shallow cumulus shows much less cloud fraction and lower cloud bases than observed. On the days with late-afternoon deep convection, models tend to present a stable early-morning lower atmosphere more frequently than the observations, suggesting that the deep convection is triggered more often by elevated instabilities. Generally, CAM5-CAPT can reproduce the local L-A coupling processes to some extent due to the constrained early-morning conditions and large-scale winds. EAMv1-RRM exhibits large precipitation deficits and warm and dry biases towards mid-to-late summers, which may be an amplification through a positive L-A feedback among initial atmosphere and land states, convection triggering and large-scale circulations.

land-atmosphere↗

NASA NTRS2021

Evaluation of Clouds, Radiation, and Precipitation in CMIP6 Models Using Global Weather States Derived from ISCCP-H Cloud Property Data

A clustering methodology is applied to cloud optical depth cloud top pressure (TAU-PC) histograms from the new, 1-degree resolution, ISCCP-H dataset, to derive an updated global Weather State (WS) dataset. Then, PC-TAU histograms from current-climate CMIP6 model simulations are assigned to the ISCCP-H WSs along with their concurrent radiation and precipitation properties, to evaluate model cloud, radiation, and precipitation properties in the context of the Weather States. The new ISCCP-H analysis produces WSs that are very similar to those previously found in the lower resolution ISCCP-D dataset. The main difference lies in the splitting of the ISCCP-D thin stratocumulus WS between the ISCCP-H shallow cumulus and stratocumulus WSs, which results in the reduction by one of the total WS number. The evaluation of the CMIP6 models against the ISCCP-H Weather States, shows that, in the ensemble mean, the models are producing an adequate representation of the frequency and geographical distribution of the WSs, with measurable improvements compared to the WSs derived for the CMIP5 ensemble. However, the frequency of shallow cumulus clouds continues to be underestimated, and, in some WSs the good agreement of the ensemble mean with observations comes from averaging models that significantly overpredict and underpredict the ISCCP-H WS frequency. In addition, significant biases exist in the internal cloud properties of the model WSs, such as the model underestimation of cloud fraction in middle-top clouds and secondarily in midlatitude storm and stratocumulus clouds, that result in an underestimation of cloud SW cooling in those regimes.

Clouds↗

NASA NTRS2021

Identifying Meteorological Influences on Marine Low Cloud Mesoscale Morphology Using Satellite Classifications

Marine low cloud mesoscale morphology in the southeastern Pacific Ocean is analyzed using a large dataset of machine-learning generated classifications spanning three years. Meteorological variables and cloud properties are composited 10by mesoscale cloud type, showing distinct meteorological regimes of marine low cloud organization from the tropics to the midlatitudes. The presentation of mesoscale cellular convection, with respect to geographic distribution, boundary layer structure, and large-scale environmental conditions, agrees with prior knowledge. Two tropical and subtropical cumuliform boundary layer regimes, suppressed cumulus and clustered cumulus, are studied in detail. The patterns in precipitation, circulation, column water vapor, and cloudiness are consistent with the representation of marine shallow mesoscale convective 15 self-aggregation by large eddy simulations of the boundary layer. Although they occur under similar large-scale conditions, the suppressed and clustered low cloud types are found to be well-separated by variables associated with low-level mesoscale circulation, with surface wind divergence being the clearest discriminator between them, whether reanalysis or satellite observations are used. Clustered regimes are associated with surface convergence and suppressed regimes are associated with surface divergence.

Johannes Mohrmann↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automated Tracking of Shallow Maritime Clouds on Geostationary Imagery to Extract Lifecycle Characteristics

Shallow moist convection is ubiquitous throughout the tropics and represents a key player in boundary layer processes. Satellites have provided valuable insight on shallow clouds, such as size, structure, and geographical coverage, from static views of recurring cloud fields. But determining why certain cloud features appear and persist for different periods requires a time-evolving view of their behaviors. Geostationary satellites provide a unique opportunity to follow the time evolution of individual convective features, given their enhanced spatial and temporal sampling. A cloud-tracking tool was developed to identify properties of cloud lifecycle from the NASA Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2EX) field campaign of 2019. The mission conducted intensive sampling of shallow cumulus in the West Pacific Ocean, in tandem with Rapid Scan imagery from the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s (JMA) Himawari-8 satellite. Shallow cumulus were segmented according to thresholds in 0.5-km visible reflectance and with blurring techniques. Despite being limited to daytime hours, the segmentations yielded the best resolution available for capturing cloud initiation, growth, and decay. The tracking procedure is based on a computer vision package that includes Kalman filters for motion prediction, object overlap search, and the Hungarian (or Kuhn-Munkres) matching algorithm for track designation. AHI radiances available within the tracked cloud boundaries are assembled to form individual spectral histories. The resulting catalog provides thousands of cloud histories for domains measuring only a few degrees in latitude and longitude. We present an overview of the cloud-tracking tool and its results for cloud fields sampled throughout CAMP2EX by the airborne P-3. Cloud tracks were selected from about 10 flights to form ensembles, specific groups of tracks occurring in a region with airborne sampling. Cloud lifecycle properties, including duration and maximum area, are calculated for all ensemble members, and analyzed for cloud behavior and P-3 coincidences. By following this strategy, we quantitatively assess the degree of airborne sampling for specific cloud classes defined by the lifecycle calculations. We can summarize which cloud classes had more sampling, the stage of development during sampling, and general differences in character (e.g., isolated congestus vs. cold-pool producer).

Cloud Tracking↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Automated Tracking of Shallow Cu Growth Rates on Geostationary Imagery and Linkages to Cloud Organization

Shallow moist convection is ubiquitous throughout the tropics and represents a key player in boundary layer processes. Common tropical cloud features, such as convective rolls and cold pool fronts, form and persist for different periods within environments that support such development. Determining differences in lifecycle amongst these features in varying environments requires viewing their evolution from initiation to decay. Geostationary satellites provide a means to follow the clouds with enhanced spatiotemporal sampling from space. We apply a cloud-tracking tool to study lifecycle properties of shallow cumulus sampled during the NASA Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex) field campaign of 2019. The mission conducted airborne and shipborne operations over the West Pacific Ocean, in tandem with Rapid Scan imagery from the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on the Japan Meteorological Agency’s (JMA) Himawari-8 satellite. Shallow cumulus was segmented on AHI 0.5-km visible reflectance and tracked during the daylit hours of several research flights that exhibited ideal atmospheric conditions for tracking. The resulting cloud tracks were collected according to regions containing airborne sampling of individual clouds at various stages of their lifecycles, yielding ensembles of tracks in separate environments. We present an analysis on lifecycle properties extracted from the cloud-track ensembles and their potential connections to cloud organizations observed throughout CAMP2Ex. Each ensemble is evaluated by calculating cloud-layer growth rates and comparing to spatial parameters, including track-achieved area and cloud-top height. The apparent clustering of growth rates for specific ensembles is then compared against overall cloud organizations, such as isolated congestus and cold pool fronts, that are observed with the airborne data. Finally, we consider how such differences in cloud growth appear in the airborne radar observations of intercepted cloud tracks.

Cloud Tracking↗

DOE OSTI2026

Pinned Clouds over Industrial Sources of Heat during TRACER

An analysis of stereo-camera data from the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) campaign in Houston, Texas, reveals the existence of pinned clouds sitting atop industrial heat sources. These are not plumes of vapor and condensate emanating from stacks: The pinned shallow cumuli have cloud bases at about the lifting condensation of near-surface air. On many mornings, the pinned clouds are the only shallow cumuli in the field of view of the stereo cameras, persisting by themselves for at least an hour. On those mornings, the lower atmosphere straddles the boundary between stable and unstable, and the waste heat from industrial facilities is able to pin moist convection overhead. When solar heating of the surface becomes sufficient later in the morning, those mornings transition to having widespread shallow moist convection. Occurring within the field of view of the stereo cameras and other TRACER instruments, these pinned clouds represent steady plume-like moist convection triggered by known heat sources in a well-characterized atmosphere, making them a rich target for further study. Significance Statement This article introduces steady-state cumulus clouds observed during the Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) campaign that were pinned to industrial heat sources. These pinned clouds were present in the early morning only when conditions were primed for moist convection, but for which there was not yet enough solar heating to trigger widespread convection. They persist in a statistical steady state and therefore provide a natural setting to explore the mechanisms controlling convective dynamics, which play a central role in Earth’s atmospheric circulation and radiative balance.

Atmosphere↗

DOE OSTI2026

The Role of Subcloud Mesoscale Convergence in Sculpting Convective Updraft Width and Depth

The initiation of deep moist convection is governed in part by the horizontal width of updrafts near cloud base, which limits the deleterious effects of entrainment-driven dilution on buoyant thermals ascending through the free troposphere. However, the factors controlling cloud-base updraft width, which in turn dictates cloud depth, are not well understood. We track the evolving three-dimensional structure of the mesoscale subcloud forcing for vertical motion and near-cloud thermodynamic ingredients within a high-resolution ensemble of simulations of seven realistic daytime orographic convection initiation events to determine their relative roles in controlling cloud width and depth. Statistical analysis of approximately 5000 cloudy updraft samples indicates that the most important contributors to the width of cloudy updrafts across the ensemble are the depth and magnitude of the subcloud mesoscale ascent. However, the depth achieved by clouds is more consistently predicted by the near-cloud ambient relative humidity within the lower to middle free troposphere and convective available potential energy. Therefore, although the width of cloudy updrafts may be partly set at low levels by the mesoscale vertical mass and moisture flux, the likelihood of deep moist convection is governed by the generation of positive buoyancy within cumulus thermals and entrainment-driven dilution that reduces it. The persistence of the low-level mesoscale vertical forcing locally consolidates and vertically transports boundary layer moisture, helping to reduce updraft dilution. However, these factors vary in relative impacts on cloudy updrafts across individual cases, indicating multiple pathways for deep convection initiation.

Convective storms↗