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DOE OSTI2024

Boundary Layer Structures Over the Northwest Atlantic Derived From Airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar and Dropsonde Measurements During the ACTIVATE Campaign

The Planetary Boundary Layer height (PBLH) is essential for studying PBL and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Marine PBL is usually defined to include a mixed layer (ML) and a capping inversion layer. The ML height (MLH) estimated from the measurements of aerosol backscatter by a lidar was usually compared with PBLH determined from radiosondes/dropsondes in the past, as the PBLH is usually similar to MLH in nature. However, PBLH can be much greater than MLH for decoupled PBL. Here, in this study, we evaluate the retrieved MLH from an airborne lidar (HSRL-2) by utilizing 506 co-located dropsondes during the ACTIVATE field campaign over the Northwest Atlantic from 2020 to 2022. First, we define and determine the MLH and PBLH from the temperature and humidity profiles of each dropsonde, and find that the MLH values from HSRL-2 and dropsondes agree well with each other, with a coefficient of determination of 0.66 and median difference of 18 m. In contrast, the HSRL-2 MLH data do not correspond to dropsonde-derived PBLH, with a median difference of -47 m. Therefore, we modify the current operational and automated HSRL-2 wavelet-based algorithm for PBLH retrieval, decreasing the median difference significantly to -8 m. Further data analysis indicates that these conclusions remain the same for cases with higher or lower cloud fractions, and for decoupled PBLs. These results demonstrate the potential of using HSRL-2 aerosol backscatter data to estimate both marine MLH and PBLH and suggest that lidar-derived MLH should be compared with radiosonde/dropsonde-determined MLH (not PBLH) in general.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Toward Understanding the Differences between Mesoscale and Large-Eddy Simulations of Tropical Cyclones

In this work, we investigate the ability of mesoscale and large-eddy simulation (LES) model configurations to predict the mean wind speed profile within the boundary layer of tropical cyclones (TCs). To this end, we perform idealized simulations of five hypothetical intense storms ranging from categories 1 to 5 on the Saffir–Simpson scale and extract time-averaged quantities near the eyewall region. We compare the model-generated data against mean wind speed profiles compiled from dropsondes launched from reconnaissance aircraft operating in the North Atlantic basin. Our analysis shows that mesoscale- and LES-generated mean wind fields display important differences in the boundary layer, including the magnitude of shear as well as the height where their low-level wind speed maxima are located. In addition, a comparison between the two model configurations with the dropsonde data shows that both modeling approaches are unable to capture the typical structure of mean winds in the lower part of the TC boundary layer (10–500 m), calling into question the use of simulations of near-axisymmetric storms for investigating the wind structure of past events. To better understand these differences, we conduct a momentum-budget analysis and show that modeled turbulent fluxes are underestimated in the mesoscale boundary layer parameterization compared to the LES model. Based on the analysis of the horizontal turbulent fluxes and their potential impact on mean flow quantities, a TC-specific boundary layer parameterization may be needed.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Structure of an Atmospheric River over Australia and the Southern Ocean. Part I: Tropical and Midlatitude Water Vapor Fluxes

An atmospheric river (AR) impacting Australia-Tasmania and the Southern Ocean during the Austral summer on 28-29 January 2018 during the SOCRATES campaign is analyzed using both a modeling and observational approach. Gulfstream-V dropsonde measurements and GPM radar analyses were used in conjunction with Weather Research and Forecasting model simulations with water vapor tracers to investigate the relative contributions of tropical and mid-latitude moisture sources to the AR. Moisture associated with a monsoonal tropical depression became entrained into a mid-latitude frontal system that extended to 60°S over the Southern Ocean reaching the associated low pressure system 850 km off the east coast of Antarctica – effectively connecting the tropics and the polar region. Tropical moisture contributed to about 50% of the precipitable water within the AR. The tropical contribution to precipitation decreased with latitude, from > 70% over the Australian continent, to ~50% off the Australian coast, to less than 10% poleward of 60°S. Precipitation in the AR conformed to a seeder-feeder model, the seeder precipitation forming primarily from tropical sourced moisture above the altitude of the 0°C isotherm, and the feeder precipitation sourced from mid-latitude sourced moisture below the altitude of the 0°C isotherm. The integrated vapor transport (IVT) through the core of the AR reached above 500 kg m-1s-1 during 1200 UTC 28 January to 0600 UTC 29 January 29, 1.29 times the average amount of water carried by the world’s largest river, the Amazon. The high IVT strength might be attributed to the higher water vapor content associated with the warmer temperatures in Austral summer.

Rauber, Robert M.↗

DOE OSTI2021

On Assessing ERA5 and MERRA2 Representations of Cold-Air Outbreaks Across the Gulf Stream

The warm Gulf Stream sea surface temperatures (SSTs) strongly impact the evolution of winter clouds behind atmospheric cold fronts. Such cloud evolution remains challenging to model. Here, the Gulf Stream is too wide within the ERA5 and MERRA2 reanalyses, affecting the turbulent surface fluxes. Known problems within the ERA5 boundary layer (too-dry and too-cool with too strong westerlies), ascertained primarily from ACTIVATE 2020 campaign aircraft dropsondes and secondarily from older buoy measurements, reinforce surface flux biases. In contrast, MERRA2 winter surface winds and air-sea temperature/humidity differences are slightly too weak, producing surface fluxes that are too low. Reanalyses boundary layer heights in the strongly-forced winter cold-air-outbreak regime are realistic, whereas late-summer quiescent stable boundary layers are too shallow. Nevertheless, the reanalysis biases are small, and reanalyses adequately support their use for initializing higher-resolution cloud process modeling studies of cold-air outbreaks.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Aircraft observations in a tropical supercluster over the equatorial Indian Ocean during MISO-BOB field campaign

The Monsoon Intra-Seasonal Oscillations in the Bay of Bengal (MISO-BOB) field campaign was conducted in the Indian Ocean during the 2018 and 2019 summer monsoon seasons. WC-130J aircraft of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force participated in the campaign in June 2018. The dropsonde observations across a tropical supercluster showed zonal wind variations in association with the structure of the convectively coupled Kelvin wave (CCKW). Within the supercluster, easterlies (westerlies) were observed in the upper (lower) troposphere; this transformation occurred just below the 0° C level. The cold pool had an easterly component throughout, and it was coldest (by 2.5° C) at the center of the supercluster, deepest (~ 1000 m) at its rear/western end, and shallowest (~ 300 m) at the front/eastern end. The level of free convection (LFC) at the front end was at 897 m altitude. At the eastern flank of the supercluster, zonal convergence in the lower troposphere occurred between 500-1500 m levels above the surface between the westerlies within the supercluster and opposing ambient easterlies. Thus, the uplifting of conditionally unstable air parcels above LFC to the east of the supercluster was likely to occur due to this convergence rather than the cold pool influence. Conversely, the western flank of the supercluster had low-level zonal divergence. These observations support the notion of ‘self-similarity’ among the mesoscale convective systems and large-scale waves.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Impact of Meteorological Factors on the Mesoscale Morphology of Cloud Streets during a Cold-Air Outbreak over the Western North Atlantic

We report postfrontal clouds (PFC) are ubiquitous in the marine boundary layer, and their morphology is essential to estimating the radiation budget in weather and climate models. Here we examine the roles of sea surface temperature (SST) and meteorological factors in controlling the mesoscale morphology and evolution of shallow clouds associated with a cold-air outbreak that occurred on 1 March 2020 during phase I of the Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions over the Western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). Our results show that the simulated PFC structure and ambient conditions by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model are generally consistent with observations from GOES-16 and dropsonde measurements. We also examine the thermodynamical and dynamical influences in the cloud mesoscale morphology using WRF sensitivity experiments driven by two meteorological forcing datasets with different domain-mean SST and spatial gradients, which lead to dissimilar values of hydrometeor water path and cloud core fraction. The SST from ERA5 leads to weaker stability and higher inversion height than the SST from FNL does. In addition, the use of large-scale meteorological forcings from ERA5 yields a distinctive time evolution of wind direction shear in the inner domain, which favors the formation and persistence of longer cloud rolls. Both factors contribute to a change in the time evolution of domain-mean water path and cloud core fraction of cloud streets. Our study takes advantage of the simulation driven by the differences between two large-scale forcing datasets to illustrate the importance of SST and wind direction shear in the cloud street morphology in a realistic scenario.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Polarimetric Signatures in Landfalling Tropical Cyclones

Polarimetric radar observations from the NEXRAD WSR-88D operational radar network in the contiguous United States, routinely available since 2013, are used to reveal three prominent microphysical signatures in landfalling tropical cyclones: 1) hydrometeor size sorting within the eyewall convection, 2) vertical displacement of the melting layer within the inner core, and 3) dendritic growth layers within stratiform regions of the inner core. Size sorting signatures within eyewall convection are observed with greater frequency and prominence in more intense hurricanes, and are observed predominantly within the deep-layer environmental wind shear vector-relative quadrants that harbor the greatest frequency of deep convection (i.e., downshear and left-of-shear). Melting-layer displacements are shown that exceed 1 km in altitude compared to melting-layer altitudes in outer rainbands and are complemented by analyses of archived dropsonde data. Dendritic growth and attendant snow aggregation signatures in the inner core are found to occur more often when echo-top altitudes are low (≤10 km MSL), nearer the -15°C isotherm commonly associated with dendritic growth. These signatures, uniquely observed by polarimetric radar, provide greater insight into the physical structure and thermodynamic characteristics of tropical cyclones, which are important for improving rainfall estimation and the representation of tropical cyclones in numerical models.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2026

High-Resolution Regional Atmosphere–Ocean–Wave Coupled Simulations of Hurricane Henri (2021)

To explore the integrated effects of ocean and ocean surface wave related physical processes on TC simulations, a set of three model simulations is performed. * In experiment 'A', the event is modeled using the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model alone with prescribed Sea Surface Temperature (SST) at 6-hour intervals. * In experiment ‘AO,’ WRF is coupled with the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), enabling variable exchange between atmosphere and ocean, but without considering ocean surface wave-related physical processes. * In experiment ‘AOW’, WRF, FVCOM, and Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) exchange variables with each other every hour through the OASIS3-MCT Coupler to allow direct and indirect atmosphere-ocean-wave interactions. * Observational data are also included in this dataset (Dropsonde, HRD-Radar, NDBC_wave). All simulations are initialized at 18:00 UTC on August 19, 2021, within a domain encompassing the western North Atlantic Ocean. The atmospheric domain features a horizontal resolution of 3 km. The ocean domain, which covers a substantial portion of the WRF ocean domain, employs an unstructured triangular grid with resolutions ranging from 3 km near the coast to 9 km in the open ocean, effectively resolving the complex coastline of the U.S. Northeast Coast. Initial and boundary conditions for the atmosphere model are obtained from the 6-hourly 0.25° NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) Global Forecast System (GFS; NCEP, 2015) data.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

High-Resolution Regional Atmosphere–Ocean–Wave Coupled Simulations of Hurricane Henri (2021)

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

High-Resolution Regional Atmosphere–Ocean–Wave Coupled Simulations of Hurricane Henri (2021)

To explore the integrated effects of ocean and ocean surface wave related physical processes on tropical cyclone simulations, a set of three model simulations is performed. * In experiment 'A', the event is modeled using the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model alone with prescribed Sea Surface Temperature (SST) at 6-hour intervals. * In experiment ‘AO,’ WRF is coupled with the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM), enabling variable exchange between atmosphere and ocean, but without considering ocean surface wave-related physical processes. * In experiment ‘AOW’, WRF, FVCOM, and Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) exchange variables with each other every hour through the OASIS3-MCT Coupler to allow direct and indirect atmosphere-ocean-wave interactions. * Observational data are also included in this dataset (Dropsonde, HRD-Radar, NDBC_wave). All simulations are initialized at 18:00 UTC on August 19, 2021, within a domain encompassing the western North Atlantic Ocean. The atmospheric domain features a horizontal resolution of 3 km. The ocean domain, which covers a substantial portion of the WRF ocean domain, employs an unstructured triangular grid with resolutions ranging from 3 km near the coast to 9 km in the open ocean, effectively resolving the complex coastline of the U.S. Northeast Coast. Initial and boundary conditions for the atmosphere model are obtained from the 6-hourly 0.25° NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) Global Forecast System (GFS; NCEP, 2015) data. These CSV files are derived from the NetCDF files in the c0 dataset. Unlike the original format, where geographic coordinates were stored in a separate file, each CSV now embeds the corresponding latitude and longitude values alongside the measured or simulated variables.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Constraints on simulated past Arctic amplification and lapse rate feedback from observations

The Arctic has warmed more rapidly than the global mean during the past few decades. The lapse rate feedback (LRF) has been identified as being a large contributor to the Arctic amplification (AA) of climate change. This particular feedback arises from the vertically non-uniform warming of the troposphere, which in the Arctic emerges as strong near-surface and muted free-tropospheric warming. Stable stratification and meridional energy transport are two characteristic processes that are evoked as causes for this vertical warming structure. Our aim is to constrain these governing processes by making use of detailed observations in combination with the large climate model ensemble of the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). We build on the result that CMIP6 models show a large spread in AA and Arctic LRF, which are positively correlated for the historical period of 1951–2014. Thus, we present process-oriented constraints by linking characteristics of the current climate to historical climate simulations. In particular, we compare a large consortium of present-day observations to co-located model data from subsets that show a weak and strong simulated AA and Arctic LRF in the past. Our analyses suggest that the vertical temperature structure of the Arctic boundary layer is more realistically depicted in climate models with weak (w) AA and Arctic LRF (CMIP6/w) in the past. In particular, CMIP6/w models show stronger inversions in the present climate for boreal autumn and winter and over sea ice, which is more consistent with the observations. These results are based on observations from the year-long Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in the central Arctic, long-term measurements at the Utqiagvik site in Alaska, USA, and dropsonde temperature profiling from aircraft campaigns in the Fram Strait. In addition, the atmospheric energy transport from lower latitudes that can further mediate the warming structure in the free troposphere is more realistically represented by CMIP6/w models. In particular, CMIP6/w models systemically simulate a weaker Arctic atmospheric energy transport convergence in the present climate for boreal autumn and winter, which is more consistent with fifth generation reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5). We further show a positive relationship between the magnitude of the present-day transport convergence and the strength of past AA. With respect to the Arctic LRF, we find links between the changes in transport pathways that drive vertical warming structures and local differences in the LRF. This highlights the mediating influence of advection on the Arctic LRF and motivates deeper studies to explicitly link spatial patterns of Arctic feedbacks to changes in the large-scale circulation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Spatially coordinated airborne data and complementary products for aerosol, gas, cloud, and meteorological studies: the NASA ACTIVATE dataset

The NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) produced a unique dataset for research into aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions, with applications extending from process-based studies to multi-scale model intercomparison and improvement as well as to remote-sensing algorithm assessments and advancements. ACTIVATE used two NASA Langley Research Center aircraft, a HU-25 Falcon and King Air, to conduct systematic and spatially coordinated flights over the northwest Atlantic Ocean, resulting in 162 joint flights and 17 other single-aircraft flights between 2020 and 2022 across all seasons. Data cover 574 and 592 cumulative flights hours for the HU-25 Falcon and King Air, respectively. The HU-25 Falcon conducted profiling at different level legs below, in, and just above boundary layer clouds (< 3 km) and obtained in situ measurements of trace gases, aerosol particles, clouds, and atmospheric state parameters. Under cloud-free conditions, the HU-25 Falcon similarly conducted profiling at different level legs within and immediately above the boundary layer. The King Air (the high-flying aircraft) flew at approximately ~ 9 km and conducted remote sensing with a lidar and polarimeter while also launching dropsondes (785 in total). Collectively, simultaneous data from both aircraft help to characterize the same vertical column of the atmosphere. In addition to individual instrument files, data from the HU-25 Falcon aircraft are combined into “merge files” on the publicly available data archive that are created at different time resolutions of interest (e.g., 1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 s, or matching an individual data product's start and stop times). This paper describes the ACTIVATE flight strategy, instrument and complementary dataset products, data access and usage details, and data application notes. The data are publicly accessible through https://doi.org/10.5067/SUBORBITAL/ACTIVATE/DATA001 (ACTIVATE Science Team, 2020).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Large-Eddy Simulations of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Cold-Air Outbreaks during the ACTIVATE Campaign. Part I: Case Setup and Sensitivities to Large-Scale Forcings

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is able to capture key boundary layer (BL) turbulence and cloud processes. Yet, large-scale forcing and surface turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat are often poorly prescribed for LESs. We derive these quantities from measurements and reanalysis obtained for two cold-air outbreak (CAO) events during Phase I of the Aerosol Cloud Meteorology Interactions over the Western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) in February–March 2020. We study the two contrasting CAO cases by performing LES and test the sensitivity of BL structure and clouds to large-scale forcings and turbulent heat fluxes. Profiles of atmospheric state and large-scale divergence and surface turbulent heat fluxes obtained from ERA5 data agree reasonably well with those derived from ACTIVATE field measurements for both cases at the sampling time and location. Therefore, we adopt the time-evolving heat fluxes, wind, and advective tendencies profiles from ERA5 data to drive the LES. We find that large-scale thermodynamic advective tendencies and wind relaxations are important for the LES to capture the evolving observed BL meteorological states characterized by the hourly ERA5 data and validated by the observations. We show that the divergence (or vertical velocity) is important in regulating the BL growth driven by surface heat fluxes in LESs. The evolution of liquid water path is largely affected by the evolution of surface heat fluxes. The liquid water path simulated in LES agrees reasonably well with the ACTIVATE measurements. This study paves the path to investigate aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions using LES informed and evaluated by ACTIVATE field measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗