Distinct Dynamical and Structural Properties of Marine Stratocumulus and Shallow Cumulus Clouds in the Eastern North Atlantic

Abstract

AbstractLow‐level clouds in a marine environment are examined using multiple ground‐based instruments. We used Doppler radar and Doppler lidar measurements (a) to examine cloud properties including cloud base and top height and thickness and (b) to investigate vertical velocity (w) statistics throughout the subcloud and in‐cloud layers. Marine stratocumulus (Sc) and shallow cumulus (Cu) clouds have distinct properties in their horizontal and vertical extent. We also find that the two cloud types have different thermodynamic (coupled and decoupled conditions) and dynamical characteristics for the first four moments of the w distributions (mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis). We identify a strong dependence of subcloud mean w on near‐surface horizontal wind direction, implying that topographic effects exert a substantial impact on boundary layer dynamics and cloud properties at Graciosa Island. Our findings strongly suggest that care must be taken when interpreting island‐based observations as representative of a generic marine dynamical environment. This information also can be useful for guiding and constraining the future global model development using an observational data set.