Radar Observations of Humidity Variability in and above the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Abstract

Humidity variability at the top of the marine atmospheric boundary layer and in the overlying free troposphere was examined using data collected during the marine stratocumulus phase of the First Regional Experiment (FIRE) of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program. A time series of the humidity structure-function parameter Cq2 derived from Doppler wind profiler reflectivity data is compared to a concurrent time series of specific humidity q. Both q and its vertical gradient were calculated from rawinsonde data obtained from sondes launched within 500 m of the profiler. Time-height correlation analysis between log(Cq2) and log(∂q/∂z)2 shows that the two time series are highly correlated at and just above the inversion base, with r approximately equal to 0.7. The correlation is slightly lower in the free troposphere where r is about 0.5 (a value of r greater than 0.2 is significant at the 95% confidence level). There is also correlation between log(Cq2) and log(q), which is maximized at an offset in height between the two instruments. Closer analysis of a short-lived clearing event shows locally reduced values of Cq2 in a region of enhanced ∂q/∂z. This apparent paradox can be explained by noting the absence of enhanced entrainment associated with cloud-top radiative cooling. The combined wind profiler-rawinsonde datasets were also used to estimate the entrainment velocity we for clear and cloudy conditions. An average value of we equal to 0.38 cm s−1 was obtained for cloudy conditions; for the clear case a value of 0.13 cm s−1 was obtained.