On the Global Variation of Precipitating Layer Clouds C €
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
On the Global Variation of Precipitating Layer Clouds c € B. F. Ryan CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research, Aspendaie, Victoria, Australia ABSTRACT The aim of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Cloud System Study (GCSS) is to promote the descrip- tion and understanding of key cloud system processes, with the aim of developing and improving the representation of cloud processes in general circulation models. The GCSS Science Panel identified a need to document important ob- servational gaps in the structure of cloud systems inhibiting the development of cloud-resolving models as a tool for parameterizing cloud systems in general circulation models. The nature of precipitating layer clouds around the world is not well documented. To better quantify this, a synthe- sis of observations of these types of clouds made during field experiments conducted around the world has been devel- oped. The synthesis draws on observations made in Australia, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Russia, the Ukraine, the United States, and several European countries. The survey examines the global variation of the horizontal scales of cloud and precipitation, embedded phenomena such as rainbands, conveyor belt characteristics, ice crystal and water droplet concentrations, and raindrop and ice crystal size distributions. 1. Introduction models is data limited and more effort needs to be devoted to observational aspects driven by model The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment needs. Consequently, the GCSS Science Panel has (GEWEX) Scientific Steering Group identified one of undertaken the task of identifying areas where obser- the biggest challenges in the World Climate Research vations to support the GCSS modeling objectives are Programme as an improvement in the understanding lacking. of how the wide range of processes within clouds af- The GCSS Science Panel identified layer cloud fects the atmosphere on the large scale. The GEWEX systems as one type of cloud system where there is a Cloud System Study (GCSS) has therefore set out to need to document the important observational gaps in- promote the description and understanding of key hibiting the continued exploitation of cloud-resolving cloud system processes, with the aim of developing models as a tool for developing and testing the param- and improving the representation of cloud processes eterization of cloud systems for application in GCMs. in general circulation models (GCMs) (Browning Precipitating layer clouds are a significant subgroup 1994). of the layer cloud classification. In this survey of the GCSS was conceived initially as a modeling pro- characteristics of precipitating layer cloud systems, I gram that would exploit existing datasets as far as pos- will attempt to identify where observations are most sible. However, it has become increasingly clear that needed and I will identify some of the model cloud the development and validation of cloud-resolving features in GCMs that should be validated against both observations and cloud-resolving models. The paper Corresponding author address: Dr. Brian Ryan, CSIRO, Divi- is limited to a survey of midlatitude storm cloud sys- sion of Atmospheric Research, PMB1, Aspendaie, Victoria 3195, tems and consequently the characteristics of precipi- Australia. tating layer clouds associated with tropical cloud sys- E-mail: [email protected] In final form 6 June 1995. tems; shallow precipitating stratus and stratocumulus ©1996 American Meteorological Society systems are not covered in the paper. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 53 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 05:50 PM UTC In the midlatitudes, layer cloud systems are asso- Major meteorological observing programs are coor- ciated with frontal systems, depressions in the west- dinated studies of midlatitude precipitating cloud sys- erlies, lows cutoff from the westerlies, and tropical tems. Examples of these types of studies are given in extratropical cloud bands. They are strongly modu- appendix A. Major cloud seeding studies, undertaken lated by orography and may be associated with orga- as part of a cloud seeding program, usually focus on nized convection in the form of rainbands. the microphysical properties of the clouds. Examples The precipitating layer clouds form an integral part of major cloud seeding research studies are given in of the global water and energy cycle that drives the appendix B. The locations of the major meteorologi- earth's climate system. In this paper precipitating layer cal observing programs and the major cloud seeding clouds include both nimbostratus and altostratus programs that are relevant to the study of precipitat- clouds. Altostratus clouds are included because of the ing layer clouds are shown in Fig. 1. Figure 1 also importance of the evaporation of virga to the water shows the locations of case studies used in the paper. cycle. Warren et al. (1986) show that over the land The case studies examined are confined to regions the zonal mean of the average amount of altostratus where there are no reported major meteorological cloud between 30° and 60° latitude varies from 15% observing programs or major cloud seeding programs. to 25% in the Northern Hemisphere and from 16% to It is clear from Fig. 1 that there have been exten- nearly 60% in the Southern Hemisphere. Over the sive observational and cloud seeding programs that oceans between 30° and 60° latitude the zonal mean extend across North America and western Europe. altostratus cloud cover varies from 20% to 35% in Over the land and in coastal regions there have been both hemispheres and varies as a function of the sea- many case studies made in the United States, Canada, son (Warren et al. 1988). The precipitating layer the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The clouds are far from uniform in structure. For example, Beaufort Arctic Storms Experiment is a recent study Stephens and Greenwald (1991) showed that the al- in northern Canada that should contribute information bedo and liquid water path are significantly different on the structure of precipitating layer clouds over the for midlatitude oceanic clouds compared to clouds Arctic region. over the tropical oceans. Heymsfield (1993) in a re- In southern Europe and the Middle East, cloud view of the structure of clouds suggested that the water seeding studies have been undertaken in Spain, Mo- phases in a cloud depends upon the temperature, the rocco, and Israel. In eastern Europe major field stud- age of the cloud, the ambient aerosol population, and ies have been reported from Russia and the Ukraine, the composition and size, as well as a host of other and in China a major cloud seeding study has been possible factors. made in the Xinjiang Province. In Japan, several case An inherent feature of the physical processes in studies provide observations for comparison with the cloud systems is the interaction between scales, which European and North America studies. Except for extend from the synoptic scale down to the mesos- FRONT-87, there are no significant observations over cale. Systematic field observations are needed across either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, although the data these scales to develop and validate cloud-scale void over the Atlantic will be addressed during the parameterizations. In the case of the parameterization Fronts and Atlantic Storm Tracks Experiment of precipitating layer clouds, validation is required (FASTEX) (Browning 1994). over both the land and the sea. Where layer clouds In the Southern Hemisphere, the structure of pre- form over the land, parameterizations need to be vali- cipitating layer clouds has been investigated as part dated in the absence and the presence of significant of the Australian Cold Fronts Research Program and orography. through studies made during cloud physics and seed- ing projects. These studies focused on the southeast- ern corner of Australia, although there is one unpub- 2.International studies of precipitating lished cloud seeding study north of Perth in Western clouds Australia. One case study of precipitating layer clouds has been reported from Cape Town in South Africa. Field studies of frontal clouds over the past 20 years The Southern Alps Experiment (SALPEX) in New can be classified into three categories: namely, 1) ma- Zealand is a new initiative to investigate the clouds jor meteorological observing programs, 2) major and precipitation upstream of and over the southern cloud seeding programs, and 3) specific case studies. Alps. Apart from satellite observations there are no 54 Vol. 77, No. 1, January 1996 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 05:50 PM UTC FIG. 1. A map showing the location of the major field experiments (see appendix A), the major cloud seeding studies (see appendix B), and the case studies discussed in the paper. systematic studies over the vast ocean areas, and I the northeast ahead of the upper-level trough. A cold have been unable to find papers on the structure of conveyor belt approaches the cyclone at low levels precipitating layer clouds over South America. from the northeast, rises near the center of the low and merges with the warm conveyor belt as it leaves the system toward the northeast. A third stream of dry 3. Synoptic-scale structure of stream originates in the upper troposphere upstream precipitating clouds of the cyclone and descends into the systems from the northwest. Figure 2 shows the conceptual model ap- The precipitating layer clouds associated with plied to a split (kata) cold front. Browning (1990) fronts and midlatitude cyclones are organized on the shows that both the instant occlusion and classical oc- synoptic scale. If the flow is visualized as occurring clusion can be schematically portrayed by the con- relative to moist or dry isentropic surfaces, cloud for- veyor belt model. The limitation of the conveyor belt mation (dissipation) is associated with regions of as- approach is that it provides only a coarse description cent (descent) of air within the sloping portions of the of the nature of the flow through a midlatitude cy- isentropic surfaces (see, e.g., Browning 1990 or clone.