From Sugar to Flowers: A Transition of Shallow Cumulus Organization
During ATOMIC
Abstract
The Atlantic Tradewind Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign
(ATOMIC) took place in January-February 2020. It was designed to
understand the relationship between shallow convection and the
large-scale environment in the trade-wind regime. Lagrangian large eddy
simulations, following the trajectory of a boundary-layer airmass, can
reproduce a transition of trade cumulus organization from “sugar” to
“flower” clouds with cold pools, observed on February 2-3. The
simulations were driven with reanalysis large-scale meteorology and
ATOMIC in-situ aerosol data. During the transition, large-scale upward
motion deepens the cloud layer. The total water path and optical depth
increase, especially in the moist regions where flowers aggregate. This
is due to mesoscale circulation that renders a net convergence of total
water in the already moist and cloudy regions, strengthening the
organization. An additional simulation shows that stronger large-scale
upward motion reinforces the mesoscale circulation and accelerates the
organization process by strengthening the cloud-layer mesoscale buoyant
turbulence kinetic energy production.