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From Sugar to Flowers: A Transition of Shallow Cumulus Organization During ATOMIC
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  • Pornampai Narenpitak,
  • Jan Kazil,
  • Takanobu Yamaguchi,
  • Patricia K. Quinn,
  • Graham Feingold
Pornampai Narenpitak
NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory / CIRES University of Colorado Boulder, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory / CIRES University of Colorado Boulder

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jan Kazil
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado and Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA ESRL, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado and Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA ESRL
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Takanobu Yamaguchi
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
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Patricia K. Quinn
NOAA PMEL, NOAA PMEL
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Graham Feingold
CSD, ESRL, NOAA, Boulder, CSD, ESRL, NOAA, Boulder
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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.
Oct 2021Published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems volume 13 issue 10. 10.1029/2021MS002619