Dynamics of the Cloud-Environment Interface and turbulence effects in a LES of a growing cumulus congestus

A giga-large-eddy simulation of a cumulus congestus has been performed with a 5-m resolution in order to examine the fine-scale dynamics and mixing on its edges. At 5-m resolution, the dynamical production of subgrid turbulence clearly dominates over the thermal production, while the situation is reversed for resolved turbulence, the tipping-point occurring near the 250-m scale. Concerning cloud dynamics, the toroïdal circulation already obtained in previous observational and numerical studies remains, with a strong signature on the resolved turbulent fluxes, the most important feature for the exchanges between the cloud and its environment even though numerous smaller eddies are also well resolved. The environment compensates for the upward mass flux through a large-scale compensating subsidence and the so-called “subsiding shell” composed of cloud-edge downdrafts, both having a significant contribution. A partition is used to characterize the dynamics, buoyancy and turbulence of the inner and outer edges of the cloud, the cloud interior and the far environment. On the edges of the cloud, downdrafts caused by the eddies and by evaporative cooling effects coexist with a buoyancy reversal while the cloud interior is mostly rising and positively buoyant. An alternative simulation, where evaporative cooling is suppressed, indicates that this process reinforces the downdrafts near the edges of the cloud and causes a general decrease of the convective circulation. Evaporative cooling has also an impact on the buoyancy reversal and on the fate of the engulfed air inside the cloud.

Evaporative and Radiative Cooling in POST Stratocumulus

Buoyancy reversal by evaporative cooling in entrainment holes has a minimal influence on stratocumulus (Sc) observed during the Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) aircraft field study held off the California coast in 2008. High-resolution temperature and microphysics measurements show only small differences for Sc with and without buoyancy reversal predicted by mixing fraction analysis that relates mixtures of cloudy air and free-atmospheric air to buoyancies of the mixtures. The reduction of LWC due to evaporation in the holes is a small percentage (average ~12%) of liquid water diluted in the Sc by entrainment from the entrainment interface layer (EIL) located above unbroken cloud top where most mixing, evaporation, and reduction of the large buoyancy jump between the cloud and free atmosphere occur. Entrainment is dominated by radiative cooling at cloud top.

Wind Shear and Buoyancy Reversal at the Top of Stratocumulus

A numerical experiment is designed to study the interaction at the stratocumulus top between a mean vertical shear and the buoyancy reversal due to evaporative cooling, without radiative cooling. Direct numerical simulation is used to eliminate the uncertainty introduced by turbulence models. It is found that the enhancement by shear-induced mixing of the turbulence caused by buoyancy reversal can render buoyancy reversal comparable to other forcing mechanisms. However, it is also found that (i) the velocity jump across the capping inversion Δu needs to be relatively large and values of about 1 m s−1 that are typically associated with the convective motions inside the boundary layer are generally too small and (ii) there is no indication of cloud-top entrainment instability. To obtain these results, parameterizations of the mean entrainment velocity and the relevant time scales are derived from the study of the cloud-top vertical structure. Two overlapping layers can be identified: a background shear layer with a thickness (⅓)(Δu)2/Δb, where Δb is the buoyancy increment across the capping inversion and a turbulence layer dominated by free convection inside the cloud and by shear production inside the relatively thin overlap region. As turbulence intensifies, the turbulence layer encroaches into the background shear layer and defines thereby the entrainment velocity. Particularized to the first research flight of the Second Dynamics and Chemistry of the Marine Stratocumulus (DYCOMS II) field campaign, the analysis predicts an entrainment velocity of about 3 mm s−1 after 5–10 min—a velocity comparable to the measurements and thus indicative of the relevance of mean shear in that case.

Factors Controlling Rapid Stratocumulus Cloud Thinning

The relationship between the inversion stability and the liquid water path (LWP) tendency of a vertically well-mixed, adiabatic stratocumulus cloud layer is investigated in this study through the analysis of the budget equation for the LWP. The LWP budget is mainly determined by the turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture at the top and the base of the cloud layer, as well as by the source terms due to radiation and precipitation. Through substitution of the inversion stability parameter κ into the budget equation, it immediately follows that the LWP tendency will become negative for increasing values of κ due to the entrainment of increasingly dry air. Large κ values are therefore associated with strong cloud thinning. Using the steady-state solution for the LWP, an equilibrium value κeq is formulated, beyond which the stratocumulus cloud will thin. The Second Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus field study (DYCOMS-II) is used to illustrate that, depending mainly on the magnitude of the moisture flux at cloud base, stratocumulus clouds can persist well within the buoyancy reversal regime.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Evaporative Cooling at the Lateral Boundary of Shallow Cumulus Clouds

This study investigates the dynamics of the subsiding shell at the lateral boundary of cumulus clouds, focusing on the role of evaporative cooling. Since the size of this shell is well below what large-eddy simulations can resolve, the authors have performed direct numerical simulations of an idealized subsiding shell. The system develops a self-similar, Reynolds number–independent flow that allows for the determination of explicit scaling laws relating the characteristic length, time, and velocity scales of the shell. It is found that the shell width grows quadratically in time, linearly with the traveled distance. The magnitude of these growth rates shows that evaporative cooling, in its most idealized form, is capable of producing a fast-growing shell with numbers that are consistent with observations of the subsiding shell around real shallow cumulus clouds: for typical thermodynamic conditions in cumulus clouds, a velocity on the order of 1 m s−1 and a thickness on the order of 10 m are established in about 2 min. This fits well within the typical cloud lifetime, suggesting that this idealization is an adequate framework for the analysis of relevant aspects in the subsiding shell associated with buoyancy reversal. It also indicates that the scaling laws derived here can be used to estimate the potential strength of a subsiding shell and the mean lateral entrainment associated with it, once an estimate of the local thermodynamical state of the cloud boundary is provided. It is shown that the dominant parameter of this system is the saturation buoyancy, whereas the effect of the saturation mixing fraction is minor.