The Entrainment Interface Layer of Stratocumulus-Topped Boundary Layers during POST
Abstract
The Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) field campaign took place in July and August of 2008. The CIRPAS Twin Otter research aircraft was deployed on 17 daytime and nighttime flights to collect data on dynamics, thermodynamics, radiation, and microphysics from marine stratocumulus-topped boundary layers off of the coast of Monterey, California. Our focus is on the characteristics of the Entrainment Interface Layer (EIL), in which there is a transition from pure, well-mixed cloud air to pure free-atmosphere air. During each flight, the aircraft traversed the EIL many times. The nearly co-located, high-rate Ultra-Fast Thermometer (UFT) and Particle Volume Monitor (PVM) mounted on the aircraft enabled measurements of the conserved variable liquid-water potential temperature to be made at very high spatial resolution (~ 50 cm). By using variables that are conserved for moist adiabatic processes, we can examine the contributions to changes in buoyancy from mixing, phase changes, and radiation of air parcels in the EIL as a function of the mixture fraction of pure free-atmosphere air. For this purpose, we followed the method developed by van Zanten and Duynkerke (2002). We used measurements of temperature, liquid water content, water vapor mixing ratio, and pressure for our mixture fraction analysis. We also determined the bottom and top heights of the EIL for each ascent and descent through it for several flights. We found that the EIL is always present, although its thickness and structure vary spatially and from flight to flight.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.A21D0132K
- Keywords:
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- 3307 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Boundary layer processes;
- 3311 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Clouds and aerosols;
- 3379 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Turbulence