Cloud microphysical relationships observed from the G-1 aircraft during the VOCALS project

During the VOCALS (VAMOS (Variability of the American Monsoon Systems) Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study) regional experiment in October-November 2008, the G-1 aircraft measured cloud microphysical parameters from the persistent stratocumulus decks that form over the Southeast Pacific region off the coast of Chile and Peru. The focus of this study is on the relationships among the cloud microphysical parameters that may reveal important aspects of cloud droplet growth processes in the turbulent cloud environment. Examined parameters are cloud droplet concentrations, liquid water contents, mean sizes, dispersions, and drizzle concentrations. Our previous study on the stratocumulus clouds off the California coast showed that the relationships between these parameters were most consistent with the circulation mixing model that portrays mixing of cloud parcels of different local cloud base heights that may have been caused by different degrees of entrainment mixing and radiative cooling at the cloud top. Similar analysis will be done for the VOCALS cloud data and the proposed model hypothesis will be tested. Included in this study are the comparisons of the cloud microphysical relationships between the low (1 Hz) and high (10 Hz) resolution cloud data that may reveal scale dependence of these relationships. Then possible implications of the scale dependence or lack thereof will be examined.