ALBERT

Description: The identification of patterns in life-history strategies across the tree of life is essential to our prediction of population persistence, extinction, and diversification. Plants exhibit a wide range of patterns of longevity, growth, and reproduction, but the general determinants of this enormous variation in life history are poorly understood. We...

Description: Aircraft measurements are presented from the 27/28 October 2008 case study of the VOCALS Regional Experiment (REx) over the remote subtropical southeast Pacific (18° S, 80° W). Data from two aircraft that took measurements approximately twelve hours apart but in the same advected airmass are used to document a remarkably sharp spatial transition in marine boundary layer (MBL), cloud, and aerosol structure across the boundary between a well-mixed MBL containing overcast closed mesoscale cellular stratocumulus, and a pocket of open cells (POC) with significantly lower cloud cover. Long (~190–250 km) straight and level flight legs at three levels in the marine boundary layer and one level in the lower free troposphere permit sampling of the closed cells, the POC, and a 20–30 km wide transition zone with distinctly different structure from the two airmasses on either side. The POC region consists of intermittent active and strongly precipitating cumulus clouds rising and detraining into patches of drizzling but quiescent stratiform cloud which is optically thin especially toward its edges. Mean cloud-base precipitation rates inside the POC are several mm d−1, but rates in the closed cell region are not greatly lower than this. This latter finding suggests that precipitation is not a sufficient condition for POC formation from overcast stratocumulus. Despite similar cloud-base precipitation rates in the POC and overcast region, much of the precipitation (〉90%) evaporates below cloud in the overcast region, while there is significant surface precipitation inside the POC. In the POC and transition region, although the majority of the condensate is in the form of drizzle, the integrated liquid water path is remarkably close to that expected for a moist adiabatic parcel rising from cloud base to top. The transition zone between the POC and the closed cells often consists of thick "boundary cell" clouds producing mean surface precipitation rates of 10–20 mm d−1, a divergent quasi-permanent cold/moist pool below cloud, a convergent inflow region at mid-levels in the MBL, and a divergent outflow near the top of the MBL. The stratiform clouds in the POC exist within an ultra-clean layer that is some 200–300 m thick. Aerosol concentrations (Na) measured by a PCASP in the diameter range 0.12–3.12 μm in the center of the ultra-clean layer are as low as 0.1–1 cm−3. This suggests that coalescence scavenging and sedimentation is extremely efficient, since Na in the subcloud layer, and droplet concentration Nd in the active cumuli are typically 20–60 cm−3. The droplet concentrations in the quiescent stratiform clouds are extremely low (typically 1–10 cm−3), and most of their liquid water is in the form of drizzle, which mainly evaporates before reaching the surface. The cloud droplet concentration in the overcast region decreases strongly as the transition region is approached, as do subcloud accumulation mode aerosol concentrations, suggesting that coalescence scavenging is impacting regions in the overcast region as well as inside the POC. Both flights show lower accumulation mode aerosol concentration in the subcloud layer of the POC (Na ∼ 30 cm−3) compared with the overcast region (Na ∼ 100 cm−3), but elevated (and mostly volatile) total aerosol concentrations are observed in the POC at all levels around 20–50 km from the transition zone, perhaps associated with some prior nucleation event. Despite the large differences in cloud and MBL structure across the POC-overcast boundary, the MBL depth is almost the same in the two regions, and increases in concert over the 12 h period between the flights.

Description: Routine liquid water path measurements and water vapor path are valuable for process studies of the cloudy marine boundary layer and for the assessment of large-scale models. The VOCALS Regional Experiment respected this goal by including a small, inexpensive, upward-pointing millimeter-wavelength passive radiometer on the fourteen research flights of the NCAR C-130 plane, the G-band (183 GHz) Vapor Radiometer (GVR). The radiometer permitted above-cloud retrievals of the free-tropospheric water vapor path (WVP). Retrieved free-tropospheric (above-cloud) water vapor paths possessed a strong longitudinal gradient, with off-shore values of one to two mm and near-coastal values reaching ten mm. The VOCALS-REx free troposphere was drier than that of previous years. Cloud liquid water paths (LWPs) were retrieved from the sub-cloud and cloudbase aircraft legs through a combination of the GVR, remotely-sensed cloud boundary information, and in-situ thermodynamic data. The absolute (between-leg) and relative (within-leg) accuracy of the LWP retrievals at 1 Hz (~100 m) resolution was estimated at 20 g m−2 and 3 g m−2 respectively for well-mixed conditions, and 25 g m−2 absolute uncertainty for decoupled conditions where the input WVP specification was more uncertain. Retrieved liquid water paths matched adiabatic values derived from coincident cloud thickness measurements exceedingly well. A significant contribution of the GVR dataset was the extended information on the thin clouds, with 62 % (28 %) of the retrieved LWPs

Description: Dimethylsulfide (DMS) emitted from the ocean is a biogenic precursor gas for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and non-sea-salt sulfate aerosols (SO42−). During the VAMOS-Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) in 2008, multiple instrumented platforms were deployed in the Southeastern Pacific (SEP) off the coast of Chile and Peru to study the linkage between aerosols and stratocumulus clouds. We present here observations from the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown and the NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft along ~20° S from the coast (70° W) to a remote marine atmosphere (85° W). While SO42− and SO2 concentrations were distinctly elevated above background levels in the coastal marine boundary layer (MBL) due to anthropogenic influence (~800 and 80 pptv, respectively), their concentrations rapidly decreased west of 78° W (~100 and 25 pptv). In the remote region, entrainment from the free troposphere (FT) increased MBL SO2 burden at a rate of 0.05 ± 0.02 μmoles m−2 day−1 and diluted MBL SO42 burden at a rate of 0.5 ± 0.3 μmoles m−2 day−1, while the sea-to-air DMS flux (3.8 ± 0.4 μmoles m−2 day−1) remained the predominant source of sulfur mass to the MBL. In-cloud oxidation was found to be the most important mechanism for SO2 removal and in situ SO42− production. Surface SO42− concentration in the remote MBL displayed pronounced diel variability, increasing rapidly in the first few hours after sunset and decaying for the rest of the day. We theorize that the increase in SO42− was due to nighttime recoupling of the MBL that mixed down cloud-processed air, while decoupling and sporadic precipitation scavenging were responsible for the daytime decline in SO42−.

Description: The relationship between precipitation rate and accumulation mode aerosol concentration in marine stratocumulus-topped boundary layers is investigated by applying the precipitation susceptibility metric to aircraft data obtained during the VOCALS Regional Experiment. A new method to calculate the precipitation susceptibility that incorporates non-precipitating clouds is introduced. The mean precipitation rate R over a segment of the data is expressed as the product of a drizzle fraction f and a drizzle intensity I (mean rate for drizzling columns). The susceptibility Sx is then defined as the fractional decrease in precipitation variable x = {R, f, I} per fractional increase in the concentration of aerosols with dry diameter 〉0.1 μm, with cloud thickness h held fixed. The precipitation susceptibility SR is calculated using data from both precipitating and non-precipitating cloudy columns to quantify how aerosol concentrations affect the mean precipitation rate of all clouds of a given h range and not just the mean precipitation of clouds that are precipitating. SR systematically decreases with increasing h, and this is largely because Sf decreases with h while SI is approximately independent of h. In a general sense, Sf can be thought of as the effect of aerosols on the probability of precipitation, while SI can be thought of as the effect of aerosols on the intensity of precipitation. Since thicker clouds are likely to precipitate regardless of ambient aerosol concentration, we expect Sf to decrease with increasing h. The results are broadly insensitive to the choice of horizontal averaging scale. Similar susceptibilities are found for both cloud base and near-surface drizzle rates. The analysis is repeated with cloud liquid water path held fixed instead of cloud thickness. Simple power law relationships relating precipitation rate to aerosol concentration or cloud droplet concentration do not capture this observed behavior.

Description: The southeast Pacific Ocean is covered by the world's largest stratocumulus cloud layer, which has a strong impact on ocean temperatures and climate in the region. The effect of anthropogenic sources of aerosol particles on the stratocumulus deck was investigated during the VOCALS field experiment. Aerosol measurements below and above cloud were made with a ultra-high sensitivity aerosol spectrometer and analytical electron microscopy. In addition to more standard in-cloud measurements, droplets were collected and evaporated using a counterflow virtual impactor (CVI), and the non-volatile residual particles were analyzed. Many flights focused on the gradient in cloud properties on an E-W track along 20° S from near the Chilean coast to remote areas offshore. Mean statistics, including their significance, from eight flights and many individual legs were compiled. Consistent with a continental source of cloud condensation nuclei, below-cloud accumulation-mode aerosol and droplet number concentration generally decreased from near shore to offshore. Single particle analysis was used to reveal types and sources of the enhanced particle number that influence droplet concentration. While a variety of particle types were found throughout the region, the dominant particles near shore were partially neutralized sulfates. Modeling and chemical analysis indicated that the predominant source of these particles in the marine boundary layer along 20° S was anthropogenic pollution from central Chilean sources, with copper smelters a relatively small contribution. Cloud droplets were smaller in regions of enhanced particles near shore. However, physically thinner clouds, and not just higher droplet number concentrations from pollution, both contributed to the smaller droplets. Satellite measurements were used to show that cloud albedo was highest 500–1000 km offshore, and actually slightly lower closer to shore due to the generally thinner clouds and lower liquid water paths there. Thus, larger scale forcings that impact cloud macrophysical properties, as well as enhanced aerosol particles, are important in determining cloud droplet size and cloud albedo. Differences in the size distribution of droplet residual particles and ambient aerosol particles were observed. By progressively excluding small droplets from the CVI sample, we were able to show that the larger drops, some of which may initiate drizzle, contain the largest aerosol particles. Geometric mean diameters of droplet residual particles were larger than those of the below-cloud and above cloud distributions. However, a wide range of particle sizes can act as droplet nuclei in these stratocumulus clouds. A detailed LES microphysical model was used to show that this can occur without invoking differences in chemical composition of cloud-nucleating particles.

Description: Here, liquid water path (LWP), cloud fraction, cloud top height, and cloud base height retrieved by a suite of A-train satellite instruments (the CPR aboard CloudSat, CALIOP aboard CALIPSO, and MODIS aboard Aqua) are compared to ship observations from research cruises made in 2001 and 2003–2007 into the stratus/stratocumulus deck over the southeast Pacific Ocean. It is found that CloudSat radar-only LWP is generally too high over this region and the CloudSat/CALIPSO cloud bases are too low. This results in a relationship (LWP~h9) between CloudSat LWP and CALIPSO cloud thickness (h) that is very different from the adiabatic relationship (LWP~h2) from in situ observations. Such biases can be reduced if LWPs suspected to be contaminated by precipitation are eliminated, as determined by the maximum radar reflectivity Zmax〉−15 dBZ in the apparent lower half of the cloud, and if cloud bases are determined based upon the adiabatically-determined cloud thickness (h~LWP1/2). Furthermore, comparing results from a global model (CAM3.1) to ship observations reveals that, while the simulated LWP is quite reasonable, the model cloud is too thick and too low, allowing the model to have LWPs that are almost independent of h. This model can also obtain a reasonable diurnal cycle in LWP and cloud fraction at a location roughly in the centre of this region (20° S, 85° W) but has an opposite diurnal cycle to those observed aboard ship at a location closer to the coast (20° S, 75° W). The diurnal cycle at the latter location is slightly improved in the newest version of the model (CAM4). However, the simulated clouds remain too thick and too low, as cloud bases are usually at or near the surface.