Breakup of nocturnal low-level stratiform clouds during the southern West African monsoon season

Zouzoua, Maurin; Lohou, Fabienne; Assamoi, Paul; Lothon, Marie; Yoboue, Véronique; Dione, Cheikh; Kalthoff, Norbert; Adler, Bianca; Babić, Karmen; Pedruzo-Bagazgoitia, Xabier; Derrien, Solène

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2027-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2027–2051, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2027-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue: Results of the project "Dynamics–aerosol–chemistry–cloud...

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2027–2051, 2021

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2027-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 3

Research article

10 Feb 2021

Research article | 10 Feb 2021

Breakup of nocturnal low-level stratiform clouds during the southern West African monsoon season

Maurin Zouzoua et al.

Data sets

DACCIWA field campaign, Savè super-site, UPS instrumentation S. Derrien, Y. Bezombes, G. Bret, O. Gabella, C. Jarnot, P. Medina, E. Piques, C. Delon, D. Dione, B. Campistron, P. Durand, C. Jambert, F. Lohou, M. Lothon, F. Pacifico, and Y. Meyerfeld https://doi.org/10.6096/dacciwa.1618

DACCIWA field campaign, Savè super-site, Cloud and precipitation J. Handwerker, S. Scheer, and T. Gamer https://doi.org/10.6096/dacciwa.1686

DACCIWA field campaign, Savè super-site, Surface measurements M. Kohler, N. Kalthoff, J. Seringer, and S. Kraut https://doi.org/10.6096/dacciwa.1690

DACCIWA field campaign, Savè super-site, thermodynamic data sets A. Wieser, B. Adler, and B. Deny https://doi.org/10.6096/dacciwa.1659

Short summary

Based on a field experiment conducted in June and July 2016, we analyzed the daytime breakup of continental low-level stratiform clouds over southern West Africa in order to provide complementary guidance for model evaluation during the monsoon season. Those clouds exhibit weaker temperature and moisture jumps at the top compared to marine stratiform clouds. Their lifetime and the transition towards shallow convective clouds during daytime hours depend on their coupling with the surface.