Case study of a humidity layer above Arctic stratocumulus  and potential turbulent coupling with the cloud top

Egerer, Ulrike; Ehrlich, André; Gottschalk, Matthias; Griesche, Hannes; Neggers, Roel A. J.; Siebert, Holger; Wendisch, Manfred

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6347-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6347-2021

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

Special issue:

Arctic mixed-phase clouds as studied during the ACLOUD/PASCAL...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6347-2021

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

Articles | Volume 21, issue 8

Research article

|

27 Apr 2021

Research article |

| 27 Apr 2021

Case study of a humidity layer above Arctic stratocumulus and potential turbulent coupling with the cloud top

Ulrike Egerer, André Ehrlich, Matthias Gottschalk, Hannes Griesche, Roel A. J. Neggers, Holger Siebert, and Manfred Wendisch

Data sets

The new BELUGA setup for collocated turbulence and radiation measurements using a tethered balloon: first applications in the cloudy Arctic boundary layer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4019-4038, doi:10.5194/amt-12-4019-2019, 2019) U. Egerer, M. Gottschalk, H. Siebert, M. Wendisch, and A. Ehrlich https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.899803

LES results to accompany measurements at the POLARSTERN Research Vessel during the PASCAL field campaign on 7 June 2017 R. Neggers https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.919946

Short summary

This paper describes a case study of a three-day period with a persistent humidity inversion above a mixed-phase cloud layer in the Arctic. It is based on measurements with a tethered balloon, complemented with results from a dedicated high-resolution large-eddy simulation. Both methods show that the humidity layer acts to provide moisture to the cloud layer through downward turbulent transport. This supply of additional moisture can contribute to the persistence of Arctic clouds.