Identifying meteorological influences on marine low-cloud  mesoscale morphology using satellite classifications

Mohrmann, Johannes; Wood, Robert; Yuan, Tianle; Song, Hua; Eastman, Ryan; Oreopoulos, Lazaros

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9629-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9629-2021

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9629-2021

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

Articles | Volume 21, issue 12

Research article

|

28 Jun 2021

Research article |

| 28 Jun 2021

Identifying meteorological influences on marine low-cloud mesoscale morphology using satellite classifications

Johannes Mohrmann, Robert Wood, Tianle Yuan, Hua Song, Ryan Eastman, and Lazaros Oreopoulos

Data sets

Low Rate (LRT - 1 sps) Navigation, State Parameter, and Microphysics Flight-Level Data, Version 1.2 UCAR/NCAR EOL https://doi.org/10.5065/D65Q4T96

Model code and software

jkcm/mesoscale-morphology: (Version 1.0) J. Mohrmann https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4673556

MERRA-2 inst3_3d_asm_Np: 3d,3-Hourly,Instantaneous,Pressure-Level,Assimilation,Assimilated Meteorological Fields V5.12.4 GMAO - Global Modeling and Assimilation Office https://doi.org/10.5067/QBZ6MG944HW0

MODIS/Aqua Calibrated Radiances 5-Min L1B Swath 1 km MCST/MODAPS - MODIS Characterization Support Team/MODIS Adaptive Processing System https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD021KM.006

Remote Sensing Systems ASCAT C-2015 Daily Ocean Vector Winds on 0.25 deg grid, version 02.1 L. Ricciardulli and F. J. Wentz http://www.remss.com/missions/ascat/

Remote Sensing Systems GCOM-W1 AMSR2 Daily Environmental Suite on 0.25 deg grid, version 8 F. J. Wentz, T. Meissner, C. Gentemann, K. A. Hilburn, and J. Scott http://www.remss.com/missions/amsr/

Short summary

Observations of marine-boundary-layer conditions are composited by cloud type, based on a new classification dataset. It is found that two cloud types, representing regions of clustered and suppressed low-level clouds, occur in very similar large-scale conditions but are distinguished from each other by considering low-level circulation and surface wind fields, validating prior results from modeling.