Articles | Volume 22, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2135-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2135-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Feb 2022
Research article |
| 15 Feb 2022
| 15 Feb 2022
A climatology of open and closed mesoscale cellular convection over the Southern Ocean derived from Himawari-8 observations
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Luis Ackermann
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Melbourne, VIC, Australia
School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Son C. H. Truong
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Steven T. Siems
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Michael J. Manton
School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Short summary
Marine low-level clouds cover vast areas of the Southern Ocean, and they are essential to the Earth system energy balance. We use 3 years of satellite observations to group low-level clouds by their spatial structure using a pattern-recognizing program. We studied two primary cloud type patterns, i.e. open and closed clouds. Open clouds are uniformly distributed over the storm track, while closed clouds are most predominant in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Closed clouds exhibit a daily cycle.
Marine low-level clouds cover vast areas of the Southern Ocean, and they are essential to the...
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