Articles | Volume 24, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-109-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-109-2024
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
05 Jan 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 05 Jan 2024

Climatologically invariant scale invariance seen in distributions of cloud horizontal sizes

Thomas D. DeWitt, Timothy J. Garrett, Karlie N. Rees, Corey Bois, Steven K. Krueger, and Nicolas Ferlay

Related authors

A global analysis of the fractal properties of clouds revealing anisotropy of turbulence across scales
Karlie N. Rees, Timothy J. Garrett, Thomas D. DeWitt, Corey Bois, Steven K. Krueger, and Jérôme C. Riedi
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 31, 497–513, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-31-497-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-31-497-2024, 2024
Short summary
Finite domains cause bias in measured and modeled distributions of cloud sizes
Thomas D. DeWitt and Timothy J. Garrett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8457–8472, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8457-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8457-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Impact of weather systems on observed precipitation at Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard)
Kerstin Ebell, Christian Buhren, Rosa Gierens, Giovanni Chellini, Melanie Lauer, Andreas Walbröl, Sandro Dahlke, Pavel Krobot, and Mario Mech
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7315–7342, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7315-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7315-2025, 2025
Short summary
Analysis of ship emission effects on clouds over the southeastern Atlantic using geostationary satellite observations
Nikos Benas, Jan Fokke Meirink, Rob Roebeling, and Martin Stengel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6957–6973, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6957-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6957-2025, 2025
Short summary
Relationship between latent and radiative heating fields of tropical cloud systems using synergistic satellite observations
Xiaoting Chen, Claudia J. Stubenrauch, and Giulio Mandorli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6857–6880, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6857-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6857-2025, 2025
Short summary
Shallow cloud variability in Houston, Texas, during the ESCAPE and TRACER field experiments
Zackary Mages, Pavlos Kollias, Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras, Paloma Borque, and Mariko Oue
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6025–6045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6025-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6025-2025, 2025
Short summary
How does the lifetime of detrained cirrus impact the high-cloud radiative effect in the tropics?
George Horner and Edward Gryspeerdt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5617–5631, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5617-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5617-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Ackerman, S. A., Strabala, K., Menzel, W., Frey, R., Moeller, C., and Gumley, L.: Discriminating clear sky from clouds with MODIS, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 32141–32157, 1998. a, b
Ackerman, S. A., Holz, R. E., Frey, R., Eloranta, E. W., Maddux, B. C., and McGill, M.: Cloud detection with MODIS. Part II: Validation, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 25, 1073–1086, 2008. a
Arakawa, A.: The cumulus parameterization problem: Past, present, and future, J. Climate, 17, 2493–2525, 2004. a
Arakawa, A. and Schubert, W. H.: Interaction of a Cumulus Cloud Ensemble with the Large-Scale Environment, Part I, J. Atmos. Sci., 31, 674–701, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1974)031<0674:IOACCE>2.0.CO;2, 1974. a
Arias, P., Bellouin, N., Coppola, E., Jones, R., Krinner, G., Marotzke, J., Naik, V., Palmer, M., Plattner, G.-K., Rogelj, J., Rojas, M., Sillmann, J., Storelvmo, T., Thorne, P., Trewin, B., Achuta Rao, K., Adhikary, B., Allan, R., Armour, K., Bala, G., Barimalala, R., Berger, S., Canadell, J., Cassou, C., Cherchi, A., Collins, W., Collins, W., Connors, S., Corti, S., Cruz, F., Dentener, F., Dereczynski, C., Di Luca, A., Diongue Niang, A., Doblas-Reyes, F., Dosio, A., Douville, H., Engelbrecht, F., Eyring, V., Fischer, E., Forster, P., Fox-Kemper, B., Fuglestvedt, J., Fyfe, J., Gillett, N., Goldfarb, L., Gorodetskaya, I., Gutierrez, J., Hamdi, R., Hawkins, E., Hewitt, H., Hope, P., Islam, A., Jones, C., Kaufman, D., Kopp, R., Kosaka, Y., Kossin, J., Krakovska, S., Lee, J.-Y., Li, J., Mauritsen, T., Maycock, T., Meinshausen, M., Min, S.-K., Monteiro, P., Ngo-Duc, T., Otto, F., Pinto, I., Pirani, A., Raghavan, K., Ranasinghe, R., Ruane, A., Ruiz, L., Sallée, J.-B., Samset, B., Sathyendranath, S., Seneviratne, S., Sörensson, A., Szopa, S., Takayabu, I., Tréguier, A.-M., van den Hurk, B., Vautard, R., von Schuckmann, K., Zaehle, S., Zhang, X., and Zickfeld, K.: Technical Summary, 33–144, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.002, 2021. a
Download
Executive editor
The field of climate prediction has been bedeviled by the problem of how to represent the enormous complexity of clouds. The usual strategy is to peform deterministic simulations with advanced cloud models. The study outlined here concentrates on a statistical approach that is arguably better suited to determining the mean climatological state. The presented observations from a wide range of satellite platforms show that a power-law well describes frequencies of occurence of cloud sizes across a very wide range of scales, and that the exponent is robust to local climatological characteristics as surface temperature, aerosol loading, Coriolis forces, or dominant cloud type. Instead, the distribution of cloud sizes emerge simply from a competition for energy and air that occurs due to small-scale cloud mixing processes at cloud edge.
Short summary
Viewed from space, a defining feature of Earth's atmosphere is the wide spectrum of cloud sizes. A recent study predicted the distribution of cloud sizes, and this paper compares the prediction to observations. Although there is nuance in viewing perspective, we find robust agreement with theory across different climatological conditions, including land–ocean contrasts, time of year, or latitude, suggesting a minor role for Coriolis forces, aerosol loading, or surface temperature.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint