The remarkable inefficiency of stratocumulus

Hernandez, Benjamin; Singh, Martin S.; Yamaguchi, Takanobu; Feingold, Graham; Glassmeier, Franziska

doi:10.5194/acp-26-9337-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-9337-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-9337-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 13

Research article

|

02 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 02 Jul 2026

The remarkable inefficiency of stratocumulus

Benjamin Hernandez, Martin S. Singh, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Graham Feingold, and Franziska Glassmeier

Data sets

HernandezBen/Code_Data_Entropy_ACP: Entropy_Production_ACP (Entropy_production_stratocumulus_ACP) Benjamin Hernandez https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18662163

Model code and software

HernandezBen/Code_Data_Entropy_ACP: Entropy_Production_ACP (Entropy_production_stratocumulus_ACP) Benjamin Hernandez https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18662163

Short summary

Using detailed numerical simulations, we quantify how stratocumulus cloud decks dissipate energy and produce entropy. We find that entropy production is dominated by irreversible moist processes and is much smaller than in deeper convective clouds. As a result, stratocumulus are remarkably inefficient at converting available energy into atmospheric motions.