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.
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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
02 Jul 2026
Research article |
| 02 Jul 2026
| 02 Jul 2026
The remarkable inefficiency of stratocumulus
Benjamin Hernandez
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Martin S. Singh
School of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Takanobu Yamaguchi
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Chemical Sciences Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Graham Feingold
Chemical Sciences Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Franziska Glassmeier
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
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Michael S. Diamond, Andrew S. Ackerman, Alejandro Baró Pérez, Ann M. Fridlind, Ehsan Erfani, Caspar Jungbacker, Hyunho Lee, David Painemal, Frida A.-M. Bender, Annica M. L. Ekman, Franziska Glassmeier, Graham Feingold, Fredrik Jansson, David A. Johnson, Matthias Schwarz, Robert Wood, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jianhao Zhang, Xiaoli Zhou, and Paquita Zuidema
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5350, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5350, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We compare how cloud resolving models represent an important cloud transition over the subtropical oceans. Clouds can either break up by deepening and drying out or by raining and forming an open cell pattern. Compared to observations, the clouds deepen a bit too much and get too polluted when smoke is present. In clean conditions, some models drizzle and break up into open cells while others barely rain; the model spread stems from different rain amounts for similar clouds.
Dongqi Lin, Martin S. Singh, Yi-Xian Li, and Annabel J. Bowden
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4291, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4291, 2026
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Heavy tropical rainfall can occur in two different ways: as intense local downpours or as deluges spread across a wide area. Using 20 years of radar observations from Darwin, Australia, and a simple theoretical model, we show that these two forms of heavy rain occur in different atmospheric conditions. This helps to better understand the spatial characteristics of rainfall and provides a way to better assess weather and climate models.
Netta Yeheskel, Matthew W. Christensen, Fabian Hoffmann, Graham Feingold, and Guy Dagan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 8765–8781, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8765-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8765-2026, 2026
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Aerosols influence cloud formation, structure, and radiative effects. As air masses move from the subtropics to the tropics, clouds transition from shallow to deeper systems. Using five years of satellite observations and numerical simulations, we find a robust aerosol impact on this Lagrangian cloud evolution: higher aerosol levels produce thicker, more reflective clouds, enhancing cooling and modifying energy and moisture transport toward the tropics.
Rebecca Gjini, Matthias Morzfeld, Franziska Glassmeier, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2871, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2871, 2026
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We connect two very different types of precipitating stratocumulus cloud models. The first model is a high-resolution simulation that can realistically represent clouds. The second model is a simple, 1D equation that interprets clouds as prey and rain as the predator of clouds. We evaluate the extent to which a simplified cloud model can represent selected aspects of a realistic cloud simulation under different meteorological conditions, highlighting both successes and limitations.
Tom Goren, Goutam Choudhury, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 7193–7206, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-7193-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-7193-2026, 2026
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We introduce a new way to describe marine low cloud morphologies as a continuous range rather than discrete types. Using this approach, we show that cloud brightness responses to changes in droplet concentrations vary strongly across cloud morphologies, but the overall effect is small. This suggests that marine cloud brightening may rely more on increasing cloud cover than on making existing clouds brighter.
Jianhao Zhang, David Painemal, Tom Dror, Jung-Sub Lim, Armin Sorooshian, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 6015–6034, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6015-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6015-2026, 2026
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Clouds transitioning from overcast to broken fields play an important role in regulating the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface. Using satellite imagery and a novel space-time exchange approach, we examine these transitions during marine cold-air outbreaks. Our analysis reveals characteristic signatures (or fingerprints) of liquid- and ice-phase processes, demonstrating how space-borne observations can provide new physical insight into cloud evolution.
Prasanth Prabhakaran, Timothy A. Myers, Fabian Hoffmann, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 5151–5167, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5151-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5151-2026, 2026
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We explore how climate change and aerosol affect the evolution of marine low-clouds. Using high-resolution simulations, we find that warming has a stronger impact on these clouds, but aerosol becomes more important after the clouds form precipitation. Our results suggest that attempts to brighten these clouds using aerosol may become less effective in a warmer future due to the decrease in cloud cover.
Muhamad Reyhan Respati, Martin S. Singh, and Christian Jakob
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1981, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1981, 2026
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Unlike in the extratropics, there is no standard way to classify tropical weather systems. We introduce a new classification based on how fast a system moves and the relative importance of moisture and buoyancy in its driving mechanisms. We find that systems for which moisture is a key driver contribute up to 75 % of extreme rainfall in certain areas. This new model provides a much-needed "roadmap" for scientists to understand how tropical dynamics and rainfall are connected across the globe.
Lucinda A. Palmer and Martin S. Singh
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 1565–1582, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1565-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1565-2025, 2025
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This study investigates the relationship between stability and humidity in the tropical troposphere in global climate models. We develop a method for quantifying the relationship and find varying relationships that are similar or even opposite to observations. We theorise that measures of intense thunderstorms and humid heatwaves are influenced by the stability-humidity relationship. Models that have a relationship like observations project greater increases in these measures under warming.
Isabel L. McCoy, Sunil Baidar, Paquita Zuidema, Jan Kazil, W. Alan Brewer, Wayne M. Angevine, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 16233–16261, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16233-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16233-2025, 2025
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We use ship observations to investigate the dynamics of small clouds over the tropical oceans. When these cumulus clouds cluster together, they more efficiently move moisture into the cloud layer due to strengthened updrafts. This encourages further clustering, increases local cloud development success, and may help sustain clouds against diurnal variations in their environment. These results have implications for cumulus feedback on the climate, a significant uncertainty in future projections.
Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Jianhao Zhang, and Fabian Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10869–10885, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10869-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10869-2025, 2025
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Scientists usually use snapshots of atmospheric data to glean understanding of time-evolving atmospheric processes. We examine how much can be learned about processes from snapshots using examples from cloud and atmospheric physics. We couch the analysis in terms of the theory of ergodic systems, space-time-exchange, and the Deborah number – concepts that are commonly applied in other branches of physics. We discuss the reasons for the varying degrees of success.
Fabian Hoffmann, Yao-Sheng Chen, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8657–8670, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8657-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8657-2025, 2025
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Clouds reflect a substantial portion of the incoming solar radiation back into space. This capacity is determined by the number of cloud droplets, which in turn is influenced by the number of aerosol particles, forming the basis for aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. In this study, we use a simple entrainment parameterization to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water in weakly and non-precipitating stratocumulus.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6141–6159, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, 2025
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Injecting sea salt aerosols into marine stratiform clouds can distribute the cloud water over more droplets in smaller sizes. This process is expected to make the clouds brighter, allowing them to reflect more sunlight back to space. However, it may also cause the clouds to lose water over time, reducing their ability to reflect sunlight. We use a computer model to show that the loss of cloud water occurs relatively quickly and does not completely offset the initial brightening.
Pouriya Alinaghi, Fredrik Jansson, Daniel A. Blázquez, and Franziska Glassmeier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6121–6139, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6121-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6121-2025, 2025
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Shallow clouds in the trades are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. These clouds organize into striking mesoscale patterns that are exactly what climate models lack. This study explores the origin of such patterns and investigates how variations in microscale properties control them. The importance of microscale effects is compared to that of large-scale forcing on the mesoscale organization of trade-cumulus fields.
Fabian Hoffmann, Franziska Glassmeier, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13403–13412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, 2024
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Clouds constitute a major cooling influence on Earth's climate system by reflecting a large fraction of the incident solar radiation back to space. This ability is controlled by the number of cloud droplets, which is governed by the number of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, laying the foundation for so-called aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. In this study, a simple model to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water is developed and applied.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Jianhao Zhang, Fabian Hoffmann, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Franziska Glassmeier, Xiaoli Zhou, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12661–12685, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, 2024
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Marine stratocumulus cloud is a type of shallow cloud that covers the vast areas of Earth's surface. It plays an important role in Earth's energy balance by reflecting solar radiation back to space. We used numerical models to simulate a large number of marine stratocumuli with different characteristics. We found that how the clouds develop throughout the day is affected by the level of humidity in the air above the clouds and how closely the clouds connect to the ocean surface.
Jianhao Zhang, Yao-Sheng Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10425–10440, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, 2024
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Quantifying cloud response to aerosol perturbations presents a major challenge in understanding the human impact on climate. Using a large number of process-resolving simulations of marine stratocumulus, we show that solar heating drives a negative feedback mechanism that buffers the persistent negative trend in cloud water adjustment after sunrise. This finding has implications for the dependence of the cloud cooling effect on the timing of deliberate aerosol perturbations.
Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1919–1937, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1919-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1919-2024, 2024
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In this study, we explore the impact of deliberate aerosol perturbation in the northeast Pacific region using large-eddy simulations. Our results show that cloud reflectivity is sensitive to the aerosol sprayer arrangement in the pristine system, whereas in the polluted system it is largely proportional to the total number of aerosol particles injected. These insights would aid in assessing the efficiency of various aerosol injection strategies for climate intervention applications.
Hong Chen, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Steven T. Massie, Vikas Nataraja, Matthew S. Norgren, Jake J. Gristey, Graham Feingold, Robert E. Holz, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1971–2000, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, 2023
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We introduce the Education and Research 3D Radiative Transfer Toolbox (EaR3T) and propose a radiance self-consistency approach for quantifying and mitigating 3D bias in legacy airborne and spaceborne imagery retrievals due to spatially inhomogeneous clouds and surfaces.
Jianhao Zhang and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1073–1090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1073-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1073-2023, 2023
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Using observations from space, we show maps of potential brightness changes in marine warm clouds in response to increases in cloud droplet concentrations. The environmental and aerosol conditions in which these clouds reside covary differently in each ocean basin, leading to distinct evolutions of cloud brightness changes. This work stresses the central importance of the covariability between meteorology and aerosol for scaling up the radiative response of cloud brightness changes.
Michael S. Diamond, Pablo E. Saide, Paquita Zuidema, Andrew S. Ackerman, Sarah J. Doherty, Ann M. Fridlind, Hamish Gordon, Calvin Howes, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jianhao Zhang, Graham Feingold, and Robert Wood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12113–12151, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12113-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12113-2022, 2022
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Smoke from southern Africa blankets the southeast Atlantic from June-October, overlying a major transition region between overcast and scattered clouds. The smoke affects Earth's radiation budget by absorbing sunlight and changing cloud properties. We investigate these effects in regional climate and large eddy simulation models based on international field campaigns. We find that large-scale circulation changes more strongly affect cloud transitions than smoke microphysical effects in our case.
Vikas Nataraja, Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jan Kazil, Graham Feingold, Kevin Wolf, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5181–5205, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, 2022
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A convolutional neural network (CNN) is introduced to retrieve cloud optical thickness (COT) from passive cloud imagery. The CNN, trained on large eddy simulations from the Sulu Sea, learns from spatial information at multiple scales to reduce cloud inhomogeneity effects. By considering the spatial context of a pixel, the CNN outperforms the traditional independent pixel approximation (IPA) across several cloud morphology metrics.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Franziska Glassmeier, Graham Feingold, Fabian Hoffmann, and Rebecca J. Murray-Watson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11727–11738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11727-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11727-2022, 2022
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The response of clouds to changes in aerosol remains a large uncertainty in our understanding of the climate. Studies typically look at aerosol and cloud processes in snapshot images, measuring all properties at the same time. Here we use multiple images to characterise how cloud temporal development responds to aerosol. We find a reduction in liquid water path with increasing aerosol, party due to feedbacks. This suggests the aerosol impact on cloud water may be weaker than in previous studies.
Graham Feingold, Tom Goren, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3303–3319, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, 2022
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The evaluation of radiative forcing associated with aerosol–cloud interactions remains a significant source of uncertainty in future climate projections. Using high-resolution numerical model output, we mimic typical satellite retrieval methodologies to show that data aggregation can introduce significant error (hundreds of percent) in the cloud albedo susceptibility metric. Spatial aggregation errors tend to be countered by temporal aggregation errors.
Jianhao Zhang, Xiaoli Zhou, Tom Goren, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 861–880, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, 2022
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Oceanic liquid-form clouds are effective sunlight reflectors. Their brightness is highly sensitive to changes in the amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere and the state of the atmosphere they reside in. This study quantifies this sensitivity using long-term satellite observations and finds an overall cloud brightening (a cooling effect) potential and an essential role of the covarying meteorological conditions in governing this sensitivity for northeastern Pacific stratocumulus.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
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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.
Using detailed numerical simulations, we quantify how stratocumulus cloud decks dissipate energy...
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