Browsing by Subject "clouds"
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Item Characteristics of a Marine Stratocumulus to Cumulus Cloud Transition(2014-12-08) Zapalac, AllisonThe studies in this thesis aim to improve the overall understanding of the characteristics of the marine stratocumulus to shallow cumulus transition over the southeast Pacific Ocean. This study uses observations from CloudSat and CALIPSO satellite instruments in NASA?s A-Train constellation to analyze environmental, microphysical and macrophysical cloud properties, precipitation, and cloud radiative effects along the climatological wind trajectories between January 2007 and December 2010. The interannual, intraseasonal, and diurnal variability of clouds across the transition over the study region is also examined. Results show that as trade winds advect equatorward from the Peruvian coastline to warmer waters, thick, persistent, low-level stratocumulus clouds with high cloud fractions and strong shortwave cloud radiative effects in the southern portion of the study region gradually transition to shallow cumulus clouds with decreased cloud fractions and cloud radiative effects. The speed of this transition exhibits interannual, seasonal, and diurnal differences associated with changes in the large-scale environment. More frequent and intense precipitation along the trajectory corresponds to a more rapid reduction in cloud cover, implying that it may play a role in the transition through its reduction in cloud water and stabilizing effect on the boundary layer. Results also suggest that capturing the variability in the transition from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus clouds is important for improving representation of cloud feedback effects in current climate models.Item Comparison between Model Simulations and Measurements of Hyperspectral Far- infrared Radiation from FIRST during the RHUBC-II Campaign(2012-02-14) Baugher, ElizabethSurface downward far-infrared (far-IR) spectra were collected from NASA?s Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere (FIRST) instrument from August to October 2009 at an altitude of 5.4 km near the summit of Cerro Toco, Chile. This region is known for its dry, cold, and dominantly clear atmosphere, which is optimal for studying the effects, that water vapor and cirrus clouds have on the far-IR. Comparisons with Line-By-Line Discrete Ordinants Radiative Transfer model, LBLDIS, show that FIRST observes the very fine spectral structure in the far-IR with differences as small as +/- 0.7% for both clear-sky and cloudy-sky simulations. Clear sky model analysis demonstrated the greatest sensitivity to atmospheric conditions is between 300 and 500 cm-1. The cloudy-sky simulations demonstrated that the far-IR radiation has minimal sensitivity to cloud particle effective radius, yet is very sensitive to cloud optical thickness at wavenumbers between 400 - 600 cm-1. In fact, cirrus optical thickness found to be inferred from the brightness temperature differences at 250 and 559.5 cm-1. Aerosols proved to reduce downwelling radiance by half that a clear-sky would emit, but had little effect on the total far-IR radiative forcing. Furthermore, these far-IR measurements open a new window to understanding the radiative impacts of various atmospheric constituents such as water vapor and clouds, and to understanding and modeling the Earth?s climate and energy budget.Item Determining Nighttime Atmospheric Optical Depth Using Mars Exploration Rover Images(2013-07-22) Bean, Keri MarieMartian clouds and dust play an important part of the radiative transfer and energy balance budget. To assist in fully understanding the impact of clouds and dust, the complete diurnal cycle needs to be characterized. One of the best methods to track diurnal variations on Mars is by measuring optical depth. The spatial and temporal trends of optical depth give insight into the dust and water cycles of the Martian atmosphere. Until now, spacecraft could only obtain optical depth during the day. In this thesis, nighttime images from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit are used to calculate nighttime optical depth using photometric methods to capture star flux. Bright stars in well-known constellations are used in this analysis. The observed flux was compared to the expected flux to give nighttime optical depth values. The observed nighttime optical depth was consistently similar to the daytime optical depth values on both an individual image and sol-averaged basis. Recommendations are made going forward to use the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity for conducting an optimal nighttime optical depth campaign to fully characterize the diurnal dust and water cycles of Mars. The Curiosity rover is well suited for nighttime imaging and can potentially provide valuable insight into the nighttime dust and cloud trends.Item Global ice cloud observations: radiative properties and statistics from moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer measurements(2009-05-15) Meyer, Kerry GlynneIce clouds occur quite frequently, yet so much about these clouds is unknown. In recent years, numerous investigations and field campaigns have been focused on the study of ice clouds, all with the ultimate goal of gaining a better understanding of microphysical and optical properties, as well as determining the radiative impact. Perhaps one of the most recognized instruments used for such research is the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), carried aboard the NASA EOS satellites Terra and Aqua. The present research aims to support ongoing efforts in the field of ice cloud research by use of observations obtained from Terra and Aqua MODIS. First, a technique is developed to infer ice cloud optical depth from the MODIS cirrus reflectance parameter. This technique is based on a previous method developed by Meyer et al. (2004). The applicability of the algorithm is demonstrated with retrievals from level-2 and -3 MODIS data. The technique is also evaluated with the operational MODIS cloud retrieval product and a method based on airborne ice cloud observations. From this technique, an archive of daily optical depth retrievals is constructed. Using simple statistics, the global spatial and temporal distributions of ice clouds are determined. Research has found that Aqua MODIS observes more frequent ice clouds and larger optical depths and ice water paths than does Terra MODIS. Finally, an analysis of the time series of daily optical depth values revealed that ice clouds at high latitudes, which are most likely associated with synoptic scale weather sytems, persist long enough to move with the upper level winds. Tropical ice clouds, however, dissipate more rapidly, and are in all likelihood associated with deep convective cells.Item Observed Characteristics of Clouds and Precipitating Systems Associated with the Tropical Circulation in Global Models and Reanalyses(2013-03-25) Stachnik, Justin PaulThis dissertation presents a series of work related to the representation of the Hadley circulation (HC) in atmospheric reanalyses and general circulation models (GCMs), with connections to the underlying tropical and subtropical cloud systems that comprise the mean meridional circulation. An intercomparison of eight atmospheric reanalyses showed that significant variability exists in the mean state for HC intensity, with less variability in HC width. Ensemble trends were broadly consistent with previous work and suggest a strengthening and widening of the tropical circulation over the last 30 years. Composite profiles of the apparent heat source and moisture sink were calculated for the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) cloud regimes using sounding observations from 10 field campaigns. Distinct heating profiles were determined for each ISCCP cloud regime, ranging from strong, upper-tropospheric heating for mesoscale convective systems to integrated cooling for populations associated with marine stratus and stratocumulus clouds. The derived profiles were generally similar over land and ocean with the notable exception of the fair-weather cumulus regime, which leads to some uncertainty in the mid- and upper-level reconstruction of subtropical heating. An instrument simulator indicated that low-latitude cloud properties from the NASA MERRA reanalysis qualitatively matched the distributions of cloud-top pressure and optical thickness in the ISCCP data, though the tallest and thickest clouds were missing from the reanalysis. Simulator results were sensitive to the choice of cloud overlap parameterization and the reanalysis consistently underpredicted the observed cloud fractions for all regimes. The vertical velocity, temperature, and moisture for each regime in MERRA largely matched observations from previous studies, suggesting that the dynamic and thermodynamic properties of the cloud regimes are well captured by the reanalysis. Finally, HC interannual variability was examined as a function of the observed frequency of the ISCCP cloud regimes. The strongest HC overturning events were attributed to an El Ni?o response in the central Pacific Ocean in addition to links between the intensity and position of the Pacific ITCZ. The ISCCP regime describing the most vigorous and organized convection contributed the most towards the total anomalous heating during HC extremes, despite an overall low frequency of occurrence. Idealized GCM simulations forced with the observed three-dimensional diabatic heating from ISCCP data produced too strong a HC with some improvement in other fields. Overall, much progress has been made regarding the links between low-latitude cloud systems and the HC, though future work will continue to address the upscale feedbacks of regional cloud variations upon the tropical circulation.