This study aims to understand the evolution of the boundary layer cloud, aerosol and thermodynamic structures along trajectories within the north-Pacific trade-winds using observations from the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V (HIAPER). This effort includes characterization of the cloud, precipitation and aerosol fields in the stratocumulus (Sc) and the fair-weather cumulus (Cu) regimes within the subtropical easterlies over the northern Pacific and the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) models to simulate the cloud evolution along the trajectories sampled.
Intellectual merit: These characterizations along trajectories will be designed to aid in our understanding and simulation of the transition between the two convective regimes - a critical factor in the climate system. LES models have become a robust tool for Lagrangian simulations of subtropical cloudiness transitions, but there are few good datasets for comprehensively testing these simulations. In particular, adequate observations of the coupled evolution of aerosol, cloud droplet number concentration and precipitation during such transitions are lacked. Thus, the observing strategy will be to sample aerosol, cloud, precipitation, and boundary layer properties upwind from the transition zone over the North Pacific and to resample these areas two and four days later. This Lagrangian approach is designed to minimize uncertainties in the large-scale forcing due to horizontal advection in the lower troposphere as air masses move from colder to warmer sea surface temperatures and thus facilitate model simulations and isolate critical physical processes.
Two key elements of the observing system will be a newly developed HIAPER Cloud Radar (HCR) and the HIAPER High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL). The HCR will be used to provide cloud and precipitation characteristics. The HSRL will provide cloud boundaries and aerosol characteristics when viewing non-cloudy volumes. A full suite of probes on the aircraft will be used for in situ measurements of aerosol, cloud, precipitation, and turbulence properties. Two modes of operations will be made on flights between the west coast of California and Hawaii. One will include remote sensing (mapping) of the clouds and boundary layer from flight levels above the boundary layer made upstream and downstream from the Sc to Cu transition zone. The other will involve detailed profiling in the subcloud and cloud layer in two or three selected areas upstream and downstream from the transition zone to make detailed in situ measurements of aerosols, clouds, precipitation, and turbulence. On the surveying legs dropsondes will be used to obtain the thermodynamic and wind structure in and above the boundary layer. Several flight sequences are planned for the June-July 2015 timeframe. The observations made on these flights will be used to evaluate the moisture, dry static energy and mass budgets by estimating the changes in these parameters between the upstream Sc region sampled on one flight and the downstream Cu region sampled on the subsequent flights. The synthesis of the observations will provide an observational framework for LES studies that will provide a better understating of cloud system evolution in the trades.
Broader impacts: The project will develop observing and analysis techniques and strategies that will facilitate the development of future missions aimed at studying boundary layer clouds in remote areas that are not easily reached by other observing platforms. The data sets developed will be useful for evaluating satellite retrieval techniques and for evaluating models and model parameterizations applied to a wide range of scales--microphysical, mesoscale, regional, and global. The educational components of this project will include the training of graduate and undergraduate students on the technical aspects of the data collection processes, flight operations, and the subsequent analysis of data to address key science questions. Further, integration of observations from the project into teaching and learning modules that can be used at both the undergraduate and the graduate level will be developed.
