Observations of Drizzle in Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus.

@article{citeulike:1559510, abstract = {In situ and radar data from the second field study of the Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus (DYCOMS-II) have been used to study drizzle in stratocumulus. Measurements indicate that drizzle is prevalent. During five of seven analyzed flights precipitation was evident at the surface, and on roughly a third of the flights mean surface rates approached or exceeded 0.5 mm day<SUP>-1</SUP>. Additional analysis of the structure and variability of drizzle indicates that the macroscopic (flight averaged) mean drizzle rates at cloud base scale with H<SUP>3</SUP>/N where H is the flight-averaged cloud depth and N the flight-averaged cloud droplet number concentration. To a lesser extent flight-to-flight variability in the mean drizzle rate also scales well with differences in the 11- and 4-mum brightness temperatures, and the cloud-top effective radius. The structure of stratocumulus boundary layers with precipitation reaching the surface is also investigated, and a general picture emerges of large flight-averaged drizzle rates being manifested primarily through the emergence of intense pockets of precipitation. The characteristics of the drizzle spectrum in precipitating versus nonprecipitating regions of a particular cloud layer were mostly distinguished by the number of drizzle drops present, rather than a change in size of the median drizzle drop, or the breadth of the drizzle spectrum.}, author = {Vanzanten, M. C. and Stevens, B. and Vali, G. and Lenschow, D. H.}, citeulike-article-id = {1559510}, journal = {Journal of Atmospheric Sciences}, keywords = {clouds, clouds-low, clouds-physics, drizzle}, month = {January}, pages = {88--106}, posted-at = {2007-08-14 05:32:53}, priority = {2}, title = {Observations of Drizzle in Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus.}, url = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2005JAtS...62...88V}, volume = {62}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1559510 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1559510 N2 - In situ and radar data from the second field study of the Dynamics and Chemistry of Marine Stratocumulus (DYCOMS-II) have been used to study drizzle in stratocumulus. Measurements indicate that drizzle is prevalent. During five of seven analyzed flights precipitation was evident at the surface, and on roughly a third of the flights mean surface rates approached or exceeded 0.5 mm day<SUP>-1</SUP>. Additional analysis of the structure and variability of drizzle indicates that the macroscopic (flight averaged) mean drizzle rates at cloud base scale with H<SUP>3</SUP>/N where H is the flight-averaged cloud depth and N the flight-averaged cloud droplet number concentration. To a lesser extent flight-to-flight variability in the mean drizzle rate also scales well with differences in the 11- and 4-mum brightness temperatures, and the cloud-top effective radius. The structure of stratocumulus boundary layers with precipitation reaching the surface is also investigated, and a general picture emerges of large flight-averaged drizzle rates being manifested primarily through the emergence of intense pockets of precipitation. The characteristics of the drizzle spectrum in precipitating versus nonprecipitating regions of a particular cloud layer were mostly distinguished by the number of drizzle drops present, rather than a change in size of the median drizzle drop, or the breadth of the drizzle spectrum. JF - Journal of Atmospheric Sciences EP - 106 TI - Observations of Drizzle in Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus. VL - 62 SP - 88 KW - clouds KW - clouds-low KW - clouds-physics KW - drizzle AU - Vanzanten, MC AU - Stevens, B AU - Vali, G AU - Lenschow, DH PY - 2005/January// UR - http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2005JAtS...62...88V ER -