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Convective Clouds
Lecture Sequence1. Basic convective cloud types
2. Severe convection & mesoscale systems
3. Tropical cloud population
4. Convective feedbacks to large-scales
5. Extreme convection
6. Diurnal variability
7. Clouds in tropical cyclones
The tropical convective cloud population
Lecture, Summer School on Severe and Convective Weather, Nanjing, 11 July 2011
Robert HouzeUniversity of Washington
The tropical convective cloud population
What do we know?
How has technology contributed?
What comes next?
Before Satellites
Small cumulus
Cumulus congestus
Cumulonimbus
Visual Observation
Radiosonde data in the tropics
Riehl & Malkus 1958
“Hot tower hypothesis”“Hot tower hypothesis”
GC
M g
rid
Convective parameterization
Satellite Observations: an “inconvenient truth”
Large cloud shields
Satellite view of the tropical cloud population
•Explained satellite pictures •Retained the hot tower notion •Included smaller clouds
Early 1970’s
Radars: The second “inconvenient
truth”
GATE 1974
197440 ships!
12 aircraft!
197440 ships!
12 aircraft!
4 shipborne scanning digital
C-band radars
4 shipborne scanning digital
C-band radars
More Field Projects to Study Convection
BoB 1979
JASMINE1999
EPIC 2001
TEPPS1997
(Dashed: No sounding network)
Ground, ship, & airborne cm radars
Houze et al. (1980)
Post-GATE view of the tropical cloud population
MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS (MCSs)
STRATIFORMRAINGCM grid
Hot Tower
Houze 1982
Heating and cooling processes in an MCS
Simplified MCS Heating Profiles
Schumacher et al. 2004
He
igh
t (km
)
Deg K/day
Convective
Stratiform
MCS Net Heating Profiles
He
igh
t (km
)
Deg K/day
0% stratiform
40% stratiform
70% stratiform
Schumacher et al. 2004
Precipitation Radar in Space
The TRMM SatelliteThe TRMM Satellite
Ku-band RadarKu-band Radar
Low altitude, low inclination orbitLow altitude, low inclination orbit
Knowledge of global rainfall before satellites measured rain from space
Knowledge of global rainfall before satellites measured rain from space
Combined satellite rainfall July 2000TRMM plus passive microwave sensors + other
Combined satellite rainfall July 2000TRMM plus passive microwave sensors + other
Rainfall mapping revolutionized!Rainfall mapping revolutionized!
TRMM Satellite InstrumentationTRMM Satellite Instrumentation
Kummerow et al, 1998
λ= 2 cmImportant! PR measures 3D structure of radar echoes
How tropical rain is distributed by cloud size
and type
Schumacher & Houze 2003
2 Years of TRMM PR data
Large CbsMCSs
Smallisolated Cbs
How do the environments of these regimes differ?
SST Climatology (July)TRMM PR Deep Convective
TRMM PR Shallow, Isolated Convective
July SST
Traditional conceptual view of mean meridional distribution of tropical convection
Simpson 1992
Stratocumulus Regime
Trade Wind Regime
Indo/Pacific Warm Pool
“Trimodal” distribution
Johnson et al. 1999
Evidence from TOGA COARE
soundingdata
Cu congestusSmall Cb
“Trimodal distribution”“Trimodal
distribution”
Suggested by
TOGA COARE radiosonde data
Johnson et al. 1999
Cloud Radars
“Trimodal” Distribution
Frequency of
cloud-top heightfrom 9 mm wavelength
vertically pointing radar
XMANUSMANUSMANUSMANUS
Hollars et al. 1999
Cloud Radar in Space
The A-Train Satellites show the complete MCS
Yuan and Houze 2010
MCSs Over the Whole Tropics
Yuan and Houze 2010
(< 12000 km2)
(> 40000 km2)
Morphology of MCS anvils in different parts of the tropics
Data from CloudSat mm-Wavelength Cloud Profiling Radar
Yuan and Houze 2010
Internal structure of MCS anvils shown by CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar
Yuan, Houze, and Heymsfield 2011
Africa Indian Ocean
convective rain stratiform rain
graupel
snow
Conceptual model of anvil microphysics
Cetrone and Houze 2011
Addu Atoll
Five radars on a tiny island
HUMIDITY
DUAL WAVELENGTHWater vapor
CM-WAVELENGTHPrecipitation
MM-WAVELENGTHNon-precipitating
Cumulus
MM-WAVELENGTHAnvil cloud
POLARIMETRYMicrophysics
DOPPLERAir motions
Radar Supersite ApproachWill document many aspects of the convective population
Summary & Conclusions
Timeline of progress
Pre-satellite eraHot towers
Radars in field projects
MCSs, convective and stratiform precipitation regions
Precipitation radar in space
Global patterns—convective, stratiform, shallow
Cloud radarsGround based—trimodality of the populationSatellite based—global distributions of MCSs, anvils, ...
Dual wavelengthWater vapor
Spectrum of convective cloud types and sizes covers a wide range of types and sizes of convective entities
• Mesoscale systems with stratiform rain• Top-heavy heating profiles• Multimodal size distributions• Shallow isolated cells• Structures of large anvil clouds• Global variability of the population
What we’ve learned
Where we are going
How does convective population project onto larger-scale dynamics?
• Latent heating profiles• Radiative heating profiles in anvils of MCSs • Nonprecipitating convective clouds• Relation between humidity field and cloud
population evolution • Role of clouds in MJO, ENSO, monsoon, & coupled
equatorial waves
End
This research was supported by NASA grants NNX07AD59G, NNX07AQ89G, NNX09AM73G, NNX10AH70G, NNX10AM28G,
NSF grants, ATM-0743180, ATM-0820586, DOE grant DE-SC0001164 / ER-6
Extra Slides
Internal structure of “thick” anvils shown by CloudSat
Yuan, Houze, and Heymsfield 2011
Indian Ocean
Africa
Internal structures of MCS anvils
Cetrone & Houze 2011and also
Yuan et al. 2011-CloudSat
Data from MCSs seen by ARM
W-band radar in Niamey, Niger
Hei
ght
(km
)
Reflectivity (dBZ)
Internal structures of MCS anvils
Cetrone & Houze 2011and also
Yuan et al. 2011-CloudSat
Data from MCSs seen by ARM
W-band radar in Niamey, Niger
Hei
ght
(km
)
Reflectivity (dBZ)