Lagrangian Study of Cloud Properties and Their Relationships to Meteorological Parameters over the U.S. Southern Great Plains

Abstract

Hourly satellite cloud data from 18 June to 18 July 1997 over the U.S. southern Great Plains are analyzed to study the scale-dependent cloud properties and their relationships to atmospheric conditions. The observed clouds are classified into high, midlevel, and low clouds according to their top heights. For each cloud type, contribution to the total cloud amount from clouds of different sizes is determined using a Lagrangian cloud classification scheme. It is found that in this continental, convectively active environment, more than half of the total cloud amount is from high clouds, of which 80% comes from clouds with area >4 ? 104 km2. For midlevel clouds, more than 50% of the contribution to cloud amount is from small clouds (e.g., cloud area <4 ? 104 km2). Almost all of the low clouds with significant contribution to cloud amount have spatial scales <4 ? 104 km2. This suggests that most of the midlevel and low clouds are of subgrid scale to a typical GCM resolution (T42 or T63). It is further found that cloud radiative properties, such as cloud albedo, outgoing longwave radiation, and cloud radiative forcing, have strong scale dependence. Bigger clouds are brighter and have lower outgoing longwave radiation. These results indicate that contributions to the observed cloud radiative forcing are dominated by large cloud systems. The diurnal variation of the cloud properties is also examined. Using concurrent meteorological analysis from NCEP, possible relationships between cloud properties and prevailing meteorological conditions were sought. It is found that clear relationships exist between cloud properties, such as cloud amount and albedo, and the layer-averaged relative humidity, and the relationships vary with cloud scale. In addition, cloud properties for high clouds are well correlated to vertical velocity in the upper troposphere. More large and highly reflective clouds tend to occur in regions of upward motion. Low clouds have a clear correspondence with the lower-tropospheric static stability and temperature. Large and thick clouds prefer to exist where the lower-tropospheric air is cold, statically more stable, and has high relative humidity.