Observations of Drizzle in Nocturnal Marine Stratocumulus

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?1. Additional analysis of the structure and variability of drizzle indicates that the macroscopic (flight averaged) mean drizzle rates at cloud base scale with H3/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-?m 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.