Composite structure of plumes in stratus-topped boundary layers

Abstract

A conditional sampling technique is applied to the STBL flow fields that are generated through large-eddy simulations, so that the structures of typical updrafts and downdrafts may be derived. For the purpose of comparing the surface-heated CBL and the cloud-top-cooled STBL, an idealized STBL is simulated where the turbulence is maintained solely by cloud-top radiative cooling. It was found that in the idealized STBL, the compensating updrafts are nearly as strong as the top-cooling-generated downdrafts, and they contribute a significant amount to the heat, moisture, and momentum transports. This differs very much from the CBL, where the compensating downdrafts are much weaker than the surface-heating-generated updrafts and contribute much less to the transports. -from Authors