Satellite Observations of Precipitating Marine Stratocumulus Show Greater Cloud Fraction for Decoupled Clouds in Comparison to Coupled Clouds

31Citations
Citations of this article
40Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between marine stratocumulus clouds (MSC) coupling state with the ocean surface, their precipitation rate and fractional cloud cover (CF). This was possible by developing a novel methodology for satellite retrieval of the clouds coupling state. Decks of overcast MSC were reported in previous studies to break up often as their precipitation rate increases significantly, thus reducing CF and cloud radiative effect substantially. Here we show that decks of precipitating decoupled MSC have larger CF compared to similarly precipitating coupled MSC. The difference in CF between decoupled and coupled clouds was found to increase with precipitation rate, up to nearly doubling the CF of the heaviest precipitating decoupled MSC. This suggests that decoupling is a feature related to higher cloud radiative effect in precipitating MSC.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Goren, T., Rosenfeld, D., Sourdeval, O., & Quaas, J. (2018). Satellite Observations of Precipitating Marine Stratocumulus Show Greater Cloud Fraction for Decoupled Clouds in Comparison to Coupled Clouds. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(10), 5126–5134. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078122

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free