Satellite observations of an unusual cloud formation near the tropopause

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Abstract

This paper describes observations of a field of deep and regular cloud formations that spans several hundreds of kilometers at the top of a midlatitude frontal system in the North Pacific storm track. Space-based imagery of the event from active and passive measurements reveals smooth, clearly defined cloud lobes approximately 10 km across and 2-4km deep that resemble upside-down mammatus. These observations, together with theoretical arguments and prior modeling work, suggest that the lobes were part of a deepening turbulent mixed layer that formed as a consequence of strong cloud-top radiative cooling. Over the course of a day, the cloud-top formation evolved to leave behind a sheet of cumuliformcirrus that stretched hundreds of kilometers across. The potential is for such clouds to facilitate mixing across the tropopause, much as cloudtop cooling drives the entrainment of free-tropospheric air into stratocumulus-topped boundary layers.

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Ferlay, N., Garrett, T. J., & Minvielle, F. (2014). Satellite observations of an unusual cloud formation near the tropopause. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 71(10), 3801–3815. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-13-0361.1

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