[Oracles-flight-planning] satellite loop

Fri Mar 11 18:55:31 PST 2016


On 2/22/16 7:53 PM, Robert Wood wrote:
> Hi Lenny,
>
> I just had a chance to watch this all the way through. Quite 
> fascinating. Thanks for putting it together. A few thoughts:
>
> Although 9/11 looks quite bad for getting nice Sc, there look to be 
> some major clearings offshore that could be used for direct effect 
> assessments right under the climatological aerosol plume.
>
> I'm quite impressed with how far north the cold air outbreaks seem to 
> come on occasion. I wonder if it would be useful to overplot low level 
> winds say as a different color arrow. Perhaps it would look too 
> cluttered. Or maybe overlaying LTS contours would be interesting.
Best go with the LTS contours, as suggested by Paquita in another e-mail.
>
> It's also interesting that the cloud detrained from the deep 
> convection (e.g. see 10/06) is not at the anvil level but is quite a 
> bit lower (warmer). I've seen this in many other locations (e.g. E 
> Pacific ITCZ) and often wondered why these clouds are detraining at 
> mid-levels, if that is indeed what they are doing. Perhaps there's a 
> strong stable layer there (top of the dry convective PBL that sets up 
> when the Cbs are not operating?).
I have looked at some convection earlier in the season in Angola 
(September).  The cloud tops based on the satellite are 35-40kft (200mb),
but the apparent detrainment (leftover stuff) is at lower altitudes and 
goes with the ~600mb flow (as you say).  The soundings in northern 
Angola (coast) show generally moist conditions up to about 500mb, with 
dry conditions above.  Convection tends to do some detrainment at all 
levels.  Flow seems
to be from the west (dry territory) at 200 and 300mb, so detrainment at 
those altitudes quickly evaporates.  Detrainment does not evaporate at 500
and 600mb because the air is moister.   I am guessing that there is 
subsidence at the high levels in September outside the main convective belt
in northern Congo, which makes the area dry at those altitudes.  Not 
sure what accounts for the moist blob at 500 and 600mb over Angola in
September (it's a climo feature).

In your October case, Angolan convection is quite extensive.  I wonder 
if you just can't see the detrainment at the upper levels because the wind
direction is from the south, pushing the upper level detrainment into a 
messy cloudy region.  At 600mb, winds head toward the west, over the
ocean, which has less cloud, so you can better see the detrainment.
>
> You can also see waves emanating from the midlatitudes over the SE 
> Atlantic that seem to reduce the Sc below (e.g. 10/17).
>
> Paquita: Are you planning to use the IR to get at the mid-level 
> clouds? CALIPSO could also prove useful for that, although I wonder 
> about thick aerosol layers being misdiagnosed as cloud, which would 
> not happen in the IR. Another source of mid-level cloud info would be 
> MISR. That actually might be the most reliable source of info. Just a 
> thought. Is it just me, or do I see more mid-level cloud over the SE 
> Atlantic in the later part of the season? It would be good to see if 
> this is borne out in any statistics.
>
> Also, what about that tropical cyclone making landfall in Yemen 
> (11/02)? Not without precedent, apparently 
> <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Global_tropical_cyclone_tracks-edit2.jpg>, 
> but not that common either.
>
> Regards
>
> Rob
>
>
> On 2/21/2016 7:09 AM, Paquita Zuidema wrote:
>> Lenny -
>>
>> wow, this is super useful and interesting. Thanks so much for putting it together. I viewed it
>> online using Mac-safari and didn’t have trouble with that. I see the time spans Aug 25 to Nov. 4, it’s
>> great to have the full 3 months as you say.
>>
>> A notable amount of great canonical flights days (say around 9/16) and some bad ones, at the
>> beginning and around 9/11, when a strong mid-lat disturbance came through. Mid-level clouds
>> coming off the continent can persist for a 1000 km offshore, e.g. to the dateline on 9/15, longer than
>> I had thought, and can also develop offshore, e.g, 9/18. Overall at least 2/3rds of the days  come
>> across as good flight days. These tend to have a persistent meteorology so thats great.
>>
>> We haven’t yet developed a climatology of the mid-level clouds at Miami, but I’ll take responsibility
>> for that prior to our STM, as that would be helpful.
>>
>> Paquita
>>
>>> On Feb 19, 2016, at 2:30 PM, Leonhard Pfister<Leonhard.Pfister-1 at nasa.gov>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Correction, the link is:
>>>
>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bocachica.arc.nasa.gov_ORACLES_sat_ir_IR-5F600mbar.mov&d=CwIGaQ&c=y2w-uYmhgFWijp_IQN0DhA&r=IL9pwgrUzZgXnjpYpeEyY_uN_e8lywf4QUVHwEqOmZw&m=hn71TFSqa402F6vCySG2bT2WQN5FpQ7w_IXEIAWBjMU&s=BdiyWD_CowjfKyBYGcGQR1O3z8xP2G7eEgAlV5YkBJ8&e=  
>>> Sorry
>>>
>>> L.
>>>
>>> On 2/19/16 11:18 AM, Leonhard Pfister wrote:
>>>> There is a satellite loop with overplotted meteorology for the entire fall period last year at
>>>>
>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bocachica.arc.nasa.gov_ORACLES_sat_ir_IR-5F600mbar.avi&d=CwIGaQ&c=y2w-uYmhgFWijp_IQN0DhA&r=IL9pwgrUzZgXnjpYpeEyY_uN_e8lywf4QUVHwEqOmZw&m=hn71TFSqa402F6vCySG2bT2WQN5FpQ7w_IXEIAWBjMU&s=RT2xXwTQpwIHpbxpgvsj6a8XEcbIwpZD9OHpJEgpvlU&e=  
>>>> BIG BIG file, be patient.
>>>>
>>>> L.
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>
> -- 
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
>
> Dr. Robert Wood
> Atmospheric Sciences, Box 351640, University of Washington, Seattle, WA  98195, USA
>
> robwood at atmos.washington.edu   www.atmos.washington.edu/~robwood
>
> Tel: (206)-543-1203     Fax: (206)-685-9302
>
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