Case: 09 May 2016

Summary

Transitional closed to open cell cumulus event, mostly open cells on this day

Description

This was a multi-day transitional event (May 8th into May 9th) with precipitating open and closed cell cumulus characteristics. May 8th clouds exhibited wider, precipitating cells with cloud echo tops typically observed above the melting level (approx. 1.5 km AGL) for both days. The inversion height was at approximately 2.0 km AGL early on during this event. The clouds on May 9th transitioned from stratocumulus to a broken, open cellular cloud character with similar (or more intense) signatures of precipitation on ARM profiling instruments. Boundary layer winds remained moderate (25-30 kts) and from the north throughout this event.

Available assets

Standard ARM profiling assets, SEVIRI. Additional NPOESS validation radiosonde (15:00 UTC) on May 9th.

Critical period: 00:00-15:00

Extended precipitating open cellular cloud behaviors over the ENA main site

Figure 47 True color afternoon MODIS AQUA image with overlaid LES domains. The image area corresponds to the 5° region sampled for the larger forcing option. The yellow and orange boxes correspond to the sizes of the 25 km and 102 km LES domains, respectively.