Case: 20 October 2020

Summary

Widespread open cell precipitating cumulus under strong (40 kt) northerly flow

Description

A widespread open cell cumulus event across the Azores domain. Strong boundary layer flow was from the north (> 40 kts). A mixture of precipitating cumulus with cloud echo tops to 3.0-3.5 km AGL was observed with shallower cumulus having echo tops closer to 2.0 km. The melting level was approximately 2.5 km AGL and/or potentially ambiguous to approximately 3.5 km, suggesting the melting level was likely close to, or slightly above, the observed cloud top heights throughout the event.

Available assets

Standard ARM profiling assets, SEVIRI. Additional ENA GNSS ground station radiosonde launch (1430 UTC)

Critical period: 06:00-11:00

Shallow cumulus over the ENA main site

True color MODIS AQUA — Figure 41 True color afternoon MODIS AQUA image with overlaid LES domains. The image domain corresponds to the size of the model forcing domain.