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Radar Observations of Large-Eddy Circulations and Turbulence in Boundary Layer Clouds

Albrecht, B.A. and Kollias, P., Umiversity of Miami
Twelfth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

With the development and application of Doppler short wavelength radars, there has been an increased capability for explicitly resolving the vertical structure of boundary layer cloud circulations. Further, Doppler mm-wavelength radars used in a vertically pointing mode can provide information on the turbulence structure within the cloud volume sampled by the radar. Since these radar large eddy observations (LEO) are of the same resolution as that of Large Eddy Simulation models, they provide a means for explicitly evaluating LES (LEO for LES). Further the radar observations can be used to examine the subgrid scale turbulence parameterizations used in LES and study the physical processes important for forming and maintaining boundary layer clouds. In stratocumulus clouds these observations allow for a continuous monitoring of the vertical structure of the vertical velocity variance, explicit definition of large eddy circulation and the interaction of these circulations with resolvable scale entrainment a

Note: This is the poster abstract presented at the meeting; an extended version was not provided by the author(s).