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Six-Year Climatology of Continental Stratus - Boundary Layer and Macroscopic Cloud Characteristics

Kollias, P.(a), Zhu, P.(b), Gottschalck, J.(c), and Albrecht, B.(a), University of Miami (a), University of Washington (b), NASA (c)
Thirteenth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting

A climatology of macroscopic cloud and environmental properties of continental stratus is developed for continental stratus. Results are obtained by using data collected from 1997-2002 at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site as part of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. Statistics from the 6-year data set are presented for cloud base height, cloud top height, cloud thickness, lifting condensation level (LCL), liquid water path, surface energy budget, boundary layer wind speed and direction, and static stability. Cloud-top height and cloud thickness statistics are limited to cold-season months (November-February} when MMCR observations are not contaminated by insects. The 1997 observations were classified into four synoptic categoriespost cold frontal, pre-warm frontal, southerly flow, and miscellaneous--to differentiate between different classes of stratus. The subjective synoptic classifications for 1997 were used to evaluate objective classifications that are then applied to the entire 6-year data set.

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