Phys.org September 13, 2022
The persistent Southern Ocean (SO) shortwave radiation causes biases in climate models. An international team of researchers (Australia, USA – University of Oklahoma) investigated and characterized cloud and precipitation processes over the Southern Ocean from synoptic to micro scales using the observations collected during the Clouds Aerosols Precipitation Radiation and atmospheric Composition Over the Southern Ocean 2016 and 2018 field campaigns. The cloud and precipitation regimes corresponded to the seven thermodynamic clusters established using a K-means clustering technique, while less distinctions were evident using the cyclone and (cold) front compositing methods. Cloud radar and disdrometer data showed that light precipitation is common over the SO with higher intensities associated with cyclonic and warm frontal regions. Possible presence of diverse microphysical features in several cloud regimes, including the likely dominance of ice aggregation in deep precipitating clouds were found and signatures of mixed phase, and in some cases, riming were detected in shallow convective clouds away from the frontal conditions. They observed two of the K-means clusters with contrasting cloud and precipitation properties over the high-latitude SO and coastal Antarctica…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Aconceptual illustration of the seven thermodynamic clusters and their relationships… Credit: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 12 September 2022Â