Środowiskowe Seminarium Fizyki Atmosfery

The DYCOMS-II field study of stratocumulus clouds off the southern California coast provided the unique opportunity of flying co-located high-speed microphysics and thermodynamic probes on the NSF/NCAR C-130 research aircraft. The high-speed UFT and PVM probes provided a maximum resolution of 10 cm for in-cloud measurements. Narrow regions of sharply reduced liquid water content, termed cloud holes, were omnipresent in all nine flights. Conditional sampling is used to identify these holes which are related to the entrainment process. We describe the horizontal and vertical distribution of the holes in the Sc, and the use of the holes to estimate the entrainment rate into the Sc; and we conclude and speculate on the microphysical and dynamical processes associated with the entrainment process, summarize remaining outstanding issues, and propose further studies.