Środowiskowe Seminarium Fizyki Atmosfery

High spatial resolution measurements of temperature and liquid water content, accompanied by moderate resolution measurements of humidity and turbulence, collected during the Physics of Stratocumulus Top (POST) experiment, are presented. An algorithmic division of the cloud top region into layers is proposed. Analysis of dynamic stability across these layers leads to the conclusion that the inversion capping the cloud and the cloud top region are turbulent due to the wind shear, which is strong enough to compensate for high static stability of the inversion. The thickness of this mixing layer adapts to wind and temperature jumps such that the gradient Richardson number stays close to its critical value. Turbulent mixing governs transport across the inversion, but the consequences of this mixing depend on the thermodynamic properties of cloud top and free troposphere. Results are compared in two thermodynamically, meteorologically and even optically different cases.