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gfdl on-line bibliography > 2008 citations
Effect of intense wind shear across the inversion on stratocumulus clouds
| Wang, S., J-C. Golaz, and Q. Wang, 2008: Effect of intense wind shear across the inversion on stratocumulus clouds. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L15814, doi:10.1029/2008GL033865. |
| Abstract: A large-eddy simulation model is used to examine the impact of the intense cross-inversion wind shear on the stratocumulus cloud structure. The wind shear enhanced entrainment mixing effectively reduces the cloud water and thickens the inversion layer. It leads to a reduction of the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) production in the cloud layer due to the weakened cloud-top radiative cooling and the formation of a turbulent and cloud free sublayer within the inversion. The thickness of the sublayer increases with the enhanced wind shear intensity. Under the condition of a weaker inversion, the enhanced shear mixing within the inversion layer even lowers the cloud-top height and reduces the entrainment velocity. Finally, increasing wind shear or reducing inversion strength tends to create an inversion layer with a constant bulk Richardson number (∼0.3), suggesting that an equilibrium value of the Richardson number is reached. |