Microphysical characteristics of cumulus clouds as observed in some African countries

  • Authors

    • Rabia Merrouchi National Meteorological Service of Morocco
    2014-09-19
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijag.v2i2.3388
  • This paper analyses airborne measurements of several midlevel and mixed-phase cumulus clouds observed in different environments (maritime, continental, shallow and deep convection) obtained during the scientific experiments performed by national weather modification programs in Morocco and Burkina Faso. Three cases are documented in this paper presenting the synoptic meteorological situation leading to the formation and the development of the sampled clouds and the results of the measurements collected using instrumental aircrafts. Several passes were made at the top of the sampled clouds and reported data were collected and analysed describing the variability of the measured parameters at various altitudes and thus different temperature values (negative and positive temperatures). The dependency of the liquid water content to the temperature has been studied but also its variation with regard to the vertical velocity and to the total concentration number of cloud particles.

    Keywords: Aircraft Measurements, Cloud Microphysics, Liquid Water Content, West African Monsoon.

  • References

    1. Fleishauer R P, Larson V E & Voner Haar T H, (2002) Observed Microphysical structure of midlevel, mixed-phase Clouds. J. Atmos. Sci., 59, 1779-1804. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469 (2002)059<1779: OMSOMM>2.0.CO; 2.
    2. Cotton W R & Anthes R A (1989) the mesoscale structure of extratopical cyclones and middle and high clouds. Storm and Cloud Dynamics, International Geophysical Series, vol 44, Academic Press, 745–787.
    3. Gultepe I, Isaac G a & Cober S G (2002) Cloud microphysical characteristics versus temperature for three Canadian field projects, Annales Geophysicae, 20, 1891–1898.Gultepe I & Isaac G A (2004) Aircraft observations of cloud droplet number concentration: Implications for climate studies, Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc, 130, 2377–2390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1256/qj.03.120.
    4. Gultepe I, Isaac G A, Leaitch W R & Banic C (1996) Parameterizations of marine stratus microphysics based on in-situ observations: Implications for GCMs. J. Climate, 9, 345–357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442 (1996)009<0345: POMSMB>2.0.CO; 2.
    5. Randall D, Curry J, Battisti D, Flato G, Grumbine R, Hakkinen S, Martinson D, Preller R, Walsh J & Weatherly J (1998) Status of and outlook for large-scale modeling of atmosphere– ice–ocean interactions in the Arctic, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc, 79, 197–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477 (1998)079<0197: SOAOFL>2.0.CO; 2.
    6. Rodgers R R & Yau M K (1996) A Short Course in Cloud physics, 3rd ed. Pergamon Press, Oxford.
    7. Frey W, Borrmann S, Kunkel D, Weigel R, de Reus M, Schlager H, Roiger A, Voigt C, Hoor P, Curtius J, Kramer M, Schiller C, Volk C M, Homan C D, Fierli F, Donfrancesco G Di, Ulanovsky A, Ravegnani F, Sitnikov N M, Viciani S, D'Amato F, Shur G N, Belyaev G V, Law K S & Cairo F (2011) In situ measurements of tropical cloud properties in the West African Monsoon: upper tropospheric ice clouds, Mesoscale Convective System outflow and subvisual cirrus, Atmos. Chem. Phys, 11, 5569–5590. Hobbs P V & Rangno A L (1985) Ice particle concentrations in clouds, J atmospheric sciences, vol 42, 2523-2549.
    8. Hobbs P V, Politovich M K & Radke L F (1980) structure of summer convective clouds in eastern Montana, I. Natural clouds, J. Appl. Meteor, 19, 645-663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450 (1980)019<0645: TSOSCC>2.0.CO; 2.
  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Merrouchi, R. (2014). Microphysical characteristics of cumulus clouds as observed in some African countries. International Journal of Advanced Geosciences, 2(2), 105-112. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijag.v2i2.3388