32nd Conference on Broadcast Meteorology/31st Conference on Radar Meteorology/Fifth Conference on Coastal Atmospheric and Oceanic Prediction and Processes

Thursday, 7 August 2003
On the vertical profile of stratus liquid water flux using a millimeter cloud radar
Shelby Frisch, Colrado State University and NOAA-ETL, Boulder, CO; and P. Zuidema
Poster PDF (128.9 kB)
There are two components of the vertical flux of liquid water in stratus clouds, one component is due to the mean fall velocity of the cloud droplets, the other is due to any turbulent motion which can redistribute the cloud droplets. The mm cloud radar has been used to retrieve the effective radius from mm cloud radar reflectivity measurements. We use this technique to estimate the liquid water flux do to the mean settling velocity in the non-drizzling portion of stratus clouds. By taking the divergence of this flux, we can calculate the condensation heating and evaporative cooling rates. For the cases we have examined, we find the rates to be several degrees K per day.

Supplementary URL: http://www.etl.noaa.gov/~psuidema/shelby_flux_bw.pdf