Radar analysis of long-lived trade wind cumulus clouds from the Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean experiment (RICO)

The Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean Experiment (RICO) was recently conducted in the Caribbean (11/24/2004 – 01/24/2005) with the goal to characterize and understand the properties of shallow trade wind cumulus clouds on all scales and to determine the importance of precipitation. One of our early findings during RICO was that trade wind cumulus clouds were often unexpectedly long-lived. In a first attempt to understand our observations we track radar echoes using PPI scans from the National Center for Atmospheric Research S-Pol radar for selected cases of long-lived cumulus clouds. From these scans we are construct time-height cross sections of radar reflectivity at S- and K-band and differential radar reflectivity at S-band with the goal of understanding how these long-lived trade wind cumulus clouds differ in their microphysical evolution from tropical cumulus clouds observed during past field campaigns in Florida. Since RICO recently ended, the results of this analysis are ongoing. We will present our latest findings at the conference.