Buoyancy sorting versus two-point mixing: investigating mixing in shallow cumuli using RACORO observations, LES, and Lagrangian particle tracking

 

Authors

Xin Wei — Harvard University
Zhiming Kuang — Harvard University

Category

Convective clouds, including aerosol interactions

Description

Substantially different mixing behaviors are found in in situ measurements from RACORO and large eddy simulations (LES): while the LES results show a clear two-point mixing behavior, the RACORO data are more aligned with buoyancy sorting. The differing behaviors are traced to horizontal heterogeneities on a scale of tens of kilometers in the RACORO data; such heterogeneities are absent in the LES because of the small domain that are typically used. Further implications on the importance of buoyancy sorting and two-point mixing at different horizontal scales will be addressed.