Highlights will be written for high-level accomplishments and published journal articles of ASR research. Each ASR principal investigator (PI) is expected to submit at least one highlight per fiscal year.
Research Highlights
Recent Highlights
Fine-scale variability of surface albedo on the Southern Great Plains
27 August 2020
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Surface Properties
Sunlight reflected by the Earth’s surface, known as surface albedo, has a large impact on the amount of energy available to warm the surface or evaporate standing water and moisture trapped in the soil. Surface albedo data are commonly obtained from tower, aircraft, and satellite observations. Each approach has advantages [...]
New perspectives on cloud regimes over the Amazon Basin
17 August 2020
Giangrande, Scott; Wang, Die
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
The assumptions underpinning climate model cloud-process representations are often poorly constrained by observations, especially cloud properties found in remote/under-sampled global locations. Untangling cloud–climate controls in ways suitable for ongoing model development therefore demands long-term, multi-scale, multi-sensor observations from challenging instrument deployments to capture cloud properties -- such as the recently [...]
Long-term ARM observations provide insights into tropical deep convective cloud growth
13 August 2020
Wang, Die; Jensen, Michael
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Acting as atmospheric “elevators,” tropical deep convective clouds (TDCCs) transport heat, moisture, momentum, and chemical species vertically through the depth of the troposphere, driving the large‐scale atmospheric circulation. The strength and depth of this vertical transport depends on the convective updraft size and intensity, which is impacted by detailed internal [...]
Role of turbulent fluctuations in aerosol activation and cloud formation
27 July 2020
Cantrell, Will H.; Shaw, Raymond A
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions
We examine the effects of fluctuations produced by turbulence. Our measurements, from the Pi chamber, show a clear transition from a regime in which the mean saturation ratio dominates to one in which the fluctuations determine cloud properties. We show cloud formation in mean-subsaturated conditions (i.e., relative humidity < 100%) in [...]
Optimal Estimation retrievals and their uncertainties: What every atmospheric scientist should know
21 July 2020
Maahn, Maximilian; Turner, David D.
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
This educational paper gives an overview on developing Bayesian Optimal Estimation retrievals, which are a key method for converting indirect remote-sensing measurements into atmospheric variables. We present two sample retrievals based on microwave radiometers and radars including all data and retrieval code. Using a special website, the readers can explore and [...]