دورية أكاديمية
Climatologically invariant scale invariance seen in distributions of cloud horizontal sizes
| العنوان: | Climatologically invariant scale invariance seen in distributions of cloud horizontal sizes |
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| المؤلفون: | T. D. DeWitt, T. J. Garrett, K. N. Rees, C. Bois, S. K. Krueger, N. Ferlay |
| المصدر: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 24, Pp 109-122 (2024) |
| بيانات النشر: | Copernicus Publications, 2024. |
| سنة النشر: | 2024 |
| المجموعة: | LCC:Physics LCC:Chemistry |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Physics, QC1-999, Chemistry, QD1-999 |
| الوصف: | Cloud area distributions are a defining feature of Earth's radiative exchanges with outer space. Cloud perimeter distributions n(p) are also interesting because the shared interface between clouds and clear sky determines exchanges of buoyant energy and air. Here, we test using detailed model output and a wide range of satellite datasets a first-principles prediction that perimeter distributions follow a scale-invariant power law n(p)∝p-(1+β), where the exponent β=1 is evaluated for perimeters within moist isentropic atmospheric layers. In model analyses, the value of β is closely reproduced. In satellite data, β is remarkably robust to latitude, season, and land–ocean contrasts, which suggests that, at least statistically speaking, cloud perimeter distributions are determined more by atmospheric stability than Coriolis forces, surface temperature, or contrasts in aerosol loading between continental and marine environments. However, the satellite-measured value of β is found to be 1.26±0.06 rather than β=1. The reason for the discrepancy is unclear, but comparison with a model reproduction of the satellite perspective suggests that it may owe to cloud overlap. Satellite observations also show that scale invariance governs cloud areas for a range at least as large as ∼3 to ∼3×105 km2, and notably with a corresponding power law exponent close to unity. Many prior studies observed a much smaller range for power law behavior, and we argue this difference is due to inappropriate treatments of the statistics of clouds that are truncated by the edge of the measurement domain. |
| نوع الوثيقة: | article |
| وصف الملف: | electronic resource |
| اللغة: | English |
| تدمد: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |
| Relation: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/24/109/2024/acp-24-109-2024.pdf; https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316; https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 |
| DOI: | 10.5194/acp-24-109-2024 |
| URL الوصول: | https://doaj.org/article/b5c72c4398794cda8b9da6cb79a6eae2 |
| رقم الأكسشن: | edsdoj.b5c72c4398794cda8b9da6cb79a6eae2 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
Full Text Finder | تدمد: | 16807316 16807324 |
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| DOI: | 10.5194/acp-24-109-2024 |