The importance of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) and stratus/stratocumulus clouds in atmospheric and atmosphere-ocean coupled models has been widely recognized, particularly over the Southeastern Pacific (SEP). However, the simulation of these processes still has serious deficiencies even in the most recent version of the NCEP Coupled Forecast System (CFS03) and the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM3), as discussed in the VOCALS Modeling Plan (2006). As part of the overall VOCALS modeling efforts, we are integrating the in situ data from VOCALS and previous field experiments as well as satellite (CloudSat, CALIPSO, ICESat, MODIS) data to address these issues through two specific tasks:

To this end, we have performed:

View our manuscript currently published in the VOCALS Special Issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics:

Brunke, M. A., S. P. de Szoeke, P. Zuidema, and X. Zeng, 2010: A comparison of ship and satellite measurements of cloud properties in the southeast Pacific stratus deck. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 3301-3318.

PI:
Xubin Zeng

Co-PI:
Michael Brunke

Funding provided by: