Exploring Satellite-Derived Relationships between Cloud Droplet Number Concentration and Liquid Water Path Using a Large-Domain Large-Eddy Simulation

Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology. 74(1):176-188

Important aspects of the adjustments to aerosol-cloud interactions can be examined using the relationship between cloud droplet number concentration (Nd) and liquid water path (LWP). Specifically, this relation can constrain the role of aerosols in leading to thicker or thinner clouds in response to adjustment mechanisms. This study investigates the satellite retrieved relationship between Nd and LWP for a selected case of mid-latitude continental clouds using high-resolution Large-eddy simulations (LES) over a large domain in weather prediction mode. Since the satellite retrieval uses the adiabatic assumption to derive the Nd, we have also considered adiabatic Nd (NAd) from the LES model for comparison. The joint histogram analysis shows that the NAd-LWP relationship in the LES model and the satellite is in approximate agreement. In both cases, the peak conditional probability (CP) is confined to lower NAd and LWP; the corresponding mean LWP (LWP) shows a weak relation with NAd. The CP shows a larger spread at higher NAd (>50 cm–3), and the LWP increases non-monotonically with increasing NAd in both cases. Nevertheless, both lack the negative NAd-LWP relationship at higher NAd, the entrainment effect on cloud droplets. In contrast, the model simulated Nd-LWP clearly illustrates a much more nonlinear (an increase in LWP with increasing Nd and a decrease in LWP at higher Nd) relationship, which clearly depicts the cloud lifetime and the entrainment effect. Additionally, our analysis demonstrates a regime dependency (marine and continental) in the NAd-LWP relation from the satellite retrievals. Comparing local vs large-scale statistics from satellite data shows that continental clouds exhibit only a weak nonlinear NAd-LWP relationship. Hence a regime-based Nd-LWP analysis is even more relevant when it comes to warm continental clouds and their comparison to satellite retrievals.

Aerosol-cloud interaction, Cloud droplet number concentration, Liquid water path