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Radiative cooling near the top of a cloudy mixed layer
Author(s) -
Nieuwstadt F. T. M.,
Businger J. A.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49711046617
Subject(s) - entrainment (biomusicology) , radiative transfer , mixed layer , radiative cooling , boundary layer , radiative flux , atmospheric sciences , turbulence , radiation , environmental science , divergence (linguistics) , temperature jump , flux (metallurgy) , meteorology , mechanics , physics , materials science , optics , linguistics , philosophy , rhythm , acoustics , metallurgy
The role of radiation above a cloudy mixed layer is examined. We find that whereas turbulent entrainment can be identified with a very sharp temperature jump at the cloud top, the effect of radiative flux divergence above the cloud leads to a much more gradual temperature increase. With adequate observations the two can easily be distinguished. The development of the boundary layer can be described in terms of equations in which above‐cloud radiation plays no role.