Identification

Title

Trade wind clouds and Hawaiian rainbands

Abstract

Two case studies of rainband evolution off the windward coast of the Big Island of Hawaii are presented along with an overview of the complete radar and satellite dataset from the Hawaiian Rainband Project conducted in the summer of 1990. These studies reveal that radar-observed rainbands and cells offshore of the windward coastline are nearly always embedded within larger-scale stratocumulus cloud patches and/or cloud lines moving in from the northeastern Pacific Ocean in the easterly trade winds. These cloud patches develop in the trade-wind flow downstream of the large shallow stratocumulus cloud mass that covers much of the northeastern Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. Tropical cyclones originating in the intertropical convergence zone sometimes move north through this stratocumulus cloud mass, producing, in their wake, cloud-free regions that then advect toward the Hawaiian Islands. These regions contribute to the variability of the organization of cloud patterns and rainband occurrence offshore of Hawaii. Previous studies have employed data analysis and modeling to explain dynamical and thermodynamical processes that lead to the development of a flow separation line upwind of Hawaii and cloud formation along the line. This study shows that most rainbands occurring near the flow separation line first form upstream within cloud patches and/or cloud lines approaching the island and stretch within the deformation flow as the trade winds deflect around the island. Analyses of thermodynamic soundings suggest that lifting associated with convergence at the flow separation line is frequently sufficient to produce clouds but insufficient to trigger free convection and rainbands. A diurnal oscillation in rainband frequency upwind of the island is documented. This diurnal behavior in rainband frequency may be related to the strong diurnal radiational forcing that occurs at the top of the trade-wind marine layer.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7cz378t

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

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East bounding longitude

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Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

1996-10-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Use constraints

Copyright 1996 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

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