Convective Steady State in Shallow Cloud Fields.

Shallow cloud fields exhibit different patterns, such as closed or open hexagonal cells and cloud streets. These patterns play a key role in determining the cloud fields' radiative effects, thereby affecting the climate. Here, we show that a large subset of shallow cloud fields forms organized, mesoscale-sized, regular patterns that persist for extended times.

Uncovering the Large-Scale Meteorology That Drives Continental, Shallow, Green Cumulus Through Supervised Classification.

One of the major sources of uncertainty in climate prediction results from the limitations in representing shallow cumulus (Cu) in models. Recently, a class of continental shallow convective Cu was shown to share distinct morphological properties and to emerge globally mostly over forests and vegetated areas, thus named . Using machine-learning supervised classification, we identify greenCu fields over three regions, from the tropics to mid- and higher-latitudes, and establish a novel satellite-based data set called , consisting of 1° × 1° sized, high-resolution MODIS images.