A case study of stratus cloud base height multifractal fluctuations

Abstract

The complex structure of a typical stratus cloud base height (or profile) time series is analyzed with respect to the variability of its fluctuations and their correlations at all experimentally observed temporal scales. Due to the underlying processes that create these time series, they are expected to have multiscaling properties. For obtaining reliable measures of these scaling properties, different methods of statistical analysis are used herein : power spectral density, detrended fluctuation analysis, and multifractal analysis. This broad set of diagnostic techniques is applied to a typical stratus cloud base height (CBH) data set; data were obtained from the Southern Great Plains site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program of the Department of Energy from a Belfort Laser Ceilometer. First, we demonstrate that this CBH time series is a nonstationary signal with stationary increments. Further, two scaling regimes are found, although the characteristic laws are quite similar ones. Next, the multi-affine scaling properties are confirmed. The scaling properties of the cloud base height profile of such a continental stratus are found to be similar to those of the marine cloud base height profiles studied by us previously. Some physical interpretation in terms of anomalous diffusion (or fractional random walk) is given for the continental case.

A numerical investigation of entrainment and transport within a stratocumulus‐topped boundary layer

“…This seems to affect the height of the local cloud base, which in Figure 9 varies more than the height of the cloud top. This mechanism may also explain observed fluctuations of the cloudbase height in in situ measurements (Ivanova et al, 2002). The vertical gradient of the tracer is sharp near cloud tops where the ascending air impinges upon the inversion, and seems more diffuse in regions between clouds.…”

Statistical physics in meteorology

“…Therefore it is of interest to probe the distribution of the fluctuations of a time dependent signal y(t) prior investigating its intermittency. Much work has been devoted to the cloud base height [54][55][56] , under various ABL conditions, and the LWP 57,64 . Neither the distribution of the fluctuations of liquid water path signals nor those of the cloud base height appear to be Gaussian.…”

Coupled Criticality Analysis of Inflation and Unemployment

“…It is reasonable to expect that inflation and unemployment, as outcomes of these complex systems, inherent complexity theory features. This suggests considering a thorough analysis of these variables along with advanced techniques available in the complexity theory approach, itself found to be of interest in many applications [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].…”