On the formation mechanism of cirrus banding: radiosonde observations, numerical simulations, and stability analyses

Abstract

The structures and formation mechanisms of cirrus banding are investigated by analyzing radiosonde observations, conducting high-resolution numerical experiments, and performing linear stability analyses. In all 29 cases of cirrus bands that were analyzed, radiosonde observational data indicate that statically unstable layers exist. The detected banding clouds were aligned nearly parallel to the vertical shear vector in the unstable layer. In high-resolution numerical experiments using the cloud-resolving model SCALE-RM, cirrus bands forming in the outflow layer of a tropical cyclone are explicitly simulated. The existence of statically unstable layers and band-parallel background vertical wind shear are commonly identified in the simulations. Sensitivity experiments and heat budget analyses demonstrated that the unstable stratification within the cirrus clouds was maintained by the cloud-radiation interactions. To reveal the behavior of fluid instabilities in the cirrus bands, linear stability analyses in a basic state constructed from the radiosonde observations were performed. The fastest-growing disturbance is highly similar to that of the previously known thermal-shear instability in a uniform and isolated unstable layer and the results obtained by radiosonde observations and numerical simulations. All of the results consistently indicate that thermal-shear instability is responsible for the formation of cirrus banding. Our results not only follow previous modeling studies but also provide observational support, quantification of the destabilization by the cloud-radiation interactions, as well as a theoretical basis of the thermal-shear instability in a complex environment near cirrus bands.