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In this study, a series of idealized large-eddy simulations is used to understand the relative impact of cloud-top and subcloud-layer sources of moisture on the microphysical–radiative–dynamical feedbacks in an Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus (AMPS) cloud system. This study focuses on a case derived from observations of a persistent single-layer AMPS cloud deck on 8 April 2008 during the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign near Barrow, Alaska. Moisture and moist static energy budgets are used to examine the potential impact of ice in mixed-phase clouds, specific humidity inversions coincident with temperature inversions as a source of moisture for the cloud system, and the presence of cloud liquid water above the mixed-layer top. This study demonstrates that AMPS have remarkable insensitivity to changes in moisture source. When the overlying air is dried initially, radiative cooling and turbulent entrainment increase moisture import from the surface layer. When the surface layer is dried initially, the system evolves to a state with reduced mixed-layer water vapor and increased surface-layer moisture, reducing the loss of water through precipitation and entrainment of near-surface air. Only when moisture is reduced both above and below the mixed layer does the AMPS decay without reaching a quasi-equilibrium state. A fundamental finding of this study is that, with or without cloud ice and with or without a specific humidity inversion, the cloud layer eventually extends into the temperature inversion producing a precipitation flux as a source of water into the mixed layer.

This paper describes a series of 6-day large eddy simulations of a deep, sometimes drizzling stratocumulus-topped boundary layer based on forcings from the East Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) 2001 field campaign. The base simulation was found to reproduce the observed mean boundary layer properties quite well. The diurnal cycle of liquid water path was also well captured, although good agreement appears to result partially from compensating errors in the diurnal cycles of cloud base and cloud top due to overentrainment around midday. At all times of the day, entrainment is found to be proportional to the vertically integrated buoyancy flux. Model stratification matches observations well; turbulence profiles suggest that the boundary layer is always at least somewhat decoupled. Model drizzle appears to be too sensitive to liquid water path and subcloud evaporation appears to be too weak. Removing the diurnal cycle of subsidence had little effect on simulated liquid water path. Simulations with changed droplet concentration and drizzle susceptibility showed large liquid water path differences at night, but differences were quite small at midday. Droplet concentration also had a significant impact on entrainment, primarily through droplet sedimentation feedback rather than through drizzle processes.

Mixed-layer budgets of boundary layer mass, moisture, and liquid water static energy are estimated from 6 days of data collected at 20°S, 85°W (a region of persistent stratocumulus) during the East Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) stratocumulus cruise in 2001. These budgets are used to estimate a mean diurnal cycle of entrainment and, by diagnosing the fluxes of humidity and liquid water static energy necessary to maintain a mixed-layer structure, of buoyancy flux. Although the entrainment rates suggested by each of the budgets have significant uncertainty, the various methods are consistent in predicting a 6-day mean entrainment rate of 4 ± 1 mm s−1, with higher values at night and very little entrainment around local noon. The diurnal cycle of buoyancy flux suggests that drizzle, while only a small term in the boundary layer moisture budget, significantly reduces subcloud buoyancy flux and may induce weak decoupling of surface and cloud-layer turbulence during the early morning hours, a structure that is maintained throughout the day by shortwave warming. Finally, the diurnal cycle of entrainment diagnosed from three recently proposed entrainment closures is found to be consistent with the observationally derived values.