Long-term change in characteristics of cloud vertical structures in Padang from radiosonde observations

Abstract The characteristics of clouds continue to change with climate change, including changes in cloud-base heigh (CBH), cloud tops (CT) and the number of layers of clouds. This work investigates cloud vertical structures in Padang using long-term observations of radiosondes (1988-2019). Height of CBH identified based on the relative humidity threshold. of 84% following the method proposed by several previous studies. The vertical distribution of cloud tops, cloud base has increased over time in all cloud layers, but cloud thickness has decreased. The most commonly observed cloud layer in Padang is one layer cloud (58.87%), followed by two layer cloud (31.12%). The cloud with more layer is also observed but the number is relatively small (10%).</jats:p

Relationship between cloud vertical structures inferred from radiosonde humidity profiles and precipitation over Indonesia

Abstract Knowledge of cloud vertical structure, including the presence of multiple cloud layers, is important for several climate-related applications such as for understanding the impact of clouds on Earth’s radiation budget. Moreover, the vertical distribution of latent heat release that affects global circulation and precipitation. The characteristics of cloud vertical structure may change as a consequence of climate change. However, study on cloud vertical structure in Indonesia is limited to case study based on short period observation. This study aims to analyse the vertical structure of clouds, such as cloud base height (CBH), the height of the cloud top (CT) and the number of cloud layers due to climate change in Indonesia, based on ∼ 30 years radiosonde observation. The relation between cloud vertical structures and precipitation was investigated. We used the radiosonde data from nine observation stations in Indonesia. On an average, it is observed that over Indonesia one-layer clouds is most frequently observed cloud, more than 60% of the time. This number is much larger than the fraction of single layer clouds over the globe which is about 58 % of the time. The cloud vertical structures in Indonesia vary from month to month. The cloud vertical structure during wet and dry season is different which indicate a strong relationship between cloud vertical structure and precipitation.</jats:p