Low cloud type over the ocean from surface observations. Part II: Geographical and seasonal variations

Synoptic surface cloud observations primarily made by volunteer observing ships are used to construct global climatologies of the frequency of occurrence of individual low cloud types over the ocean for daytime during summer and winter seasons for the time period 1954-92. This essentially separates the previous S. Warren et al. "stratus," "cumulus," and "cumuionimbus" climatologies into their constituent cloud types. The different geographical and seasonal distributions of low cloud types indicate that each type within the Warren et al. categories is associated with different meteorological conditions. Hence, investigations based on individual low cloud types instead of broader categories will best identify the processes and variability in meteorological parameters responsible for observed variability in cloudiness. The present study is intended to provide a foundation for future investigations by documenting the climatological distributions of low cloud type frequency and demonstrating the physical consistency with expected patterns of boundary layer structure, advection, surface divergence, and synoptic activity over the global ocean. Further analyses are conducted to examine in greater detail transitions in low cloud type and related boundary layer processes in the eastern subtropical North Pacific, eastern equatorial Pacific, and western North Pacific during summer. Maxima in the climatological frequencies of stratocumulus, cumulus-with-stratocumulus, and cumulus occur progressively equatorward over eastern subtropical oceans, consistent with an increasing decoupled boundary layer. This transition is also observed north of the equatorial cold tongue, but advection over colder SST on the southern side of equatorial cold tongue sometimes produces an absence of low cloudiness. A transition between cumuliform low cloud types to the south and stratiform low cloud types to the north occurs over the region of strong SST gradient in the western North Pacific, and during summer the maximum frequency of stratus associated with precipitation is collocated with the region of strong SST gradient.