Juliano, Timothy W.Coggon, Matthew M.Thompson, GregoryRahn, David A.Seinfeld, John H.Sorooshian, ArminLebo, Zachary J.2021-01-132021-01-132019-09-01Juliano, T. W., Coggon, M. M., Thompson, G., Rahn, D. A., Seinfeld, J. H., Sorooshian, A., & Lebo, Z. J. (2019). Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 76(9), 2963-2993. Retrieved Jan 13, 2021, from https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atsc/76/9/jas-d-18-0317.1.xmlhttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/31129This work has been accepted to Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the final published work.Modeling marine low clouds and fog in coastal environments remains an outstanding challenge due to the inherently complex ocean–land–atmosphere system. This is especially important in the context of global circulation models due to the profound radiative impact of these clouds. This study utilizes aircraft and satellite measurements, in addition to numerical simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, to examine three well-observed coastally trapped disturbance (CTD) events from June 2006, July 2011, and July 2015. Cloud water-soluble ionic and elemental composition analyses conducted for two of the CTD cases indicate that anthropogenic aerosol sources may impact CTD cloud decks due to synoptic-scale patterns associated with CTD initiation. In general, the dynamics and thermodynamics of the CTD systems are well represented and are relatively insensitive to the choice of physics parameterizations; however, a set of WRF simulations suggests that the treatment of model physics strongly influences CTD cloud field evolution. Specifically, cloud liquid water path (LWP) is highly sensitive to the choice of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme; in many instances, the PBL scheme affects cloud extent and LWP values as much as or more than the microphysics scheme. Results suggest that differences in the treatment of entrainment and vertical mixing in the Yonsei University (nonlocal) and Mellor–Yamada–Janjić (local) PBL schemes may play a significant role. The impact of using different driving models—namely, the North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM) 12-km analysis and the NCEP North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) 32-km products—is also investigated.© 2019 American Meteorological Society. For information regarding reuse of this content and general copyright information, consult the AMS Copyright Policy (www.ametsoc.org/PUBSReuseLicenses).North Pacific OceanMarine boundary layerStratiform cloudsCloud parameterizationsNumerical analysis/modelingMarine chemistryArticle10.1175/JAS-D-18-0317.1openAccess