Vertical Structures and Physical Properties of the Cold-Season Stratus Clouds Downstream of the Tibetan Plateau: Differences between Daytime and Nighttime

This study compares the daytime–nighttime (DN) differences in the occurrence frequencies and macrophysical, microphysical, and radiative vertical structures of the single-layer stratus clouds downstream of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the boreal cold season (November–April) using four CloudSat products. The stratus cloudy profiles are selected and the midtopped stratus profiles are further classified into nimbostratus (NI) and altostratus (AS) according to the cloud-top height and column-integrated optical depth. It is found that the entire stratus and NI profiles tend to occur more frequently in the daytime, while the AS cloud occurs more frequently in the nighttime. Consistent with the DN differences in the occurrence frequencies, the AS tends to be much thicker with larger cloud fraction in the nighttime, while the NI becomes slightly thicker with larger cloud fraction in the daytime. An analysis of the ambient dynamic and thermodynamic fields associated with stratus formation suggests that it is the DN difference in the large-scale low-level lifting that leads to the corresponding differences of the occurrences and macrophysical properties. In contrast, the optical depths of the NI and AS clouds become larger and smaller from daytime to nighttime, respectively, which is attributed to the microphysical properties. The occurrence frequencies in small droplet particle sizes increase (NI) and decrease (AS) from daytime to nighttime, leading to the corresponding variations of the cloud radiative property.