| 30 Dec 2025
Effects of convective intensity and organisation on the structure and lifecycle of deep convective clouds
Abstract. The structure of anvil clouds is important for their effects on the climate, as the net radiative effect depends on the balance of thick and thin areas. Recent studies have shown an important, warming feedback to climate change due to the thinning of anvils, however there is no clear mechanism behind these observed changes. Previous studies have shown a relationship between the intensity of convection and the proportion of thin anvil. In this study, we use cloud tracking approach with geostationary satellite observations to relate changes in anvil properties to convective intensity and organisation over their entire lifecycle. We find that while increasing intensity of convection is linked to an increase in the proportion of thin anvil, increasing organisation has no effect. Furthermore, these two convective processes also have contrasting effects on the lifecycle of anvil clouds. As the albedo response depends on changes in anvil structure, differences in convective regimes which prefer either organised or isolated but intense convection may lead to regional differences in anvil feedbacks. We propose that the anvil structure response is a combination of effects from the impact of convective intensity on initial anvil formation and changes in anvil dissipation rate due to effects on sedimentation rates and sublimation rates from changes in the anvil environment. Understanding each of these processes and their relative impacts is vital to understanding the future response of anvil structure to climate change.
Competing interests: At least one of the (co-)authors is a member of the editorial board of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
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