Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights
Abstract This study investigates how environmental factors influence the level of maximum detrainment (LMD) in deep convective clouds. Through a novel application of the Linear Non‐Gaussian Acyclic Model (LiNGAM), we discover causal structures between environmental variables and LMD, observed at six...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL114941 |
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| _version_ | 1849395649732149248 |
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| author | Dié Wang Simon Lee Tao Zhang Christian Lackner Daniel Kirshbaum Michael Jensen |
| author_facet | Dié Wang Simon Lee Tao Zhang Christian Lackner Daniel Kirshbaum Michael Jensen |
| author_sort | Dié Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract This study investigates how environmental factors influence the level of maximum detrainment (LMD) in deep convective clouds. Through a novel application of the Linear Non‐Gaussian Acyclic Model (LiNGAM), we discover causal structures between environmental variables and LMD, observed at six tropical sites operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. LiNGAM effectively identifies causal directions among variables of interest, revealing robust relationships such as those among the lifting condensation level (LCL), level of free convection (LFC), and convective inhibition (CIN), aligning with prior knowledge. Relative humidity is shown to directly influence LMD; however, this relationship exhibits strong nonlinearity and becomes difficult to detect when the contrast between oceanic and continental environments is excluded from the analysis. This study highlights the importance of establishing causal relationships before performing statistical inference. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7953a26ccb704c39b9a736065fde4601 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-7953a26ccb704c39b9a736065fde46012025-08-20T03:39:32ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072025-07-015213n/an/a10.1029/2025GL114941Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment HeightsDié Wang0Simon Lee1Tao Zhang2Christian Lackner3Daniel Kirshbaum4Michael Jensen5Department of Environmental Science and Technologies Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton NY USADepartment of Computer Science Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY USADepartment of Environmental Science and Technologies Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton NY USADepartment of Environmental Science and Technologies Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton NY USAAtmospheric and Oceanic Sciences McGill University Montreal QC CanadaDepartment of Environmental Science and Technologies Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton NY USAAbstract This study investigates how environmental factors influence the level of maximum detrainment (LMD) in deep convective clouds. Through a novel application of the Linear Non‐Gaussian Acyclic Model (LiNGAM), we discover causal structures between environmental variables and LMD, observed at six tropical sites operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. LiNGAM effectively identifies causal directions among variables of interest, revealing robust relationships such as those among the lifting condensation level (LCL), level of free convection (LFC), and convective inhibition (CIN), aligning with prior knowledge. Relative humidity is shown to directly influence LMD; however, this relationship exhibits strong nonlinearity and becomes difficult to detect when the contrast between oceanic and continental environments is excluded from the analysis. This study highlights the importance of establishing causal relationships before performing statistical inference.https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL114941causal discoverydeep convective cloudentrainmentdetrainmentcausal inference |
| spellingShingle | Dié Wang Simon Lee Tao Zhang Christian Lackner Daniel Kirshbaum Michael Jensen Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights Geophysical Research Letters causal discovery deep convective cloud entrainment detrainment causal inference |
| title | Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights |
| title_full | Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights |
| title_fullStr | Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights |
| title_full_unstemmed | Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights |
| title_short | Causal Directions Matter: How Environmental Factors Drive Convective Cloud Detrainment Heights |
| title_sort | causal directions matter how environmental factors drive convective cloud detrainment heights |
| topic | causal discovery deep convective cloud entrainment detrainment causal inference |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL114941 |
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