Bar Moisa

Abstract How can seemingly random, shallow trade-wind clouds be predicted and their climate impact better evaluated? These clouds cool the planet but are hard to represent because they appear sparse and short-lived. We show that, beneath this apparent disorder, the flow is organized as a dense lattice of steady convective cells that tile the subcloud layer. These cells form the dynamic backbone of the cloud field, with their updraft walls serving as persistent launch points for cloud plumes.