Representing the Sensitivity of Convective Cloud Systems to Tropospheric Humidity in General Circulation Models

Convective cloud variability on many times scales can be viewed as having three major components: a suppressed phase of shallow and congestus clouds, a disturbed phase of deep convective clouds, and a mature phase of transition to stratiform upper-level clouds. Cumulus parameterization development has focused primarily on the second phase until recently. Consequently, many parameterizations are not sufficiently sensitive to variations in tropospheric humidity. This shortcoming may affect global climate model simulations of climate sensitivity to external forcings, the continental diurnal cycle of clouds and precipitation, and intraseasonal precipitation variability. The lack of sensitivity can be traced in part to underestimated entrainment of environmental air into rising convective clouds and insufficient evaporation of rain into the environment. As a result, the parameterizations produce deep convection too easily while stabilizing the environment too quickly to allow the effects of convective mesoscale organization to occur. Recent versions of some models have increased their sensitivity to tropospheric humidity and improved some aspects of their variability, but a parameterization of mesoscale organization is still absent from most models. Evidence about the effect of these uncertainties on climate change projections suggests that climate modelers should make improved simulation of high and convective clouds as high a priority as better representations of low clouds.     

Downdraft effects in a shallow convection adjustment

Summary The paper deals with the role of penetrative downdrafts in the convective adjustment suggested by Betts[1]. Three different types of downdraft sinking levels are used in the assessment of the reference profiles of temperature and humidity in cumulus cloud layers and these are compared with the profiles with no downdraft. It is shown that the depths of downdraft penetration may significantly influence the reference profiles mainly for clouds of vertical extents larger than one kilometre.     

Theory of internal gravity wave saturation

Gravity wave saturation is an important process affecting the transport and deposition of momentum, heat, and constituents in the earth's atmosphere. This paper informally discusses several saturation mechanisms and their effects, including convection, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, vortical mode instability, parametric subharmonic instability, and mean flow interaction. Convective saturation is emphasized. The parameterization of convective adjustment is discussed and a few remarks are made concerning the effects of turbulence localization on the convective saturation process. Several outstanding problems in saturation theory are identified that could be addressed with observational, numerical, and laboratory studies.     

The flux ejection dynamo effect

Abstract

The mean-field effects of cyclonic convection become increasingly complex when the cyclonic rotation exceeds ½-π. Net helicity is not required, with negative turbulent diffusion, for instance, appearing in mirror symmetric turbulence. This paper points out a new dynamo effect arising in convective cells with strong asymmetry in the rotation of updrafts as against downdrafts. The creation of new magnetic flux arises from the ejection of reserve flux through the open boundary of the dynamo region. It is unlike the familiar α-effect in that individual components of the field may be amplified independently. Several formal examples are provided to illustrate the effect. Occurrence in nature depends upon the existence of fluid rotations of the order of π in the convective updrafts. The flux ejection dynamo may possibly contribute to the generation of field in the convective core of Earth and in the convective zone of the sun and other stars.     

Correlations between deep convection and lightning activity on a global scale

Satellite observations of cloud top temperature and lightning flash distribution are used to examine the relationship between deep convection and lightning activity over the tropical regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In agreement with previous work, the analysis of the results shows that, in the summer of both hemispheres, the lightning activity in continental deep convective storms is more intense than that in marine deep convective storms by a factor of between 7 and 10. Furthermore, it was observed that on average the daily lightning rate per 1°×1° grid cell for the southern hemisphere (SH) is about 20% greater than that of the northern hemisphere (NH), which can be attributed to a larger fractional cover by deep convective clouds in the SH. By using a set of independent indicators, it is shown that deep convection and lightning activity over land are well correlated (with correlation coefficients of 0.8 and 0.6 for NH and SH, respectively). This suggests the capacity for observations to act as a possible method of monitoring continental deep convective clouds, which play a key role in regulating the Earth’s climate. Since lightning can be monitored easily from ground networks and satellites, it could be a useful tool for validating the performance of model convective schemes and for monitoring changes in climate parameters.     

积云并合扩展层化型积层混合云的数值模拟分析

积层混合云是我国的主要降水云系,也是人工影响天气的主要作业对象,从云降水物理的角度来研究云系的形成和发展维系具有重要的意义.基于积层混合云的重要性,本文从个例研究入手,利用中尺度数值模式WRF,模拟2005年5月17~18日发生在我国西南山区（主要以贵州省为主）的积层混合云降水过程.发现这次过程是由对流云并合扩大层化形成的.云系形成以后,云系附近会不断有对流云生成,并在移动过程中并合进入云系,补充云系发展维系所需的含水量和能量,促使云系不断维持.在积层混合云系的内部,对流云和层状云区不断地发生作用.对流云给周围的层状云不断输送含水量和能量,支持着层状云的发展.云系内部两种云相互作用的结果体现在：对流云内的上升气流速度逐渐渐小,层状云的上升气流速度不断维持,总上升气流面积区扩大.对流云的降水量不断减小,而层状云的降水不断维持,带来了大面积持续时间很长的降水.     

Indirect air–sea interactions simulated with a coupled turbulence-resolving model

A turbulence-resolving parallelized atmospheric large-eddy simulation model (PALM) has been applied to study turbulent interactions between the humid atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and the salt water oceanic mixed layer (OML). The most energetic three-dimensional turbulent eddies in the ABL–OML system (convective cells) were explicitly resolved in these simulations. This study considers a case of shear-free convection in the coupled ABL–OML system. The ABL–OML coupling scheme used the turbulent fluxes at the bottom of the ABL as upper boundary conditions for the OML and the sea surface temperature at the top of the OML as lower boundary conditions for the ABL. The analysis of the numerical experiment confirms that the ABL–OML interactions involve both the traditional direct coupling mechanism and much less studied indirect coupling mechanism (Garrett Dyn Atmos Ocean 23:19–34, 1996). The direct coupling refers to a common flux-gradient representation of the air–sea exchange, which is controlled by the temperature difference across the air–water interface. The indirect coupling refers to thermal instability of the Rayleigh–Benard convection, which is controlled by the temperature difference across the entire mixed layer through formation of the large convective eddies or cells. The indirect coupling mechanism in these simulations explained up to 45 % of the ABL–OML co-variability on the turbulent scales. Despite relatively small amplitude of the sea surface temperature fluctuations, persistence of the OML cells organizes the ABL convective cells. Water downdrafts in the OML cells tend to be collocated with air updrafts in the ABL cells. The study concludes that the convective structures in the ABL and the OML are co-organized. The OML convection controls the air–sea turbulent exchange in the quasi-equilibrium convective ABL–OML system.     

Cumulus cloud population and its parameterization

The latent heat released by cumulus clouds is very important to the energies of many large-scale tropical disturbances. The number of cumulus clouds involved in these disturbances is usually very large. The collective effects of cumulus clouds must therefore be incorporated into a large-scale model in a parameterized fashion. Present parameterization schemes are briefly reviewed. Recent advances in our understanding of the control and feedback processes between cumulus clouds and the large-scale circulations are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the implications of the results of recent diagnostic studies on the future development of the theory of cumulus parameterization.     

大气边界层研究进展

大气边界层对云和对流的发展、演变有重要作用.本文回顾了在大气边界层高度计算方法,边界层的时空分布特征、结构和发展机理,以及边界层参数化方案等方面的主要研究进展.大气边界层高度计算方法主要分为基于大气廓线观测数据计算和基于模式参数化方案计算两大类;大气边界层高度频率分布形态具有明显的日变化特征,并且稳定、中性和对流边界层...     

Convective Self-Aggregation in Numerical Simulations: A Review

Organized convection in the tropics occurs across a range of spatial and temporal scales and strongly influences cloud cover and humidity. One mode of organization found is “self-aggregation,” in which moist convection spontaneously organizes into one or several isolated clusters despite spatially homogeneous boundary conditions and forcing. Self-aggregation is driven by interactions between clouds, moisture, radiation, surface fluxes, and circulation, and occurs in a wide variety of idealized simulations of radiative–convective equilibrium. Here we provide a review of convective self-aggregation in numerical simulations, including its character, causes, and effects. We describe the evolution of self-aggregation including its time and length scales and the physical mechanisms leading to its triggering and maintenance, and we also discuss possible links to climate and climate change.     

A Survey of Precipitation-Induced Atmospheric Cold Pools over Oceans and Their Interactions with the Larger-Scale Environment

Pools of air cooled by partial rain evaporation span up to several hundreds of kilometers in nature and typically last less than 1 day, ultimately losing their identity to the large-scale flow. These fundamentally differ in character from the radiatively-driven dry pools defining convective aggregation. Advancement in remote sensing and in computer capabilities has promoted exploration of how precipitation-induced cold pool processes modify the convective spectrum and life cycle. This contribution surveys current understanding of such cold pools over the tropical and subtropical oceans. In shallow convection with low rain rates, the cold pools moisten, preserving the near-surface equivalent potential temperature or increasing it if the surface moisture fluxes cannot ventilate beyond the new surface layer; both conditions indicate downdraft origin air from within the boundary layer. When rain rates exceed \(\sim\) 2 mm h\(^{-1}\), convective-scale downdrafts can bring down drier air of lower equivalent potential temperature from above the boundary layer. The resulting density currents facilitate the lifting of locally thermodynamically favorable air and can impose an arc-shaped mesoscale cloud organization. This organization allows clouds capable of reaching 4–5 km within otherwise dry environments. These are more commonly observed in the northern hemisphere trade wind regime, where the flow to the intertropical convergence zone is unimpeded by the equator. Their near-surface air properties share much with those shown from cold pools sampled in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Cold pools are most effective at influencing the mesoscale organization when the atmosphere is moist in the lower free troposphere and dry above, suggesting an optimal range of water vapor paths. Outstanding questions on the relationship between cold pools, their accompanying moisture distribution and cloud cover are detailed further. Near-surface water vapor rings are documented in one model inside but near the cold pool edge; these are not consistent with observations, but do improve with smaller horizontal grid spacings.     

Volcanic eruption clouds and the thermal power output of explosive eruptions

The maximum height attained by a volcanic eruption cloud is principally determined by the convective buoyancy of the mixture of volcanic gas + entrained air + fine-sized pyroclasts within the cloud. The thermal energy supplied to convection processes within an eruption cloud is derived from the cooling of pyroclastic material and volcanic gases discharged by an explosive eruption. Observational data from six recent eruptions indicates that the maximum height attained by volcanic eruption clouds is positively correlated with the rate at which pyroclastic material is produced by an explosive eruption (correlation coefficient r = + 0.97). The ascent of industrial hot gas plumes is also governed by the thermal convection process. Empirical scaling relationships between plume height and thermal flux have been developed for industrial plumes. Applying these scaling relationships to volcanic eruption clouds suggests that the rate at which thermal energy is released into the atmosphere by an explosive eruption increases in an approximately linear manner as an eruption's pyroclastic production rate increases.     

Evaluation of Short-Range Forecasts from a Mesoscale Model Over the Indian Region During Monsoon 2006

This study examines the short-range forecast accuracy of the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5) as applied to the July 2006 episode of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and the model's sensitivity to the choice of different cumulus parameterization schemes (CPSs), namely Betts-Miller, Grell (GR) and Kain-Fritsch (KF). The results showed that MM5 day 1 (0–24 h prediction) and day 2 (24–48 h prediction) forecasts using all three CPSs overpredicted monsoon rainfall over the Indian landmass, with the larger overprediction seen in the day 2 forecasts. Among the CPSs, the rainfall distribution over the Indian landmass was better simulated in forecasts using the KF scheme. The KF scheme showed better skill in predicting the area of rainfall for most of the rainfall thresholds. The root mean square error (RMSE) in day 1 and day 2 rainfall forecasts using different CPSs showed that rainfall simulated using the KF scheme agreed better with the observed rainfall. As compared to other CPSs, simulation using the GR scheme showed larger RMSE in wind speed prediction at 850 and 200 hPa over the Indian landmass. MM5 24-h temperature forecasts at 850 hPa with all the CPSs showed a warm bias of the order of 1 K over the Indian landmass and the bias doubled in 48-h model forecasts. The mean error in temperature prediction at 850 hPa over the Indian region using the KF scheme was comparatively smaller for all the forecast intervals. The model with all the CPSs overpredicted humidity at 850 hPa. The improved prediction by MM5 with the KF scheme is well complemented by the smaller error shown by the KF scheme in vertical distribution of heat and mean moist static energy in the lower troposphere. In this study, the KF scheme which explicitly resolve the downdrafts in the cloud column tended to produce more realistic precipitation forecasts as compared to other schemes which did not explicitly incorporate downdraft effects. This is an important result especially given that the area covered by monsoon-precipitating systems is largely from stratiform-type clouds which are associated with strong downdrafts in the lower levels. This result is useful for improving the treatment of cumulus convection in numerical models over the ISM region.     

EUREC<Superscript>4</Superscript>A: A Field Campaign to Elucidate the Couplings Between Clouds,Convection and Circulation

Trade-wind cumuli constitute the cloud type with the highest frequency of occurrence on Earth, and it has been shown that their sensitivity to changing environmental conditions will critically influence the magnitude and pace of future global warming. Research over the last decade has pointed out the importance of the interplay between clouds, convection and circulation in controling this sensitivity. Numerical models represent this interplay in diverse ways, which translates into different responses of trade-cumuli to climate perturbations. Climate models predict that the area covered by shallow cumuli at cloud base is very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, while process models suggest the opposite. To understand and resolve this contradiction, we propose to organize a field campaign aimed at quantifying the physical properties of trade-cumuli (e.g., cloud fraction and water content) as a function of the large-scale environment. Beyond a better understanding of clouds-circulation coupling processes, the campaign will provide a reference data set that may be used as a benchmark for advancing the modelling and the satellite remote sensing of clouds and circulation. It will also be an opportunity for complementary investigations such as evaluating model convective parameterizations or studying the role of ocean mesoscale eddies in air–sea interactions and convective organization.     

Structure and Dynamical Influence of Water Vapor in the Lower Tropical Troposphere

In situ, airborne and satellite measurements are used to characterize the structure of water vapor in the lower tropical troposphere—below the height, \(z_*,\) of the triple-point isotherm, \(T_*.\) The measurements are evaluated in light of understanding of how lower-tropospheric water vapor influences clouds, convection and circulation, through both radiative and thermodynamic effects. Lower-tropospheric water vapor, which concentrates in the first few kilometers above the boundary layer, controls the radiative cooling profile of the boundary layer and lower troposphere. Elevated moist layers originating from a preferred level of convective detrainment induce a profile of radiative cooling that drives circulations which reinforce such features. A theory for this preferred level of cumulus termination is advanced, whereby the difference between \(T_*\) and the temperature at which primary ice forms gives a ‘first-mover advantage’ to glaciating cumulus convection, thereby concentrating the regions of the deepest convection and leading to more clouds and moisture near the triple point. A preferred level of convective detrainment near \(T_*\) implies relative humidity reversals below \(z*\) which are difficult to identify using retrievals from satellite-borne microwave and infrared sounders. Isotopologues retrievals provide a hint of such features and their ability to constrain the structure of the vertical humidity profile merits further study. Nonetheless, it will likely remain challenging to resolve dynamically important aspects of the vertical structure of water vapor from space using only passive sensors.     

Mechanisms and Model Diversity of Trade-Wind Shallow Cumulus Cloud Feedbacks: A Review

Shallow cumulus clouds in the trade-wind regions are at the heart of the long standing uncertainty in climate sensitivity estimates. In current climate models, cloud feedbacks are strongly influenced by cloud-base cloud amount in the trades. Therefore, understanding the key factors controlling cloudiness near cloud-base in shallow convective regimes has emerged as an important topic of investigation. We review physical understanding of these key controlling factors and discuss the value of the different approaches that have been developed so far, based on global and high-resolution model experimentations and process-oriented analyses across a range of models and for observations. The trade-wind cloud feedbacks appear to depend on two important aspects: (1) how cloudiness near cloud-base is controlled by the local interplay between turbulent, convective and radiative processes; (2) how these processes interact with their surrounding environment and are influenced by mesoscale organization. Our synthesis of studies that have explored these aspects suggests that the large diversity of model responses is related to fundamental differences in how the processes controlling trade cumulus operate in models, notably, whether they are parameterized or resolved. In models with parameterized convection, cloudiness near cloud-base is very sensitive to the vigor of convective mixing in response to changes in environmental conditions. This is in contrast with results from high-resolution models, which suggest that cloudiness near cloud-base is nearly invariant with warming and independent of large-scale environmental changes. Uncertainties are difficult to narrow using current observations, as the trade cumulus variability and its relation to large-scale environmental factors strongly depend on the time and/or spatial scales at which the mechanisms are evaluated. New opportunities for testing physical understanding of the factors controlling shallow cumulus cloud responses using observations and high-resolution modeling on large domains are discussed.     

Implications of Warm Rain in Shallow Cumulus and Congestus Clouds for Large-Scale Circulations

Space-borne observations reveal that 20–40% of marine convective clouds below the freezing level produce rain. In this paper we speculate what the prevalence of warm rain might imply for convection and large-scale circulations over tropical oceans. We present results using a two-column radiative–convective model of hydrostatic, nonlinear flow on a non-rotating sphere, with parameterized convection and radiation, and review ongoing efforts in high-resolution modeling and observations of warm rain. The model experiments investigate the response of convection and circulation to sea surface temperature (SST) gradients between the columns and to changes in a parameter that controls the conversion of cloud condensate to rain. Convection over the cold ocean collapses to a shallow mode with tops near 850 hPa, but a congestus mode with tops near 600 hPa can develop at small SST differences when warm rain formation is more efficient. Here, interactive radiation and the response of the circulation are crucial: along with congestus a deeper moist layer develops, which leads to less low-level radiative cooling, a smaller buoyancy gradient between the columns, and therefore a weaker circulation and less subsidence over the cold ocean. The congestus mode is accompanied with more surface precipitation in the subsiding column and less surface precipitation in the deep convecting column. For the shallow mode over colder oceans, circulations also weaken with more efficient warm rain formation, but only marginally. Here, more warm rain reduces convective tops and the boundary layer depth—similar to Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) studies—which reduces the integrated buoyancy gradient. Elucidating the impact of warm rain can benefit from large-domain high-resolution simulations and observations. Parameterizations of warm rain may be constrained through collocated cloud and rain profiling from ground, and concurrent changes in convection and rain in subsiding and convecting branches of circulations may be revealed from a collocation of space-borne sensors, including the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and upcoming Aeolus missions.     

Impact of warm ENSO events on atmospheric circulation and convection over the tropical Atlantic and West Africa

Empirical studies have shown that warm El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes are associated during northern summer with, first, a southward location of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over the tropical Atlantic, and, second, a weakened convection over West Africa where the ITCZ is near its mean latitude. A modelling experiment presented here is used to help explain this apparent contradiction. In simulated ENSO conditions, the ITCZ is located southwards over the tropical Atlantic. Over West Africa the intertropical front is also displaced southwards, but more slightly; the ITCZ is located at its climatological latitude and the vertical development of convective clouds over West and Central Africa is reduced due to dynamical subsidence in the upper levels.     

Global and Regional Electricity Components in Undisturbed Midlatitude Lower Atmosphere

The physical mechanisms determining the variability of the vertical profiles of electrical conductivity, space charge density, and electric field in the undisturbed midlatitude lower atmosphere are discussed. The influence of the global and local mesoscale processes on the variability of electrical conductivity and the main component of the atmospheric electric field is estimated. The sunrise effect is studied, estimates are obtained for the charge accumulation rate in the column of the lower atmosphere and the corresponding growth rate of the field strength close to the ground. It is shown that the increase in the average charge density is mainly due to the breakdown of the stable stratification of the atmospheric boundary layer and transformation of the vertical profile of electrical conductivity following the convective mixing of a radon and its daughter products.     

Effects of neutral gas motions on midlatitude E region irregular structure

This paper discusses the physical nature of neutral wind-induced processes. A simple “pictorial” explanation of the neutral-wind-driven gradient drift and thermal instabilities, originally suggested by Kagan and Kelley (Geophys. Res. Lett. 25 (1998) 4141; J. Geophys. Res. 105 (2000) 5291), is developed for the first time. A formula for the growth rate of a neutral-wind-driven gradient drift instability applicable for an arbitrary latitude is presented. The effectiveness of the neutral wind approach to the problem of midlatitude backscatter in the ionospheric E region is discussed. The paper concludes that there are cases when one may experimentally distinguish between electric field- and neutral wind-driven processes and shows that the backscatter character is defined by either the neutral behavior or the structure of ionization clouds but not by the gradient drift process itself.