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Study on diurnal cycle of tropical convection, analyzing length scales during transition, precipitation onset variations, and impact of cold pool dynamics on thermodynamic variables.
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Length Scale analysis of the transition from shallow to deep convection João Paulo A. Martins(1) Pedro M. A. Miranda(1) Pedro M. M. Soares(1) João Teixeira (2) (1)University of Lisbon - CGUL/IDL (2) Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
Motivation • Diurnal cycle of tropical convection: • Most GCMs (or SCMs) fail to get the right timing of precipitation • New approaches are needed (e.g. Rio et al 2009) • EDMF Shallow Convection • Enhanced Emanuel (1991) Deep Convection Scheme (new trigger functions) • Cold pool parameterization OBS Bechtold et al. (2004) Rio et al. (2009)
TRMM-LBA Shallow to deep convection case study • Grabowski et al. (2006) (GCSS-WG4 Case 4)– SCM/CRM intercomparison - observations made during the TRMM-LBA, Rondonia, Brazil, February 23, 1999. • The case considered is a daytime convective development over land • 7h30 to 13h30 LT Rad Cooling Surface Fluxes
Results in fair agreement with previous studies of the case • Higher horizontal resolution: • BL is higher • Clouds form earlier but reach less higher altitudes • Precipitation rate is lower
Vapor Gotículas Precipitação Neve Transition is delayed in higher resolution
Length Scale growth Shallow Convection Deep Convection
Evolution of length scales on z/zi=0.5 • Turbulent Integral Length Scale, based on spectral analysis (e.g. Pino et. al, 2006) Beginning of precipitation
θv perturbation (K) y (km) x (km)
θv perturbation (K) x (km)
Summary • The transition from shallow to deep convection was simulated by an LES model (two different resolutions) • Precipitation onset is delayed and deep convection is weaker with higher resolution (100 m) • Length scales are analyzed with an integral spectral method • Vertical velocity lengh scale is proportional to PBL height in time and in altitude • Theta length scales increases significantly in PBL from precipitation onset • Results suggest cold pool dynamics strongly influences length scales of thermodynamic variables inside PBL
Thank you for your atention! Photo: João Martins