14.2
Responses of cumulus ensembles to temperature and moisture perturbations
Zhiming Kuang, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
To study the large-scale organization of cumulus ensembles, it is useful to separate the system into a large-scale dry component and a moist component that consists of the cumulus ensemble and consider the interaction of two. Because the response of the large-scale dry circulation to convective heating is well described by current large-scale models, the core of this problem lies in how cumulus ensembles respond to changes in the large-scale conditions, known as the cumulus closure problem. Such responses have been difficult to quantify from observations, where the two-way interaction between the dry component and the cumulus ensemble makes it difficult infer cause and effect. In this study, a cloud-system-resolving model is used to assess such responses and implications to convectively coupled waves will be discussed.
Session 14, Interactions between Tropical Convection and the Large Scale Circulation III
Friday, 12 June 2009, 10:20 AM-12:20 PM, Pinnacle BC
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