Parameterizing large-scale dynamics in single-column models with the weak-pressure-gradient approximation

Single-column models are a useful tool for understanding the dynamics of convection and developing convective parameterizations. However, these tools are severely limited by their inherent inability to simulate the dynamics of the environment in which they are imagined to be immersed. Previous attempts to solve this problem have resulted in various ‘supra- domain scale' parameterizations, which allow the model to prescribe its own profile of large- scale convergence based on some limited information about the external environment (e.g. pressure and potential temperature profiles). Here we present a new implementation of one of these schemes, the weak-pressure-gradient approximation (WPG), which is shown to reproduce both the transient and steady state dynamics of a 3D atmosphere in a single column. Further, we demonstrate the skill of this new WPG method at replicating observed time series of precipitation and vertical velocity in a series of cloud-resolving simulations.