Tuesday, 16 July 2002: 10:59 AM
An examination of a unified cloudiness-turbulence scheme with various types of cloudy boundary layers
An improved formulation to represent cloudy boundary layers, appropriate
for low-order turbulence models, has been developed to replace the current
scheme used in the Canadian MC2 mesoscale model. Our current approch uses
a TKE-based turbulence scheme coupled somewhat artificially with a shallow
convection scheme to describe cloud-topped convective boundary layers.
The new formulation is based on a unified cloudiness-turbulence approach
along the lines proposed by Bechtold et al. (1995), that allows for a more
physical representation of turbulent fluxes under various clear and cloudy
conditions and for a more detailed treatment of microphysics in partly cloudy
layers. The subgrid-scale cloudiness scheme gives a unified description of
stratiform and shallow, non-precipitating cumulus convection. Comparisons
between model forecasts and detailed aircraft observations of various types
of cloudy boundary layers from recent field experiments, such as MERMOZ-II
and FIRE.ACE, will be presented at the Symposium.
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