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Isolating the Impact of Height Dependence on Cumulus Entrainment. Walter Hannah May 25 th , 2011. EAPSI. 8 week visit (10 weeks or Japan) Myong -In Lee at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert. Problems.
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Isolating the Impact of Height Dependence onCumulus Entrainment Walter Hannah May 25th, 2011
EAPSI • 8 week visit (10 weeks or Japan) • Myong-In Lee at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea
Problems • Most cumulus schemes based on the “entraining plume” are not sensitive enough to the environmental conditions • Precipitation occurs too often • Precipitation occurs too early • Tropical wave and MJO variability is unrealistic • These problems are typically addressed with arbitrary trigger conditions • Environmental Humidity (Wang and Schlesinger, 1999) • Entrainment (Tokioka et al, 1988) • Large scale vertical velocity (Kain and Fritsch, 1992) • Cloud base height (Lee et al, 2008) • Precipitation evaporation (Sud and Walker, 1993) • Convective inhibition (Kain and Fritsch, 1992)
Chikira and Sugiyama (2010) • Closure based on kinetic energy instead of mass flux • Entrainment rate is assumed to be inversely related to vertical velocity • Improved performance is credited to having large entrainment at low levels Gregory (2001) Neggers et al. (2002) Pan and Randall (1998)
Height Dependent Entrainment • RAS constant entrainment • RAS linear entrainment
Chikira’s Test Case • Input profile calculated from TOGA-COARE • Precipitation rate > 20 mm/day
Diurnal Cycle Application • Lee et al. (2007) showed that only certain trigger mechanisms can significantlyeffect the diurnal timing of precipitation • Height of starting level • Defined as level of maximum MSE within 300 hPa from the surface • Convective inhibition • The LFC is constrained to be within 150 hPa from the starting level for convection to activate • Can modifying the cloud base entrainment have the same effect? Lee et al. (2007)
Diurnal Cycle Application Lee et al. (2007)
Is Height Dependence Realistic? • Romps (2010) presented a method for a direct measure of entrainment rate in LES models • Entrainment and detrainment are sources and sinks of cloud air
Romps (2010) • Entrainment rate was found not to vary significantly with height • Entrainment did not scale with vertical velocity or buoyancy
Romps (2010) Cloud air defined by moisture only Cloud air defined by moisture and vertical velocity
Questions? Suggestions?