skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Improving Parameterization of Entrainment Rate for Shallow Convection with Aircraft Measurements and Large-Eddy Simulation

Journal Article · · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [4]
  1. Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  4. Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing (China)
  5. Institute of Plateau Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Chengdu (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations

This work examines the relationships of entrainment rate to vertical velocity, buoyancy, and turbulent dissipation rate by applying stepwise principal component regression to observational data from shallow cumulus clouds collected during the Routine AAF [Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Aerial Facility] Clouds with Low Optical Water Depths (CLOWD) Optical Radiative Observations (RACORO) field campaign over the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site near Lamont, Oklahoma. The cumulus clouds during the RACORO campaign simulated using a large eddy simulation (LES) model are also examined with the same approach. The analysis shows that a combination of multiple variables can better represent entrainment rate in both the observations and LES than any single-variable fitting. Three commonly used parameterizations are also tested on the individual cloud scale. A new parameterization is therefore presented that relates entrainment rate to vertical velocity, buoyancy and dissipation rate; the effects of treating clouds as ensembles and humid shells surrounding cumulus clouds on the new parameterization are discussed. Physical mechanisms underlying the relationships of entrainment rate to vertical velocity, buoyancy and dissipation rate are also explored.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1239781
Report Number(s):
BNL-111645-2015-JA; R&D Project: 2016-BNL-EE631EECA-Budg; KP1703020
Journal Information:
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 73, Issue 2; ISSN 0022-4928
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 41 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (40)

Marine low cloud sensitivity to an idealized climate change: The CGILS LES intercomparison: CGILS LES Intercomparison journal May 2013
Impacts of Shallow Convection on MJO Simulation: A Moist Static Energy and Moisture Budget Analysis journal April 2013
Turbulence measurements by the DC-8 Meteorological Measurement System journal May 1998
Direct entrainment and detrainment rate distributions of individual shallow cumulus clouds in an LES journal January 2013
Stratocumulus-capped mixed layers derived from a three-dimensional model journal June 1980
The Role of Entrainment in the Diurnal Cycle of Continental Convection journal May 2010
Statistical analysis of microphysical properties and the parameterization of effective radius of warm clouds in Beijing area journal August 2009
Analytical expressions for entrainment and detrainment in cumulus convection journal January 2010
Open-path airborne tunable diode laser hygrometer
  • Diskin, Glenn S.; Podolske, James R.; Sachse, Glen W.
  • International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology, SPIE Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1117/12.453736
conference September 2002
RACORO continental boundary layer cloud investigations: 2. Large-eddy simulations of cumulus clouds and evaluation with in situ and ground-based observations: LES OF RACORO BOUNDARY LAYER CUMULI journal June 2015
Entrainment, Mixing, and Microphysics in Trade-Wind Cumulus journal January 2008
A similarity hypothesis for shallow-cumulus transports journal July 1999
Estimation of entrainment rate in simple models of convective clouds journal January 2001
Subsiding Shells around Shallow Cumulus Clouds journal March 2008
A Note on the Use of Principal Components in Regression journal January 1982
Cloud microphysical effects of turbulent mixing and entrainment journal June 2012
Lagrangian Mixing Dynamics at the Cloudy–Clear Air Interface journal July 2014
Homogeneous and Inhomogeneous Mixing in Cumulus Clouds: Dependence on Local Turbulence Structure journal December 2009
RACORO continental boundary layer cloud investigations: 3. Separation of parameterization biases single-column model CAM5 simulations of shallow cumulus: SCAM5 INVESTIGATIONS OF RACORO CLOUDS journal June 2015
Observed impacts of vertical velocity on cloud microphysics and implications for aerosol indirect effects: IMPACTS OF UPDRAFT ON CLOUD MICROPHYSICS journal November 2012
Lateral entrainment rate in shallow cumuli: Dependence on dry air sources and probability density functions journal October 2012
A new approach for estimating entrainment rate in cumulus clouds: A NEW APPROACH FOR ENTRAINMENT RATE journal February 2012
Empirical relationship between entrainment rate and microphysics in cumulus clouds: ENTRAINMENT RATE AND MICROPHYSICS journal May 2013
Entrainment-mixing parameterization in shallow cumuli and effects of secondary mixing events journal January 2014
Scale dependence of entrainment-mixing mechanisms in cumulus clouds: Scale dependence of mixing mechanisms journal December 2014
Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave journal July 1997
A New Double-Moment Microphysics Parameterization for Application in Cloud and Climate Models. Part I: Description journal June 2005
Calibration and data retrieval algorithms for the NASA Langley/Ames Diode Laser Hygrometer for the NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution Over the Pacific (TRACE-P) mission journal January 2003
A Direct Measure of Entrainment journal June 2010
The DOE ARM Aerial Facility journal May 2014
An entraining jet model for cumulo-nimbus updraughts journal November 1962
The ‘starting plume’ in neutral surroundings journal July 1962
Racoro Extended-Term Aircraft Observations of Boundary Layer Clouds journal June 2012
RACORO continental boundary layer cloud investigations: 1. Case study development and ensemble large-scale forcings: RACORO CASE STUDIES journal June 2015
Vertical velocity in shallow convection for different plume types journal June 2014
Features of rainfall and latent heating structure simulated by two convective parameterization schemes journal September 2011
Effect of Convective Entrainment/Detrainment on the Simulation of the Tropical Precipitation Diurnal Cycle* journal February 2007
Impact of a modified convective scheme on the Madden-Julian Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation in a coupled climate model: MJO AND ENSO SIMULATED BY A COUPLED GCM journal August 2007
Developing long-term single-column model/cloud system–resolving model forcing data using numerical weather prediction products constrained by surface and top of the atmosphere observations journal January 2004
Interaction of deep and shallow convection is key to Madden-Julian Oscillation simulation journal January 2009

Cited By (4)

On Which Microphysical Time Scales to Use in Studies of Entrainment‐Mixing Mechanisms in Clouds journal April 2018
Observational Relationship Between Entrainment Rate and Environmental Relative Humidity and Implications for Convection Parameterization journal December 2018
On the Utility (or Futility) of Using Stable Water Isotopes to Constrain the Bulk Properties of Tropical Convection journal February 2018
Parameterization of Entrainment Rate and Mass Flux in Continental Cumulus Clouds: Inference From Large Eddy Simulation journal December 2019

Similar Records

Exploring Stratocumulus Cloud-Top Entrainment Processes and Parameterizations by Using Doppler Cloud Radar Observations
Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences · OSTI ID:1239781
RACORO Extended-Term Aircraft Observations of Boundary-Layer Clouds
Journal Article · Sat Jun 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · OSTI ID:1239781
+23 more
Evaluation of long-term surface-retrieved cloud droplet number concentration with in situ aircraft observations
Journal Article · Thu Feb 11 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · OSTI ID:1239781
+4 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Entrainment rate
cumulus
dynamics
thermodynamics