Analysis and numerical simulation of a laboratory analog of radiatively induced cloud-top entrainment.

Conference · Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010

OSTI ID:1030238

Kerstein, Alan R; Sayler, Bentley J ^[1]; Wunsch, Scott Edward ^[2]; Schmidt, Heiko ^[3]; Nedelec, Renaud ^[4]

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1. Black Hills State University
2. Johns Hopkins University
3. Tech. University Cottbus
4. Ecole Centrale Marseille

Numerical simulations using the One-Dimensional-Turbulence model are compared to water-tank measurements [B. J. Sayler and R. E. Breidenthal, J. Geophys. Res. 103 (D8), 8827 (1998)] emulating convection and entrainment in stratiform clouds driven by cloud-top cooling. Measured dependences of the entrainment rate on Richardson number, molecular transport coefficients, and other experimental parameters are reproduced. Additional parameter variations suggest more complicated dependences of the entrainment rate than previously anticipated. A simple algebraic model indicates the ways in which laboratory and cloud entrainment behaviors might be similar and different.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1030238
• Report Number(s): SAND2010-7813C; TRN: US201124%%36
• Resource Relation: Conference: Proposed for presentation at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics Annual Meeting held November 21-23, 2010 in Long Beach, CA.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CLOUDS
CONVECTION
ENTRAINMENT
RICHARDSON NUMBER
SIMULATION
TRANSPORT
TURBULENCE