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Title: Vertical Resolution Impacts Explicit Simulation of Deep Convection

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Department of Earth System Science University of California, Irvine CA Irvine USA, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University OR Corvallis USA
  2. Department of Earth System Science University of California, Irvine CA Irvine USA
  3. Department of Earth System Science University of California, Irvine CA Irvine USA, NVIDIA Research Santa Clara CA USA
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Abstract The aggregation of tropical convection greatly influences the mean‐state of the atmosphere, altering humidity distributions, total atmospheric radiative cooling, and cloud amounts. Although studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of convective aggregation to horizontal resolution and domain size, few studies have explored the impact of vertical resolution on convective aggregation. Here, we investigate the impact of vertical resolution on simulations of deep convection and convective aggregation using the System for Atmospheric Modeling convection resolving model. We analyze simulations of tropical radiative‐convective equilibrium with varying vertical levels (32, 64, 128, and 256) across small (100 km), medium (700 km) and large (1,500 km) domains. We demonstrate that relative humidity and cloud fraction decrease with increasing vertical resolution as a result of reduced turbulent mixing. Vertical resolution also influences the occurrence of, onset time, and equilibrium intensity of aggregated convection, and also appears to affect the sensitivity of convective aggregation to domain size. Understanding how simulated convection aggregates, as well as its simulated sensitivity to model formulation, is critical for making and interpreting future predictions of global climate change.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0022255; SC0022331
OSTI ID:
2006898
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 15; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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